Our last blog article covered what business integrations are and why they are beneficial, in general. In this article we’ll discuss how B2B business integrations can help your organization as well as give examples of popular integrations.
Today’s businesses depend heavily on enterprise software applications. And, at some point, every business finds itself with large libraries of data locked in complex applications that can be difficult to access and share with other applications. The solution to this challenge is to integrate software systems to allow them to communicate with each other.
5 Benefits of B2B Business Integrations
Integrations Help Businesses Optimize Processes and Reduce Costs
Integrations help businesses build a centralized software architecture that efficiently connects and passes data between platforms. By eliminating manual work to “share” information from one program to another – which routinely results in errors — and reducing communication roadblocks, integrations can boost your business’ performance.
Integrations also typically bring a wide range of options that can drive digital business transformation and help your business grow. In simpler terms, they allow you to think strategically about using your data, as opposed to worrying about accessing information.
Integrations Provide Businesses with Easy Access to Data in The Cloud and Reduce Cloud-Based Costs
The Cloud and software as a service (SaaS) revolution has disrupted modern IT. Businesses now have easy access to some of the finest technologies in the world without running them on-premise. 85% of businesses around the world are already leveraging cloud technology to store information.
Integrations provide businesses with the fundamental technology to connect their existing software and systems to the cloud. This allows you to tap into powerful technologies offered by cloud companies and save money – you don’t have to hire staff to develop custom software in-house.
Integrations Help Businesses Merge Legacy Systems Instead of Developing Costly Replacements
Constantly upgrading technology is a necessary investment for businesses. Old software and systems may not process data as efficiently as modern systems. However, developing or purchasing a replacement is costly. There is also downtime and a training period before employees can begin using a new system.
By merging systems and providing a centralized architecture through which both old and new software and systems can communicate, integrations help businesses:
- Save costs
- Keep the existing infrastructure and add functionalities when required
- Grow incrementally as needed
Eventually, the comprehensive, step-by-step approach results in a completely functional composite integration, which is a combination of cloud and on-premise software and systems.
Integrations Help Businesses Make Informed Decisions
Integrations can help businesses make better decisions by making critical business-related data accessible to more people in the organization. This allows organizations to use digital analytics and make decisions with input from different stakeholders.
Integrations Can Drive Digital Business Transformation
An integration serves as a single communication channel between disconnected business functions, partners and products in an organization. It also drives digital transformation — an evolution from a traditional business to an organization that can use the latest technologies to gain an edge over its competitors.
Popular Integrations That Help Business Operate Seamlessly
It’s possible you are already using integrations to marry two programs without even realizing that your efficiency is due to an integration. There are many software platforms that have either native/direct integrations with other platforms – e.g., QuickBooks Online integrates with tools for making bill payments, tracking expenses, and tracking time. There are also scores of ways users of web applications can connect different apps using a third-party company such as Zapier, Automate.io, or PieSync.
Here are a few examples of integrations:
GoToWebinar and HubSpot. By integrating these two platforms, not only can you store a list of webinar registrants in HubSpot, the data you gather on your landing/registration pages gets stored in your HubSpot CRM records. A key benefit of this integration is that you can easily use the data you collect to send targeted messages to prospects or clients.
Salesforce and WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a very popular ecommerce platform. Companies that use and integrate Salesforce and WooCommerce benefit by being able to automate tasks that track customer buying behavior as well as collect customer information to store in Salesforce for the use of salespeople. The integration also gives salespeople the power of creating custom catalogs.
It’s a good idea to explore your integration options in an effort to increase your company’s efficiency, productivity, and growth. And if you use an industry tool that doesn’t have a native integration with other platforms you depend upon, that’s okay; it's likely you have the option to hire a company to develop a custom integration.
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