For any company, information is power: the more that you know about your customers, the effectiveness of your strategies and the overall success of your business, the more accurately you can determine your next direction and come up with an effective game plan. Especially in today’s data-driven culture, you simply must have organized, accessible, high-quality data in order to achieve success and growth.
To really make the most out of that data and utilize it to improve your business, though, you can’t just have it. You also need to be able to use it to draw conclusions and make informed business decisions. An effective way to accomplish this is by integrating your data and connecting all of your sources so that your data is available and accessible in one centralized location.
However, this is often easier said than done. Here, we break down the main problems that businesses face when trying to connect and organize their data and explain how the Integrate.io platform can help.
The Problems With Data Sources
Isolated Data Sources
Most businesses have multiple sources of data, including contact information, transaction history, social media feedback, marketing information, app logs, etc. It all comes from a different place and, more often than not, each of these groups of data remains largely isolated from one another. Why? For starters, many companies don’t even know that this isolation can hurt their bottom line - so they simply don’t attempt a company-wide integration. On top of that, it can be hard to maintain and keep track of changes that arise from different third party sources, so many businesses simply can’t do it even if they wanted to.
That said, this kind of disconnect can keep businesses from getting the full picture of how their company is doing, thereby preventing them from gaining key insights and making informed decisions.
Think of each data source as a person stranded on a deserted island. Each one of them probably has a lot to contribute, and if they made it to the same island they would probably share their skills and survive. However, if they can’t communicate then they can’t help each other and they probably won’t make it very far alone.
It’s the same thing with your data. If your sources aren’t connected, it’s extremely difficult to get the full picture or to effectively analyze, organize and understand it all. Many businesses today don’t realize this fact or don’t have the resources to integrate their data on their own.
Read more about data silos on the Integrate.io blog.
Inadequate Data Integration Solutions
As we mentioned, connecting your sources is often easier said than done, and this has been a huge pain point for many businesses. Traditionally, data integration is extremely challenging. There are generally two main options that people have: do-it-yourself (DIY) or an integration tool. DIY requires full control and writing your own code. On one hand, this could give you more flexibility and power over your integration. On the other hand, however, it could be very difficult to maintain and track over time, and it could take your attention away from other aspects of your business.
The other option, a legacy integration tool, doesn’t require the same amount of time and autonomy, which is a plus. However, it could limit you or fail to work as you expect it to. Either way, it’s difficult to connect all of your sources and, even if you do find a way to execute the integration that you’re looking for, the data could be difficult to interpret, organize and analyze.
This may not seem like a big deal, but these limitations can make a big difference in the long-term. You need to find a more efficient, sustainable option.
Here’s another way to think about it. Say you’re moving into a new home. With a professional moving company, you can choose what items you want moved, when you want the movers to come and where you want your things to go in your new home. You can go through everything, weed out the garbage and have your new home ready to go and exactly how you want it. Without the movers, you’ll have to do it all yourself - it might work, but you might also break things, injure yourself and waste time and money that could be spent doing what you’re really good at.
When it comes to your data, you want to work with the professionals - and that’s exactly what Integrate.io provides.
The Integrate.io platform solves these common integration problems, easily connecting all of your sources and giving you the control to achieve user-friendly, efficient data integration.
With Integrate.io, you can easily create a pipeline containing data from multiple business-critical sources and put them into a single warehouse where analytics can be performed and key business insights can be discovered - no coding, no isolated data sources and no confusion.
In just a few minutes, you can determine and lay out:
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What data you want out of each data source
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How you want the data to appear, and
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When you want the data to be processed and delivered
On top of that, Integrate.io can connect to hundreds of integrations, which means that all aspects of your business can be fully integrated and connected at all times.
You’ll be able to get the full picture of how your business is doing, which efforts are working and how it’s all impacting your bottom line.
This is a huge step forward in the world of data integration. For the first time, your data won’t live on an island and you won’t have to worry about making the wrong move or losing key insights because your information is difficult to integrate, unorganized or hard to maintain.
Don’t miss out on an opportunity to connect all of your sources and get the most out of your data and valuable information today.
If you’re not sure where to get started or you would like to learn more, you can contact one of our experts or schedule a free Integrate.io demo today.
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