Ready-made software solutions are a very popular choice among different businesses with limited or no experience in software development. The reason is simple: they require minimal effort and provide companies with ready-to-use functionality after the system’s integration.
Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that simply integrating third-party SaaS solutions is the only option you have to benefit from software-driven services. In fact, despite the overall usability and simplicity of the software, any SaaS system can be used more or less efficiently, depending on your approach.
So, why do businesses prefer ready-made SaaS systems over custom software development from scratch, and how can you use 100% of the functionality of ready-made software?
Reasons to Invest in Third-Party Software Integrations
First of all, let’s talk more about the core reasons to invest in off-the-shelf solutions.
Apart from the most apparent cause — the lack of internal software development expertise — it is possible to highlight a few other crucial advantages of SaaS integrations.
First of all, SaaS integration is generally more cost-effective. Mostly, such software is subscription-based, with a variable fee depending on the number of “user seats,” the chosen functional package, the scale of your business, or other specific requirements.
Nevertheless, regardless of the price of the chosen ready-made software, it will be much cheaper compared to the cost of custom software development from scratch. Maintaining such complex projects typically requires a significantly larger initial budget, which encompasses labor costs, software licensing, and various additional expenses.
Secondly, integrating a ready-made software is faster than the alternatives. Implementing the solution and training your team to use it might take some time, yet it is nothing compared to creating an entirely new software project, or even scaling or improving the existing one. Besides, the longer it takes to adopt a software, the longer the ROI will take. You can use software-driven features and services if they are still under development.
Finally, such software is typically complex and multifaceted, serving multiple needs and encompassing processes from related fields. For instance, the Procore solution is positioned as a management system, prioritizing project management and tracking. Nevertheless, apart from these services, it also offers built-in analytical tools, financial management features, and even artificial intelligence or process automation services.
In other words, besides the core functionality, SaaS systems commonly offer “extra” services that support their customers in different niches, related to the primary industry (construction/eCommerce/Finance) or functionality (management/tracking/planning).
How to Use the Full Potential of Third-Party Software Integrations?
Your first step to benefiting from SaaS solutions as much as possible starts before actually integrating them. Simply put, you must conduct thorough research and select the best offer you can afford.
One of the primary drawbacks of ready-made software is that it requires users to adapt to existing limitations. So, finding the most suitable or satisfying software must be your top priority during the discovery phase.
The shortlist of the most important factors to consider includes:
- Strategic selection and due diligence
- Understanding of integration requirements
- Security and compliance methods
- SaaS performance and reliability
- Business value and KPIs
- Flexibility, scalability, and collaboration
Strategic Selection and Due Diligence
This suggests assessing third-party tools or APIs based on their functionality, reliability, security, documentation quality, performance history, and the quality of their provider’s support. You want solutions that align with both your company’s immediate needs and long-term business goals.
In addition, you should learn more about the vendor’s ecosystem. Pay attention to the platforms with robust API ecosystems and open architectures. They enable seamless integration, customization, and future scalability without vendor lock-in, allowing you to scale functionality and use other services if needed.
Understanding of Integration Requirements
Another important aspect is to review the offered documentation. Study the API or tool’s documentation in detail to understand endpoints, authentication, rate limits, data formats, and error handling.
This information enables you better to understand the strengths and limitations of the software and also helps prevent potential integration issues and reduce troubleshooting time in the future.
The ideal scenario is when the software vendor provides as detailed and informative documentation as possible. The lack of such supplemental materials is a red flag that typically indicates you will have frequent communication with the vendor’s customer support team.
Security and Compliance
Obviously, you want to use the most protected and secure services, knowing that you will share a lot of vulnerable and confidential information with a third party (SaaS vendor). However, this factor is difficult to verify, as it is primarily limited to assurances from your potential technological partner.
Nevertheless, you can also enhance the protection of your data by implementing the best security measures and practices on your end. For instance, validate and sanitize your data or implement some industry-standard protocols. Additionally, ensure compliance with relevant regulations, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA, among others.
SaaS Performance and Reliability
Don’t forget to evaluate the system’s performance and reliability. Once again, detailed documentation is an excellent way to learn about the strengths and limitations of SaaS, the services it offers, and its key features. Also, you can search for users’ feedback and reviews, paying attention to these factors.
Besides, if you have chosen a solution with a robust and flexible ecosystem and open architecture, you can take matters into your own hands. Such solutions offer many more options and tools to optimize the existing system by applying intelligent caching, respecting rate limits and backoffs, establishing error-handling and monitoring, etc.
Business Value and KPIs
Prioritize integrations based on their impact. Define the core KPIs for each integration or potential SaaS (e.g., hours saved, error reduction, improved conversion rates), and focus on those that deliver the highest value.
Additionally, consider automating and streamlining workflow features if you can. Such solutions bring added value to your business, helping to streamline operations and significantly enhance their efficiency.
Typically, SaaS systems provide multiple options to automate repetitive tasks, synchronize data, and eliminate manual data entry, thereby enhancing productivity and minimizing errors. To go even further, companies often adopt AI-powered automation solutions that enhance SaaS workflows with intelligent decision-making, predictive analytics, and advanced process optimization. Yet, you can deepen your research and consider these offers in detail, defining what core processes they can upscale.
The more automation tools they offer, the better it will be for you.
Flexibility, Scalability, and Collaboration
Eventually, choose the most scalable solutions you can. Select integrations and platforms that can grow with your business and adapt to changing project sizes or requirements.
Integrated systems should support synchronized communication, shared dashboards, and live updates to keep teams aligned. These features play a crucial role in project management, problem-solving, and issue prevention.
Prioritize vendors and tools that enable workflow customization and configuration to meet your unique operational needs. Such SaaS solutions might be less favorable and less efficient in their basic version compared to alternatives. However, don’t underestimate the value of customization and personalization.
Flexible platforms commonly support bespoke software development and integrations, allowing you to enable new, unique features or scale and optimize the in-package functionality. Support for third-party or custom software integrations is a key advantage of any SaaS system.
Once again, even if such ready-made systems would be less powerful or efficient than their rivals, they offer you almost unlimited control over the platform. So, with the use of custom software development services, you can achieve a much higher and completely tailored solution in the long run.
