System Integrations: Everything You Need to Know

Developers nowadays employ a myriad of software applications, platforms, and tools. While these diverse systems help them function efficiently, overseeing individual apps separately will inevitably generate inefficiencies, data silos, and money-wasting mistakes. That’s where system integrations can help.

System integrations connect multiple computing systems and software applications so that they behave almost as one. For developers working with heavy-duty legacy systems, good integration can help automate tasks, eliminate redundancies, and ensure collaborative development. Read on to discover how system integration works and learn how to make the most of it. 

What is System Integration

Systems integration is the process of connecting and unifying the different software applications, tools, and hardware, allowing the separate components to work as a system and function as a whole. 

Each system or application is no longer isolated from others, they work together, and exchange information. Thanks to integration technology, companies can leverage big data applications more efficiently and be more productive.

Why Do You Need System Integration

An integrations system can be beneficial to companies in several ways including: 

1. Improved Efficiency

Linking up your various systems automates the movement of data and removes much of the data bottleneck caused by different data silos. The knock-on effect of this is that you dramatically reduce the volume of data entries and potential data entry errors. As a result, you’ll see a noticeable improvement in processing times, and an increase in productivity, as employees have more time to deal with strategic tasks.

2. Better Data Accessibility

Accessing real-time data allows every person in your business the ability to make better decisions, faster. Integrated systems also allow for a higher quality of teamwork, thanks to the single view of information available on each system. As a result, every team member knows exactly what everyone else is doing, no matter what their job title or where in the world they are located.

3. Cost Savings

System integration improves workflows and eliminates redundancies, which allows you to save costs. And since it utilizes existing technology, it significantly mitigates capital costs, which would otherwise involve replacing these systems with new software and hardware.

4. Scalability

As companies gain size, integrated systems allow for scalability, where software or hardware can be added, at any time, without pausing any day-to-day operations. This means businesses can scale without incurring the significant costs associated with downtime.

5. Enhanced Customer Experience

Connecting customer-facing systems such as CRM, sales and customer service will help a company maximize the public experience of its systems. It can deliver faster, more personalized services. This leads to better customer engagement, retention, and loyalty, with one seamless experience at every touchpoint.

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Integration

Systems integrations can be handled in different ways, including synchronous or asynchronous methods.

Synchronous Integration:

Synchronous integration means the system sends a request at the same moment as the system providing the answer. Here’s how it works: the initiating system (client) sends a request to the other system (server), and the whole transaction pauses while the server gets into action and then sends the requested data, or result. This is how APIs typically work.

This approach is best applied when timely feedback is required for the task, such as payment processing or user verification. It’s also suitable for when data integrity is at stake and the system cannot progress without confirmation.

Asynchronous Integration

Asynchronous integration is the communication of data between two systems or applications without an immediate response needed from the receiving system. Here, the calling system (client) sends a request to another system (server) but doesn’t wait around for a response from the server. Instead, it moves on with its work and the server responds when it’s ready – often via a message queue or a callback.

Asynchronous integration is popular with systems that don’t need an immediate response, for example in background tasks, batch processing, or notifications. It’s also used when system availability and decoupling are paramount among other factors, such as in large-scale distributed systems 

Differences Between Synchronous and Asynchronous Integration:

Types of System Integrations (With Examples)

Here are some popular system integration types in modern businesses:

1. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)  

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is about the integration of enterprise systems and applications to become a single system. It typically leverages middleware, including APIs, to mediate between systems. 

Example: A Retail enterprise leverages EAI to connect its inventory management system with its CRM and enterprise resource planning systems (ERP). This means that when a sale is made, stock is refreshed instantly, and customer details are integrated across the ERP/CRM solutions for seamless customer service and order fulfillment.

2. Data Integration  

Data integration helps you combine data from different sources into a single view, so the data from one source is consistent with the data from your other systems. It also ensures that the data in is accessible for analysis, reporting, and decision-making.

Example: A hospital uses a data warehouse that pools information from discrete systems that manage patient medical charts, laboratory results, and billing. That way, patient data can be easily accessed in real-time by doctors and administrators to better serve patients’ needs and streamline billing.

3. Legacy System Integration    

Legacy system integration is the process of connecting old, legacy systems —that use obsolete technologies— with new software and technologies so that legacy applications and databases can continue to be used well into the future. Cracking problems with legacy systems saves the cost and risk of replacing the old system entirely.

Example: A bank might hook up its old mainframe system, which is running a 40-year-old series of custom programs, to a new mobile banking system through an API. This allows its customers to access modern services via apps on their phone, while keeping the legacy system where all the bank’s data resides, running smoothly.

