Understanding Business Systems Integration
Some of our clients find the phrase “business systems integration” to have a pretty intimidating sound to it. It’s actually a very straightforward concept – getting all your different business software tools to act together as a single unified system – that can be challenging to pull off in the real world.
Can your point-of-sale system talk to your inventory and accounting systems? What about your CRM? That’s easier said than done. And if your sales data aren’t directly usable by your accounting department, how do you get around that?
For a lot of companies, the answer is to kludge together a workaround, often involving some sort of manual cutting-and-pasting or data entry. That’s incredibly inefficient and error-prone, and shouldn’t even be an option for a company serious about doing business in the 21st century. Both your customers and your employees deserve better.
But what other options are there? That’s where business systems integration comes in.
Essentially, what any good integration platform will do is act as a data translator between your existing systems. The platform will simply translate data from one file format’s “language” to another – so that accounting, sales, marketing, and operations can all be on the same page, and often in real-time.
The Challenge
The challenge of business integration is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution out there. Every business has grown up with its own particular set of workflows, processes, and software tools. Yes, the workflows are sometimes deeply rooted in the specific set of software tools that have been deployed over the years. But you’d be surprised how many workflows we’ve seen over the years that succeed despite – and not because of – the technology that supports them.
When we undertake a business systems integration project, we conduct a thorough analysis of all the systems and workflows in use at the client’s facilities. Once we have an understanding of how things really get done there, we can begin researching the best options for getting all your existing systems to work in tandem, without any unnecessary disruption to existing workflows. Then, when we’ve identified what we believe is the best option, we review it with you and bring in our highly-skilled technical staff to make it happen.
Business integration is a simple idea: get all your systems to work together, so it’ll be easier for your employees to deliver a better experience to your customers. If you think your company’s software might be hindering you more than it helps, call Oyova today.
