Examples of Application Integration

Application integration is the way in which software applications exchange data to communicate with each other and provide their offered services to the users. It’s the base of a business’s digital operations—if their apps are not properly integrated, their data can get lost and customers lose their services.

This is how many companies control their workflow and get insight into their business data. It eliminates human error, automates interoperability between services, and makes your employees more productive.

Here are some examples of application integration.

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

APIs are connections from one computer program to another. They allow companies to share their software functionalities and data with other businesses. APIs usually serve as tools within other applications that complement the services of the company.

The term API usually refers to the use of a web API, which allows communication between machines. However, there exist APIs for computer hardware, programming languages, software libraries, and even operating systems. Some of these applications include Yahoo Finance, OpenMP, Cocoa for Macintosh, and Javascript.

On-Premise

This type of application integration refers to the data that’s sourced from within one same company in different formats. This usually requires a license for a software application that can be deployed and maintained in a physical location rather than on the cloud. On-premise application integration will usually have an upfront cost rather than monthly or yearly subscriptions.

Additionally, this type of integration can allow you to personalize the application as you deem necessary and can help keep your data safe and private. Usually, they can be accessed remotely with the help of a third-party communication tool. This can also help with compliance as it’s easier to audit and meet the industry’s regulatory requirements. On-premise application integrations are perfect for those enterprises that would like to stay in control of their business’s data.

Data Mapping

Data mapping is the process of establishing relationships between different data models from independent sources. This can help businesses grow by preparing better analytics and predictions for better decision-making processes. Data mapping can also help businesses manage large quantities of data within their company.

An example of this is when you fill out a contact form on a website and that data is then used on another system within the same organization—your first name, last name, and phone number can be used to fill out another form in a CRM so a customer service agent could contact you to make you an offer.

Service as a Software (SaaS)

SaaS is how software services are delivered over the internet. This allows for more freedom when it comes to installing the software and maintaining the hardware. Organizations can give power to the developers to update their software and provide them with upgrades that will not disturb their workflow.

This usually requires a monthly or yearly subscription or payment and will require an active internet connection. SaaS also allows businesses to allow multiple users to access their data without sharing or allowing them to access each other’s information. This is also called multi-tenant architecture, and a perfect example of this is a bank’s system, which protects individual privacy.

Events and Actions

Just like cause and effect, events and actions in application integration mean that something happens that causes another thing to happen. For instance, when data is uploaded onto a database, it can trigger individual or a group of actions such as alerting a team within an organization, invoicing a client, or updating a datasheet. This is essentially helpful when optimizing a service or workflow that can automate repetitive tasks and thus making it easier to handle information within or outside the organization.