7 Signs it’s Time to Switch to a New CRM
Smart business owners understand that switching CRMs is not to be undergone lightly. Upending what your teams are used to can be a scary and sometimes risky operation. No one wants to take that risk unless they’re certain the ROI is worthwhile. So, how do you know when it’s time to ditch your old…
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Tips for Post-Migration Strategic Maintenance
By moving to a scalable and secure Cloud environment, companies can innovate faster and remain competitive. Any business that’s done its homework on Cloud migration knows that the project cannot be successful without a strategic plan. However, what many businesses don’t realize is that once the…
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Should I Integrate Using Code, Low Code, or No Code?
Before you decide on an integration solution, it’s crucial to understand just how complex your project is going to be. If your integration needs are basic, cloud-based, already compatible, and do not include any custom fields or functions, a no code integration could work just fine. As a reminder,…
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5 Tips for Managing System Integration Over Time
Although we’d like to “set it and forget it”, the fluidity of integration is ever changing. It cannot fulfill its greatest potential without some thoughtful follow through. To maximize the value of your integration, you must analyze how well it’s working and plan for its future. This way, if a need…
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5 Tips for Integration Success, and 3 Mistakes You Should Avoid
More and more businesses use large data sets to analyze trends and predict future events, so every company should be considering strategies for increasing data accessibility and visibility. If you’re planning to integrate systems in 2020, here are a few tips for success – and a few mistakes you…
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Managing Cloud CSV File Sharing with StarfishETL
Using CSV files for customer data may be an old school strategy, but many businesses still prefer the format. Before we get into how StarfishETL can help manage CSV file sharing, especially over the cloud, let’s take a moment to understand why businesses choose these types of files over another medium, and the challenges they must overcome to effectively put them to work.
Python & ETL: A Great Match
Python supports a wide range of major platforms and systems (just like StarfishETL) so users can work in the operating system they prefer. Its open source framework and tools let the user optimize to his or her precise needs and cuts down on development time.
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How Much Integration is Enough Integration?
Why do businesses integrate software systems? There are many underlying reasons, but it always boils down to one goal: maximizing transparency and data usability across departments while minimizing the time investment and cost of managing data.
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Determining the ROI of Your Software Integration
Although it’s important to justify the tangible ROI of an integration, it’s also crucial not to lose sight of the intangible value it adds to the organization. The long-term benefits to the corporate image, the intellectual capital gained, the destruction of data silos, and the improved agility are…
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Cloud is King: Why Gartner Thinks Cloud Migration Can’t Wait
Gartner just released research that delivers some powerful insights about database management systems and their relationship to the Cloud.
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Integration 101: What’s Your Role?
They coordinate resources, track budget, line up expert help if needed, coordinate testing, ensure use cases and user stories are complete, and resolve any problems that come along the way. In many cases, an integration may have multiple project managers fulfilling different aspects of these roles…
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Integration 101: Why Do Integration Projects Fail?
Why do integration projects fail? That’s like asking “What is time?” or “Where does space end?”. There are many potential answers. Various factors contribute to successful integration projects, but it only takes a few missteps to botch up the whole thing. While the reasons behind integration…
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Integration 101: Build it or Buy it?
In the next post of our Integration 101 series, we’ll explore the tradeoffs of doing an integration yourself versus purchasing a preconfigured software. Deciding whether to build or buy an integration solution can be challenging. Companies with tighter deadlines and lower budgets may feel more…
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Integration 101: Introduction & Best Practices
The Internet of Things (IoT), the Cloud, AI, data lakes, automation, and every other 2019 IT buzzword all stem from the same belief: connected data is more powerful. The more transparency between your systems, the easier it is for your teams to collaborate, plan, analyze, and deliver. Integration…
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What Every CFO Needs to Know About Integration
Think that a CFO isn’t a major player in an integration? Think again.Companies integrate with the intention of optimizing processes: connecting sales and marketing data to enhance targeting, combining financial systems and CRMs to streamline invoice and payment histories, feeding emails into CRMs to keep accurate data for customer service reps, and more. The CFO plays a role in each of these departments. Digital optimization will trickle down throughout the entire company, and therefore affect the CFO’s financial management options.
Accelerate Capability Maturity Model with Integration
A Capability Maturity Model (CMM) measures the existing capabilities of a company to streamline process improvement, foster productivity, and decrease software risks. Once a business understands the guidelines to improve these processes, they can create an integrated approach to solve those issues…
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Integrate ERP Through Your Firewall with the StarfishETL Ray
Many companies want full Cloud adoption, but simply aren’t “there” yet, so they must strike a balance between their locally hosted systems and the Cloud software. However, when it’s time to integrate the two, things can get complicated. Your only options to integrate ERP through a firewall are to…
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Expert Integration Tips: StarfishETL Error Handling
Try as we may, many of us still run into unexpected errors when executing integrations. In the world of unpredictable data, these errors are inevitable. They can occur from human miscalculations, incorrect information, malfunctioning systems, or any other number of random events.
Expert Integration Tips: Setting Up Your Origin
Starting an integration project in StarfishETL? We have some tips to ensure your project runs with maximum effectiveness. In the first post of our Expert Integration Tips series, we'll talk about the various approaches you can use to set up your Origin connection.
How to Decide Which Version of StarfishETL is Right for You
Everyone loves options, right? As you prepare for your data project, you may notice StarfishETL offers several options for moving your data. How do you know which version of the platform is right for what you need, though? The first thing you must consider is what you’re using StarfishETL for: integration, migration, data clean up, process automation, or other uses. Here are some descriptions and guidelines to help you choose the best StarfishETL instance for your next project.
What Every CMO Needs to Know About Marketing Integration
The customer journey is a constant back and forth between sales and marketing. Every touch point is an opportunity and every interaction alters the next move. Connecting the two departments with CRM and marketing integration is a logical step to align goals and facilitate collaboration.
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The Dangers of Siloed Data and How to Avoid Them
In farming, silos are structures that keep grain separate from the elements. The same concept can be applied in the business world when we think about siloed data. There are different types of siloed data, but the overarching theme is data that is isolated from the entirety of your system, whether…
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When Migrating is Better Than Upgrading Your CRM
These upgrades can sometimes be time consuming, however, they are usually worthwhile. I stress the word “usually” here because there are instances where upgrading your CRM may not be the right answer for your business. So, how do you know when migrating is better than upgrading? Here are a few…
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Keeping your Data Migration on Time and Within Budget
The Starfish team has seen a lot of successful data migrations, but we’ve also seen how easy it is to get off track and over budget. In this blog post, we’ll address the most common reasons for reworks and budget overages, and the steps you can take to prevent them from happening you.
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6 Tips for Successful Legacy Data Migrations
Moving to a new system means analyzing the way data is defined between old and new, and translating your legacy information into the new system effectually. Even migrations that seem black and white on paper can run into obstacles, so planning is crucial. The most successful legacy data migrations are detail-oriented and ask the right questions. What are those questions? What are the details you need to consider? Here are 6 tips for successful legacy data migrations.