#23 Overcome Automation Integration Challenges

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Process and Automation Podcast with the Automation Guys. In today's episode, we will focus on integration. If you're following a bit what is going on with intelligent automation, you might have heard that integration is one of the very important pillars of intelligent automation. So, and as organizations become more digital, applications will interact not just with other software, but also with people, with our devices, with chatbots, and we have to work with even larger volume of data. So that's why we see intelligent integration is very important. And so in this episode, let's see how companies can enhance the value and usefulness of their data assets. Arno, what do we have in stock for the listeners today.

So I think there is a sort of tendency to overlook integration, specifically disparate data sources, various data sources within the hyperautomation space. And what we really want to look at today is, is, you know, how do you create a sort of a trusted data source that all of your automations can integrate with? Now, of course, if you look at organizations out there, each of those organizations wouldn't just have one system for all of their operations and management purposes. The challenge today is we have got these multiple systems, and all of these systems out there for, let's say, operations, like I've mentioned, need to be able to talk to each other. And of course, then you have on-premises software as well, and you know, you throw sort of web-based, cloud-based systems in there, mobile applications as well. So as you, you know, kind of multiply all of these sort of systems together and these integration points, traditional integration technologies really struggle to handle this type of influx of software and the actual requirement to integrate these software packages together. And managing this integration is becoming very, very complicated. And of course, as you add more applications into the mix, the more complex this integration process becomes. And really what we need to solve this problem are tools to make integration simpler. You know, we want to have a continuous flow of data between the different applications and, you know, provide a very cost-effective and scalable and also a reliable way to acquire the right information and present it to the people at the time that they need it. And so if you look out there, in terms of integration possibilities, there are now a new breed of integration solutions that has arisen that offers a solution to these problems. And it is this so-called integration as a service or integration platform as a service or iPaaS. So these technologies really help you to take all of these data sources from, from all of these different platforms and services and really bring it together in, in one centralized place. And of course, that's the place that you can plug in your automation, like your RPA soft— RPA bots, your chatbots, your workflow systems, your low-code automation system, and so on and so forth.

Yeah, I think that's a, that's a very, very important part of when we think about end-to-end automation anyway. So I think if we really want to get this under control, yeah, I think we can't get around this IPaaS infrastructure or IPaaS thing, what it is these days, what it's called. I think system-to-system integration and all these APIs these days, hundreds of APIs, all this data, it is increasing massively. And so yeah, there was one analyst firm, so they they said, okay, everything is increasing around these areas— APIs, system-to-system integration, all that— 50% per year. So you can imagine, yeah, that this is, yeah, this is not really manageable, and it's time to really tackle that problem of that integration.

Yeah, and it needs to be addressed because, of course, you know, more and more data volumes are created every year. And if you don't solve this problem, your business data will become inaccessible because there is just too many data points and too many application silos. And if we look at the legacy integrations strategies, we still have outdated solutions for that. So for example, we've got custom integrations where people still have custom-built integrations. So these are all hard-coded. Sort of APIs that requires very in-depth technical skill to understand how it works, the technology they are built on, the support around these are quite cumbersome, you know, the data formats and the structures of these can be quite complicated as well. So it's very hard to, to actually maintain these, this integration code around custom integration. Then of course, you know, there's another strategy which came about sort of in the '90s, which is the Enterprise Service Bus. And this, you know, was designed for batch-oriented sort of data processing. So Service Bus, you know, it can handle both real-time and your sort of event-driven integration needs. But it, you know, it hasn't really been built for the cloud. It's kind of more sort of on-premise application, you know. If you look at things like BizTalk, for example, BizTalk was an enterprise service bus. So that's a good example of a tool that Microsoft created. And of course, you know, the third strategy was traditional data exchange where, you know, we extract data from one application and then we import it into another application, maybe using a nightly data transfer, you know, these so-called ETL— extract, transform, and load scripts— and, you know, where we literally suck data from one place, put it in a centralized database, maybe transform the data slightly. And these are all kind of custom, perhaps SQL scripts that run. So it's very, very old school. It's not very agile. And it's very outdated ways of handling integration and data integration and getting those data from those silos into a centralized place. So really a modern integration approach is really needed to tackle this problem.

