Written by
Published on
March 15, 2022
Businesses are increasingly seeking agencies and system integrators that can help them effectively integrate the latest SaaS, cloud app, and systems, to automate business processes and achieve digital growth. However, building system integrations in the traditional way wth custom code can be expensive, time-consuming, and has a high cost of ownership. Thus agencies have started implementing next-gen, low-code integration solutions like the iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) to build integrations without custom code, for their customers. However, before deliving into how an iPaaS solution helps significantly lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), let's start with exploring how building integrations without an integraiton platform results in higher TCO.
3 key causes for higher TCO with system integrations
Integration problems that an iPaaS is designed to help solve
1. Building custom software integrations are time-consuming and costly
Increased costs by overruns
Budget overruns are a common occurrence when you attempt the traditional method of creating software and system integrations using end-to-end code. Being created 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 logging or monitoring features by default, which can drain IT resources with repetitive manual tasks or overwhelm you with integration problems that require big operational costs. Manually detecting integration errors late due to the lack of developers and not being able to solve them quickly, lead to unplanned costs 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”
With digitalization rapidly evolving and with the need to integrate with newer software, creating integrations using plugins, custom code or multiple partners isn’t fast or flexible enough. While using plugins or creating point-to-point integrations severely limits integration capabilities, adding new software or systems with custom data integration is tantamount to starting new time-consuming and costly projects. Also, depending on third-party support for minor tweaks and modifications to integrations can significantly slow down your IT, making it hard to lower TCO (total cost of ownership) on your integrations.
3. Entangled integrations and IT landscape increase TCO
No central control over your data
The more you attempt to expand an IT landscape by adding new software or system integrations through these methods, the less flexible, scalable and sustainable it gets over time. With every new custom software integration that you create, the harder it gets to control data and monitor connections. This eventually leads to a tangled IT landscape, which in turn 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 significantly increases operational costs.
Due to these roadblocks, the traditional method of creating point-to-point integrations or using plugins to connect cloud applications, systems or data points, is becoming increasingly outdated due to its lack of automation or scalability. Most companies and even system integrators are therefore moving onto next-gen iPaaS solutions, which are designed to help automate business processes and lower the total cost of ownership on developing and managing system integrations.
6 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-based ‘integration Platform as a Service’ or ‘iPaaS’ that allows you to connect ERPs, E-commerce platforms, PIM, CRM systems and any other cloud applications, without custom code. It centralizes all your integrations on one platform and makes it easy for you 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 new systems
Connect new software or system integrations via a user-friendly interface, without any coding expertise or loss of data integrity.
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 from having to manage or troubleshoot integrations and enable them to create complex custom integrations with our SDK (software development kit).
4. Simplify data sharing
Access data visibly across all integrations from one dashboard, unlock data silos, and streamline internal and external workflows.
5. Automate monitoring & logging
Detect integration errors or API conflicts automatically and quickly resolve conflicts with basic technical expertise.
6. Implement connectors
Create faster integrations with a growing selection of connectors or pre-configured integrations between certain software or systems, 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 way that’s fast, flexible and future-proof.
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