What are software integrations and what are they for?

Today it is normal to have at least one piece of software in companies, but a couple of years ago this was not the case. Even in the past, companies that had powerful software used it as a competitive advantage, today it is no longer an advantage, it is a necessity. Integrating software is a need.

Here's everything you need to know about integrations.

Index

1. What is an integration?
2. What are integrations useful for?
3. Why do I need an integration?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of building an integration?
5. What types of integrations are there?
6. Steps to build an integration.
7. What tools should you use to build an integration?
8. What is an API?
9. Automate and integrate.
10. Conclusion.

What is an integration?

When we talk about integration in the world of business and technology, we refer to the combination of different software or tools, to make a single system do what they all do separately.

There is no single software for our company that does all the actions we need, each company is different and has different needs, so there are software tools that group tasks by areas, such as ERP, CRM, BPM, CMS, among others. What integrations make possible is the combination of them.

Integrations allow systems that work separately to be combined and this allows us to save time and resources. In addition, integrations favor the development of the company, since they technologically adapt the processes according to the needs that arise, so they are beneficial both for those who carry out the processes and for the entire organization in general, automating processes and favoring their optimization.

What are integrations useful for?

Integrations are actions that will help our organization in its process optimization. Making an integration of two or more programs/tools that we are using will be beneficial to save time and this will lead to improving the efficiency of our teams; it will also generate savings in economic and human resources.

By using different programs for each action that we need to execute in our system, we use many more resources than if we have these issues resolved in a single program that can incorporate as many actions as possible, and this is achieved through integration. Greater agility allows companies to provide better service and be more competitive.

<<< What are native integrations? >>>

Why do I need an integration?

A software integration may be necessary for a company for various reasons:

• When two different companies come together

In this case, two companies that come from different worlds or the same world, but use different software to carry out their tasks, need to unify their tasks to have a better organization and obtain favorable results. Performing an integration, in this case, is extremely important.

• Use of old systems and modern applications

Currently, with the technological progress that society is going through, it is very common to meet companies that are trying to adapt to modern times but find it difficult to review their computer programs. It is important to keep in mind that if we have been working with a certain system for several years and we want to upgrade, we will probably need to integrate our old programs with current technologies.

• Search for increased functionality

Integrating two or more programs will make us optimize the processes, generating greater functionality in the tasks, which will be beneficial for our company.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of building an integration?

Carrying out an integration of applications in your company has a series of advantages that we will mention below:

• Increases the productivity of all the processes that are involved.
• It saves time and financial resources.
• It favors the coordination of tasks between departments.
• It improves the organization and planning of the company.
• It reduces the number of applications and systems that we use, optimizing technological resources.
• It speeds up the execution of tasks.
• It increases the security of our system.

As in all the processes that we implement in our business, the integration of systems has a positive part but it can also present certain disadvantages; this does not mean that we should not implement one if we need it, but there are important points to take into account to avoid disappointments when the process advances:

• It is necessary to invest more in technological security since if all the processes are integrated and one is damaged, everything that is integrated with it will be at risk.
• High initial expense, although it is a long-term investment, initially it is an important expense that must be faced.
• It must be taken into account that the updates are complicated since they adapt to all the systems that we have integrated.

What types of integrations are there?

The integration process in companies requires a digital transformation that must be faced to keep up with the pace of the environment. There are 4 integration models that we can implement, depending on our goals and systems to integrate.

1. Vertical integration

This type of integration brings together similar software without making interconnections with actions from other areas.

2. Star integration

A star integrator is a collection of point-to-point connections in a star segment sequence. This strategy allows integration with other subsystems in addition to connecting software. This type of integration provides more tools to users but is more complex to perform and requires a lot of maintenance.

3. Horizontal integration

Horizontal integration establishes a subsystem that establishes a database connected with the software. This helps minimize connection links, saving time, capital, and effort spent on building and maintaining it.

4. Point-to-point integration

This type of integration is the simplest. It consists of simple connections between two subsystems. It is feasible for companies that want to optimize a single function instead of an entire database. It is not recommended to use it in several software connections as it would become complex and unmanageable.

<<< Advanced integrations >>>

Steps to build an integration

To carry out an integration, it is necessary to go through a process of planning, design, and software development. The steps that we must take into account to achieve it correctly are:

1. Determine requirements

Initially, the company's management department must carry out a research task on the needs that must be satisfied and that the systems used are not covering. The IT department and the developers are the ones in charge of carrying out the changes. It is important to have a diagram where it is explained how the integrated systems would work to take into account if something needs to be improved.

2. Plan analysis

Once the plan is presented, the IT department must verify if it is feasible, the resources that it will need to carry it out, and analyze if the implementation is feasible taking into account the technology that the company has. In this case, the company must be prepared to face new expenses since integration generally implies a certain investment in technology.

3. Software design

After you've determined a plan, determined its feasibility, and approved it, it's time to start designing the software.

4. Integration design

This is the most dedicated phase, it is time-consuming as it has to describe the process, system tests, methods, and logistics. The previous steps must have been well executed since the design of the integration depends on this. If we have failed in the previous steps, the design will take more time.

<<< What are custom integrations? >>>

5. Implementation

Once the tool has been developed, and after having been tested, it is ready to be implemented. If everything is working properly, you can start employee training on its use.

6. Perform usage controls

When the new system has been implemented for some time, users must carry out tests on its operation and tests to check that everything is working correctly.

What tools should you use to build an integration?

Below, we present the three main tools selected by us to carry out integrations.

Integromat

It is an application that allows you to connect the tools and automate the most recurring tasks. This tool has a free version and a paid version, which allows you to generate more actions than the free one.

Zapier

This software builds integrations between web applications and programs. It allows combined actions and the transfer of data between platforms. Like Integromat, it has a free plan and a paid plan where the actions that can be carried out increase.

Workato

It is the leading integration and automation tool in the cloud, this tool has received awards for its performance. This tool also offers process automation.

What is an API?

An Application Programming Interface (better known by the acronym API) is the code that each software has and where all its information is encrypted. These codes can be public, private, or semi-public, depending on each tool: being public means that anyone can access it, and being private means that only the creators of this tool have access to it, the semi-public ones are those that provide only a part of the tool information.

In the integration process, the APIs are extremely important since what is done when integrating two or more tools is to put the APIs of each software to be integrated into the conversation and they are the ones in charge of making their code understood so that the integration works correctly.

Automate and integrate

Automating is not the same as integrating. When we talk about integrations, as we have already said, we refer to the combination of two or more tools that we use in a company to reduce the number of tools performing the same actions.

When we talk about automations, we talk about using technology to carry out processes that are done manually and moving from using human resources to taking advantage of technological resources. This is useful for our company since automation allows us to optimize the use of resources and reduce expenses.

Conclusion

Integrations are an important action that we can implement in our company to optimize all our processes and save resources. We must be clear about the processes that our software tools carry out and what objective we want to achieve by performing an integration so that when the area trained to carry out the integration of the tools knows what objectives the final tool should reach.

Process optimization is always one of the main objectives that most companies seek to achieve, applying integrations where they are needed, we are one step closer to achieving it.