What is Custom Integration?

So, what is a custom integration? Simply put, it means building a custom software solution that is specific to your exact use case. This could be as simple as a plugin to shuffle data from one database to another, all the way up to a full-blown customized website content management system. Such integrations could require mere hours, or weeks, of development — each is unique.

Custom integrations are often needed to help your business integrate your website, software, systems or platforms with each other, according to your unique needs and specifications. A good example is a custom integration between your website and your administrative backend systems, such as your enterprise resource planning (ERP) or customer relationship management (CRM) functions. Such custom integrations become more and more useful for:

• customers account login areas
• employee telecommuting
• customer retention
• data mining
• increased website functionality

How Do Custom Integrations Work?

This is where the “custom” comes into the equation. Each integration is different and, in most cases, creating the code needed to build a custom integration requires the expertise of a skilled developer.

That’s why you will need a trusted BOT web design and development partner that can evaluate your needs and assist you in meeting your specific goals.

BOT will sit down with the key stakeholders in your organization, review and document your current website architecture, and develop a solution to add the new functionality that you are looking for. This may involve using existing hooks and APIs (application program interfaces) in your current software solution, or finding a way to export data from your software into a more universal format.

Once your custom solution is developed, the end goal is typically to not even know it’s there. Built properly, a custom integration is your silent partner; it runs in the background and does its job without complaint. It’s kind of like your robot butler, ideally replacing a manual process in your organization and saving you hours each week.

That’s not to say that your custom integration can’t evolve; often you will find that once you automate one manual process, other manual processes in your organization will seem old-fashioned and you’ll want to do more custom integrations.

Custom Integration Examples

• Business Software and Ecommerce Platform integration
  One of the most valuable integrations for ecommerce businesses is integration between your business software and your ecommerce store. They can share customer information and automate tasks to help things run more smoothly.
• Legacy Systems (outdated software) and Website integrations
  BOT can integrate your legacy system with your website to help them interact, working together to create a maximum return on investment for your business.
• Multiple Software Programs integration
  Many businesses have several departments, each with software suitable for their needs, none integrated to talk to the other departments. As a business grows, this lack of communication can stall business growth. Custom integration can identify the needs of a business and how each of these programs should talk to each other for effective communication and growth of the business.