Data Integrations: Uniting Business and Technology Minds for True Evolution

Data integration has driven the evolution of many of the industries reThinkData works in, and it’s helped to bring some amazing products and services to life. Anyone who has worked on an integration project knows that success requires a truly united effort of business and technology minds to overcome all of the challenges that an integration brings.

In my opinion, integrations are a necessary part of technological evolution because organizations desire best-of-breed solutions and they need these solutions to work together. Seamlessly. Integrations — and the Application Program Interfaces (APIs) that enable them — are exactly what customers need and, increasingly, exactly what they expect.

It’s great that software developers are creating APIs that enable integrations with their products. That’s evolution at work. But what happens when everyone starts making their own APIs and no one can agree on which ones to use?

This is where the best business and technology minds love to get involved — and they should for everyone’s benefit. This is where one or more standard APIs for common business requirements, or use cases, can achieve so much more. But, it’s a lot to ask of any organization to adapt its systems to adhere to an industry standard suite of specifications. Ongoing product development pressures and priorities are always a factor, and the ole “chicken and egg” adage certainly figures into any real progress.

This is where communication and cooperation are key. Yes, it’s difficult for everyone to agree to one solution, and invest in one direction. There are always outliers that can’t be confined to a standard. But what if 80% or more of your data integrations could happen through a standard API? Imagine the money and technology resources you’d save!

This is obviously a matter close to my heart, and I’m proud to be pioneering on this frontier for the online recruitment industry. Finding ways to remove technology barriers and make it easier to connect while lowering costs can all be done. Finding industry leaders to rise above the noise and start the process is the challenge. But, with realcommunication and cooperation, integration standards can be built and adopted to effect real change.

I truly believe we can unify hearts and minds on the intertwined issues of business and technology in our industry. Our call to action is simple: Let’s get together and evolve!