5 Advantages of using Integrated Software Applications

In the modern IT landscape, the rise of Integrated software applications has become a focal point for development and growth when considering an efficient and future-facing front end user interface for your organization. As many businesses look towards cloud integration for data and IP storage, there are a host of reasons and advantages that your organization can benefit from when considering integrating this software as a solution for your users and the clients that they represent.

Many organizations are still considering the ROI and functionality of upgrading their infrastructure to cloud-based architecture to work in league with software-based applications. At first glance, the initial investment for changing the model of infrastructure against continual maintenance and improvement of existing systems may seem to be a bit cost restrictive, however, when looking towards the future, and considering the advanced functionality and ease of use of these technologies, the returns for these upfront investments especially when properly integrated and optimized for your organization, will produce exceptional results and evolve your way of doing business across the board, and across your organization.

1. Lower IT costs

Integrating an application-based solution for your organization’s IT infrastructure includes many benefits to lowering your IT costs after the initial investment. Typically, the bulk of the cost in an organization’s IT department comes from the physical work that your IT professionals put forth when updating, maintaining, and debugging individual siloed and systems across your organization. Application-based systems streamline the process dramatically, as updates, enhancements, and program improvements can be made in one location and be made available to the end-user through downloading an update directly from the source. As the technology has been streamlined as a single program rolled out to all users, individual tweaks for every user’s system or PC are no longer necessary. This will free up your IT department to focus on specific tasks to increase productivity, as opposed to spending the majority of their time maintaining legacy systems just to keep up with their function. Their productivity will climb, and strategic initiatives will be focused on, increasing their bandwidth, as well as your organization’s overall productivity.

2. Improved employee productivity

Integrated applications use the same cloud sources for all users granting easier functionality across the board for your employees. As these data sources are centralized and can be accessed and are available to each team member with the proper credentials, the ease of usage and integration of streamlined data will simplify and enhance the productivity of each employee. 

In legacy systems, the sharing of data and information across your network of employees could often be different based on the specific configuration of individual machines. Functionality between differently siloed data can be disjointed and difficult to access as the data may have been entered multiple times by multiple users into different software packages that are not necessarily compatible with one another. Traditionally, this caused many roadblocks based on functionality and the need for multiple programs to support your employees’ role. Streamlining your organization by implementing an all-encompassing custom application will boost your employee’s productivity as all of your necessary data can be accessed by whoever may need this information to support their work in one specific place. This will avoid confusion, as well as simplify functionality to be used more precisely, and effectively.  Your team will no longer have to switch between multiple environments, allowing them to quickly answer customer questions and provide broader data-based solutions that may have not been easily or previously accessible to your representatives.  

3. Real-time visibility

One of the most important aspects of operational management is the ability to see a complete picture of your business to make informed decisions based on each silo of your business. As is the experience with many legacy systems, dealing with data from multiple systems, overlapping databases, and a unified reporting system creates a difficult and oftentimes frustrating picture for decision-makers that decreases the efficiency of decision-making processes. 

Application-based software allows decision-makers to have a full picture of their operation in one streamlined location, allowing for increased agility and a fully informed picture of how their business is performing. Integrated applications decrease the time of information gathering, collating the data, and presenting this information in a reliable and up to date format. As the data that applications pull from is streamlined and identical for each user, Real-Time visibility of each silo and process allows for accurate decision making based on the most relevant and up to date information on how your organization is operating. 

4. User-driven innovation

Integrated applications are designed to support agile improvements based on the functionality that is needed by your organization. As a function of the design for applications, changes and improvements to the application can be implemented efficiently due to the changes being rolled out to a singular source and supplied to each user via an update to the application. Theoretically, any end-user can suggest functionality improvements for the application based on their user need. As these applications can be tailored to your operational requirements, these improvements can be implemented quickly and efficiently to all users, innovating your application without being forced to incrementally roll out these upgrades system by system as is necessary for legacy systems. 

5. Higher Customer Satisfaction

Application-based software gives your organization the ability to better serve your customers due to the increased amount of customer information that can be accessed quickly and easily via a centralized location. Increased agility when working with your clients is a need that has become even more important as a growing number of businesses have begun to use similar platforms for customer interaction. The expectation of efficiency and agility from your team is by the customer is incredibly important, as the customer experience is so paramount to any business’s reputation and public perception. One of the most powerful advantages that come from the integration of application-based software is in perceived value that comes from the agility of your staff. The more information and ease of access, the better your team can support the needs of your customers. The centralized nature of data access also provides the opportunity for a higher understanding of future revenue opportunities that can come from a deeper understanding of their need based on the available information.

Custom applications can also be created for customers themselves to access their personal information, as well as interact with your organization in a more streamlined and mobile scenario. Customers who interact with your organization via mobile applications can expedite customer issues as well as have a deeper interaction with the process of their business directly. This leads to a higher level of customer satisfaction, as well as a deeper understanding of your organization and information that modern customers demand. Overall, your customers will inherently trust your organization more readily if they have a positive user experience and are well informed.