We hear it every once in a while, and it seems more frequently every day Why can’t there just be one software that does it all? Right off the bat, of course, this sounds great. How cool would it be to run everything from one system? One login, one subscription fee, one source of information.
And then, you really start to think about it.
Do you want to be bound to one system? There’s no way that one (or even just a couple) systems can mold to your business. You would have to that specific products features and processes. Likely, if this imaginary system were to exist, it wouldn’t provide expertise in every single field—rather, it would be average (at best) in each.
It’s a nice thought, but impractical and improbable. It’s much better to have multiple systems that specialize in one area each, with dedicated teams driving each of their progress forward.
This works as long as those systems have the right architecture and integrations to save you from time-consuming duplicate data entry.
Building Custom Software Integrations?
So what exactly do we mean by building custom software integrations?
Systems talk to each other via API. APIs push or pull data between systems, allowing for smooth and seamless integrations. If you set it up the right way, it will feel as if the systems are one because they share data.
Some applications make integrations easy and others do not. Either way, it’s worth it to spend the time and make an integration happen. It will save you countless hours of duplicate data entry or having to clean up bad data. Software is only as good as the information stored in them (thus the name “information systems” or “information technology”).
Usually, creating an integration is a pretty simple fix for a team that knows what they’re doing.
We’ve been brought in on plenty projects where the goal was to integrate and share data between all the systems in an organizations network. The benefits of scale are huge when you make this investment, and it’s pretty amazing to watch how your systems can share data at scale and automatically.
Enterprise Resource Planning and Systems Architecture
At scale, these types of projects and integrations often become enterprise resource planning (ERP), having to do with the architecture of your entire system.
Consider that this generation is really the first generation of software-driven businesses. Software as a service has only become a dominant model within the last 10 or 15 years. Businesses go out and pick the software that they need, implement it, and start paying their subscription fees. Things get messy real quick without the proper planning and architecture.
When you sit down with our team, we can talk about the systems that you have and ways that we can tie them all to a central database. From there, we can make sure that all the systems are talking and creating as many scale benefits as possible for your organization.
Get Started Building a Custom Software Integration
Have two systems that you would love to get integrated? We’re your team. We’re ready to sit down and talk with you about the project and discuss the details.