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ERP Integration Guide | Common Scenarios, Challenges, and Methods

The phrase “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided,” though coming from the fictional character of Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter saga, can also perfectly illustrate the importance of ERP integration to companies. An ERP system is often considered the backbone of an enterprise, whether eCommerce, supply chain, manufacturing, or healthcare business. But to unfold the full potential of their ERP system, companies will need to integrate it with other applications to ensure a consistent data flow, provide access to accurate information across the entire company, and automate enterprise business processes.

So, let’s dive into why we should integrate ERP with other enterprise business systems in the first place, what the common scenarios are and what advantages they bring, and review the 3 current popular methods for ERP system integrations.

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Data Mapping Best Practices | A Brief Guide to Types, Approaches, and Tools

Mapping data between software applications is a time-consuming process that requires in-depth preparation and strategy, good knowledge of data sources and targets, and depending on your approach, hands-on development. 

In any application integration, data migration, and in general, any data management initiative, data mapping is one of the most critical steps. One could even argue that the integrations project success depends largely on correct mapping of source to target data. 

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Application Integration: The Ever-Growing Need to Integrate With Everything

We don't really think about this much, but the fact is applications are just empty shells without integration. That's because we live in a highly competitive world where, in order to become a leader, organizations need a differentiator that sets them apart. That could mean presenting new services, better user experience, different approaches for different audiences, finding new channels to convey their message, keeping their audience engaged in a consistent manner, and more.

An effective "digital presence" is one of the most important pillars of any differentiation strategy. This means providing delightful, friction-free experiences that engage customers and establish a long-term relationship. And application integration is the process that enables exactly that.

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Designing a Successful API Strategy

Companies today realize that smart data strategy is fundamental for business success. They invest and spend resources to make sure data is protected, stored, and backed up. But, it’s just as important to manage the communication of data and ensure its seamless flow not only internally, but also with external sources, such as partners and clients. This is where APIs (application programming interfaces) come in. APIs enable applications and services to communicate. In a data-driven and multi-cloud world, APIs are essential to your business, and it’s important to develop a strategy around APIs. This is the first in a series of blog posts on API management.

A successful API strategy needs to include two essential concepts:

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MuleSoft Hits the Mark With GraphQL

The Mule Connect 2020 virtual conference is over and we got to see more details on MuleSoft’s vision for GraphQL, and it shows MuleSoft is working aggressively to fill a gap in GraphQL. Let’s review what GraphQL is, its challenges, and how MuleSoft is addressing those challenges.

GraphQL Basics

GraphQL is an API specification for querying data across other APIs. It originated at Facebook in 2012, released as open-source in 2015. It allows API clients to tell the API what it wants rather than the API assuming it knows what the client wants. This is particularly useful for APIs that support UIs. A challenge with UIs is that they may need data from many sources. Calling all those sources can make the UI complex. It can also add too much chatter for mobile apps, which are sensitive to bandwidth. We often solve this by aggregating lower-level business APIs with a composite view-model API or by using the backend for frontend (BFF) pattern.

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5 Key Benefits of iPaaS

A real challenge that businesses and IT teams across many organizations face today is establishing an integrated network that matches the flexibility of the on-prem and cloud applications. While you can have several highly functional cloud applications to cover finance, customers, logistics and e-commerce needs respectively, there is no guarantee that these applications will work together. If you can’t share information between these key business areas, what use are these software applications? 

This increasingly critical need has paved the way for purpose-built iPaaS services that help companies handle the integration requirements of today’s business environment, future-proof their integration solutions and increase the value of their IT investments.