4. Business Process Integration (BPI)    

Business process integration is the process of facilitating the interaction of business procedures and systems. This involves automating workflows, and synchronizing information between different business functions to improve performance and internal processes.

Example: A manufacturing company could integrate its supply chain, production processes, and sales tasks. The sales system receives an order via an automated workflow, which checks inventory and then, if needed, triggers the production of additional items. When production is finished a sales process is initiated by shipping a product to a customer and sending a bill.

5. Business-to-Business Integration (B2B)   

B2B integration is the automation and integration of business processes between two or more companies. B2B integration lets partners, suppliers, or clients exchange information such as orders, invoices, and shipping messages over a secure network using a pre-defined communication protocol.  

Example: An electronic data interchange (EDI) link between the purchasing system of a large retail chain and the ordering systems of its suppliers automates the replenishment of stock, so that the retailer can place an order as soon as a stock reaches a certain level just by pressing a button, and the supplier can agree with the order received through the link simply by confirming it. 

Common Approaches to System Integration 

System integration is typically carried out through various methodologies, including:

1. Point-to-Point Integration

Point-to-point integration directly connects each system or application with every other system it needs to communicate with. This approach will generally involve creating custom links between systems for specific data exchange or function execution required.

Point-to-point integration is easy but cumbersome when you get more and more systems involved. Each new integration has to be thoroughly tested to make sure that it does not cause bugs or performance problems in existing connections. Moreover, having custom links in different application versions can create versioning issues. Typically, this leaves developers with technical debt as they are constantly having to update and fix these integrations and are less responsive to business requirements or scaling efforts. 

For instance, it is easy to connect an authentication service to a user profile service in a small application. But as you add more services such as shipping or discount services, it can create a “spaghetti” architecture that is difficult to scale.

Pros  

• Simple to set up for small-scale systems with few integrations. 
• Direct connections ensure faster communication between integrated systems.

Cons 

• As the number of systems increases, the integration becomes complex and difficult to manage.  
• High maintenance —since a change in any system requires modification in all other systems.  
• Not scalable for larger or growing businesses.

When to use it:  

Point-to-point integration is probably best suited for a small business that only has a few systems, or when you are looking to integrate a few SaaS applications.

2. Horizontal Integration

Horizontal integration, also known as an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) approach, is a layer that connects various systems or applications with each other. Instead of having all your systems connected to each other individually, horizontal integration forces every single system to communicate via a ‘hub’ at the center of the connection — this central system manages the flow of data between various other systems.

Horizontal integration through an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) makes the integration as easy as possible. And it also adds features such as message transformation and protocol mediation. It means that even when the systems are executing on different data formats or communication protocols, the ESB can support data flow. This agility allows developers to build features without burying themselves in inter-service communication issues.

An ESB, for example, can act as an intermediary between payment processing, order management, and customer notifications services in an e-commerce environment. This removes dependencies between services and makes the individual components simple to replace or scale.

Pros 

• Scalable and easier to manage as more systems are added.  
• Reduces redundancy by centralizing communication through one hub, minimizing the number of connections.  
• Easier to monitor and troubleshoot, as the central system manages communication.

Cons 

• More complex and costly to implement than point-to-point integration.  
• Requires significant planning and management to ensure smooth data flow.

When to use it:  

Horizontal Integration suits larger organizations with lots of systems or applications that will need to communicate repeatedly; firms that are expected to scale, and prefer a manageable, centralized system for data and service sharing.

3. Vertical Integration   

Vertical integration links systems by the function they perform within a specific business unit through direct hierarchical coupling. Each element or subsystem is directly coupled to others on the immediate hierarchical layer while its function is performed exquisitely.

Vertical integration makes it possible to have a tight-knit environment in which an improvement on one subsystem can be validated before the other. This is a great model for high-risk markets such as finance or healthcare where regulation and data integrity are very important. Developers can enforce tight data validation and logs on all layers of the stack to ensure detailed troubleshooting and performance monitoring. 

For instance, a chain of services for gathering, validation, and analytics on users can be coupled into a data processing pipeline to get faster, sequential processing.

Pros 

• Highly efficient for specific, well-defined business processes or departments.  
• Improves performance and optimization for particular tasks or workflows by creating focused integrations.  
• Easier to implement for a single department or function.

Cons

• Less flexible, as it’s designed for specific purposes and doesn’t easily adapt to new systems or changes.   
• Difficult to scale across different departments or business units.  
• Can lead to silos if each department has its own vertically integrated systems without cross-functional integration.

