We\u2019ll review common ways to integrate your applications, the benefits application integration can bring to your organization, the tools you can use, and a whole lot more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Related: <\/em>Everything you need to know about enterprise application integration<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n To give you a better sense of how application integration can work, let\u2019s walk through a couple of use cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As your marketers execute drip campaigns that build interest among prospects, your sales reps will want to know the moment when a prospect qualifies for a sales conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can do just that by connecting the customer relationship management (CRM) tool your sales reps work on and the marketing automation tool your marketers leverage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, once the apps are integrated and lead data is synced between the two, a sales rep can learn when a prospect\u2019s lead score reaches a level at which they\u2019re sales-ready. That rep can then contact the prospect quickly and, in doing so, be more successful in their outreach.<\/p>\n\n\n Related: Common application integration examples<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Once a candidate signs their offer letter, your organization will want to move quickly in setting them up with the appropriate tools and equipment. This ensures the new hire can hit the ground running on their first day. Plus, it can leave them with a positive first impression<\/a> of your organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help facilitate a high-performing onboarding experience, you can integrate a human resources information system (HRIS) and a recruiting tool. Then, build a data flow where once a candidate is marked as hired in the recruiting tool, their profile gets created in the HRIS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Obviously, there are several more steps that need to be taken once the new hire\u2019s profile gets created in your HRIS. An end-to-end workflow automation can help tackle them<\/a>. But this, in and of itself, saves your team time and moves you one step closer to onboarding the new hire successfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As your organization grows its client base, it can become more difficult to keep tabs on individual invoices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can help your colleagues in finance manage each invoice more easily over time by syncing your enterprise resource planning system (e.g., NetSuite<\/a>) with your organization\u2019s business communications platform (e.g., Slack<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once that’s done, set up the following workflow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n As sales reps upload a variety of important documents from clients in your CRM\u2014whether that\u2019s a fully-executed contract, a signed NDA, a contract amendment, etc.\u2014the documents might not be accessible to the teams that need them, such as legal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And even those with access to your CRM might find the process of locating specific documents in the platform to be tedious and frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help solve all of the above, you can integrate your CRM with a file storage platform (e.g., Box) and then implement the following:<\/p>\n\n\n Let\u2019s assume that your organization uses a third party to manage clients\u2019 issues. And while this third party can handle the majority of them, there are always exceptions that your organization needs to address. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Whenever an issue falls in the latter, you\u2019ll need to ensure that the right teams at your organization are made aware of the issue on time so that they can address the issue quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To help solve this, you can connect the IT service management (ITSM) tools each party uses and then implement the following automation:<\/p>\n\n\n Related: <\/em>Common B2B integration examples<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are a number of reasons why application integration is valuable for your organization. Here are just a few that are worth highlighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By providing accurate, matching data across your applications, lines of business can collaborate more effectively and deliver better bottom-line results for the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In more concrete terms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related: <\/em>The benefits of enterprise application integration<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The process of manually reentering data across apps can quickly lead to human errors that negatively impact clients, prospects, employees, and job candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are just a few examples:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With application integration, employees, by and large, don\u2019t have to worry about making these mistakes, as the data they put into one app can instantly carry over to others with complete accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Integrating your apps removes the need to constantly switch between them, as employees can access the data they need within the platforms they use every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This not only goes a long way in helping employees get meaningful time back, but it also allows them to focus more on thoughtful, strategic work that can deliver value to the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s little surprise that allowing employees to focus on more