Living in the data economy, taking appropriate care of information is a must. The more data you own, the more partner and customers you have, simplifying the way you manage and share information you own cannot be overlooked.
Data integration is an invisible but inevitable part of your operations. We have gathered a list of the 10 data integration trends in 2018 that will shape your business and help you to better manage your data.
1. Cloud
When it comes to data and B2B integration trends, the importance of the cloud cannot be emphasized enough anymore. In the recent years, iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) has been gaining market share in the data integration market rapidly.
Producing B2B data integrations through the cloud has many benefits. It releases you from the burden of owning and operating a hardware or software to exchange information between different applications. Operating integrations in the cloud is agiler and highly scalable. Integrations can be rapidly adjusted to your needs regardless of message volumes or formats. Also, the newest features are always available for you, therefore there is no cost for upgrades or updates.
2. Hybrid Integrations
Hybrid integrations allow on-premise applications to connect with cloud-based applications. This transitional approach is beneficial for companies that want to start modernizing their legacy systems and applications, however, just yet do not want to take the risk of switching entirely to the cloud. It can be a good first step of slowly moving towards cloud-based services and integrations. Eventually, the cloud will emerge even more, but enterprises can take it slowly and adapt to it at their own pace.
3. Business Process Integration (BPI)
Your business will become more complex when the number of departments, customers, and partners you share data with is growing. In this case, handling processes manually or on paper becomes a burden. Also, point-to-point integration is not an option anymore.
A cloud-based data integration solution can help to streamline business processes and automate them. Creating integrations in the cloud helps to complete integration projects faster while it is also more affordable than traditional integration solutions.
4. Data increases, costs go down
Costs don’t have to increase as you deal with more data daily. The cloud removes the need for owning hardware and software, there is no need for paying for entry (as in case of SaaS products), there are no licensing costs or constant upgrades that would require extra investment.
Also, as your volumes are showing exponential growth, the price per unit may eventually decrease.
5. API Management
APIs help to accelerate the way we manage connectivity across application and services.
APIs are a crucial element of building integrations in the cloud. This is the building block that helps connecting apps and services when they are built in the cloud.
API management is the process of creating, promoting, and overseeing APIs. APIs can be created around any protocol, such as JSON, REST, XML. Additionally, managing connectivity through APIs ensures security.
6. Real-time
Sharing business-critical data with all the necessary stakeholders in real-time needs to be a priority for businesses in 2018.
Traditionally, data has been exchanged in batches. The batch processes need to be replaced with real-time processing in data – processing information as they occur or on-demand.
The advantages of real-time data sharing are that all stakeholders have immediate access to the data when they need it, real-time processes run with fewer resources, as well as improve uptime. Data availability in real-time improves insights and helps with optimization of processes. If errors occur during data sharing, those can be immediately handled by the support personnel.
7. E-commerce integration solutions
E-commerce platforms are based on complex business processes, as the demand for shopping goods online is growing. At the same time, customers expect better and seamless services and processes.
To ensure that you keep up with the demand and satisfy your customers, you need to be able to even further automate all your processes. You need to forget about the “one size fits all” integration approach and find customized solutions that work the best for your business in terms of achieving efficiency.
Having a complex e-commerce ecosystem in place means you will need to be able to connect with content management systems, enterprise management systems (ERPs), middleware and enterprise service bus (ESB), payment providers, analytics, geolocation, shipping and address validation software, tax calculation services, review and social media platforms, search merchandising, affiliate management, and marketing software.
It’s important that you can connect with all the different stakeholders quickly to start seeing the benefits of new automated processes. The costs of integrations will be worth in the long-run – both in terms of operational cost efficiencies and improved customer satisfaction.
8. More agility
Integration providers like to promote themselves by using the word “agile”. But how does it add value to your business and why do you need more agility in 2018 than ever before?
So long the times when creating new integrations could take up to months. The partners, customers, and third parties you work with may come up with new updates of their applications, software, and systems constantly. Using cloud-based integrations, your connections will remain the same, as the necessary changes can be executed immediately.
To ensure agility, implementing new features in iPaaS is fast, meaning that tailoring the integrations according to your specific needs remains speedy.
9. IoT
There are forecasts that there would be 21 billion internet of things (IoT) devices by 2020. It is likely that your business also needs to utilize certain types of IoT devices, especially in supply chain management.
Using an iPaaS for connecting to these devices to get all the data from them in real-time is the simplest way to start utilizing IoT.
10. Add-ons
At Youredi, we noticed early that add-ons can create added value for the integration solutions that we create.
Chatbots can be integrated into your processes to simplify how you are engaging with your customers. This tool is beneficial for e-commerce, finance, insurance businesses, as well as for logistics providers
Another add-on that we offer, is analytics based on the data that is moving through the integrations. Utilizing insights from all the data you own and share will make sure that you optimize your processes and decrease operational costs.
Are you still using traditional integrations?
Many are still using traditional integration providers or they build it in-house. Both methods are slow and expensive. To stay competitive, you need to start evaluating whether you can benefit from an iPaaS. The list above is also a good guide for you to select what are the most important factors for you when choosing an integration partner for your business.
