To integrate, or not to integrate

Pulling data into a CRM, or pushing data out into external systems can be more time-consuming and complex than anticipated. There always needs to be a strong commercial reason to go down this road. "More visibility" isn't usually a strong enough driver on its own. Data needs to be used for a commercially beneficial reason to justify the investment. Common integration use cases include:

• Leveraging customer data to serve insights and alerts to account managers. For example, pulling sales data from an ERP system to identify a customer's decrease in spend or uncover a cross-sell or upsell opportunity
• Pushing CRM customer data into an external project management system
• Having "Won" sales opportunities in the CRM automatically create sales orders an ERP system
• Bringing customer usage data from an external system into their own customer portal within the CRM (for example, Utilities or IT services)
• Bringing external business data into the CRM so it can be leveraged for business intelligence
• Connecting to business-critical applications for a 360 view of the customer. For example, email, phone systems and customer survey tools

There are three broad types of integrations:

Application Programming Interface (API)

APIs open up parts of a system to be accessed by other API-enabled systems.

Scheduled batch upload

An external system creates a CSV file on a schedule and places it in a location with File Transfer Protocol (FTP) access. This is then "picked up," formatted and imported into your CRM, leveraging a tool such as Skyvia.

Middleware

Middleware sits between your CRM and other business systems, syncing and formatting data in real time. Middleware examples include Jitterbit and Mulesoft

Pre-built Application

Many CRMs have an Apps Marketplace, for example the Salesforce AppExchange, which have pre-built connectors between popular software platforms and the CRM.

In summary, integrations can be incredibly powerful, however if you're using anything other than an pre-built connector, you need to be confident the business case stacks up and make your peace with the associated investment.

Continue to the next post in this series: How to navigate a CRM evaluation