When to use it:  

Vertical integration works best for businesses that need to scale in a single process, such as financials, human resources, or manufacturing. It’s ideal for situations where the systems need to work in close proximity to each other—in the same department or function—but don’t need interaction with other departments.

4. Hub-and-Spoke Integration

In a hub‑and‑spoke integration model, each system or app connects to a central ‘hub’ that mediates all data sharing from or to those systems. The ‘spokes’ represent the individual endpoints that communicate via that central hub. It manages, maps, and routes the data to the appropriate destinations.

The hub-and-spoke architecture can also be used to better control data flow because the hub can enforce policies regarding data validation, transformation and routing. This centralised administration is helpful when scaling the system, as new spokes can be added without making too many connections. Also, developers can build load balancing and fault tolerance in the hub so that when a spoke goes down, the whole system is still resilient, and service continues while they solve the problem.

A central message broker, for example, can map events to services such as logging, notification and analytics. Each service reaches out to the hub which makes it easy to distribute data and to track and control message flow within the application.

Pros

• Centralized control and management of data flow, making it easier to monitor, manage, and troubleshoot.  
• Scalable, as new systems can be added without requiring direct connections between each system.  
• Simplifies maintenance since changes are made in the hub rather than in each individual system.

Cons

• The central hub can become a single point of failure, meaning if the hub goes down, the entire integration system can fail.  
• More complex and expensive to implement compared to simpler models like point-to-point.  
• Can experience performance bottlenecks if the hub is not properly maintained or scaled.

When to use it: 

Hub-and-spoke integration is an ideal approach for medium-sized enterprises to large multinationals with multiple systems that need centralized governance for data exchange. Often the hub-and-spoke integration approach is a natural choice for finance, health, and logistics industries where many complex systems need to exchange data in a controlled setting.

Ways to connect systems 

There are various options available for integrating your business systems. These include:

1. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

One of the most common ways of connecting systems is the use of programming interfaces (APIs). These are usually specifications defining a set of rules and protocols through which two or more systems can exchange data, functions, or resources without direct human intervention. 

APIs may be public, private, or partner-specific, based on the scope of access needed. Some examples of widely used APIs are REST (Representational State Transfer) and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).

2. Middleware

Middleware provides a mediating interface that can connect two or more applications or systems so that they can communicate and share data. It enables data translation, message routing, and protocol mediation between different software systems, making them more easily usable together. 

Middleware is frequently used in system integrations that involve large-scale, highly complex heterogeneous environments where multiple applications are running on different platforms and need to be unified.

3. Webhooks

Webhooks are basically messages automatically pushed from one system to another in response to particular events. While an API encourages one system to request information from the other system, a webhook gives systems the ability to send those updates or notifications when a triggering event happens. 

From that point onwards, the system that received the message can take action (ie, processing a payout) if it is programmed to do so. This way updates can be sent in a lightweight process in response to a trigger event, making it possible for two systems to transact or send notifications almost instantly, and frequently, by not requiring constant polling.

4. Integration Services Component (ISC)

Integration services components (ISC) are modular applications with pre-developed connectors, adapters, and automation tools that act as an out-of-the-box solution for connecting sets of different applications. 

Typically, ISCs are complex collections of features used to integrate and standardize systems across an organization by sharing data and services across a diverse range of applications. In most cases, complex ISC integrations involve little to no custom development.

5. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI is the standard format in which identical business documents such as invoices, purchase orders, and shipping notices are sent electronically between companies. EDI is the electronic replacement for ordering on paper. 

Since it can speed up transactions and reduce errors, most large companies require their suppliers and customers to implement EDI. Typically, the documents are structured in a rigid format (such as ANSI X12, EDIFACT) that determines how they should be structured so that they’re comprehensible for the two parties’ systems.

API Security and Access Controls 

APIs are often used to share private data and important business functions. If your API is poorly coded or misconfigured, your systems will become vulnerable to data leaks, brute force, unauthorized access, and a host of other potential digital threats. About 74 percent of companies have experienced at least 3 API-related breaches. This figure should convince you to take your API security more seriously.

Here are some key aspects of API security and access control:

1. Authentication

Authentication verifies whether a user, or system, is who it claims to be. This measure is triggered when a user wishes to access the functionality of the API. Authentication is the first layer of security against unauthorized access. It’s done with:

• API Keys
• OAuth 2.0
• JWT (JSON Web Tokens)
• Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)

2. Authorization

After a user or system is authenticated, authorization controls whether that user or system is granted or denied permissions for individual action requests. For example, a given authorization policy in API security may permit an authenticated user to execute a PUT request on specific API resources but prohibit them from executing DELETE requests. Authorization can be implemented in the following ways:

• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC): 
• OAuth Scopes
• Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC)

3. Encryption

Encryption keeps the data that is sent over an API secure and unable to be read by third parties. There are two main forms of encryption we use to protect API traffic: 

• Transport Layer Security (TLS): secures data in transit.
• Encryption at rest: secures sensitive data that may be stored in databases or logs.

