Better Business Decisions via an Application “Suite” You Already Own

In doing “more with less”, far too many organizations own a potential “suite” (of integrated apps and data) that they don’t really know they have.  In other words, these organizations are well-positioned to actualize a bundle of apps and related data in a whole new way, absent acquirement of entirely new suites.

In leveraging present enablements, doing more with more (that is, nailing the suite together in an affordable way, and discovering the “more” of a whole new integrated suite), this “more” merely awaits a survey, and procurement of a modest solution for integrating these apps and data from a qualified vendor. It is comparatively easy.

The modern organization consumes information – as provided by data – more ravenously than ever before.  This consumption is what supports data analysis, informed decisions, and subsequent business outcomes.  

All organizations require timely access to all data regardless of data’s format and source.  In terms of those, we cannot let data’s associated apps, file formats, or physical harbor (on-site; Cloud) inhibit data’s availability, consumption and use.  Data from one app must readily feed another where information common to both is required – and the ideal is a real-time update.  Ever-more often, reporting must be able to produce “blends” of data from discreet sources, in producing accurate, comprehensive, reporting in service to the enterprise.  Uploads and extracts of data must be easily achieved. 

Further, we require an efficient consumption.  It is a necessity:  Information must be available when needed, whether through request, anticipation, or simple obtainability.  Something else needs to be efficient as well:  The integration of apps and allied data must serve Cost, Time, and Accuracy in the best possible way.  In other words, integrating the organization’s critical assets – apps and data – should not be a difficult and expensive proposition.  And indeed, today it is not.  In fact, getting apps and data to work together yields a virtual “suite” of products that, while not originally intended to work together by any specific provider, now can and do with the right integration product ((indeed; the org’s apps are generally from a variety of providers – even competitors).  And, it is done in service to the overall budget - the right product reduces integration costs and produces business yields on a scale such that integrations can pay for themselves over time, with a net return.

However, the organization’s applications in-and-of-themselves do not cooperate to these degrees.  Disparate applications and solutions tend to harbor process and data in “silos” – discreet areas of function that inhibit the access, share, and leverage of data.  An irony is posed by all of the customization(s) performed on various specialized apps and their relatively narrow province, as cast against the enterprise requirement for a unified bundle of apps, all pushing and pulling to the common good.

Thus, what is necessary today is a fully integrated app-set, with corresponding integrated-Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) – supporting that suite of applications – no longer virtual, but now actual - tuned to a unified regime of returns.  Yet for most orgs, the best of any particular application for any particular area is not integrated with any set of other applications, each of those a best-of-breed for their respective areas.

Fortunately, achieving the organization’s suite of full app integration today is readily achievable with the right sort of tangential product.  The right enablement can utilize almost any app’s APIs, o2Data services and web services, in tethering processes and data.  Removed are former technical inhibitions.  Removed is the need for hard coding, and the associated expense and time consumption.  Gone too are the rigid integrations that result under these conditions, straightjacketing the conduct of business while updates pend; awaiting the next crack of code for subsequent reprogramming.

The modern solution is an app itself that directs the integrator’s efforts to the front-side-of-the-screen.  Proprietary Connectors on the back-side, available via a stocked library as well as custom-creation, do the work of “hooking” apps and data together.  The Connectors’ work is managed on the front-side through pointing-and-clicking, dragging-and-dropping, drawing lines, and stroking a few keys to name procedures.  This modern solution is designed to serve apps and data whether on-premise, off-site, or Cloud.  Time-to-value is readily achieved as costs are fractionalized through elimination of manual configuring, hard-coding, associated coded business updates, while taking advantage of each app’s unique assets. 

Pre-built Connectors already stock powerful libraries, such as the one harbored at ShuffleExchange, Inc.  These vendors also develop custom Connectors on a steady basis in answer to each org’s unique apps and challenges.  The front-side app, SEConnect, provides speed, agility, intuitive ease-of-use, and distinct future-proofing for the org’s important investments.  

Speaking of future-proofing:  Often, identified Legacy apps that have been targeted for painful “rip-and-replace” projects have been resuscitated to the benefit of the “suite,” with full integration as leveraged to the enterprise.  

Organizations can now connect to any process and source; on-premise, offsite, or Cloud.  Integrations become self-service endeavors, available to any person the organization chooses to sanction and train.