thought-provoking work isn\u2019t just good for the business, but also for your employees\u2019 satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vast majority of employees<\/a> would go so far as to give up some of their salary just to feel like they\u2019re doing important work. Meanwhile, nearly half<\/a> of employees who are actively looking to switch jobs believe that their employer isn\u2019t making full use of their skills and expertise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In short, helping employees focus more of their time on thought-provoking work can help you retain them and keep them engaged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Certain legacy on-prem applications offer unique value that newer, cloud-based apps simply can\u2019t address. Moreover, replacing one of these legacy systems can be an expensive, time-consuming proposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With application integration, you can hold on to these legacy systems, as well as use their data in new ways via the apps they\u2019ve integrated with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related: <\/em>How to integrate legacy systems with the rest of your tech stack<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Application integration offers you the option of keeping your legacy system. Since you don’t need to eliminate your legacy systems entirely, you can save money and resources using new tools and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another cost-saving effect of application integration is that it eliminates redundant processes and minimizes data silos. Thus, it allows you to save on resources and labor while improving overall efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Application integration allows you to automate workflows and focus more on manual tasks, simplifying and streamlining large-scale tasks. Automation enhances accuracy, freeing up employees to focus on higher-value tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Related: <\/em>Business benefits of enterprise application integration<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Application integration benefits your organization; however, the process isn\u2019t straightforward. Here are some challenges of application integration.<\/p>\n\n\n Most companies, especially old companies, use legacy systems for their processes. Sometimes, modern systems don’t support the data format of the legacy system. Legacy systems may also be less flexible and lack interoperability compared to modern alternatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Security is a serious concern when discussing integration, primarily because it exposes sensitive data to new vulnerabilities. Thus, it’s important to implement robust security measures and use tools that comply with regulatory standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The external application has data outside your enterprise\u2019s core data. It also has different data formats and update cycles, often leading to data inconsistency, duplicate entries, errors, and duplicate records. You can, however, mitigate this issue with a robust data synchronization strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since you\u2019re integrating with applications outside your ecosystem, your system might be incompatible with the vendor. This lack of compatibility issues will result in data silos, inability to automate tasks, operations, and inefficiencies. However, for situations like these, custom solutions come in handy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Generally speaking, you can either build integrations in-house via custom code (otherwise known as point-to-point integrations<\/a>), or use a third-party tool, which often takes the form of an integration platform as a service (iPaaS) or a legacy, on-prem middleware platform like an enterprise service bus<\/a> (ESB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite their inherent differences, both approaches share many of the same pros and cons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite many platforms having a common set of pros and cons, they often differ in notable ways. To help you find the one that\u2019s best for your business, you can use the following criteria when reviewing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A low-code\/no-code application integration tool can enable employees across lines of business to build impactful integrations and give IT and engineering some time back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, to ensure that your data, business applications, and processes remain secure as additional builders participate, you\u2019ll also need the platform to offer enterprise-grade security. Look for features like activity audit logs and role-based access control (RBAC) to ensure this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The platform should leverage the latest in AI and machine learning to help builders implement intelligent, high-performing integrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if you\u2019re looking to integrate an application like Salesforce with an ITSM tool like Zendesk in order to keep accounts in sync, the platform can intelligently suggest the fields that can be mapped between them.