4. Rate Limiting and Throttling

Rate limiting imposes a cap on the number of API requests a user or system can make in a given period. For example, one API might permit a user 100 requests per minute. This prevents abuse, such as spamming API endpoints, or overloading servers with too many requests.

Throttling is similar to rate limiting but focuses on slowing the passage of requests over time instead of explicitly blocking them. It can protect the API from surges of usage without having to block visitors during peak hours.

API Management and Governance 

APIs are instrumental to modern computing ecosystems, connecting applications, platforms, and services to communicate like never before. But as the number of APIs within an enterprise grows, so do their associated challenges. This is where API management and governance come into play.

Through API governance, an organization can standardize its digital ecosystem, which includes the development, deployment, and management of APIs. Well-formulated governance policies allow organizations to spell out their best practices for API design. These governance rules help developers follow the same guidelines, ensuring that every API is built in the same way. This will make the APIs universal and reduce any risk of fragmentation or misalignment across the entire system.

Furthermore, API governance helps organizations comply with the rules and standards of external regulations and internal policies of their industry. Once compliance is built into the governance architecture, companies can implement data privacy laws (GDPR or HIPAA), and security mandates across all their APIs. Governance solutions can also track API usage, access controls, and data flows to see that APIs are being used appropriately and that sensitive data is safe. In other words, governance mechanisms help to shield the organization from exposure to authorities and security risks. 

API Documentation and Standards

Good documentation is important in APIs because it is the primary source of information for developers. When an API is properly documented, developers have a much better chance of understanding how a particular API works. They know what functionalities they can use and what it accepts via the appropriate endpoints and parameters. Clear documentation like this results in cleaner, more efficient interfaces, with less confusion and fewer errors.

Here are some best practices for effective API documentation:

1. Establish a Clear Structure

Begin with an introduction to the purpose of the API, then move on to authentication methods, endpoint information, and parameter information. For every endpoint you should have request methods, URL’s, query string, request headers and response types. Use the same structure with headings, subheadings, and a clickable table of contents to help users navigate and find content easily.

2. Include Practical and Diverse Examples 

For each endpoint, give examples that are realistic and show how to send and receive requests. Include various snippets for different programming languages to accommodate all developer backgrounds. Provide contexts for use cases, for example, tying in with third-party services or automating tasks, which will illustrate the API’s real-world application.

3. Leverage  Interactive Documentation Tools

Using Swagger UI or Postman to let developers experiment with the API from the documentation. This interaction can really make it more interesting because developers can see responses to their queries in real time, experiment with parameters, and understand the API’s behaviour without actually writing any code at all.

4. Maintain Detailed Versioning Information

Deliver readable versioning information such as a changelog with features, improvements, and obsolete features with every release. Explain how each change will affect existing integrations so developers know if they need to make adjustments to their own implementations.

5. Clarify Error Handling Procedures

Provide a complete guide to error codes, HTTP status codes, error messages, and possible errors. Include real-life troubleshooting techniques or example solutions for each error so that developers can get things fixed. This data helps developers write strong error-resolution algorithms for their code.

Key Components of Effective API Documentation  

Good API documentation should include the following:

• An overview of the API, and a description of its purpose and features.
• Detailed descriptions of your endpoints with methods (GET, POST, etc) as well as the parameters required and expected responses from the server. 
• Code samples will be a quick reference for the API user by providing real-life examples of interactions with the API
• Error handling, authentication methods, and versioning.

How Standardized Formats Like Swagger and OpenAPI Specification Contribute to Better API Documentation  

Standard formats like Swagger and OpenAPI Specification go a long way in improving API documentation. They let us have an explicit and systematic approach to specifying API endpoints and operations. Swagger and the OpenAPI specification also allow developers to define the description, parameters, responses, and other API elements as key/value pairs in a machine-readable format. That format can then be transformed into what we’d traditionally call API documentation. 

The simplicity of defining and documenting APIs to standard formats allows developers to iterate and build services consistently. A decade ago, this process would have required serious documentation effort.  Nowadays, tools based on these specifications can generate interactive documentation by themselves, allowing users to send a request to a test endpoint, right within the document.

