One of the main pains any company faces is how new tools are integrated into already established processes. Sometimes, this generates the need to create new manual processes that may initially be functional but over time they begin to complicate the operation.
These new systems that your company works with do not speak to each other. The solution is to move the data from one tool to the other manually, either through import or by rewriting data by data into the new application. While no one really wants to do this, it is something that must be done for the good of the company and, above all, the experience of your customers.
Why Integrate Your Software?
Integrations solve the problems that arise when your business grows, since the tools that were sufficient a few months ago are no longer sufficient now, meaning your technology stack must grow and evolve. Integrations allow you to keep using the systems you currently work on by making a connection between the new platforms and the already existing ones. This creates a flow of communication and is a bridge between two different points, facilitating the flow of traffic in either one or both directions. Imagine that system A is the departure city of a trip and system B (in this case HubSpot) is the destination city. When creating an integration with HubSpot, a bridge is built between both sections, as if it were a station to recharge gasoline and continue with the trip. In other words, integration is the station where we receive and transform the information that System A throws out, creating connectors so the information can be digested by HubSpot.
There are several ways to integrate systems, ranging from the most manual methods like creating an interlinked file (exporting the data from one platform, modifying it in a spreadsheet, and re-uploading it on the new platform), to the more sophisticated ones that require building a web service that allows the two systems to talk to each other with intermediate solutions such as preset automatic integrations. Some integrations have basic functions of information transmission only while others can be more robust and generate additional added value for your business.
Who Benefits From An Integration?
To some extent, everyone in the company benefits from an integration since it helps keep data organized, something all companies need. There is no company that operates with a tech stack where nothing requires connecting to other systems.
Even for your customers, having the right integrations can mean the difference between a great experience and a bad one.
Going back to the bridge analogy, when a bridge is built between two cities, both benefits and paths can even open up to new cities (platforms) that were simply inaccessible before. Depending on the size of the bridge or the technology with which it is built, the traffic it may have will differ, improving results.
Think of a manual daily job as having to create a bridge where every time a car needs to pass, someone has to manually open a gate for it to cross. If you have a 1-time integration, you would be creating a fast avenue.
Advantages of a Manual Daily Job:
- You Maintain Control: By having a manual daily job that works with spreadsheets, you have more control over what you are passing from one platform to the other since it is easier to detect errors in formulas or values. Unlike automation, where it can take several hours before you discover that the information is traveling the wrong way. You can have control of what is uploaded to the platform. However, it is important to remember that this can add several extra hours to your operation.
- It is Simpler (in the short term): Since a manual daily job does not require any type of extraordinary programming, it is easier to integrate systems manually, since you choose which values you want to export from a platform, give the correct treatment to the data, and re-upload them on the second platform. However, this simplicity, which is welcome at first, can become a bottleneck in the long run.
- You Do Not Require Specialists: A manual solution is something that you can implement easily with simple/your current knowledge of the platforms you are integrating. It is only necessary to understand the fields and objects that need to be moved from one tool to another, meaning there is no need for additional experts or hiring platform specialists.
Disadvantages of a Manual Daily Job:
- Increases the Margin of Error: Like any manual process that depends on someone managing the data, there is an increased risk that a bad export, the wrong treatment of data, or any change to the file will generate errors. One too many commas, one wrong period, and you can throw your database into chaos. Manual processes that are repeated over and over again are at greater risk of error as monotony can result in unwanted changes.
- It Requires Several Hours: The main pain of having a manual daily job vs integration is no matter how simple and monotonous the task may be, someone must execute it, so you will have to allocate a resource (or several) to something small. If it does bring a lot to your company, it could really be automated, freeing up your team so that they can dedicate themselves to tasks that add more value to the company, ones that cannot be replaced by automation; For example, better customer support, more personalized service, after-sales management, etc.
Advantages of a 1 Time Integration:
- Scalability: When your business grows, a 1-time integration can grow alongside you, allowing the focus to remain on growing and not on updating information from one platform to another. The more systems that are integrated into your technology stack, the harder it will be to have a manual integration.
- Customizable: This integration is developed according to the needs of your business, meaning it can include special calls and custom objects which will benefit your success.
- Improves Focus: Instead of wasting valuable hours exporting and importing spreadsheets from one platform to another, or worse, doing the uploads manually, your team can spend their time on tasks that add more value to your company and improve the overall experience of your customers.
- Reliable and Unique Data: Perhaps one of the main advantages of having a 1-time integration is that you can have greater confidence since all the data is up to date on all platforms, allowing you to make more accurate reports and better decisions. Giving your team greater confidence in the data they have is key to the success of any CRM implementation; if they are not up to date, the risk turns into poor adoption of technological tools.
Disadvantages of a 1 Time Integration:
- It Can Be Expensive: It can sometimes seem expensive to have a 1-time integration. However, when you assess the future value of doing so, it makes more sense. If the budget is limited at the beginning and you need to wait for a higher flow to budget it, then the alternative of doing it manually is also viable.
- You Need A Specialist: Sometimes, some 1-time integrations work with default connectors, but if you require something more specific, it will be important to have the knowledge of a specialist in the platforms you want to integrate. Sometimes even having a specialist from each of the two tools can make things even simpler and more fruitful, although depending on the agencies, it can also generate friction and hinder the process.
Either Way, Integrate
In the end, it is not a question of whether or not it is worth integrating your platforms, but how you will do it. If your question is whether or not to integrate your platforms, please let us have a call so we discover together.
If, on the contrary, your questions are more about what type of integration is most convenient for your company, I would also love to hear from you. At CRM Toolbox, we have been helping other companies to integrate their platforms for decades and we know it can be something that causes stress. Despite that, in the long term, we know that integrations become an important foundation in your company’s processes.
If you have any questions, schedule a call with me and let's talk about your main pains and concerns, as well as the different solutions you can find. I'd love to hear from you.
