Business to Business Integration

B2B integration automates the transfer of information between business partners, customers, suppliers and vendors.  Clearly, the advantages of automating the exchange are speed and quality over using manual processes.   However, there is complexity in extracting information out of one system and inputting the information into a completely separate system where it can be used.  Each business operates with unique software implementations and architectures.  And each software application vendor, whether it offers traditional software or cloud services, offers different ways to extract and insert data. SaaS vendors typically offer an API (application programming interface) that reads, writes or updates database fields tied to their applications. Larger ERP vendors offer their own middleware applications with their software suites.  These middleware packages make it easy to send data back and forth to ERP applications, but come with a price tag.  Not every software application vendor offers sophisticated APIs or specialized middleware, but almost every vendor does offer a utility to extract data or insert it in bulk, to or from a file system.  Finally, many legacy software applications offer no easy way to get data in or out outside of custom solutions.  With a wide variety of software in play, it is critical to understand the variety of tools and techniques to enable B2B integration.

The employees of Brainspire have faced many unique integration challenges, many times extracting data from legacy systems for input into new systems or extracting information from the new applications we build into a client’s ERP system.  While we are not a systems integrator (implementing new ERP solutions) we are extremely efficient at integrating to 3rd party ERP systems including SAP, Oracle, JDEdwards, NetSuite and Dynamics just to name a few.  We have even created APIs for legacy systems to enable integration between business partners.

As an example, Brainspire was asked to build a custom fleet routing system for a local trucking company.  This client delivers and installs over 300 appliances daily, 6 days per week.  Manual processes dominated much of their day as they were comparing print outs of inventory and delivery addresses to appliances in the warehouse being prepared for delivery.  It was a painstaking and time consuming process just to figure out which appliance needed to be loaded on each truck.  Brainspire developers automated the entire planning, tracking and routing process with a custom inventory and routing software application.  Key components of the solution were B2B integrations with Bing Maps, GE Appliances and Home Depot – each having a unique API, or file extract process.

Application Integration - FAQs

Why is data integration useful?

Data integration makes it possible to gather data from various sources and add them to the business database. This will help with analytics, decision-making capabilities, and business process overall. Data integration also helps with making the data fit real-time situations. In the long run, this will provide a long-lasting value to the business.

What are the challenges in application integration?

There are various challenges businesses face from application integration such as (1) complexity as they could enable new business processes or automate existing ones, (2) data tracking across cloud apps that are not connected to each other and are distributed across multiple cloud islands, and (3) incomplete or duplicate entry of information causing obstacles to integration.

Why do we need application integration?

Application integration is important because it can help businesses run more efficiently and effectively. By integrating applications, businesses can save time and money, improve employee productivity, provide accessibility to the information they need, and provide a better customer experience, which in turn increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.

What is the difference between data integration and application integration?

There is a big difference between data integration and application integration. Data integration refers to combining data between two or more databases. This can be done for many purposes, including reducing duplicate data, providing better reporting and analysis capabilities, or simply making it easier for users to access all the data they need in one place. While application integration refers to the process of connecting different applications so that they can share data and functionality. This can be done for many purposes as well but is often done in order to automate processes or to allow different applications to work together more seamlessly.

Explore Our Areas of Expertise

  • Custom Application Development
    Custom Application Development
  • Data & Business Intelligence
    Data & Business Intelligence
  • Portals & Website Applications
    Portals & Website Applications
  • Application Integration
    Application Integration
  • Mobile Development
    Mobile Development
  • Cloud Based Software Development
    Cloud Based Software Development
  • Software Security Services
    Software Security Services
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Custom Application Development

Brainspire Solutions creates full stack custom software applications that perfectly match your company’s needs. Why settle for out of the box software that doesn’t meet your exact needs when you can have a solution the precisely meets how you work. Our consultants drive the process for capturing requirements, providing an estimate, planning, architecture & development and solution delivery.

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Data & Business Intelligence

Brainspire’s business intelligence consultants work onsite with our customers to understand exactly what questions you have and what answers you are looking for. The best and fastest way to understand your needs and provide solutions is to be “in” your business, bridging the gap between your business goals and your technical systems and raw data. Seldom does the “canned” report provide the detailed insight decision makers are looking for. Brainspire will work side by side with you to provide dashboards, reports, and analytics using the latest business intelligence, predictive analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques.

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Portals & Website Applications

A company’s website is the world’s window into an organization and should accurately represent the essence of the mission, goals, culture and operations. Not only should it be appealing from a visual standpoint, it needs to function flawlessly from a usability and performance standpoint on a desktop, tablet or mobile device. Quality sites can’t simply function as digital brochures; they must attract visitors and engage new and loyal customers. This holds true for public sites, company intranets and secure extranet portals.

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Application Integration

Brainspire develops software solutions to integrate your organization’s internal, standalone applications, and your applications with key external business partners. Growing organizations tend to rely on off-the-shelf software, software as a service (SaaS) and custom built solutions to drive their business – but rarely does the chosen, out of the box, software solution work with other systems within or outside the business. This lack of cohesive integration creates manual processes that are time consuming, error prone and expensive.

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Mobile Development

Today, more users access the web through a mobile device than from a laptop or desktop computer. For this reason, it is critical that software applications are efficiently usable from a tablet or a smart phone for today’s workforce. As a custom software development firm, Brainspire leverages a variety of tools to build highly customized applications that function on countless devices. These solutions include native, hybrid and mobile web applications that can be used either when connected or not. Each business use case is unique, and the mobile requirements, and form factors, need to be considered when creating a custom mobile solution.

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Cloud Based Software Development

Cloud environments offer the greatest opportunity for modernizing software applications while reducing costs and time to market.  Brainspire Solutions has developed and deployed web applications leveraging AWS, Azure and Google Cloud environments as well as private clouds.  The ability to quickly provision identical Development, Test, Stage and Production environments ensures projects get off to a fast start in secure and scalable environments.  Developing and promoting code within a cloud environment through continuous integration reduces development time and improves quality.

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Software Security Services

Brainspire Solutions develops all software solutions leveraging industry standard best practices. This includes proven techniques to secure all applications and data. When we engage with each client we are fully aware that their business is at stake and realize the trust and expectations that are placed on our consultants when it comes to developing secure software applications.

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