The advent of the internet and advancement in communication tools has significantly increased the connectivity of our ecosystem; not only we’re more connected than ever before, but our devices, processes, and everything they incorporate. Here we’re talking about how different things are integrated together. While the benefits of this network of things no doubt bring efficiency by saving time & resources for business, its much more widespread implications often get neglected, yet are equally important. In this article, we’ll see how integrating different solutions together has benefited our society in ways that aren’t given much due.
Driving efficiency of our society
Undoubtedly attaining greater efficiency and effectiveness in every endeavor has been a human goal since the dawn of history. We know that many business integration solutions primarily exist to increase business efficiency and drive more profits but many of these solutions have implications that take other components of our society into its umbrella as well, for the good. The integration of different businesses and their components has given rise to new integrated platforms that have significantly improved the efficiency of how people interact with the world. Some examples include:
Food ordering apps allow ordering from multiple restaurants in one place. Customers don’t need to visit different websites and compare deals to decide what to eat. This saves ordering time. Furthermore, it reduces environmental pollution by implementing a coordinated delivery system where one delivery person can pick up and deliver food from multiple restaurants in an area instead of each restaurant using their delivery service.
More helpful information is now available to people by efficient means; e.g. a library member can check online if a particular book is available in the library, rather than personally visiting the library or calling, which both would put more burden on our resources compared to the first case. This wouldn’t have been possible without integrating the library management system with the online website. The same case applies to other similar scenarios like stores, shops, making appointments at hairstylists, etc.
These implications don’t appear any significant, however, when summed up for a hundred and million cases, you can realize what benefits they bring to our society.
Promotes environmental sustainability
While we’re advancing at a good speed towards advancement, we must be stern about the environmental impact of our activities. Computers consume a lot of energy, and thus the goal for greater efficiency in the field of IT is also driven by its environmental effects. Integration can contribute to more sustainable utilization of computer resources.
Processed data can be shared across resources, reducing the need to process the same data by different resources redundantly.
The need to transfer data using physical means gets reduced.
The data can be stored at a single location instead of multiple devices.
More opportunities
Technological progress has not just made our life easier but also has opened the door to more opportunities in unprecedented ways. Our digital ecosystem is vast that incorporates multiple disparate platforms having their own importance; integration has made it possible to abridge the gap between such platforms by linking them together into a unified system enabling businesses to enter new domains and developed methodologies aimed at increased profits, better customer experience, and business efficiency.
Ecommerce stores can be integrated with social media sites and sell their products & services directly to potential customers on such platforms.
Businesses are built on each other; by integrating with each other they can expand their effectiveness and efficiency. Food ordering apps, e.g., have been made possible by integrating different restaurant ordering systems into one platform relieving restaurants from managing orders themselves and helping them reach more customers. This has created great opportunities for restaurants to manage their business with less monetary & management inputs, motivating more restaurants to open.
Conclusion
Integration solutions are the foundation of many business operations; it’s a need driven by innovative business strategies to achieve their goals. However, they present numerous positive implications to our whole ecosystem that are mostly overlooked and must be appreciated.
If you’re looking to have integration made part of your business, then the x2xecommerce can help implement integration solutions in the ERP, POS, and ecommerce domains, an example of an x2x solution includes x2x RMH-Shopify integration solution. Contact the x2x team for any query or a free demo.