Is data flowing uncontrollably within your organization – from one application to another, from one business unit to another, totally ungoverned?
That is the case in countless medium- to large-sized companies. And the bigger the organization, the more consequences ungoverned data causes. Still, surprisingly often even global, billion-dollar enterprises are not in control of their data.
And they might not even be aware of it.
With Innofactor Enterprise integration Platform, organizations can gain back full control of their business-critical data and have a perfect end-to-end visibility of their integrations.
What is Innofactor Enterprise integration Platform?
In a nutshell, Innofactor Enterprise integration Platform is a solution that enables organizations to seamlessly integrate, unify, and govern core business capabilities, such as business-critical applications and other data sources, across diverse organizational areas with one centralized platform.
In plain English it means creating a centralized place in the customer’s Azure cloud environment, where the customer can manage their specific integrations and data flow from one system to another. Innofactor Enterprise integration Platform allows organizations to gain back control of their data and govern it according to company-specific compliance requirements.
With the platform being deployed on Azure cloud, it can easily be extended with several functionalities, such as automation and artificial intelligence – all according to the organization’s needs. And, as with Azure-based services in general, the security of your data and integrations is backed by Microsoft's over $1B annual investments in cloud security.
"The bigger the organization, the more consequences ungoverned data causes. Still, surprisingly often even global, billion-dollar enterprises are not in control of their data."
Enterprise integration Platform is more reliable and flexible than point-to-point integrations and other alternative solutions
In the modern business world, most mid- to large-sized companies have the need to integrate business-critical applications – be they in the cloud or on-premises – in order to serve their customers as effectively as possible.
A widely used solution for integrating siloed applications is a point-to-point integration, which might be a relevant solution if the number of integrations is limited to only a few and the integration itself is carefully documented. However, point-to-point integrations commonly bring a lot of threats as well:
- Creating a point-to-point integration is time-consuming and expensive, as it keeps the internal developer team occupied and limits their ability to serve internal stakeholders and customers.
- Point-to-point integrations aren’t scalable. Data will need to flow smoothly within an organization as it grows, and point-to-point integrations just can’t keep up with the increasing amount of data sources, applications, updates etc.
- Point-to-point integrations lack transparency and flexibility. As the selected few employees who built the integration leave, your company will be in trouble if your developer team doesn’t know why certain integrations were created and how they are running.
In addition to point-to-point integrations, there are a couple of other alternative products available as well. However, all of them are basically iPaaS-based solutions, which means that the organization will be locked to a single vendor. If problems arise with the chosen vendor, it’s far from simple to find an alternative partner to work with.
Another disadvantage with off-the-shelf iPaaS solutions is that individual business needs are rarely met. One product is expected to fulfill the needs of different kinds of companies, which, more often than not, is simply not the case.
Innofactor Enterprise integration Platform not only tackles the issues related to the alternative solutions, but also provides additional benefits:
- Gain full control of business-critical data: Enterprise integration provides a central platform that regulates how data flows between multiple applications, removing data siloes and giving you full control of business-critical data.
- There is no vendor lock: The biggest benefit from the customer’s perspective is that the solution is deployed on the Azure cloud environment and thus based on its core components and technologies. Therefore, the customer is totally independent from any single partner: if cooperation with the original Azure partner – be it Innofactor or any other company – doesn’t work out, it’s easy to switch partner and continue using the same product without any interruptions.
- Reduce unnecessary costs: Integrating a complex set of services and applications using a SaaS vendor’s out-of-the-box integrations is easy and convenient for the customer, but it comes with a hefty price tag. When there’s a need for a large portfolio of integrations, Enterprise integration Platform is a very cost-effective option.
- Scale as you grow: Adding new applications and data sources over time won’t hinder the growth of an organization, since Azure allows fully leveraging the growing volume and types of cloud data that’s collected by integrating them with one another as well as with on-premises apps.
- Enhancement of processes and collaboration: Enterprise integration enables seamless collaboration and removes the need for employees to move between different applications to find the information they are looking for. Enhanced internal processes improve the level of service the organization is able to provide for its paying customers.
- A centralized platform improves transparency: By unifying applications and other solutions into a single platform, developers have full visibility into the application environment and are better prepared to deal with any conflicts and even react in advance.
- Flexibility to use the services you want: With a shared platform, organizations have the flexibility to choose the services they wish to use instead of having to commit to a specific solution with its limitations, procedures etc.
Additionally, according to Microsoft’s integration report, ease of use has been the top reason why organizations selected Azure as their preferred integration service. Similarly, ease of use has been an important factor for our integration customers.
"With a shared platform, organizations have the flexibility to choose the services they wish to use instead of having to commit to a specific solution with its limitations."
Start small and scale easily when demand increases
The benefit of an Innofactor integration Platform on Azure lies in its low entry threshold: it’s possible to start small and scale up as an organization’s maturity increases.
Initially, the customer can, for instance, establish a data transfer from an ERP system to HR/Finance for the employees’ salary data. Once the foundation for this integration has been established, and with the ease of Azure Services, the set-up can be scaled very rapidly to other business areas, and other data flows can be integrated.
The key to a successful integration solution is planning. For this, we provide our customers with a 2-day integration workshop, where our experts assess your current architecture, help in identifying the required integrations, and create an integration roadmap and strategy.
Are you interested in learning how the Innofactor Enterprise integration Platform can benefit your organization? Read more on our website and download our Enterprise integration Platform Whitepaper to gain deeper insights into unlocking the full potential of your organization!
