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If you are a business owner, you know that any organization needs a system in order to be run efficiently. As is the case of most startups, their owners tend to opt for a variety of mixed-and-matched tools to avoid high costs. This may work for a while, but as your business grows, you will need to prioritize quality over costs. Buying different individual tools might initially seem like a good idea – especially for your budget, but in the long term, you will face various problems that stem from adopting such a tactic. Each tool will need separate attention and updating, which will lead to employee inefficiency and a possible negative effect on the business. The importance of system integration becomes apparent in such situations.
To keep up with global or local competition, you can buy ready-made integrated software, have a custom system made according to your needs, or combine existing tools into one such suite. You will not only save time and money, but also make sure you and your employees don’t have to get acquainted with a new system. Let us dive deeper into how system integrations can change your business.
System integration
First, you have to understand what system integration is. The best analogy I can think of right now is cooking. Suppose, you want to cook dinner, and have chicken, spices, and oil. Can you use them separately? Yes, you can. Will that be a tasty dinner? No. You need to incorporate the ingredients in a particular way in order to make a healthy and tasty dinner. Software system integration works in a similar way. All your previous components will now work together as a whole. Combining different subsystems across the company will definitely give you an edge among your competitors. It also makes sure that you get more accurate results, as all the data is processed in one place.
System integration is a complicated process. You will run a great risk of losing significant data if you attempt to do it yourself or using someone not familiar with the process. Hiring a professional system integration company is your best bet.
Problems with using multiple platforms
Using separate tools to process different processes is fine for starting a business, but these tools lose their usefulness as your business grows. You will need more tools to process the increased amount of data. Let us go through a few of the problems that you will face when using multiple application platforms:
- Inefficiency: Storing data in different locations is one of the worst things you can do to your business. This is dangerous and impractical at the same time, and moreover, your company will not be able to analyze the data properly. Fetching data from different platforms manually might leave a large room for error, with the end result being incorrect data analysis.
- Loss of productivity: Your employees will be sucked into an endless stream of data if they are stored in separate locations. Where they would otherwise be ready to handle their next task, they will still be drowning in pending tasks. Wasted work hours will ultimately result in lower revenue and reduce employee productivity.
- Customer Satisfaction: Your company runs on the data you collected during previous interactions. Meeting your client’s requirements also requires very careful analysis of data. If you’re having problems with data flow itself, you will not be able to serve the customers optimally. This is especially true for the sales industry, if your system is not integrated, you might discover a hole in your finances and a lot of unhappy customers.
Advantages of System Integrations
System integration is one of those procedures that you cannot forego when comes to the growth of a business. It enables your company to get a steady and accurate data flow and reduces the margin for error. Your employees will be a lot more productive and your business will create a name for itself in the industry for its efficiency. The most important advantages of system integration are:
- Real-time accuracy: You usually find out if your business is doing well based on monthly, quarterly, or annual reports. However, if the data from sales, finances, service, and inventory are coming from different components, it will take several days to sync the datasets and analyze them accurately, which also increases the chances of errors. With integrated systems, once a data is updated, it is updated across the whole platform. Constant updates will keep you and your employees on the same page, and you will know exactly what you need to do next. Also, this data is accessible any time, and from anywhere – which eliminates the wastage of time if you need certain bits of data immediately.
- Efficiency: Integrated systems ensure employee efficiency. Automatic features such as invoicing and financial consolidation leave room for other important tasks, which will help the business grow. Employees can finally focus on what they are supposed to instead of swimming through a pile of scattered data. Increased job satisfaction and less obstacles also ensure the proper growth of your business. You can also work with a smaller workforce, as most of the labour-intensive work will be done accurately by the system itself.
- Boost in sales: Integrated systems can improve sales by a significant amount. For example, running an online store needs you to pay constant attention to data in order to determine what the customer wants. It also needs a proper inventory checklist and keeping track of all orders. If you do not have an integrated system, it is very likely that someone will goof up an order, and it will turn into a chain reaction of errors. On the other hand, with an integrated system, your employees will be able to provide quality customer service. A regular, real-time data flow ensures that all the queries are taken care of.
- Data collection: Collecting and storing important data is another key advantage of an integrated You can save storage space by centralizing the data and analyzing them to proper your business towards growth. Every change in the data stream is saved automatically to the central server, removing the possibility of data overlapping.
- Cost Reduction: You can reduce your business costs by a significant margin if you opt for an integrated system. Better working hours and reduced need for hires will save you a lot of money in the long run. Automation of unnecessary work and increase in profit can also be counted as a reduced
Integrated systems are a must in order to survive in the competitive world of business. It allows you to know yourself and your business better, and helps you take the right decision at the right time. Syncoria has been helping business owners for more than 14 years with their tools and custom developments, and Odoo is one of our ready partners who specialize in customized integrated systems. Feel free to consult Syncoria for any help you might need with system integration. Customer satisfaction is our first priority. Visit our website here, and feel free to make an appointment.