App And Systems Integration: Using various tools to do our jobs has become routine for companies everywhere. It made our day-to-day life a lot easier.
When we talk about Digital Transformation, we are talking about taking advantage of all the facilities that technology gives us to work better and achieve our best results more easily.
However, so much technology also brought some obstacles: the flow of information was one of them. With so many systems being used in the same process, we often lack a mechanism to unify all this information. This was such a present demand in corporate environments that it was easily worked on. Thus, tool integration was born.
We have prepared a post so you can understand what this concept is and what are the benefits of adopting it.
Tool Integration: Learn All About It
The integration of tools is an important technological resource, as it has enabled improvements in the corporate routine of many companies. Find out what exactly this integration is and how it benefits companies worldwide in practice from now on.
First, What Is Tool Integration?
Most companies today use numerous tools to manage activities. These tools include ERPs, CRMs, LRMs, Marketing automation, registration pages, portals, etc. In some cases, such as in sales departments, for example, it is important that records made in one tool can be sent to others, supporting the next steps.
For example, you have a company that created and markets customer relationship management software, a CRM. This tool must integrate with the Marketing automation software, which manages the leads generated by Marketing prospecting efforts.
If this integration exists, the opportunities generated and registered in the Marketing software will be automatically sent to the sellers to be worked on. Marketing and Sales work on the same data, delivering a communication experience aligned with your customer.
For this, there must be integration between the tools. This integration can sometimes be native when the tool is already developed for this purpose. In other cases, it is possible to do it via API, which is Application Programming Interface. In Portuguese, Application Programming Interface.
What Is API?
These are resources used by application developers. They function as links between software and other tools. In this way, they allow communication between different elements and facilitate the flow of information.
What Are The Advantages Of Integrating Tools?
There are numerous benefits a company can gain from having integrated tools. Optimizing time and improving communication between teams are the main ones. See them all below:
Increase Collaboration
Collaboration is a soft skill highly valued today in the job market. People must know how to work with other team members and build together to achieve goals. However, it is also very important that the company provides tools that support collaboration. In this way, using resources that can be integrated with other tools will bring a lot of gains in results for the company.
Improves Internal Communication
Passing the baton between one sector and another usually brings many bottlenecks. It takes a long time for them to be running smoothly, in addition to requiring constant monitoring. By integrating tools, you facilitate this data flow and, consequently, improve the exchange of information. Internal communication improves a lot, ending the flaws that hinder the agility of intersectoral processes.
Improves Productivity
Once you have an automatic flow of information between solutions, you save time employees would use for this task. This allows them to focus on more strategic activities and not spend work time on automatic activities such as passing on information, improving productivity, and directing their efforts to meaningful activities.
Cost Reduction
Any solution that helps optimize employees’ working time is an ally in reducing costs, both by improving the use of the working day and avoiding human errors in automatic processes, avoiding communication failures in intersectoral activities, and ending rework. For all these reasons, the integration of tools is a great ally in reducing operating costs.
How To Count On The Integration Of Tools In Your Company?
If you use management tools and the work of your company’s sectors is interdependent, integrating tools is already a demand of your company. If this is your case, know that several players already provide tool options with native integration or via API. Regardless of your software, it will likely integrate with complementary solutions within a process.