Absolutely. And I think what you just mentioned, I think that was a big reason why, or is a big reason still, why RPA is such a successful success story. Because so, so with these kind of rigid things in place, sometimes it's so complex you don't even want to touch it because, uh, yeah, it's— you can't maintain it. And sometimes the integrations and new integrations you rather do very quickly with RPA instead of going through the proper integration methods you would think of using today, sort of modern approach. I think, yeah, so RPA has sort of filled the gap there and keeps filling the gap. So, but the modern approach is definitely needed. So all these modern applications, they already have interfaces. So, yeah, let's work work with this one. So yeah, for the modern business, it is clear that we need more streamlined technologies to integrate the systems of the future. So it has to work on-premise, it has to work in cloud, it has to work with mobile applications, it has to be really, really easy to use and lightweight. I think that's what everyone wants these days. And We develop very agile software programs and companies are very agile. So this kind of integration methods, they need to flow with these agile approaches we have every day. So allowing for these rapid iterations and yeah, they shouldn't be too complex. So if someone is leaving a team, someone else should be able to really pick that stuff up. Some of these stories, what you mentioned earlier, there was one custom integrations one-on-one. Some people have really nightmares because of that kind of stuff. What's happening in that? So what happens if we need to change something? What happens if the system, the underlying system where this integration is running on, is out of support? So I think, yeah, this is where we really need these very, yeah, not too complex systems going in. And yeah, I think this is where Integration Platform as a Service comes into the picture and As we mentioned already before, yeah, iPaaS is used for building and deploying these integrated applications in the cloud and within the enterprise. So probably more and more companies are really, really going towards the cloud. So I think that's, yeah, it's time to really replace this middleware connecting these in-house applications with this kind of modern application. So, Arno, what do you, what do you think? How can we address these new integration challenges with iPaaS specifically?

Yeah, so of course iPaaS is a concept that has been built with cloud in mind, so it's cloud native and, you know, it, it has got flexibility and scalability built with inside it because obviously it's cloud-hosted. So it can address these integration challenges that we've spoken about, you know, more easily. So, you know, so there are a couple of challenges that we look at that this could solve, you know. So for instance, hybrid integration where you have still on-premises systems and you've got cloud applications that need to interact. So, you know, iPaaS can address these issues by providing that seamless integration between your hybrid systems, so your on-prem and your cloud-based systems. It can maintain security, for example. It could also ensure that there's data integrity between these systems. And again, security, data security is quite an important topic. So, you know, iPaaS solution, a best-of-breed iPaaS solution, you know, can ensure that security element of this is maintained. And for instance, if you have APIs with inside your, your business where you need access, well, that provides your sort of real-time access to, to, to your data. And, you know, if you have got sort of a lot of these APIs and, and, and, you know, it keeps on growing, so the so-called sort of integration proliferation, and using an iPaaS approach is is quite sensible because you could then sort of manage those APIs better and you can integrate those APIs together and hide some of the complexities of those implementations and just provide a very sort of a single point, you know, for your data that these other applications, you know, can connect to. And, you know, of course, if you do have again, a lot of sort of legacy type integration points. And you want to not necessarily retire that. Maybe perhaps some of these things have been in your business for a very long time. There might be a certain degree of technical debt attached to these, and you don't necessarily want to upgrade to replace them. You know, with iPaaS, you could really sort of still support those existing, you know, legacy APIs, but, you know, create a nice facade in front of them to ensure that all of that is abstracted away. And, you know, you have one centralized place that you can manage those legacy APIs. So I think, you know, iPaaS is something, like I said, it is something that can sometimes be a bit overlooked, but it does make sense, especially when you look at, you know, the amount of systems that we connect, the amount of data we generate. So it's definitely something that needs to be thought about, you know, when you look at your overall IT architecture, you know, as a CIO, for example.

