4 major advantages of system integration

It is common practice for businesses to use multiple IT components to perform different tasks. But when business needs evolve, organisations can be overwhelmed by the number of tools, applications, and services that operate in their own silos. This is when system integration comes into play.

In this blog, we will explore the 4 main advantages of integrating multiple pieces of software and hardware into one complete system, helping businesses to stay ahead of the curve by synchronising multiple elements across the business.

What is System Integration

System integration is the process of connecting separate sub-systems, components, or applications into a single complete larger system, so they function as one complete unit. System integration is critical for business-to-business communication and for employee collaboration within the organisation as it enables interoperability between the different tools.

System integration acts as an interpreter between different systems that operate independently and are programmed with different coding languages. System integration is becoming more significant and a stable requirement for business growth and evolution, as businesses realize the importance of having a centralised system for increasing efficiency and enhancing productivity.

Why System Integration

Data is valuable for all sizes of organisations and can be found in multiple business systems and applications. Over time these systems evolve and become developed separately, becoming disparate.

The main goals for businesses to use system integration are to improve quality and enhance productivity across the business and benefit organisations by:

• Providing a single pane of glass allows for more complete analysis
• Getting users on board quickly, and reducing time to learn with just a single system
• Reducing storage space and associated costs as data will reside in one location
• Increase security by moving data to one single protected location

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4 Major Advantages of System Integration

Today’s business works with multiple systems and replaces them more frequently. System integration is used to respond to the growing needs of the business, making it simpler for new IT software and hardware to be integrated with existing infrastructure. Today’s applications are even designed with the future requirements of the business in mind, allowing them to be connected with other systems.

The biggest advantage of system integration and the main reason for investment is the optimisation of business operations. System integration increases information exchange and workflows by providing a centralised network. What are the other advantages?

Advantage 1 - Increased Employee Productivity

When employees are bogged down in admin, they become unproductive, this happens when they must manage multiple tasks through separate systems, it takes longer to complete and the chance for errors is increased. System integration combats this.

Advantage 2 - Provide real-time information

As well as being labour intensive, when transferring data between various systems can become easily out of sync. When databases overlap, they don’t provide an accurate view of applications and business performance, slowing down critical decision-making. System integration provides real-time information, increasing performance and productivity.

Advantage 3 - Less maintenance

Maintaining multiple systems requires extensive resources and quickly becomes expensive. These systems then must be continuously upgraded and supported so that they can continue to be available. System integration reduces the need to maintain and support multiple systems.

Advantage 4 - Simplify data governance and management

The volume of data being created by organisations is huge and multiplies daily. This data is spread across multiple tools, platforms, applications, and devices, which create regulatory issues, and security risks. System integration simplifies data governance by having one central repository reducing these risks and simplifying governance.

The goal of system integration is to integrate modern applications into old, outdated legacy systems, since many organisations still use outdated software for the critical core business functions, it is imperative to find ways to create process improvements and introduce new functionalities to keep the business operating and competitive. The most cost-effective way is through system integration, this is where Nexus can help you.