Whenever you want to compound the hassle of switching between various individual systems, a fractured application environment frequently duplicates data and functionality and the effort and money required for maintenance. Integration of enterprise applications can restore lost transparency and order to your mobile app development business processes while also revealing the hidden potential of existing systems.

This article discusses the advantages of integration, your options, and the critical points you should not overlook if you want to succeed.

Consider Integration Benefits

CIOs choose not to hurry into integration projects because the costs, organizational efforts, and risks associated with integration are high. However, the advantages of enterprise application integration appear to be substantial. They are as follows:

A comprehensive look at all aspects of the business

Integration can provide a unified view of development companies components such as customer management, supply chain management, asset management, etc.

Data integration from several customer touchpoints spread throughout various organizational divisions (several CRMs, customer portal, physical office/store, multiple marketing channels, etc.) lets a full picture of customers’ interactions with the software development companies and the delivery of advanced loyalty programs. Here’s an example of an integration project that some of the FortySeven IT professionals completed that’s somewhat similar.

Domino’s was able to develop a more advanced marketing strategy by connecting CRM and digital analytics data. Due to this, their monthly revenue increased by 6%, while their ad operations cost decreased by 80% year on year.

Integration of order management and a customer service system can assist the customer service department get the most up-to-date information on customers’ orders, activity periods, product returns, and so on, and tailoring support services more appropriately.

Access to consolidated information from an accounting system, custom inventory management software, and a vendor portal simplifies long-term category development strategies in supply chain management.

Alignment of Business Processes

By connecting, for instance, fragmented inventory and vendor management applications, a custom software development firm can intend to restock products quite precisely or manage sales more efficiently, such as raising prices to avoid an out-of-stock situation when demand is increasing, but supplies are delayed.

User convenience

Changing between apps is inconvenient and time-consuming, resulting in work duplication and an increased number of errors. Integration of CRM and document management solutions, for example, can make life easier and more efficient for sales teams. They are capable of quickly finding information (terms, service scope, cooperation models) relating to similar cases when using CRM as the primary tool in working on a deal.

More possibilities to use modern techs

The integration enables the incorporation of IoT, AI-powered, and data analytics tools into core software development companies processes. Additionally, by letting a FortySeven professional aggregate enterprise-wide data and ensuring its consistency, you can improve machine learning algorithm training possibilities.

Identify the Level of Integration

To begin, you should determine the type of integration you require. The decision is heavily influenced by what you hope to achieve with a future integration project.

Do you require that all of your applications use the same set of data?

With data integration, the applications can operate autonomously, each with its data store. Still, they can also reuse information from other apps to ensure data consistency across the software development company.

Do you require that all of your applications use the same set of data?

With data integration, the applications can operate autonomously, each with its data store. Still, they can also reuse information from other apps to ensure data consistency across the software development company.

Do you want a certain function to be usefully reused throughout the organization?

Some basic business functions (social security number validation, payment confirmation, and so on) can be reused across multiple enterprise applications using a shared business function to avoid functionality duplication, simplify updates, and reduce development costs. For instance, Travelex, a well-known provider of financial services, managed to reduce application development costs and time by 30% by implementing reusable components.

Do you wish to develop a new business process while reusing the logic of existing applications?

You can leverage your applications’ existing code in new ways by implementing a distributed custom software agency process. A choreographer or custom software developer (or separate component to manage integration) can coordinate the work of a composite workflow. A retailer, for instance, can provide advanced information on shipping terms and order status to its customers by establishing links between vendor stocks, shipping partners, and their inventory. This type of integration helps increase the value of previous investments while lowering app development and maintenance costs.

Do you want to make it easier for users to switch between app screens?

Enterprise applications are displayed to users through a common interface with presentation integration, streamlining work, and reducing errors.

The integration type chosen serves as the foundation for future architectural decisions, communication patterns, and integration solution connection points.

Choose an Appropriate Communication Pattern

To show the types of solutions that integration architects create, consider the two most popular approaches to building integration solutions thus far: an old and trusted shared database and the much-hyped service-oriented architecture (SOA).

Shared database

The most traditional approach is to integrate multiple applications by introducing a shared database. In this scenario, a group of applications reuses data from a single shared database. Depending on the size and complication level of the solution, the estimated project cost ranges from $ 1 million to more than $ 10 million for mid and large corporations.

Benefits:

• Data consistency is exceptional – all alterations are available.
• There are no extra abstraction layers (interfaces) for data to pass through, resulting in a relatively quick response time.

Limitations:

• A single point of failure – if the database fails or stops working, all connected applications become partially or completely unavailable.
• Changes to the database are complicated because they must be coordinated with all of the applications.
• External applications feature direct access to the stored data, posing increased security risks.
• Ready-made products are prohibited – any platform-based application, such as SAP ERP or Salesforce CRM, has its database and cannot be integrated in this manner.

Service-oriented architecture (SOA)

The SOA-based approach entails developing self-contained, agile, and reusable web services (most often, REST or SOAP-based services). One system (for instance, an eCommerce solution) can comprise one service or a set of services, each of which encompasses one basic function (for instance, product catalog, active clients, etc.). Web services expose their interfaces so that other systems can communicate with them (say, marketing CRM).

The average cost of implementing a service is around $50,000. The ROI of SOA is primarily determined by the number of times you will reuse the services of FortySeven software professionals. As a result, a software development company should consider which business functions and services it wants to separate. SOA implementation also facilitates the efficient emergence of new services, simpler adjustments to existing ones, and exposing the application to external systems.

Simultaneously, significant initial investments, complicated configuration and change management, and demanding network and system monitoring comprise the SOA solution’s dark side. While 53% of custom software development companies cannot justify SOA expenditures, some report up to a 200 percent ROI (custom software development business Value of SOA, IBM report).

Conclusion

Integration is a reliable method of dealing with the unpleasant and time-consuming nature of standalone applications, eliminating data discrepancy, and leveraging comprehensive data to improve the consistency of custom software business processes.