Integrations Defined
What exactly are integrations? Integrations can be defined as:
If that doesn’t seem straight forward, don’t stress. Think of an integration as bringing the best of two worlds together. For example, take two separately awesome things, like vanilla and chocolate ice cream and bring them together to mix and mingle. What’s the end result of this combination? The super awesome, best of both worlds, chocolate-vanilla swirl cone. Which a lot of people would argue is actually better than the original, single flavors.
Why Add an Integration to Your Company Store?
You know what an integration is, but why exactly would you need to use one in a Company Store? The three most common reasons our clients want to add an integration to a store are to:
- Create Efficiencies – Share data between systems to meet you and your client’s objectives.
- Enhance Control & Security – Control user access, user spending, and credit card security.
- Provide Accurate Order Totals – Utilize tax and shipping integrations to add accurate charges to each order.
There are plenty of other great reasons to utilize an integration in your Company Store, we just don’t have enough space to list them all. For more information on what integrations we offer, click here.
Things To Consider
Every integration is unique, even our out-of-the-box integrations. Why? Because every integration has it’s own individual purpose. Most likely you aren’t going to invest time and money to integrate your Company Store just to add on some shiny bells and whistles or to show that your store supports the latest tech. That would be silly (and nearly impossible), with the rate that tech is evolving these days. Integrations serve a purpose and that purpose defines HOW the integration will work and it’s success. Without purpose, there is no true integration, just added tech.
There are two key questions that will help you define the purpose of your integration:
- – What information needs to pass between systems?
- – Why do you want this information passed?
For example, maybe you want to send all order data from your Company Store to your order processing system so that you may quickly process orders as they come in. The what is the order information and the why is to quickly process orders. In this case, you would be looking for an order management integration.
If you have an issue answering either of the above questions, feel free to give our team a call. We’re a software company after all, which means that we have a bit of an obsession when it comes to the topics of software and technology. We thrive to make life easier by optimizing tech and providing solutions.
Types of Company Store Integrations
If you decide that an integration is exactly what your store needs, there are several ways to integrate your Company Store. These include:
- – Web services/APIs
- – SSO
- – Punchout
- – Out-of-the-Box Integrations
For more information on how each of these integration’s work, check out our companion blog that covers the technical side of integrations.
Integration Set Up
Once we have had a discussion about the specific integration you are needing and it’s purpose, our team of experts are ready to begin the integration process. We won’t stop after you make your purchase and the integration is installed. Our team will test the integration thoroughly to ensure that the information you need is passing correctly from one system to the next. Once it meets our level of expectations the process is complete and you have your very own, unique, integrated Company Store.