Does your organisation use different software and applications for various functions around the business? By utilising business system integration to connect them all together, you can streamline operations and improve efficiency. This can ensure seamless data flow and communication between departments, leading to better decision-making and overall performance.
Synchronising your systems helps to eliminate data silos and inconsistencies that can hinder productivity and decision-making. It can also eliminate manual data entry and reduce errors, ultimately saving time and resources.
Viewing data between systems can increase accuracy and productivity, enhancing collaboration between teams. Additionally, having a comprehensive view of data across systems can lead to better insights and strategic decision-making for the business.
That said, before embarking on a systems integration project, you need to be absolutely sure that you will be sticking with your current technology for the foreseeable future. If not, it may be more productive in the long run to cut your losses and invest in one system that can handle all the functions your organisation requires.
As independent IT change support experts, JNBA consultants can help you to conduct a needs analysis to decide between integration of your existing systems or investing in new technology on an organisation-wide level.
Synchronising existing systems
Integrating multiple systems is a popular way to streamline business operations because it's a relatively easy way to reduce duplication of workload. This can clearly lead to cost savings, as well as freeing up employees to focus their time on other areas. JNBA consultants can provide guidance on how to best synchronise your existing systems to achieve these benefits.
Other advantages of this approach include improved accuracy and consistency. However, the ultimate goal is improved customer satisfaction. Consider this basic scenario.
System integration example
A customer orders a gingerbread man and a latte in a café where orders are taken manually and written on a pad. The waitress passes the note of the customer’s order to a colleague at the till, who misreads it and inputs the order into the electronic system as a gingerbread latte. The customer is charged for the gingerbread latte and shortly afterwards, the incorrect order is delivered.
On realising the order is wrong, the customer asks for the correct order. The original order is thrown away, the correct order is created and the customer is refunded for the whole order due to the inconvenience. Had the waitress been provided with an electronic pad that connected to the rest of the system, the whole scenario would have been avoided - saving money and improving customer satisfaction.
Whilst this is a very basic scenario, it’s easy to see how it can manifest on a larger scale across any type of organisation when systems aren’t talking to each other.
Is integration of existing systems always the best option?
Whilst it’s easy to assume that integrating existing systems will be more cost-effective than investing in one new system to serve all your needs, this may not always be the case. There really is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of whether integrating existing systems always the best option, so we’ll look at the challenges and the alternatives.
The challenges of integrating existing systems
Whilst this is by no means an exhaustive list, integrating systems can present the following challenges:
High upfront costs for software and implementation
Disruption to operations during the integration process
Ongoing maintenance and support requirements to ensure continued system functionality and effectiveness
Compatibility issues between different systems and platforms: Integrating your existing systems may simply not be possible
Wasted investment if you decide to switch to an organisation-wide system in the future
Factors to consider before deciding on system integration
As independent experts, JNBA consultants will help you to work through all the factors you need to consider before deciding on system integration. The advantage of our independence is that we operate ONLY on your behalf. There are no internal or external pressures on us to make a particular decision.
For example, we don’t work with any particular software providers or take commission, so we won’t try to up-sell things you don’t needs like a supplier would.
Conversely, we have no bias towards an internal department. This eliminates the possibility that the internal employee who conducts the needs assessment for you will base their assessment predominantly on what would be best for their area of work.
Instead, we will:
Assess the organisation's current systems and identify areas for improvement
Evaluate the potential return on investment of system integration
Considering the long-term scalability and flexibility of integrated systems
Provide independent expert advice that is fully explained so you can make the final decision based on what’s best for your organisation
Alternatives to system integration
As we’ve noted, our consultants won’t always conclude that system integration is the best option for your business. So what else might we suggest? Firstly, there will sometimes be occasions when system integration simply isn't cost-effective or appropriate. In those instances, we may suggest fully upgrading your IT systems and software. However, we are just as likely to suggest that you do less, by opting for a light-touch.
Light-touch integration
If we feel that full system integration is either not possible or not necessary, we may suggest a light-touch approach. For example:
Middleware can be used to connect parts of the systems to reduce integration complexity
An Application Programming Interface (API) can be set up to only retrieve the data you need
Adopting a cloud-based system could allow you to reduce the number of systems that need to be integrated
Conclusion
Whilst system integration is often billed as a fix-all within large organisations, that’s not always the case. Why not take advantage of a FREE, no-obligation consultation with one of our experts to talk through the decision-making process?
We’ll talk you through the options and explain how we could help you to make changes to your systems to increase efficiency - whether that’s through system integration or another method.
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