<\/p>\n\n\n While application integration is useful in and of itself, your path to digital transformation shouldn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the key use cases that application integration enables (and that the platform you select should offer) is end-to-end workflow automations for critical business processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Specific business events can trigger these workflow automations in real time. Your team can then use this workflow automation for a number of business processes, whether it\u2019s lead routing, quote-to-cash, incident management, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your employees likely spend a significant chunk of their time working from a business communications platform like Slack or Microsoft Teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With that in mind, you should look for a solution that offers platform bots that can bring data from third-party applications and automation directly to employees in your business comms platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Say you\u2019ve built an automation around referring candidates. To kickstart the automation, an employee can access the platform bot you\u2019ve built within your business comms platform and fill out a form that includes all of the required information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While many integration solutions provide pre-built connectors for SaaS applications, databases, or on-prem systems<\/a>, their connectors will vary by breadth (i.e., the connectors they\u2019ve made available) and depth (i.e., each connector\u2019s scope of functionality).<\/p>\n\n\n\n With this in mind, you\u2019ll need to do some research on the connectors each platform provides, their plans for enhancing them, and their roadmap for launching new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Similarly, many platforms offer a library of automation templates to help you brainstorm and implement automations more easily. Take some time to review the ones each vendor has made available. If possible, try to also find out about the templates they plan to release over the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given that every organization has a unique set of applications, data, processes, and business goals, they\u2019ll need to arrive at their own application integration strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, addressing the following questions in sequential order can help you land on the strategy that\u2019s best for your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This can be anything from saving time and becoming more efficient to enabling end-to-end automations that can transform your business processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, what types of systems, processes, and data are you looking to integrate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can think about this through a number of dimensions, such as reliability, scalability, and compliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer largely depends on the goals you set earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For instance, if you\u2019re looking to save time, it might make sense to use a centralized model where IT manages the integrations end-to-end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, if you\u2019re hoping to innovate, you should look to adopt a decentralized delivery model where business teams can help build and manage the integrations (while IT oversees their activities and the integration platform that\u2019s used).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on your functional and nonfunctional requirements, as well as your desired delivery model, you should be able to pinpoint the application integration solutions that fit your needs best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, it\u2019s worth going through this exercise on a recurring basis (e.g., once a year) so that your strategy can adapt to changes in the market, your technology stack, your business goals, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Application integration is particularly important because every organization relies on multiple tech stacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, you can describe it as the missing piece for unifying your technology landscape. This is because it allows you to integrate with diverse applications, work seamlessly with them, and share data in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since application integration can give you a competitive edge, you should prioritize efficiency and agility by going for a tool like Workato, the leader in enterprise automation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Workato offers a low-code\/no-code UX; hundreds of thousands of automation templates; Workbot, a customizable platform bot for Slack and Teams; and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Schedule a demo today.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\r\n Workato, the leader in enterprise automation, offers a low-code\/no-code UX, hundreds of thousands of automation templates, Workbot, a customizable platform bot for Slack and Teams, and much more. <\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t Schedule a demo<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t <\/div>\r\n\t\t <\/div>\r\n\n\n\n While it\u2019s hard to list all of them, here are some important concepts that you should understand before you start integrating your applications:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Data integration is the process of extracting data from a multitude of sources, transforming that data to a common data model, cleansing it, and then uploading it to a single place, such as your data warehouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can then use the data for analytics with business intelligence (BI) and analytics tools, allowing your analysts to uncover actionable business insights on time.<\/p>\n\n\n\nApplication Integration Use Cases<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"QUOTE](\"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AD_4nXeANsk3_Nq9LOo2fMSLLe8LejmHw5stzg-zNJgLYmOTEZpjnaz8uHg5zsRTpNgixznhR9XkKVDXG6j-LGSyXs5dutLeaNE2wcvvhHqA93qs1_Hw3_lWCB9o8QOesomdV41lxQG7cgkeyl-cAKZE2cXSN4Mm-XCBdT14m.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n1. Notify Reps When Prospects Are Ready to be Contacted<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/blog2stage.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Ljq4cyMir0wMK2Bq7m5PWFymsBbA9Kl4IyzHEvePZyN_iKQ8OtgWeCkCXNzY8k8JTEvavgXT8nKn0V6nhrJhibNEXIAlQ1zmVEEM3aEwWU6KZvr1S_ornNnBaZQdqWI-6YH4F5wtIkWpiW1OfDt0oIKIMZcHhSbztpR4S_TKTwkwIxrEudqCrga6awrhKQ.png\")
