Application integration is incredibly important. Picture this: You’re sitting at your desk working on a weekly report. The weekly report you’re tasked with creating each week requires you to manually pull information from five different places. For example’s sake, let’s say you need to pull key data from a spreadsheet your financial team uses; SalesForce data for your sales reps; productivity data through whatever you’re using for project management, and miscellaneous data from three other spreadsheets.
You probably thought you were past the point in your career where you would have to spend eight hours per week working on a report that most of your team uses as a place to etch random shapes or jot notes on when they need something to write on. These reports are complex to digest, but what’s even worse is they are complex to create.
Let’s take a look at how application integration can help you walk into work with a smile on your face and that report already on your desk.
“But that’s the way we’ve always done it!”
There are a few phrases more dangerous to a modern company. There are plenty of companies out there that are still running their day-to-day operations on a spreadsheet. Why would they do this when there is so much great software out there? “That’s the way they’ve always done it.”
It’s very rare to find a company that can purchase one piece of software and have it do everything it needs to do. Business is complex. There are different departments that care about different metrics and need to have all sorts of different information available to them on a regular basis. SalesForce may be great for your sales team, but does it show accounting the information they need to know? Does it give your operations manager an idea of employee workload or utilization rate? No.
Application integration literally means application integration. It allows you to help all of your tools to talk to each other. Even better, if set up properly, it automates many of your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly tasks.
Change is difficult but necessary. Imagine a world where your CRM and your ERP are integrated. Wouldn’t that make your life easier? Wouldn’t it make your whole company more efficient?
The benefits to application integration far outweigh any hesitation you or any member of your company may have. Once your company reaches full integration the possibilities are endless.
Chances are, you weren’t hired to spend hours sifting through spreadsheets and different software applications to put together reports. Application integration allows your team to work on the things they do best. More efficient reporting also helps guide decision-making and in turn, helps your company grow.
There’s no catch. Sure, some applications are more challenging to integrate than others, but that’s where you bring in a highly skilled, highly experienced team of specialists to do it for you. Integration can be achieved at any pace. If you want to build a full integration right away, then you can, but you can also ease your company into full integration. Depending on how complex your integration is, the second option may be easier for everyone involved.
Regardless of the existing infrastructure or ideal future state, our software experts can make it happen. Use the form below to request an exploratory discussion about how we can develop integrations that streamline operations and drive efficiency.