Are you building a spiderweb of Salesforce integrations? You should apply a strategy instead
A strategic approach to Salesforce integrations ensures you can enjoy their best benefits to their fullest: more processing power, better scalability and use of your data. These integrations are implemented both project-driven and as on-going strategic development – the latter option is better, here’s why.
Typically, Salesforce integration implementations are quite small scale: A company branch or department sees the need for an integration and orders the project. The issue with building integrations with a project-based approach is that over time the resulting architecture tends to resemble a spiderweb – which is not ideal. By adopting a more strategic, long term approach you can build an integration architecture that is carefully thought out as a whole – and brings a host of benefits:
• You can predict the effects of changes
• Developer productivity goes up
• You can offer a self-service model for consumers
• Achieve greater granularity and agility by separating tiers
Do you know the true value of business APIs? Read the insight by our expert
A strategic approach is more cost-effective and efficient in the long run
Well-planned and well-built APIs and integrations support business growth. This is why you should aim to build on the central tenets of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture). By doing this, you will make integrations more scalable, and much easier to implement and help data flow smoothly from one system to another.
Many companies struggle with siloed customer data, which hampers any attempts at building a 360 view of the customer. This translates to a less-than optimal customer experience in an era of increasingly personalised service.
By adopting a more strategic approach to Salesforce integrations, you will achieve a full 360° view of your customer more easily: You can see and manage all data related to the account in one place. For your customer this means better customer service, for you it means more efficient sales.
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Futureproof integration architecture starts with a framework and an API-strategy
A good way to start approaching integrations with a more strategic mindset is to make sure you have a framework in place. It will boost implementation speed by making libraries and re-usable components easily available.
Second, you should form an API-strategy. It will give a boost to innovation and turn APIs into revenue in new ways. You can also complete projects faster and save on operational costs. You can find different kinds of blueprints for API-strategies online, but here are the basic steps to get started:
1. Set goals: What do you want to achieve?
2. What is the architecture like?
3. What is required to get to the desired end result?
4. Who are the end-users and other target groups?
Read how Sofigate integration specialists break down silos with Jitterbit, the world-class API integration company
Good enterprise architecture gives a solid base for growth
Building a strong API-strategy is worth it but will take some time. This is first and foremost because your API-strategy should always be tied to to the overall enterprise architecture of your business. It is only this way that the API-strategy can truly serve and support the goals of your business.
A well-built enterprise architecture will yield many benefits, such as lowered risk of bad investments, less unwelcome surprises in projects (thanks to more comprehensively planned solutions) and lower costs thanks to a well-planned out and optimised ICT-environment.
While it is possible to plan and build your enterprise architecture on your own, it can help to have an outside view. Posti, the Finnish postal service, needed an enterprise architecture which would help them adapt to the radically changing business landscape. With the help of our experts, they were able to build just that. We helped Posti crystallise their challenges and sparred them with finding the best solutions.
If you would like to know more about how Posti succeeded with our help? Read the whole story here.
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