Modern business integration has become a key accelerator for organizations that are looking to improve customer experience, accelerate growth and unlock new revenue streams. It allows businesses to take advantage of existing technology, people, and processes to stay in front of their competitors.
Traditionally, many companies have a combination of legacy systems and on-premises software applications as well as cloud solutions. These disparate technologies do not automatically communicate with each other, which is why companies need to develop a robust integration strategy.
Modern integration allows these systems and apps to communicate and exchange vital data seamlessly within and across business lines. This is sometimes referred to B2B integration, and can involve a variety of advanced protocols – from AS2, SFTP and HTTPs to Web Services and proprietary high-speed files transfer methods.
Common use cases include financial services, healthcare, and logistics. These industries require robust security, governance capabilities, and audit trails to securely connect with multiple trading partners.
Another common application is horizontal integration. This is where two or more companies from the same industry combine their efforts to offer a broader range of services or products. A women’s clothing brand might integrate with a young adult and teen fashion brand to reach new markets.
Modern integration techniques enable these companies extract the right data and convert it to a form compatible with their partner’s central organisation device. This can then be sent to the target application for processing. This can be used to automate a process and streamline it, improve business collaboration, reduce the chance of human error and delays and ensure rapid growth for a business.