Technology Integrations

 Integrations are essential to stay competitive, profitable, and allow your staff to work at their highest potential. As the adage says, adapt or die. However, each integration has multiple choices for data flows. For example, an integration may allow you to send contact information from Software A to Software B, from B to A, and/or among each other, with the latest  changes updated in both software programs. As such, you will have to decide the data flows you want, need, and which direction. The easiest method to decide is to visually  map the current and wish-we-had data flows to ensure there are no lost opportunities for having data flow update systems while staff focus on other work.

In order to identify and manage integrations, you will want to employ Stanford University’s Design Thinking™ methodology.

• Empathize: Gain insight into your needs. What do you need the integration to do? Which problems will it solve and for whom?
• Define the problems: Write out problem statements, such as ‘when I change an address, I need it to change in Software A, Software B, and send an email to the customer’. 
• Ideate: Start to brainstorm solutions by drawing colored lines that indicate the type of data flow you seek. Bring this visual map to your current tech vendors and ask if they have the integrations you seek.
• Prototype: Implement an integration that could solve the problem.
• Test: Test your integration, while emphasizing with the staff that would be asked to use or manage the integration. Does it do what they would want? Does the benefit outweigh to effort of implementing the integration?

It is important to note that the five stages are not always sequential. For example, you may have to go back to the Ideate stage if your test did not work as expected. The stages should be understood as different modes that contribute to a project, rather than sequential steps.