Organizations run on data, and integration technology delivers that data where it’s needed. Because data is extremely important for business users to function and take decisions, integration has indeed become a critical capability.
Unfortunately, in a lot of organizations, the ability to create integrations has deteriorated; it remains inconsistent, inefficient, and expensive. More so, with the absence of company-wide standards and a repository of reusable components, developers are not able to finish the integration projects on time. In fact, it takes longer to develop, troubleshoot, and maintain. Rather than investing in new IT initiatives, organizations find themselves spending capital and time to keep the legacy, hand-coded integrations patched and running. In practical terms, they have to carry out complex coding and EDI mapping to harness the power of data that sometimes even take months to complete. This burdens developers and IT people as they struggle for driving more important tasks, turning organizations difficult to do business with.
Reimagining the integration systems would not only amplify connectivity between applications, people, and devices but also take on strategically important initiatives, such as the development of products from scratch, workflow automation, and improvements to customer experiences (CXs).
Related White Paper: Reimagine your Customer Data Integration
For revamping integration scenarios, companies can leverage self-service-based integration applications and transformative technologies such as AI. Not only these solutions can empower non-techies to create integrations faster but also deliver value to customers at the speed of business.
Self-Service Integration is a Difference-Maker
Self-service integration has found traction as a difference-maker for modern, innovative organizations. These solutions give the power to non-technical business users to provide the strategic advantage of creating seamless interactions with people inside and outside of their companies.
Historically, creating data connections and integrating processes was enough. It was the behind-the-scenes plumbing system that nobody ever saw. But it could lead to a series of distributed user experiences that people had to tolerate. More so, IT and developer teams executed weeks of complex coding and tedious EDI data mapping mechanisms that could result in a lot of errors and incurred a lot of money.
What self-service integration platforms do is that they give the power to integrate and harness the true potential of data to the business users. Users can leverage intuitive screens and dashboards to keep a track of customer data without losing its authenticity. AI-mapping tools help them map data faster, accelerating the speed of transformations further. They can use pre-built application connectors to create data connections and directly exchange information with cloud-based applications such as NetSuite, MS Dynamics, Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, Magneto, Big Commerce, and more.
Further, they can use pre-defined transaction templates to send and receive important documents like purchase orders, shipping data, invoices, inventory information, contracts, and more with speed and accuracy. The end-to-end encrypted environment enables only the authenticated users to handle customer data streams to do away with breaches and thefts.
All this can be done without time-consuming coding routines and complex EDI mapping. And meanwhile, users take care of the tasks, IT teams become free to focus on more high-value tasks. As a result, companies can deliver faster value to their customers, generating more revenue and productivity.
Companies that employ self-service integration excel at delivering delightful customer experiences (CXs). The ones that don’t are left behind.