Best data and application integration patterns

Data integration patterns

Manually receiving and processing data from your applications is complicated, time-consuming, error-prone, and has a low return on investment if your data isn’t recent. Celigo’s integrator.io refreshes your data automatically as often as you’d like and executes business processes according to your needs.

You can outline and create integrations quickly by following five data integration patterns. These patterns act like a roadmap to sync your most critical applications and get real-time data. In some cases, your flow may conform to more than one pattern. Even when multiple patterns emerge, you can quickly identify critical differences and combine the patterns to optimize your integrations. The best part of integrator.io is that you’ll always be able to customize your flows and integrations to suit your business needs.

Whether your integration relies on event management, data syncing, warehousing and reporting, or EDI file conversions, you’ll be able to get up and running quickly.

Event management

Event management occurs when an outside party performs an action that triggers your integration. eCommerce and Software as a Service (SaaS) integrations follow your integration from a triggering event to a resolution. Event management is the most common of all integration patterns since it encompasses any integrations that rely on a specific event to get started. This trigger can include a new order, new sales opportunity, or new warehouse data. With integrator.io, you’ll be able to automate integrations between virtually all applications.

An example of event management would be a store owner getting a new order (via Shopify, Amazon, or another storefront), receiving payment (through Stripe, PayPal, or another payment processor), and reconciling any refunds or changes in NetSuite. You can create custom flows to manage your integrations or install out-of-the-box integration app and template solutions.

Bidirectional sync

A bidirectional sync occurs when two applications sync data to create, update, or delete relevant information. With a bidirectional sync, you can manage all your revenue recording, subscription management, and billing needs.

You can sync accounts, customers, contacts, and financials between applications like Salesforce and NetSuite or sync expense reports between QuickBooks and Concur Expense. With hundreds of applications to connect, you can sync data between any two applications you want.

Multidirectional sync

Multidirectional syncs are related to event management because they send complex data from one application to multiple applications. With a multidirectional sync, you can send data from one application to many applications or create a chain of events.

Some multi-directional syncs include employee onboarding and offboarding, timesheet management, benefits, and expense management through Human Resources (HR) automations. You can use employee management applications like BambooHR, ADP, or Workday to regulate single sign-on (SSO) and identity management with AuthO or Okta. You can also use BambooHR or ADP to provide access to email applications like Gmail or Outlook or productivity applications like Slack or Zoom.

Data management and warehousing

Data management and warehousing eliminate data silos and drive strategic decisions with real-time, accurate data access. You can send and store data in the most used cloud data warehouses and funnel it into various reporting, analytics, and visualization applications.

Data warehousing examples include storing information from various sources like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Zendesk in a cloud-based environment like Amazon Redshift, Snowflake, or Google BigQuery. You can then pull your information from the data warehouse and use it to report on new sales metrics with DOMO, analyze existing help center data with PowerBI, or visualize your data with Tableau. With integrator.io, you can help:

• Overwhelmed IT teams with support requests.
• Data analytics teams build real-time dashboards.
• Business intelligence departments investigate better quality data and more accessible processes.
• Operations teams leverage reports to execute plans efficiently.

EDI and fixed-width file conversion and transfer

Converting EDI and fixed-width files and transferring them to NetSuite is easier than you think. You can quickly and easily build EDI integrations using EDI templates, integration wizards, API adaptors, field editors, mapping tools, and more. Add new partners, update integrations, manage users, and monitor and troubleshoot integration flows using intuitive management tools. With access to over twenty EDI X12 (ASC X12) file formats and many standard EDIFACT file formats available directly from a drop-down box, integrator.io makes it easy to automate updates of sales orders, purchase orders, product catalogs, inventory, acknowledgments, and other processes with trading partners.

EDI and fixed-width examples include syncing POs, invoices, and shipment notifications between your file repository and NetSuite, Amazon, Target, Wayfair, or Walmart.

In conclusion, choosing the right integration pattern depends on several factors, including the complexity of the integration, the number of systems involved, the volume and type of data being exchanged, and the performance and scalability requirements of the integration.
As part of your decision, you should carefully evaluate the business needs and choose the integration pattern that best meets the different requirements, both functional and non-functional. It's important to understand the implications (both positive and negative) of using a particular pattern. You should also consider the long-term maintenance and support of the integration and choose a pattern that is flexible and can adapt to changing business requirements. It's quite common to employ multiple patterns that complement each other and create a stronger overall solution. 

Application patterns

Application patterns can belong to more than one data integration pattern. The key difference between both is that application integration patterns focus on how applications interact with each other. These patterns include event management, bi and multi-directional sync, among others. In contrast, data integration patterns focus on how the data moves between those applications. These typically fall into two categories – messaging patterns and service-oriented patterns.

Messaging

Messaging patterns involve the exchange of messages between applications and systems using a messaging middleware component. This pattern allows applications to communicate asynchronously, improving performance and scalability. There are several messaging patterns available, including point-to-point, publish/subscribe, and request/reply.

• Point-to-point messaging is best suited for integrations that involve a single sender and receiver. This pattern is often used for applications that exchange data in real-time, such as financial trading systems.
• Publish/subscribe messaging is best suited for integrations that involve multiple senders and receivers. This pattern is often used for applications that broadcast data to many systems, such as news feeds or social media platforms.
• Request/reply messaging is best suited for integrations that require a response to a specific request. This pattern is often used for applications that need to retrieve data from another system, such as an e-commerce site retrieving product information from a supplier's system, in real time.

Service-oriented

Service-oriented patterns define a set of standards for building and deploying services that different applications and systems can use. This pattern allows us to expose our applications as services, which can be easily integrated with other applications and systems. There are several service-oriented patterns available, including service aggregation, service composition, service orchestration, and enterprise service bus (ESB).

• Service aggregation is best suited for integrations that involve aggregating data from multiple systems into a single view. This pattern is often used for applications that need to provide a unified view of customer data across multiple systems.
• Service composition is best suited for integrations that involve composing new services by combining existing services. This pattern is often used for applications that require complex business logic that a single service cannot achieve.
• Service orchestration is best suited for integrations that involve coordinating the execution of multiple services to achieve a specific goal. This pattern is often used for applications that require complex workflows that involve multiple systems and services.
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is best suited for integrations that involve multiple systems exchanging data through a central bus. This pattern is often used for applications that require a high degree of scalability and flexibility. The modern-day equivalent of this are cloud-based integration platforms (i.e. iPaaS), such as Celigo.