A key and consistent trend across companies nowadays is the large number of separate software systems they own and use. In fact, a study conducted by Okta Inc. concluded that on average companies use 129 apps within their organisations. Read the article here.
With a need for so many software applications just to get the job done, there comes a need for some or at least a handful of these systems to talk to each other. This communication needs to take form in the simplest and more efficient way possible. Let’s just refer to this communication between your various apps as ‘integrations!’ although there is a lot more to it.
Many of-the-shelf applications are built with the requirement in mind. They come with features that allow you to hook into their functionality from third party applications however this may not be easy for non-developers. Often times you need ‘specialists’ to do the integrating for you which end up being very expensive. I like to take a more LEAN approach, where I’ll look at the specifics of the integration/s and agree on a minimum viable product (MVP). This way you will not be expected to spend on features that may not be needed now or in the future. I will then work closely with you to understand what additional features should be added and then leave all options within your hands.