2. Create Profiles for New Hires in Your HRIS Seamlessly<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Manage Client Invoices More Easily<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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4. Store Customer Documents in Accessible and Secure Folders<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/xSCd4jNIgHd3RU1R1OUKEEl2hHto9GrQ3z4b9bFEXNVwNAlSp63WkTSaBsuaAAQTAER4F0pUYl4T1A76QOqRgfA65KuAsWAEZngjRUMgESaX13fxBMTx3bu9nLZO5p2jIBGrpJPJoU4qTVI1qKNRVA.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
5. Escalate Issues From an Outsourced Call Center Efficiently<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/iNPoBk9Obw9a-tNDVC4m4pFai0PBQ7Qw0wvr3by2FqZV5XCsATZ60pMrZ0bV5yz8ZweU86_SsxWbbkFCg8eCZRlFeEOCKMDW9biz2rop8mC5jrBq8tjDzMWSSNpayKwzoegcm4g4mtlWTRL6mb7S6To.png\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Benefits of Application Integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. Fosters Healthy Collaboration Across Lines of Business<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
2. Prevents Costly Errors<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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3. Boosts Employee Productivity<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Lifts the Employee Experience<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"QUOTE](\"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AD_4nXd-MXuFcG3qQgpu-w6h5L-Aw9GVSAkn9TmUPUwLxJJ_8K29bOolztApQEbPF-izTmPoQ2n3KP5w5xvbVqFxvwFKsDCtaikGSrJuYbcksYNlyFlFtOavXWs0jVVbw48v419Os4R5Qkeyl-cAKZE2cXSN4Mm-XCBdT14m.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n5. Let’s You Hold onto Valuable Legacy Systems and Adopt New Technologies<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
6. Cuts Down Costs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
7. Automate Workflows<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Challenges of Application Integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Sometimes,](\"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Workato-12-4.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n1. Complexity of Legacy Systems<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. Security Concerns<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. Data Inconsistency and Synchronization<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. Lack of Compatibility<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Popular Types of Application Integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Pros<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Cons<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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How to Evaluate Application Integration Solutions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ease of Use and Governance<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"QUOTE](\"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AD_4nXd1uVFkFbxcD3P9b8lc8b87v4JwVv7Hb3IdORYnGkhqDG4mN-9kBrW2vqSQY3fQa5avCrcIN8_tCLJmZ9uWZ6r1XWnMMljabPR1NiDwsFiHStBlMF-AvGLdQ0C-1Bt_e-3pFtJ4jwkeyl-cAKZE2cXSN4Mm-XCBdT14m.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nAI and Machine Learning<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/blog2stage.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/dxydYJAUQC5_k8F3K94sfHcB7m5LRlFzhI10JhLU1XVvBG-8-127cKyX-lP_J0_eG0k3D7sJNaM8_qFXVnKOQcb_EN89SD9QdGyj6z1lnfb4Auz6bzhfrIMDpkBW6tU-WmNIk1guU9FXktoZ2cQB7ct5DWTO_tXedRfcOYC5VFZIIMOwnbI1M5oBBGMa0Q.gif\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Workflow Automations<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nEnterprise Platform Bots for Business Communications Platforms<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/blog2stage.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/T2UVGb43dDnw8bZl358PqwGiSjvke5t71VtJ9ywBu__le-RbW24OJaQ_jDjSVbcOQcuX806R7pN5HvhpE_WTjgiIfZ4JLHmU_4dm7HbMKZf1qrTLjJZevuzhZNicj7xhCTyqQyeN22CVV0biOXmtIzLNaNqSZ-prwOoLiPXoZ7xT6Iac4_tQEa2Y0KWgg-1000x562.png\")
Pre-built Connectors and Automation Templates<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Coming up With an Application Integration Strategy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
1. What Are Your Business Goals From Implementing Application Integrations?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2. What Are the Scenarios and Use Cases That You\u2019re Looking to Support?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
3. What Are the Non-Functional Requirements for Your Application Integrations?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
4. What Delivery Model Are You Looking to Adopt?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
5. What Technology Platforms Should You Invest in?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Wrapping up<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AD_4nXcOwkKcrrTEe2h5Uh3Y0JgSO9grPIl3dfscv-VpSgbFyy4CugiH6fzvyiSO7dQTgpn3guRD2nErQYcNLFWUo7PqdmzFb56nDOKN69K2O8mlrcSC8Ahc5Zeg-E3ZQP1OLyqNFgmOPAkeycsFHeprG52GEgFrBoBrMojE7-150x150.png\"\r\n)
\r\n Get your integration u0026 automation needs met with Workato <\/h4>\r\n
FAQs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Are Some Important Concepts Within Application Integration?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
What Is Data Integration?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
What Are the Differences Between Application Integration and Data Integration?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n