Key Factors to Consider When Evaluating System Integration Solutions 

Keep these factors in mind when looking for system integration solutions:

1. Scalability

Scalability refers to how well an integration solution can grow and adapt to your business as your needs evolve. As your business grows, you might deploy new systems, add more users to your organization, or increase the volume of data transfers, all of which put new demands on your system integration solution.

Your enterprise system integration should be geared up to handle more data as your startup expands, and it should be able to accommodate more systems without having to reconfigure the whole backend or create downtime.

2. Compatibility

System integration works best if all the heterogeneous tools, platforms, and applications your startup uses are brought together without hindrance. That means ensuring the compatibility of supporting systems and the integration solution.

The right integration platform should be able to fit within your current ecosystem, which can consist of legacy software, on-premise applications, or cloud-based solutions. Check if your vendor’s integration tool supports the same APIs, databases, and protocols as your current systems and applications.

3. Customization

No two businesses operate exactly the same, and because of this, customization is a crucial decision-making element to consider when examining your options. Customization can be used to fine-tune the integration processes in line with your operational needs, workflow, and objectives.

The integration solution should allow you to define workflows, automate specific activities, and manage data flow based on your specific end-to-end business processes. The integration system should be moldable and adaptable to your different departments, or teams.

4. Security

Any integration with a third party is a potential gateway you need to solidly shut. What this means is that your solution provider needs to have robust security standards in place; otherwise, you stand to lose more business data than you can afford.

Your integrations should provide end-to-end encryption to secure data. It should also allow you to define who has access to which system or data and guard against unauthorized access.

 5. Ease of Use

No matter how good an integration solution is, if it’s overly complicated it has little real value. Deployment times will increase, training costs will escalate, and you’ll have more risk of user failure. A good solution should deliver an easy-to-use interface that allows non-technical users to view, configure, and manage their integrations. 

Companies with lightweight enterprise system architecture may consider building low-code or no-code integration capabilities into their systems. Visual workflow builders and automated error detection will also contribute to the ease of use.

Challenges of System Integrations

System integration benefits many businesses. However, connecting different systems together comes with a number of difficulties. Here are some key challenges companies face during system integration 

1. Evolving Technology

Perhaps the most significant aspect of system integration is the extensive changes that are happening in the technology field. Technology is evolving faster than ever before. Tools, platforms, and software versions are released at a pace where the integration group is scrambling to keep up. This can make integration efforts harder in several ways.

As you seek out new solutions, modern technology might not be compatible with older legacy infrastructure. For example, if you’re working for an organization with antique on-premise software, it might not be able to integrate with cloud-based solutions or advanced analytics tools.

2. Security Concerns

Multiple system integration introduces new points of attack. For example, when data is exchanged between systems, it can easily be hacked or fall into the wrong hands if it isn’t encrypted. Organizations need to use sophisticated encryption to prevent hackers from accessing the contents of data as it moves between systems.

Each integrated system might have its own access controls, and if this isn’t managed right, it can create an opportunity for attack. It’s important to keep access to the data or system functions only to authorized users. An error in permissions or a badly enforced authentication mechanism opens up risks.

3. Scalability

Data moving from one system to another is likely to become larger as the business grows.  If the enterprise system architecture is not designed to cope with such growth, data transfer times might slow down, burden the workflows, and affect the system’s performance.

Moreover, as businesses grow, they might need to bring in additional systems or tools. These new systems aren’t very easy to integrate into existing ones, especially if the original integration wasn’t extensible. Point-to-point integrations can become a nightmare as you add too many new systems to the mix that you can’t manage. 

4. Data Compatibility

The goal of system integration is to enable data to flow between as many systems as possible. However if the systems don’t support the same data formats or don’t use the same data structures or standards, there will be data compatibility problems.

Even if they share the same data formats, the systems might organize or integrate the data differently; one might classify customers by region, while another employs a different categorization. These inconsistencies need to be acknowledged and reconciled if data is to be correctly interpreted and usable across systems.

5. Cost and Resource Constraints

System integration projects can be costly because they require considerable time, money, and human capital investments. These costs and resources might be a hurdle to integration.

The process typically requires a firm to invest in tailored tools or platforms, hiring IT professionals, and training staff. Considering the time required for planning, testing, and deploying an integrated system, integration projects can be very expensive for small- to mid-sized businesses.

Elevate Your Development Processes Through Integrated Systems 

Are disconnected systems or manual processes getting in the way of your development?  It’s time to get the most out of your technology by integrating your systems to make them work smarter for you. Iterators can help you connect all of the different platforms and tools to work together so that you get more done with fewer resources.