Powerful iPaaS Use Cases for Modern Business

Drawing on data from a variety of sources creates huge advantages for businesses – but it can also create huge complications. With so much information to manage, organize, and learn from, things can get messy fast. Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solutions are Cloud-based tools that enable rapid deployment, streamlined data management, and strict governance.

Organizations looking to make more meaningful connections with their data often turn to iPaaS to support digital transformation initiatives and create real-time data sharing across solutions. Today, let’s look at a few of the most powerful use cases for iPaaS.

Universal IoT Connectivity

The magic of iPaaS is in its ability to make connections between many kinds of data-rich applications and devices. It lets users integrate virtually anything they wish. From an Internet of Things (IoT) perspective, this is an extremely enticing concept. The bedrock of IoT is interconnecting technologies through the internet to build more useful and powerful processes. iPaaS makes IoT a reality by integrating mobile devices and sensors, interconnecting cloud services, and removing data silos from on-premises applications. This is perhaps the most powerful and significant use for iPaaS for the longevity and scalable growth of an organization.

Data Integration

Because iPaaS is so adaptable to many types of systems, it’s an ideal solution for connecting business software. Common data integrations include CRM with ERP, CRM with Marketing Automation, CRM with eCommerce, Marketing Automation with social media, and the list goes on.

Businesses are able to join their core solutions to facilitate machine learning initiatives, AI projects, big data, and other operations. At a base level, iPaaS integration creates data transparency and boosts analytical insight. At a deeper level, it makes it easier for employees to collaborate on and learn from data outcomes, resulting in more proactive marketing, sales, and customer service. And because organizations can add custom fields and functions to their iPaaS integration, they are able to tailor their digital connections to be in lockstep with their processes and goals.

Data Quality Management

Integration and data quality go hand in hand. The extended analytical power you gain from integration is only helpful if the data you’re pulling from is accurate. With automated data coming in from many sources and users also entering their own data into solutions, the practice of data quality management becomes essential.

An iPaaS can populate data warehouses and data lakes. It can also migrate warehouse data to the Cloud and feed data from sources like data stores and data marts to where it needs to go. Using iPaaS makes these data quality initiatives cost-efficient and infinitely dynamic.

Web Service API & Application Integration 

Consumer demands can shift rapidly. Just look at how businesses were forced to pivot during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic. Digital transformation initiatives are meant to adapt to these changes. However, they require updates to existing applications as well as the adoption of new applications.

An iPaaS supports this process by facilitating the use of cloud-native applications and Web service APIs. APIs expose legacy application data, making it easier to modernize and leverage the application to build new applications.

Many iPaaS solutions use low-code or no-code functions to generate APIs through connectors. These connectors enable applications to “speak” to one another and share the information necessary for the desired data goals. Data can be transferred between applications in real-time, or at any other time variable that makes sense.

Hybrid-Cloud Integration

Large enterprises with complex data syncs need an efficient and flexible way to manage their hybrid environments. iPaaS can connect on-premises applications to the Cloud easily, even through firewall-protected platforms.

It can also manage hybrid environments with greater efficiency than more traditional app connection technologies like a hybrid Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). An iPaaS makes setting up and managing a hybrid-cloud more cost-efficient because it doesn’t require the extensive IT skills one would need for working with an ESB.

B2B Data Connections

When you’re sharing data between your business, supply chain, and third parties, there are many factors to consider. Data security is one. The speed of the integration is another.

An iPaaS creates secure, flexible, and seamless B2B data connections to share information between data apps, vendors, partners, suppliers, and customers. Traditional B2B integration tools like Value Added Networks (VANs) are more expensive, require deep technical knowledge to set up, and are not as secure as iPaaS.

These are just a few of the ways that businesses can use iPaaS to modernize their data architecture and foster digital transformation initiatives. The beauty of iPaaS is how dynamic and scalable it is, so the potential it holds for your business is nearly endless. How you choose to use iPaaS depends on your software mix, budget, and long term growth initiatives. For a free consultation on your business use cases for iPaaS, contact our team.