Best API Connectors Software

What is Integration Software Via API

The number of software for business is getting bigger. The software vendors do not have time to make new integrations. To solve this problem businesses should hire system integrators to develop turnkey solution. It is a very time-consuming, expensive and unpredictable process. For the reason a lot of software vendors with ready-made integrations emerge. You can connect different apps with each other using ready templates, without coding, in 5 minutes. It helps you to automate your manual work.

In professional terminology it is called - IPAAS (Integration platform-as-a-service). All integrations are created via open API. In simple terms it means "gateway" which coders can use to transfer data. Imagine that you have a PC and a smartphone, but you need a cord to connect it together. Open API is that "digital cord".

Why use IPAAS

This kind of software is an integral part of marketing automation. When you develop a business, sooner or later you will have to implement different software and create digital ecosystem. For example, you will use CRM, email marketing software and chatbots to automate your business processes. This is a "digital ecosystem" of you company.

Using this right tactic you inevitably encounter with data transfer and integrations. For creating digital ecosystem you should connect this different apps via API between each other.

If you want to create digital ecosystem you have to understand main idea and terminology. It is pretty simple. You don't need coding skills, but you should understand how it works. API - it is documentation for developers, but we have a some webhooks. In a simple terms it means some event, when particular software sends data to other software. The more flexible API documentation is, the bigger number of webhook (event) you can customize. For example. you can send data from CRM to accounting software when your deal is closed.

When you have closed a deal (it is an event) your CRM system sends a webhook. Another software catches this webhook (catches the data) and performs some actions. For example creation of an order in your accounting software. Closing a deal is a trigger (event) to send webhook. Creation of an order is an action.

Also, our company called this concept "architectural infrastructure". Imagine the city, where you have a house of parliament (your accounting software), a shopping mall (your CRM system), a stadium (your email marketing software),a cinema (your chatbot software) etc. You have to pave a way for people and cars to move easily. First of all the buildings are constructed (you start to use software). Then ground roads connect buildings with each other. (You create simple integrations) After the buildings are set, the roads got paved. (You create a lot of integrations and create digital ecosystem) The "roads" are integrations via API.

You probably have a question: "Why don't software vendors make integrations with other apps?" It is a logical question from the user but unlogical from the vendors. If vendors create integrations it will take a lot of developer's time, and they will stop developing their main products. Imagine that you are a CRM vendor. You have 10 000 customers. 100 of them want to have an integration with Google sheets, 100 of them want to have an integration with Dropbox, 100 of them want to have integration with Mailchimp, 30 of them want to have integration with another email marketing software etc. If they start doing that they will waste developer's time. Every new integration is covered by only 1% of customers. It will be better to invest developer's time into creation of feature that covers 70% of their customers. To develop your own product is much more profitable than create a lot of integrations. That is why all vendors have open API and third party developers can create turnkey solution for your business.

That is why we have integration software like Apiway which can solve this problem.

2-way Integration

Integrations are a very important part in automation of your business processes. In most cases marketers and entrepreneurs consider integration as a concept: It exists or it doesn't. For example, you are choosing CRM and looking for an integration with needed software.

Is it available or not. This is a huge problem because integration can have different level of development.

For example, your CRM offers an integration with Google sheets. When you have a new lead, your CRM transfers data into Google sheets. But after that you want to push data from Google Sheets into your CRM. Google Sheets's API allows you to do this, but ready integration can't do this. It means that you have one-way integration.

Good integration allows you to have 2-ways sync. It should have triggers and actions. For example, when you can send customer's email data from your CRM and add a contact in email marketing software (It will be trigger in CRM and an action in email marketing software), or add a task when a customer has opened you email (It will be a trigger in email marketing software and an action in CRM).

Make a one-time payment for coder or use an Integration Platform

Any human wants to pay once and forget about this. But the automation process is endless. Good companies improve their automation and businesses processes on the regular basis.

Many companies pay once for some turnkey integration. In some cases it is really profitable. But in fact our customers are changing businesses processes very often and they also improve their digital ecosystem.

They use IPAAS software and in perspective it turns to be much cheaper than spending money for coding all the time. When a coder is making an integration he "concretes" it.

It is not flexible and to remake it is very expensive.

We had a similar situation with some admin panel integration. On one of the websites we found a ready integration for 75$ and we bought it. This integration wasn't flexible and we paid to the author of this integration 4000$ for customizing that.

Moreover, we are still paying him, because we have new business processes and we want to automate them. This kind of "service integration customizing" can be a "black hole" for your budget.

Inevitably, you will come across the above mentioned problems when you create your own digital ecosystem.

Tripwire is a ready-made integration for software integrators. Providing a service and customizing the integration are the main sources of income for them.

Any vendor integration marketplace shows that there are a lot of ready third-party integrations. But when you start using it you will have some problems. To solve this problems you are going to deal with the author of this integration again asking him to customize and improve this integration.

Creating an integration is a clear process for coders, but it is very incomprehensible process for marketers and entrepreneurs. When people don't understand how it works, they can't adequately assess the cost of work. Surely, you had a situation when your leads didn't understand your product and underestimated it. You might ask yourself: "How can it be? My product perfectly meets customers needs! Why is it so hard to understand?" The similar situation with competitors.

People might waste money on useless things whereas your product is much better. It happens because people don't understand the difference between poor or high quality integrations.

Everyone is willing to spend his money on ready made solution. This is logical, but it isn't always a value for money. The problem can be solved in different ways.

Real case study. We sent a request for 5 system integrators with one technical statement. We got a price list 1200$ - 9000$ for the similar integration.

Using an integration software (Ipaas) you can see the result before you make any payments. Moreover you can try and cheek integration for free.

The bottom line is that when you create an integration you never know if it is effective for your business processes or not. You will make a lot of changes of the integrations later on.

It will be quite costly.

It is much better to use ready Integration Platforms and to understand what integration is profitable for your business and only after that order a custom integration. A lot of companies act the opposite way. They create custom integration, waste a lot of money on improvements and finally start to use Integration Platforms.

Types of data exchange

The Integration Platforms can be different. One of them is data sync other sends data on a trigger. When you use sync data service the system syncs data at specific moment. It can be 1 minute sync, 1 hour syn, 1 day sync etc.

Let's say, you want to send data about website visitors. When the visitor logs in the information is updated and date are sent into other app. For example you have 1000 visitors per day. Every of them performs 10 actions. As a result we have 10 000 API requests. It is very resources-consuming operation. Some systems can provide sync one time per hour or 1 time per day.

Other example is when you send date on trigger. Case you have a new lead system will trigger and send data to other app right away. Every case needs different ways of syncing and sending data.