Integrating financial software with your existing business tools can significantly enhance efficiency and streamline operations. But how should it be done?
Well, there are several methods to connect or integrate these systems, ensuring seamless data flow... The most commonly used methods include API, FIX protocol, file exchange, and WebSocket. However, successful integration requires a comprehensive analysis of the entire process to maintain efficiency and resilience.
One of the main challenges in integrating new software with existing systems is maintaining data integrity, particularly when integrating multiple tools at once. Companies frequently face issues with duplicated data, resulting in inconsistencies across departments.
While centralising data is often the ideal solution, many businesses don’t do this; depending, instead, on independent tools that require manual export and import processes to exchange information.
Of course, using REST API for data exchange can alleviate this problem, but not all software solutions support it. This leads to a cumbersome process of exporting, converting, and importing data, wasting time and increasing error risks.
To add insult to injury, if a tool is not designed for integration, companies may have to resort to suboptimal workarounds.
What the above shows is that integration is a complex challenge requiring careful analysis and planning. It also shows that typical integration challenges often stem not from technical connectivity, but from unifying and harmonising data across various sources.
All this can be handled by the right developers, of course, yet this process still offers businesses an invaluable opportunity to reassess current infrastructure and adopt more efficient practices.
Therefore, it's essential to begin by gathering user experience insights, analysing persistent challenges, and discussing the goals for the new integrated solution.
If you’re unsure about where to start, then these simple strategies will help you find your footing. Even so, the best financial software providers will also help you integrate financial software into your current system. At least, we do!
Next up, you should always know what you’d like this new financial software to help you achieve. We encourage all our clients to establish clear objectives for what they hope to gain through the integration of the Wakett software with their current system. We also ask them to come up with a list of goals: are they looking to improve data accuracy, enhance reporting capabilities, or streamline workflows? By defining these goals, we can then get started on tailoring our software to their needs.
We always tell our customers that the first step to devising and successfully integrating a new system is to understand what’s currently going on. So begin by conducting a thorough assessment of your current systems and identifying which tools are critical to your operations. Moreover, you should evaluate their capabilities regarding integration, and understand the data flow between each tool and where data discrepancies occur. This understanding will help provide you with a robust foundation for your integration strategy.
Another important element in this step-by-step process is choosing the integration tools that align with your technical requirements and business needs. Whether it’s API, FIX, or custom-built solutions, your developers should choose something that facilitates seamless data exchange and supports future scalability... In turn, this will help you keep costs and disruptions down as you grow or expand your services. As a rule of thumb, however, the FIX protocol is the standard data exchange method used in the financial sector, and it’s what is employed by our investment software, CYBMIND. This, along with API and WebSocket connections, can facilitate integration with compatible sources.
Once the implementation is done, you’ll need to continuously monitor the integration process. To do this, your in-house or outsourced developers will gather feedback from your team, analyse data flow, and make the necessary adjustments. This ongoing optimisation is, indeed, critical, as it will help you maintain data integrity and operational efficiency. Even so, it’s an on-going cost that you should factor into your initial decision. In case you’re wondering, here at Wakett, this is all part of our package.
As we’ve seen above, incorporating financial software into your existing business tools can be transformative, but you need to approach it with careful planning and execution.
That’s why we have created financial software that can be tailored to your exact needs and be easily integrated into your system without any long periods of downtime. Moreover, our software has easy-to-understand dashboards and comes with post-integration services for maintenance and issue control. Indeed, all you need to do is make the first step. Then, you can leave the rest to us.
So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with us to see how our software can help your business thrive in an increasingly complex digital landscape.