Technology has revolutionized the ways modern businesses operate in the 21st century. Compared to what happened in the past, modern businesses are now powered and connected by powerful system networks and technologies. Put in simple terms, integration can be defined as a connection or combination of different systems to create a single system.
Integration applies to many other human endeavors but the most common application revolves around businesses, technologies, and computer systems. It basically involves creating a single software or organizational template through the merger of different materials and information shared between software and tools, with all the features used.
Why System Integration is Important for Businesses
Manufacturers and developers of computer systems are making giant strides in the areas of innovations and technological developments. New ideas and technologies in the areas of ICT spring up every day, and are making a huge impact in our everyday lives. Data and information are shared between multiple systems, using different approaches and methods to create a more valuable, professional, and uniform work environment for customers, businesses, and other stakeholders.
The importance integration plays in the day-to-day operations of companies and small business organizations. That’s the major reason significant resources are allocated by companies to integrate their systems so they can enjoy the benefits of having a unified, computerized work environment. Workflows and processes are improved for companies with good system integration in place and are far more efficient than their counterparts lacking these systems.
What does the integration process intend to achieve?
- It improves managerial controls in businesses: You can’t overemphasize the importance of managerial controls in a business. Every successful business organization is powered by good management controls as it helps to monitor and harmonize all the activities and functions within an organization. System Integration provides management a bird’s eye view of what is going on within an organization. Critical information about different departments’ goals, objectives, manpower, resources, and other important information are sent into a single system via system integration so management can make effective decisions that benefit the organization as a whole.
- Streamlining the internal processes of organizations: For businesses to achieve their predefined goals and objectives, all activities, departments, and functions must work in perfect harmony. System integration helps to ensure all the internal processes of organizations are streamlined so that they can play a useful role in an organization’s decision-making process.
- Maximization of technological and human resources: Human resources and technology is the lifeblood of any business or organization. The most important of them all is the human resource. That’s why system integration plays a pivotal role in the way the activities of human and technological resources are harnessed and monitored. The results and performance of all staff can be tracked in one central system to see how each of them is contributing to the overall growth and objectives of the organization. This can provide useful information about the inefficient staff that needs to be laid off and new manpower that needs to be hired to fill up important, critical positions.
- Helps achieve competitive advantage: Competitive advantage is the edge organizations have over their competitors or rivals. This advantage doesn’t come by fluke or luck, but by careful adoption, implementation, and execution of strategies and technologies. System integration is one of such technologies modern organizations can employ to improve their efficiency and operations, leading to a faster and more effective decision-making process.
- Helps in providing customer support: System integration can be used to centralize customer records across all branches of an organization. This will enable decision-makers and customer support to monitor transaction activities between the organization and its customers. This will ultimately lead to better service delivery, excellent customer satisfaction, and retention for the organization.
- Improving organizational strategies: Strategy helps an organization achieve a competitive advantage over its rivals. System integration ensures that new policies and development in the organization’s environment are observed, monitored so that strategies can be formulated combining the organization’s strengths and weaknesses against its opportunities and threats.
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System integration using the human approach
In addition to design and planning and their role in system integration, the human aspect and angle are critical to the overall success of an organization. Operational efficiency is one of the most important objectives of an organization, and this can be achieved when all important aspects, both technical and non-technical aspects, work in a fluid manner to meet the organization’s objectives.
Organizations deploying system integration and technology require trained hands to manage the resources efficiently as well as harness data and information provided by the central computer system. This can be herculean for huge organizations that have too much data, resources, and departments to manage.
Organizations can benefit from adopting a user-centered design approach to improve their operations as well as achieve their overall strategy and objectives.
Are employees expected to change their activities when system integration is in place?
The core role system integration plays in an organization is streamlining the work processes and activities through an interconnection of different computer systems employed within it. Employees are going to feel the impact of these changes and would have to adopt new measures and skills to cope with them.
A lot of employees might be made redundant as their jobs and roles can easily be executed and monitored as a result of the implementation of system integration. While others might require more training to understand as well as better exploit system integration to its fullest.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, system integration simply involves the combination of systems to create a more effective, uniform work environment. The world is powered by technology, and it’s making a huge impact on our everyday lives. Businesses and organizations are fully tapping into the immense benefits technology presents, and one of such technologies is system integration.
It’s important to synergize all knowledge, information, and processes to achieve operational efficiency and objectives. There isn’t a single method for integrating systems. Many organizations adopt methods that complement their daily activities and help them achieve their objectives efficiently. The ultimate benefit from the effective system integration is improving managerial control and streamlining of the work process, which will, in turn, lead to a competitive advantage for most organizations adopting it.