In business, systems are important. Your accounting system, your CRM and purchasing systems, for example. They’re what you do to make things work. But are they working together?
Very often, businesses start off with small-scale systems managed by just one or two people, and there is little need for formal integration. But as a business grows, informal, manual integration isn’t enough. Manually re-entering data in several different systems is hugely inefficient. On the surface, it might seem that your systems are working together fine, but the reality is probably more different than you know.
When you’re gathering data in several different ways – through the lead gen process, sales, ordering, complaints handling – and entering it into multiple different systems, data gets lost, changed and ignored.
However well you think you’re manually integrating data, you’re almost certainly missing things, and that means you’re missing out on opportunities and making running your business – and by extension, your life – far more difficult than it needs to be.
So, don’t complicate your life. Data integration isn’t a scary word or process, especially with specialist data integration services, such as Rapidi Online, doing the hard work for you.
Here are five ways that data integration can improve both your life and your business.
- You’ll save time
If you’re currently spending time manually transferring data from, say, your ordering system to your CRM, data integration will mean you can stop. Data integration automates the process of sharing data from different systems so you don’t have to do anything to actively make it happen. That means you and your staff will have more time to focus on driving your business forward, meaning less stress and better job satisfaction all round.
- You’ll avoid confusion
Manual integration means errors. It’s inevitable that, especially if time is short, mistakes will be made. And mistakes mean confusion, at best. You might end up contacting the wrong customers about the wrong products, for example. If your staff are regularly coming across confusing or inaccurate data, they’ll lose trust in it, leading to more confusion and inefficiency.
- You’ll be able to do more with less
Data integration saves time and helps you make money. It streamlines everything in your business, which makes pretty much everything you do easier. It means you’re able to see everything about your customers in one place and connect better and faster with them. You can anticipate their needs and make contact at crucial times. That means more sales, with less time being spent to make them.
- You’ll have better relationships
Because data integration helps your business run more smoothly, it helps you build better relationships both within and outside the business. Knowing more about your customers (especially your most valuable 20%) means you can build better relationships with them by anticipating their needs. Inside your business, your staff will be able to work together better, helping them build relationships with each other and you, reducing stress. And after-hours, less stress might even mean better relationships at home…
- You’ll be able to make better decisions
Most of the benefits of data integration come down to one thing: it helps you make better decisions. By having all the information you need in one place, you can make informed business decisions. And informed decisions are much more likely to be good decisions than uninformed decisions.
