In the recently published State of Customer Data Integration 2013, more than 921 technical professionals, business leaders, system integrations, VARs, and partners, shared information on business system integration, CRM integration, and overall customer data integration trends.
General integration trends include:
Do-It-Yourself Integration Widespread But on the Decline: Custom code continues to be the main way businesses integrated their systems. 48% still develop their own custom code in 2013, however there is a significant drop from 2012 when 59% reported doing so. Other integration methods include pre-built integrations by software vendors (41%) – most probably driven by proliferation of APIs – followed by the use of third-party integration platform vendors (32%). 32% still use manual data entry or processes.
Ease of Use the Top Selection Criteria for Data Integration Software: Ease of use trumps all other criteria ranked as most important by 67% of business respondents and 72% of systems integrators.
Internal IT are Still the Integration Go-Getters: 80% of businesses continue to rely on their IT organization, while 40% tap into outside systems integrators or consultants. Although IT continues to own the integration process, IT needs to reach across the aisle and work with their business counterparts, who are increasingly influencing systems selection and purchasing. Such collaboration will reduce the chance of sustaining or even building new organizational, systems and data silos.
Appetite to Integrate With the Newest Enterprise Tools: Businesses what to learn more about integration with collaboration platforms such as SharePoint, followed by email and marketing analytics solutions, social networking services, and BYOD.
You can read the full State of Customer Data Integration 2013 here.
