The dynamics of our lives are changing rapidly with the passing of time. And, so is the way we interact with the world. These new dynamics present emerging demands to align ourselves with these changing conditions. This has been true in almost all of the domains of life in which we are involved, including the business world. One great paradigm shift that we’ve witnessed in the business world is the digitalization of many of its processes, methods, and tools. This digitalization has not only changed the way many things are done in business but has also introduced new things.
In order to align ourselves properly with these new technologies and changing dynamics we shouldn’t remain static ourselves as well; seeking ways to understand them to better serve our business needs and customer expectations helping us maintain our position in the market. On the other hand, someone who remains unconcerned with such latest developments could have their business left behind in the competition. Among many different types of solutions being utilized by businesses, one type of solution that exists is the Integration solution. These solutions are responsible for establishing an effective synchronization between the other solutions utilized by the business. This article will discuss some of the fundamental components of the integration solutions.
What are integration solutions and why are they needed?
The complex business dynamics of modern times require the utilization of multiple tools offered by disparate solutions. While the individual solutions specialize in their own domain the provision of all the necessary tools for a business is not quite possible by any single solution. Also, we all know the interdependence of many business processes in different domains calling for a constant input of processed outputs from one to another. While this can be done manually, it’s not preferred owing to its cumbersome nature.
Here the integration solutions do their job by seamlessly synchronizing the independent solutions together and establishing a unified business management system. This helps bring much more efficiency to the business operation by automating the otherwise manual inputs and eliminating any resulting errors. Furthermore, the integrated system also eliminates the workload by linking various processes together on disparate business solutions. Thus, with a suitable integration solution in place, the business can significantly improve its productivity by automating mundane tasks and utilizing the freed-up resources for more cognitively demanding tasks. Many different types of integration solutions exist in the market, thus requiring due diligence in analyzing one’s requirements before selecting and implementing one for your needs.
APIs
Application Programming Interfaces or the APIs as they are simply called are one of the essential components of any integration solution that lays the foundation of it. APIs can be defined as the guidelines or the set of instructions that play a vital role in instructing how the data would be shared among these solutions. For any integration solution to work as intended it’s vital to ensure that the APIs relevant to that solution are properly configured.
While many popular platforms provide APIs of their platforms sometimes the developers need to develop their own APIs to meet the specific requirements. It must be noted, however, that while developing own API provides more freedom in controlling its aspect, it’s much more time-consuming and requires resources compared to using third-party APIs when integrating.
Mapping
While the APIs are responsible for establishing communication protocols and guidelines between the solution mapping serves as a configuration tool allowing the user to decide how the data values would get shared between the two solutions. Using the mapping setting on the integration solution the user can decide which value from one solution would go to which field of the other solution giving the user control and flexibility on the synchronization. The mapping feature also allows the user to change these settings with their varying requirements. It’s advised to carefully configure these settings as it decides the structure of your data that is synchronized between the solutions and a wrong mapping could result in inconsistency of data.
Database
Most integration solutions work as an intermediary between the solutions being integrated by bringing the value from one solution to its own database and then updating the values to the other from there. Therefore, for such an integrated solution it’s vital to have a properly configured database where it can store values. Having its own database also allows the user to manipulate any values if needed before uploading them to the desired solution. This is useful in scenarios where the user might need to have differing values such as product prices on the two platforms.
Conclusion
The emerging demands of the business world have expanded the horizons of business systems incorporating multiple tools and solutions to effectively manage them. However, this itself has given birth to yet another need, the need to direct all those solutions in a unified manner to establish a complete and connected business system. To establish this our understanding and utilization of integration solutions is crucial. By understanding them better we can seamlessly achieve a more harmonious business management system that is in line with our operation needs and serve the rising expectations in better ways.
Understanding the crucial needs for such integration solutions for businesses x2xeCommerce offers an extensive range of integration solutions in the domain of ERP, POS, accounting, and eCommerce. If you operate in these domains then the team at x2x can help you achieve a unified management system. An example of the integration solution by the x2xeCommerce includes the x2x RMH-BC Integration solution. Reach out to the x2x team for any query or a free demo.
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