In an increasingly digital world, the need to integrate IT systems to work together across multiple functions to support business operations becomes key to the success of every business in order to remain competitive and responsive to the market. If you’ve never thought about systems integration seriously, let us explain why it deserves a whole lot more attention.

What is IT integration/systems integration?

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To put it as simply as possible, system integration is just connecting systems data and business processes. No matter what industry a business is in, it relies on technology throughout its operations fulfilling everything from financing and marketing to order processing and sales, thousands of different applications help people do their jobs.

According to Databox, there are over 8,000 different digital tools and platforms just for marketing. When you add production, sales, financing, head office administration, and more, it’s easy to understand how data gets lost, mistranslated, and loses value.

By ensuring data is properly stored and communicated across a business, effective IT integration adds value to companies who are losing valuable information between departments and wasting time in unnecessary manual effort to run their operations

System integration, otherwise called data integration or IT integration, is the process by which all the different functions, software and applications are connected. This means companies can make the most of their data no matter how it was collected, where it is stored or in what format.

What is integration software?

Integration software is exactly what it sounds like; it is the software used to transform data to make it accessible and readable across multiple other applications, and platforms. Integration software is the third-party application or program that connects, collates, and distributes the data. This allows separate programs to communicate to each other, passing data in forms that can be recognised and utilized across multiple platforms in different aspects of a business.

integration software  is generally only used and maintained by the IT department or by a third-party specialist. These integration programs allow companies to pull together large amounts of data in different formats, and as such, different integration solutions have slightly different uses.

Some of the most well-known integration solutions are:

  • Zapier
  • Dell Boomi
  • Mulesoft
  • SnapLogic

However, as more and more people become aware of the importance of effective systems integration, more data integration programs and applications are hitting the market. Each integration system has its own range of benefits and drawbacks. With so many options, getting integration right, understanding its uses and getting the correct integration support can be complex without professional help.

  1. Enterprise application integration (EAI) comes in two forms: point-to-point and hub-and-spoke. Point-to-point EAI basically allows each software or application to send messages of data directly to each other. Like a spider’s web of data. There are direct paths everywhere, and messages can go via one software onto another. This is direct and means some data paths can stop working without having a considerable impact on the whole. But as a business grows, more data and more connections inevitably become  confusing, difficult to manage, and overwhelming.

Hub-and-spoke is exactly what it sounds like. A central hub that sorts and transmits data from all the available software. This is very useful as businesses grow because adding another strand is easily manageable. Of course, nothing is perfect, and if the digital central data hub goes down, everything stops

2. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is another approach to tackling  data integration. This form of integration is very similar to the hub-and-spoke EAI system as it uses a central hub that uses a message-based abstraction to share, reroute and organize data from multiple systems. Like people getting on and off a bus, the central hubs make sure everything gets where it needs to go. However, the benefit of using the ESB system instead of EAI hub-and-spoke is that ESB uses open standards, meaning updates and additions are more easily applied in general rather than writing specific changes to each application in turn. However, ESBs can become outdated and are difficult and slow to change.

3. Finally, agile integration is often now seen as the future of integration. We certainly think it is. Agile integration solutions are exactly that; agile and flexible. Agile integration uses a mix of integration types, including cloud-based solutions such as Azure Integration services, along with Application Programming Interfaces (API), to create a framework of integration solutions.

Integrating data vs. integrating applications

Another primary consideration when it comes to what an integrated system is used for is what it is integrating. Some systems integrate data sets while others integrate applications. Knowing the difference and understanding your specific needs is vital to choose which type of integrating system is right for you.

Application integration: This type of integration involves sending data in real-time across multiple applications. An example use case may be when hiring a new employee. You might input data into the Human Resources system, but the same data will be needed in Finance for their salary, and similarly in IT for computer setup, Security for access control and so on across other operational applications. Application integration software facilitates this use case data transaction in real-time.

Data integration: Data integration involves pulling data from multiple applications into one comprehensive database. Usually, this isn’t done in real-time but updates itself every day. The central database has all the information you need as a final destination, but each application that sends data can retain the data for specific uses.

Why do I need to integrate systems?

Now that you know a little bit more about systems integration, you may be able to see why it is so important and why you need to take it seriously. Often this need is underestimated and how many systems that use integration and how beneficial it can be is not quite appreciated.

The use cases are only limited by your business operations and almost all applications use integration in some sense. You might have a marketing database and use it to send orders requiring integration with a stock management system to inform purchase options, or perhaps you’ve set up an automatic ordering based on usage. In addition, sending sales data to the research team provides key feedback. Integration is beneficial and often crucial everywhere in your business

Not only is getting it right so crucial for businesses there are also the legislative issues surrounding how data can be used and stored. Making  sure data is secure, accurate, and appropriately used can prevent costly headaches down the line.

Integrating systems can be complicated and the more separate systems you use, the more you would benefit from consulting with an expert to ensure your integration system works for you. Using the appropriate approach for integration can minimize data loss, efficiency is improved, and you can react faster and more accurately to changes in data.

Like all technology, change is inevitable. As a result, you will need to continuously adapt and improve how you integrate your applications. Integration is constant and often needs specialist IT experts to ensure your solutions meet your needs.