Many high-growth companies have to face an inconvenient truth: they scale and evolve so fast that they fail to recognize a problem until it’s too late.
Let’s take a hypothetical example for a better understanding. A company builds its workforce and IT environment at breakneck speed through organic growth, media buzz, venture capital, and acquisitions. In a matter of months, the number of business customers the company caters to, along with the employee headcount, soar exponentially.
And there’s the problem. The company has to manage complex, bi-directional customer data streams, which is tedious and time-consuming. Then, it has a set of fragmented cloud applications that don’t talk to one another. In addition, IT teams are burdened with multiple data-driven operations.
The company achieved its objectives to grow and expand quickly, but in the process created a disconnected framework riddled with inefficiencies that could take years to undo. Constant growth, customer delight, cost efficiency, and ease of doing business all suffer. And the goal to drive value and grow revenue is over the horizon.
How does data integration benefit businesses?
No doubt, speed is the need of the hour in today’s faced-paced and competitive world – but it has to be harnessed strategically from both a business and IT perspective. The role of a self-service data integration platform comes into play here.
A self-service data integration solution enables companies to empower non-technical business users to implement data connections in minutes instead of weeks or months. At the same time, IT becomes free to focus on driving other strategic projects. When business users connect with customers quickly, they can address their needs and requirements and deliver the value promised to those customers without little delay. Companies can, therefore, build new revenue streams for the business and expand the reach of their services or products.
But how does self-service integration enables a high-growth business to deliver value?
Here are three ways a self-service integration solution helps high-growth companies drive strategic value:
1. It enables non-technical business users to implement data connections in minutes: Self-service integration brings non-technical business users to the forefront and enables them to implement new data connections in minutes instead of months of calendar time. Users can leverage features such as pre-built application connectors, shared templates, dashboards and intuitive screens, and AI-data mapping to create new business connections in minutes. It is way more effective than traditional data integration solutions that require IT integrators to implement custom codes and extensive data mappings to onboard and integrate customers.
2. It onboards new business customers 80 percent faster: Self-service integration empowers non-technical business users to implement onboarding connections in minutes rather than months. Users need to point and click through easy-to-navigate screens to onboard customers up to 80 percent faster. Now, because users can connect with customers faster, they can deliver on their needs and requirements much more quickly, thus delighting and encouraging them to buy more products or services from the company.
3. It frees IT to focus on more high-value projects: When business users create data connections, IT becomes free to drive other business projects. The benefit is that IT no longer needs to involve itself in custom coding and tedious data mappings. Instead, they can use the time saved to drive more strategic tasks.
Self-service integration solutions enable companies to flex and scale as their business evolves. By creating a fine balance between non-technical and IT users, these solutions serve as catalysts in enabling companies to connect, transact, and do business with customers – easily, quickly, and smartly.