Understanding the integration process

Most organizations use a variety of tools, software, and applications to get work done. These days, businesses need great tools, but there’s not one silver bullet software that runs every business operation. For example, a retail store likely doesn’t have just one tool that runs the register, manages customer data, authorizes credit cards, manages inventory, or orders new supplies. To do all that, they need a few different applications. 

Instead, what businesses need now is a seamless integration process. To make that happen, many organizations are turning to iPaas or Integration Platform as a Service. Read on to learn more about the integration process, iPaaS, and the differences between a traditional iPaaS and a modern iPaaS. 

What is the integration process?

The integration process is about making different software systems and applications work together smoothly. Essentially, it keeps each tool working without interfering with any of the other software applications. Oftentimes, software and tools are created to operate on their own, and the developers don’t anticipate that they could interfere with an entirely separate application. 

On top of that, many companies want their tools to work together to optimize and automate their workflows. Tools that work together can help simplify operations and improve efficiency. That’s why the integration process matters so much. It helps organizations optimize their workflows and automate as many tasks as possible. 

These are the seven general steps of creating a general integration process: 

• Plan. Developers will look at the system and determine everything that will be integrated. They’ll check on any requirements and determine the best ways to integrate each one. 
• Analyze. The next step is to take a deeper dive into planning and laying out all the steps and structure of the integration. The goal of this step is to determine operational feasibility.
• Design. From there, the developers will map out how this might look in an integration process software solution. It’s important to spend enough time on this step and work out any problems because making changes can be much more difficult after development. 
• Develop. Once everything’s designed, the IT professionals will build out a piece of software that integrates all of the applications a company uses. 
• Test. Before putting the software into place, it needs to be tested to make sure it works. Developers can then fix any bugs that arise during this stage. 
• Implement. Finally, the developers implement the software. Ideally, it will improve operational efficiency and help your business operate more effectively. 
• Maintain. Nearly all traditional integration process software needs maintenance to keep performing optimally. 

As you can see from these steps, creating your own integration process from scratch can be time consuming. Plus it takes a hefty amount of expertise and resources to create one that’s going to meet all of your needs. That’s why many businesses instead rely on integration process as a service or iPaaS to develop and maintain their integration process. 

What is a traditional iPaaS?

iPaaS is a cloud-based service that helps with this integration process. It provides a platform where you can connect different applications and data sources easily. iPaaS makes it easier to automate processes, develop and deploy data flows between applications, and connect workflows. There are two main types of iPaaS to choose between: traditional and modern. Choosing the right iPaaS solution is a way for your business to make sure you have the right tools to handle your organization’s unique challenges. 

A traditional iPaaS would be set up on-premises and require extensive hardware and trained professionals. It was primarily designed to deal with early integration problems, but it comes with some serious limitations: 

• Limited agility and scalability. Since business process automation requires technical resources, IT becomes the bottleneck for your growth. You need a solution that’s flexible enough to meet your organization’s needs and scalable to match your growth. 
• Friction between IT and business users. Because technical resources are required to create and manage integrations, there can be friction between IT and business. A more modern approach can help bring these two facets into alignment. 
• Costs. Traditional iPaaS costs a lot to set up in order to get the hardware necessary to run it. Plus there’s the high initial cost of hiring the experts needed. Maintenance can also add up. 
• Security. A legacy iPaaS is older and designed for those types of security threats. New threats evolve all the time, and this type of system isn’t set up to adapt to unprecedented threats. 

Because of these limitations, developers have moved to newer and more innovative solutions. 

What is a modern iPaaS? 

The answer to the new challenges is a modern iPaaS. Modern Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is a cloud-based solution that facilitates seamless integration of various software applications, data sources, and services across diverse environments. It leverages a microservices-based architecture and cloud-native technologies. 

With modern iPaaS, businesses can easily connect legacy systems, SaaS applications, and APIs using intuitive, drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-built templates. This eliminates the need for extensive coding and a technical background. These are some of the advantages of utilizing a modern iPaaS: 

• Built to solve modern problems. A modern iPaaS is designed to connect multiple applications across departments since that’s how businesses operate in the real world. This solution is designed to work with companies the way they operate and to solve problems you face regularly. 
• Lower total cost of ownership. Modern iPaaS are easy and intuitive to use. It doesn’t require a team to handle the platform or quite as much maintenance. This allows you to delegate simple tasks to non-technical users while freeing up technical users for more complex projects. That reduces the cost of ownership and frees up important resources for other facets of your company. 
• Scalable and flexible. Because of the cloud architecture, modern iPaaS is scalable to match your business growth. It’s also easily adaptable to different needs and uses. 
• Innovation and security. There are constant developments in security and in the industry. A flexible iPaaS is ready to handle new threats and adapt to new innovations. 
• Cloud agility. More business is done in the cloud than ever before. An iPaaS solution that’s designed for the cloud is agile and ready to handle modern business operations. 

Celigo provides a modern iPaaS solution that’s made to solve problems your business faces and to adapt to your needs. These are some of the ways Celigo can enhance your iPaaS efforts: 

• Low-code. Celigo is designed with low-code features that can make developing your own applications and web pages without a technical background. Low-code also helps developers be more efficient, which frees up their time for other tasks.  
• Prebuilt integrations. This program is designed with pre-built integrations that are faster to implement, which can help you get started quickly. If an app you’re using doesn’t come with a pre-built integration, it’s easy to build a new one. 
• Built for IT and business users. Unlike a traditional iPaaS, Celigo is designed for both IT and business professionals. This reduces the friction between these two different groups and allows both types of individuals to operate the program. That can be particularly useful if you run a smaller business that doesn’t have IT experts to dedicate to running integrations. Anyone can use Celigo. 
• Infinite scalability. Modern iPaaS is scalable, and Celigo is infinitely scalable. It’s a solution that’s designed to grow with your business. No matter what size you get or direction you go, Celigo can help your business adapt and integrate apps seamlessly. 

The differences between a traditional and modern iPaaS

Both legacy and modern iPaaS solutions are ways to help your apps work together smoothly. However, there are a few key differences in these approaches to the integration process: 

Traditional iPaaS

• Requires tech savvy IT teams to build and maintain
• Makes it harder to scale
• Can create bottlenecks

Modern iPaaS

• Infinitely scalable
• Both business and tech users can create and manage integrations
• Automates and simplifies

Conclusion

Overall, the integration process is an important way of helping all of your tools and apps run in your system together. Choosing the right Integration process as a service solution can make all the difference in how smoothly your integration process goes. In general, a modern iPaaS solution is more prepared to handle the challenges your business faces, and it’s infinitely scalable and adaptable. 

Celigo is designed for improved efficiency, scalability, and business growth. Contact us to get started.