Enterprise application integration involves the process of integrating enterprise applications with the help of IT-enabled systems. Enterprise applications streamline the operations of modern organizations and foster communication between different enterprise applications, such as human resources and supply chain management (SCM), allowing crucial data to be shared and accessed easily by users of disparate applications.
Types of Application Integration
Companies need to adopt a robust enterprise application strategy that merges technology with services to transfer business-critical information among software applications and IT systems.
However, every enterprise has its own unique way of defining the boundaries of an application integration approach. The interpretation depends on factors such as data pattern, use case, and integration platforms used. While a few businesses might pursue an open-source approach, some prefer a custom-built, point-to-point approach.
This blog post gives you an idea of common application integration approaches that include:
On-premises Application Integration
On-premises applications can be a homegrown ERP or another solution you’ve purchased that’s deployed in the cloud or behind your firewall. Companies can rely on custom-coding approaches or leverage an ESB to transform and route messages and establish a communication link between applications.
Application-to-Application Integration
Application-to-application integration is preferred by enterprises that are trying to achieve comprehensive visibility and end-to-end processing. For example, enterprises that aim for building an e-commerce empire using Magento and Shopify would need an application-to-application integration solution to integrate data workflows with ERP fulfilment processes. This integration approach helps businesses to enable automation and increase efficiency.
SaaS Application Integration
The use of SaaS applications has become extremely common nowadays. Cloud-based solutions like ERP and SaaS CRMs like Salesforce are some of the most sought-after data management solutions employed by enterprises. However, to avoid data silos and black boxes, these tools must be integrated. In such cases, iPaaS is used. Being one of the most popular integration methods, iPaaS allows enterprises to execute and monitor integration flows between various applications. iPaaS helps companies to break down their silos, optimize business processes, and enhance connectivity.
Need for Enterprise Application Integration
Companies employ application integration approaches to:
- Improve Automation: The business processes of enterprises can vary greatly, and application integrations will allow data to move seamlessly within a wide range of systems and workflows to support automation and efficiency. With features such as pre-defined transaction templates, application integration platforms streamline business processes, enhance the transparency of financial flow, and identify bottlenecks. Application integration also helps to save countless hours spent on onboarding and partner configuration processes. It triggers application events along with alerts to allow proactive troubleshooting and integrated communications.
- Enhance Visibility: Application integration approaches offer increased visibility that helps enterprises to keep a close watch on the data throughout the workflow. With enhanced visibility, organizations can respond to customer expectations, offering a delightful experience. In addition, it allows companies to gain comprehensive insights into disparate business processes.
- Accelerate Scalability: Application integration architecture supports a myriad of applications required for streamlining business growth, thereby providing scalability. Features like pre-built application connectors such as Marketo, MS Dynamics, NetSuite, Salesforce, and more allow the business to create data connections and directly exchange business information with various applications. So, companies need not start from scratch and can scale rapidly to create new revenue streams.
- Allow Concurrent Processing: With application integration, processes such as order-to-cash transactions, product price and quantity lookups, and reconciling front and back-end systems can occur simultaneously. This, in turn, allows businesses to handle a host of orders in real-time while aiding batch processing.
- Improve ROI: Application integration technology helps companies reach target customers and achieve a competitive advantage, thus expediting the return on investment. In addition, this solution allows organizations to integrate and transform data faster to particular specifications without relying on manual processes.
- Reduce Overhead Costs: Application integration allows enterprises to reduce the company’s overhead costs by simplifying business processes and alleviating the time and effort required to execute tasks.
Get Started with an Application Integration Solution
Companies can make use of enterprise integration technologies to securely enable their partners to self-serve, onboard up to 80% faster, and manage business processes, thus offering delightful customer experience, improved productivity, and faster revenue.
Invest in a robust application integration platform to boost growth by tapping into current and future business opportunities now!
About the Author:
Chandra Shekhar is a technology enthusiast at Adeptia Inc. As an active participant in the IT industry, he talks about data, integration, and how technology is helping businesses realize their potential.
