7 Trends Impacting Enterprise Integration in the Digital Transformation Era

The rapid expansion following the pandemic has compelled organizations to innovate in response to changes. Businesses rely heavily on their IT teams to drive digital transformation and optimize growth while prioritizing cost savings. As a result, they are investing in IT solutions to streamline workflows, increase productivity, address connectivity challenges, and position themselves for success in the new normal. But to ensure success, businesses must stay ahead of the latest trends in digital transformation and enterprise integration.

Business leaders are making strategic decisions to achieve their goals, including using APIs to integrate systems and data, empowering non-IT staff with automation capabilities, and enhancing customer experiences. These advancements demonstrate the potential for efficient growth when IT is leveraged effectively to support business objectives.

Below are the key trends in digital transformation and enterprise integration for the current year:

1. Proliferation of technology: The number of enterprise applications is rising, with organizations using an average of 1,061 different applications. However, only 29% of these applications are integrated, which hinders digital transformation for 80% of organizations, rising to 90% for those behind on their digital transformation progress. Custom integration labor is expensive, with organizations spending an average of $4.7 million in the past 12 months. Data silos remain a challenge, and there are several causes for data integration failure. A future-proofed strategy supported by the right integration platform is needed to unlock the power of enterprise data.
2. Customers expect an integrated user experience: More than a third of organizations (36%) now provide a completely connected user experience across all channels, up from 30% last year. Integrated user experiences can increase customer engagement, visibility into operations, and innovation. However, over half of the organizations (54%) find it challenging to integrate end-user experiences, particularly those falling behind in their digital transformation progress (74%). Obstacles include outdated IT infrastructure, security and governance, lack of automation, and existing custom-coded, point-to-point integrations.
3. Efficiency-focused investments driving greater IT output: Business leaders are prioritizing efficiency and cost savings, leading to increased investment in IT infrastructure. In the past year, organizations spent an average of $11.7 million on IT staff, with 78% expecting IT budgets to increase further. Despite a growing demand for IT services, IT teams are delivering more projects on time, with 48% reporting completion of every project requested, up from 44% the prior year. This increase in project volume reflects growing expectations from business leaders. Still, IT teams are rising to the challenge, demonstrating improved delivery despite the growing demand. The IT infrastructure is becoming more streamlined, with fewer obstacles to introducing new technology and making changes.
4. API security: Financial services and banking sectors will face increased scrutiny around API security in 2023 due to regulatory requirements. Many businesses are unaware of the risks they face with their unsecured and unmanaged API ecosystems. However, 2023 presents an opportunity to improve security and risk mitigation, as API security is a greenfield for most companies. Lack of control and governance around APIs can lead to operational inefficiencies and costly redundancies. Business leaders should also be aware of the risks associated with over-collecting and over-storing unstructured data. API security plays a crucial role in discovering and managing APIs within an organization.
5. Digital transformation challenges and failure risks: The importance of customer experience in organizational success has led to a significant shift towards digital interactions, with 72% of customer interactions now taking place online. Despite this, 69% of organizations report being ahead of anticipated progress in their digital transformation projects, with only 10% falling behind. However, IT teams still face various challenges, including integrating siloed apps and data, a lack of skills and experience, compliance, hiring/retaining talent, and legacy infrastructure. Failure to address these challenges and complete digital transformation initiatives could cost organizations an average of $9.5 million, up from $6.8 million in 2022. Organizations must adopt a composable IT approach supported by low/no-code tools to overcome the challenges of digital transformation.
6. Rise in adoption of business process automation: Robotic process automation (RPA) adoption is on the rise, with 33% of organizations planning to invest in RPA, up from 13% two years ago. IT plays a crucial role in managing (67%) and tracking (59%) automation. However, other teams outside of IT also require business process automation tools, such as data science, product, and business analysis teams. Organizations must integrate and automate their departments using API integration automation for efficient growth.
7. API strategy to optimize costs and increase revenue: APIs are widely used by organizations, with 99% utilizing public or private APIs for various purposes, such as new projects, integrations, and self-service IT capabilities. Over half of the organizations have a mature API strategy that empowers non-technical business users to integrate apps and data sources easily. APIs generate an average of 38% of an organization's revenue and are used to streamline development, improve application development, and build new products and services. While API integration strategies are not yet mandatory, organizations ahead in digital transformation are more likely to use a top-down approach. APIs drive agility and cost savings, with the ability to self-serve IT being the most cited benefit.

Conclusion

In conclusion, IT is increasingly becoming vital for organizational success as business leaders prioritize efficiency, cost savings, and digital transformation initiatives. Despite the challenges that the IT teams face, such as integrating siloed applications and data, organizations are investing in automation tools and composable IT approaches to drive efficient growth. APIs are also being widely used to streamline development, improve application development, and build new products and services, with organizations citing cost savings and revenue generation as the main benefits. As organizations continue to invest in IT infrastructure, they must embrace a top-down approach to API integration strategies to unlock the full potential of enterprise data.

As a leading MuleSoft partner, Nous Infosystems offers in-depth expertise in full lifecycle API management to help enterprises ensure seamless digital connectivity and integration. Get in touch with Nous to leverage the MuleSoft Integration Platform for your API management and integration initiatives.

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