Businesses are increasingly seeking agencies and system integrators that can help them effectively integrate the latest SaaS, cloud apps, enterprise systems, and data sources to automate business processes and achieve digital growth. However, building system integrations in the traditional way with custom code can be expensive, time-consuming, and has a high cost of ownership. Thus, agencies have started implementing a next-gen, low-code middleware solutions called the iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) to build integrations without custom code for all their customers, using one cloud-based platform. However, before delving into how an iPaaS solution helps significantly lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), let's start with exploring how building integrations without an integration platform results in higher TCO.
Three key causes for higher TCO with system integrations
Integration problems that an iPaaS is designed to help solve
1. Building custom code software integrations is costly and tedious
Increased costs by integration project overruns
Budget overruns are a common occurrence when you attempt the traditional method of creating software or application integrations with custom code. Being developed by custom code, these integrations can only be understood or managed by senior developers, who are a rare and valuable resource of any IT team. Custom code integrations offer no robust logging or monitoring features by default, which help detect and resolve integration errors. Building these error-detection features from scratch is also costly and time-consuming, and the absence of it significantly increases integration error costs. Only senior developers or integration experts can properly monitor or troubleshoot custom code integrations, which leads to higher operational costs, unplanned expenses, and budget overruns.
2. Increased third-party dependency slows down digital growth
“Being dependent on partners or bad integration solutions hinders your ability to change integrations or to be in control of your data.”
The need for modern businesses to accelerate digital transformation efforts to stay competent has fueled their need to integrate new software and applications. Building these integrations using plugins, custom code, or multiple integration partners isn’t fast or flexible enough. Using plugins or creating point-to-point integrations severely limits integration capabilities and scalability. Integrating new software, applications, or data sources with custom data integration is tantamount to starting new, time-consuming and costly projects. Also, depending on third-party support for adding tweaks and modifications to integrations can significantly slow down your IT. All of this leads to higher TCO (total cost of ownership) on integrations.
3. Entangled integrations and IT landscapes
No central control over your data
The more you attempt to expand an IT landscape by adding new software or application integrations with custom code and plugins, the less flexible, scalable, and sustainable it gets over time. Without any platform infrastructure, with every new custom software integration you build, it is harder to control data and monitor connections. This eventually leads to an entangled IT landscape riddled with siloed data and integrated applications, which is also referred to as the IT spaghetti phenomenon. This leads to undetected integration errors, system crashes, and unpredictable costs. Managing disorganized system integrations requires hiring more senior developers or spending more with integration partners, which also significantly increases operational costs.
Due to these roadblocks, the traditional method of creating point-to-point integrations or using plugins to connect cloud applications, enterprise systems, or data points is becoming increasingly outdated due to its lack of flexibility and scalability. Therefore, most companies and even system integrators are moving onto a next-gen middleware solution called the iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service), which helps businesses rapidly connect multiple software and applications without custom code. The iPaaS is designed to help lower TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) in developing and managing software integrations.
Six ways an iPaaS helps lower TCO on system integrations
Get your IT landscape ready for future-proof digital growth
The Alumio iPaaS is a low-code, cloud-native ‘integration Platform as a Service’ or ‘iPaaS’ that helps you integrate ERP systems, E-commerce platforms, PIM, CRM systems, and any other application without custom code. It centralizes all your integrations on one platform and makes it easy to create, monitor, or manage integrations with minimal IT support via one user-friendly interface. By helping you automate error detection with a robust monitoring and logging system, an iPaaS helps prevent budget overruns, makes integration costs predictable, and helps lower TCO.
Some of the many ways by which an iPaaS helps significantly lower TCO and increase ROI on system or software integrations is by enabling you to:
1. Seamlessly connect multiple applications
As an API-driven solution the iPaaS helps integrate multiple software or cloud apps via a user-friendly web interface without the need for custom code.
2. Upscale with junior developers
Enable junior developers or data experts to configure integrations and manage repetitive manual tasks from an easy-to-use dashboard as you expand your integrations.
3. Optimize key IT resources
Free senior developers managing or troubleshooting integrations and equip them with advanced integration features to flexibly transform data, build custom integrations, and orchestrate workflows.
4. Simplify data sharing
Enable real-time data exchange between all connected systems. Get a visual overview of all data flows across integrations. Unlock data silos, and streamline internal and external workflows.
5. Automate monitoring & logging
Detect integration errors or API conflicts automatically and get monitoring alerts. Quickly resolve conflicts with basic technical expertise using intuitive click-and-configure features.
6. Implement connectors
Access our growing selection of connectors (pre-configured integrations) to build faster integrations with popularly connected software, ensuring faster Time to Market.
Apart from allowing you to automate your business processes and significantly lower TCO when building integrations, the Alumio iPaaS also provides 360° data insights. The iPaaS can be used to improve connections and create customizations to suit specific business needs. And by centralizing your integrations on one scalable, cloud-based platform, the Alumio iPaaS enables you to expand and organize your IT landscape in a fast, flexible, and future-proof way.
