Article

Plex integration and automation yields time and cost savings

June 23, 2020

Integrating and automating work processes can mean tremendous financial and timesaving benefits when an organization selects and implements the right solution for its needs.

In “Plex integration and automation: Connecting the digital workforce,” a presentation given at the virtual PowerPlex 2020 conference in May, Baker Tilly’s Nathan Morris, senior consultant, and Tom Miller, director, discuss what considerations should be taken before an organization chooses an integration and automation solution and specific examples of how it has worked for clients.

Organizations are constantly looking for ways to streamline their processes, decrease unnecessary expenses and increase efficiencies. Integration platform as a service (iPaaS) and automation helps organizations address these common initiatives.

For good reason, the issue that seems to resonate the most with organizations is cost effectiveness. Process automation should be seen as a strategic investment rather than an expenditure as it reduces the time and costs that would have been incurred with labor-intensive manual activities. The reduction in time and expenses varies, but some organizations see significant reductions, as discussed in our case studies below.

While costs are important, increased and improved communication may be an even more substantial benefit. Integration and automation increases transparency so employees have immediate access to information, documents and files in real time across their systems. Because data transfers are automated, errors in time-consuming manual processes are eliminated or reduced. Organizations also see a decline in redundant activities, which lessens the need for labor-intensive manual activities and gives employees time to focus on more value-added activities.

When selecting an integration approach, organizations have the option of several different options: file export and import; extract, transform and load (ETL); point-to-point; enterprise application integration (EAI); and integration platform as a service (iPaaS).

For this presentation, Morris and Miller focus primarily on the iPaaS integration solution. The iPaaS integration approach enables organizations to develop, execute and govern integration flows from a multi-tenant cloud service. It also makes system integration more approachable, allowing businesses to achieve integration without big investments into skills and software.