Applications are the future of digital business, but they aren't always the most secure and they don't always play well together and at worst, they're an efficiency killer instead of an enabler. Application integration can set you free.
When you hear the word “island” it probably conjures up a tropical paradise of sunny beaches with all-inclusive amenities. But when talking about your technology islands, a much less relaxing picture emerges.
These primitive floating application land masses often are disconnected, unable to communicate, and ill-equipped to move your business forward. With your data scattered across applications and business systems, efficiency suffers with data silos, data duplication, and unoptimized processes.
While working with several applications helps businesses speed up processes, managing those multiple applications and the data running through them can be a challenge. The average company relies on dozens of apps—around 40 to 60 applications to maintain daily operations. Though most applications benefit your business, according to one study, 71% of staff reported that applications made their work more complex. This was mainly due to applications improperly integrated into cohesive systems. Not only does this create an error-prone management headache of manually transferring data between applications, it creates multiple point-of-entry security risks.
From disruption to paradise
Application integration assists in managing the data in your application landscape and enables your applications to exchange and share data, optimizing your business processes while saving time and giving you a more accurate view of all your data.
Application integration plays a pivotal role in the process of bridging the gap between on-premises legacy systems and more modern cloud-based enterprise applications. As a result, you can enhance data flows between a multitude of specific applications to work together smoothly.
Let’s take a look at the top 5 reasons application integration and maintenance are a must have for your business’s itinerary for success.
1. Reduce the risk of security breaches
It’s alarming, but 56% of applications used by enterprise companies are not managed by IT personnel. That means things like renewals dates, licenses, and application and security compliance are all ungoverned. In fact, 97% of IT teams report that they have limited visibility into how employees use applications since more than one-third of applications are purchased by line-of-business managers without the input of IT personnel to ensure they’re properly maintained and secured.
2. Mitigate compliance issues and possible lawsuits
Humans, no matter how much they try, are well, only human. This means errors and mishaps are inevitable. Unfortunately, manual input errors can result in late fees and penalties that can leave your business vulnerable to compliance and liability issues. The results are at best an increase in customer churn and at worst revenue-crushing lawsuits and irreparable brand damage.
3. Enhance customer satisfaction
And speaking of customer churn, when situations arise, cumbersome systems of disjointed data make common tasks such as order cancellation, product non-conformance, and failure analysis monumental. Employees must sift through mounds of data to piece together information since they lack real-time visibility into a chain of events from siloed applications. This long and painful task can damage your company’s relationship with your already upset customers.
4. Ensure productivity and efficiency
Siloed applications represent a black hole in productivity as users have to manually transfer data from one application from another; think inventory management, sales order management, supply chain management, production planning and accounting. The hidden cost of this kind of inefficiency can be staggering. Companies lose between 20-30% of their revenue every year due to inefficiencies.
5. Expand innovation capabilities
All your applications require maintenance, regular updates, upgrades to new versions, and license renewals. This leads to your IT team spending most of their time on software and API maintenance rather than innovation. According to one survey of IT leaders, a whopping 99% said their day-to-day operations were impacted by the pain points of managing SaaS applications. By trying to do it all on your own in-house, you’re limiting your team’s ability to expand their capabilities and closing the door on opportunities fueled through innovation.
Your Application Concierge
With so many moving pieces and vulnerabilities, Procellis can bring together your islands of technology to create a paradise you can enjoy every day. We are 1 of only 7 Cisco DevNet-certified practices in the U.S. and masters at applications and maintenance, to help your business:
- Ensure all applications are configured correctly to comply with various compliance frameworks across industries.
- Reduce back-office and production inefficiency by up to 30% through real-time, single-pane-of-glass visibility.
- Mitigate application risks by introducing API security to every integration, ensuring no points of access are left unsecured.
- Drive innovation with skilled technologists and a broad portfolio of SaaS and API management services to fit your business.
Remember, as your business grows so will your applications. Schedule a consultation with one of our skilled technology specialists to learn more about how we can help you create a cohesive digital paradise.
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