Absolutely, that's a big, big point. Technical debt, we see that as well in other areas as well, not just in this integration elements. So the whole intelligent automation when it comes to workflows and own developed applications somewhere in companies, I think technical debt is a big one and needs to be addressed. So yeah, more and more of systems architecture. Yeah, it's growing on-premise and/or in the cloud, and it really needs this new I-PASS infrastructure in place to really, yeah, manage it much better, manage complex IT systems and architecture. And I think with I-PASS you will really get this greater flexibility lots of benefits. We are talking about our lowering costs, and this is clearly one which will over time lower your general costs, total cost of ownership. And I think this is a good foundation you, you can put in place for, for better scalability going forward. And yeah, without that, yeah, you will go through all these challenges Arno just mentioned, and Yeah, absolutely. That's something you should look at. And yeah, and this is, I think, really a key for every organization who really want to push forward on this digital agenda and to get the most out of everything for the end-to-end integration, not end-to-end automation really, of all the business processes.

Yeah, and I guess, you know, what you want to have is a really sort of a centralized place where, you know, you have got stock of all of your various APIs and integrations that is managed in one place. It's scalable, and of course, you know, you could easily create your integration flows between these various data sources, have that really managed. And also have that scalable and also very stable. So, and, you know, also you want to be in a place where, you know, that data source is trusted. So if you overlay automations on top of that, you know for a fact that your data integration service that you provide, you know, for the various automation services, so it could be RPA bots, chatbots, workflow automation that is stable, it's properly managed, it's very scalable, and you can also extend it. And it also provides you the, you know, the opportunity to then retire some of your older legacy APIs that, because you've created this abstraction now where you've got a middle layer between your consumers and also the providers of data. And once that abstraction is placed, you could easily slot a provider out, retire it, and then plug in the replacement without disrupting any of the consumers and the way that they consume the data.

Yeah, and I think it is, I think it's something really great because nowadays all sorts of enterprise business applications are using are available via apps. And but instead of doing this one-on-one integration again, sure, you can connect application A with application B directly with APIs and that very easily, but it doesn't really make sense to build that kind of one-on-one integrations again. So with more and more of these enterprise applications coming in, you can probably plug 30, 40 different applications you're currently using— SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Workday, all these, all these really big enterprise systems you can plug them easily on this iPaaS platform. And yeah, instead of going direct and have the full control, how— because sometimes it is as well a flow of these integrations together. So yeah, you have lots of really good opportunities implementing that.

Yeah, and like you say, you want to avoid data silos. As much as possible. You know, I think unfortunately with the choices out there with SaaS systems at the minute, there's, there's just so many different types of SaaS capabilities that you can get, you know, HR systems, CRM systems, sales management, opportunity management, you know, loads of these, these types of systems. And, you know, although they do have got really, really good modern API integration capabilities, you want to be in a place where as, as you get more of those systems or use more of those systems, plus you have to consider your legacy systems you've got on-premise, for example. I think the need, especially when you start looking at automation between enterprise automation between these different systems, the need for this sort of data layer is becoming really, really important. So that, you know, you have got these closely coupled systems that, you know, integrate with this data layer. You can plug in your automations into that, and it also reduces data duplication, for example. So it's something that I said earlier in, you know, in this discussion, and that can sometimes be overlooked. Because there's a lot of hype around automation and how people want to jump in and start doing the automation. But I think sometimes you have to look at your, your integration as well, your, your data layer, you know, and make sure that you're not creating more silos. You're providing a nice, trusted, centralized, you know, point for, for your business data.

Absolutely. Yeah, great. Yeah, thank you very much. For listening again today to our episode. Lots of really good things to try out, I guess, to look into this and maybe start implementing. There are all sorts of easy ways to get started. Azure, Integromat, all sorts of iPaaS platforms out there. And yeah, and you just get started and maybe see very quick benefits. So we will cover very likely a couple of use cases for iPaaS over the next episode. So yeah, make sure you subscribe to our podcast so you're not missing any of those kind of episodes. And yeah, again, thank you very much for listening. That's it again with this episode of the Process and Automation Podcast. If you like this episode, please give us a 5-star rating and don't forget to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss any upcoming episode. We hope you will tune in next time and until then, Let's automate it!