What is an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) and do I need it?

Over the years, we’ve encountered many of our clients struggling with the frustrations of disconnected systems. Many businesses face errors during critical tasks like exporting and importing lists, transferring data between platforms, or getting their Marketing Automation tools and CRM systems to work in sync. This manual handling of data often leads to inconsistencies, wasted time, and frustration for teams who simply want their systems to operate seamlessly. While some of these issues can be patched with workarounds, a more strategic, efficient solution is often needed.

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses depend on multiple systems and platforms to manage operations—from customer databases to transaction processing and communication workflows. As companies expand, the challenge of integrating these various systems becomes increasingly evident. This is where Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solutions can make a critical difference.

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I have heard of iPaaS before, but what is it?

iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) is a cloud-based solution that connects various applications, systems, and data sources within an organisation. It serves as a bridge, enabling seamless data flow between different systems, regardless of the underlying technologies. Designed to simplify the integration process, iPaaS automates workflows and ensures that critical data stays synchronised across all platforms in real-time.

Beyond standard iPaaS, there are also Managed iPaaS solutions. The key difference? With Managed iPaaS, you’re not just given a tool—you get a fully managed service. This includes setup, ongoing maintenance, and troubleshooting for all your integrations, ensuring everything runs smoothly without requiring additional effort from your internal teams.

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Do I really need iPaaS? Is it a necessity?

If your company manages large customer databases across multiple systems or operates within siloed corporate structures, iPaaS is not just a helpful tool—it’s a game-changer.

In our experience, we've seen companies struggle with integrating data across CRM and marketing automation platforms, as well as struggling to streamline internal system communications. In many cases, merely connecting systems wasn't enough. The real breakthrough came when we fully managed their integrations, allowing iPaaS to function as the backbone that kept everything running smoothly in the background.

To give you a better idea, here’s why integrations are business-critical:‍

Improved Data Accuracy and Consistency: With seamless data flow between systems, manual errors like duplicate entries or mismatches are significantly reduced. Accurate customer information is critical to prevent lost sales opportunities and improve customer experiences.

Enhanced Efficiency and Productivity: An iPaaS solution automates repetitive manual tasks, freeing your employees to focus on more strategic work. This leads to faster processes and better responsiveness to customer needs.

Scalability: As your business grows, so do your system needs. iPaaS provides flexibility, allowing you to add new applications and integrations without overhauling your existing infrastructure.

Centralised Management and Control: Manage all integrations from one platform, monitoring data flow, troubleshooting issues, and optimising performance, all while reducing complexity.

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Exelement’s Success with SyncCloud: Real-World Integration Examples

At Exelement, we’ve seen the transformative impact of our own iPaaS solution, SyncCloud. Below are key examples of how SyncCloud has helped our clients:

1. HubSpot ↔ Microsoft Dynamics On-Prem: We’ve integrated HubSpot with Microsoft Dynamics (On-Prem) to address issues with disconnected CRM and marketing systems. This integration offers more than HubSpot’s own connector by ensuring real-time, fully automated synchronisation of customer data across both platforms, allowing marketing and sales teams to always work with accurate information.

2. Salesforce ↔ Visma Business ERP: For clients who use Salesforce for CRM and Visma for accounting, we enabled automatic data transfer between sales and finance. This reduced manual data entry and ensured that sales orders were accurately reflected in financial records. The sales team benefited from accurate, real-time financial data, allowing them to focus on closing deals.

3. Freshsales ↔ Marketo: For companies using Freshsales for CRM and Marketo for marketing automation, synchronising customer data is crucial for targeted campaigns. We integrated these platforms, enabling data from Freshsales to trigger personalised marketing actions in Marketo. This improved campaign effectiveness and provided the marketing team with deeper insights into customer behaviour based on data from both systems.

4. Daily Currency Exchange → CRM: For international clients, we built integrations that reflect up-to-date exchange rates in their CRM, streamlining sales transactions with accurate pricing.

5. Multiple systems → Data Storage: One of the most sought-after integrations today is connecting CRM, marketing automation, ERP, web analytics, and social media data to centralised data storage. For example, at Exelement, we built an integration for our own time tracking, ERP, and revenue recognition data, all connected to Power BI. This allows us to monitor operations in real-time through updated dashboards.

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The Value of iPaaS for Businesses in a Digital World

The above examples highlight just a fraction of what SyncCloud can do. iPaaS solutions likeSyncCloud aren't just for connecting systems; they’re crucial for digital transformation. Automating data flows and integrating critical systems enables businesses to operate efficiently, provide better customer experiences, and position themselves for long-term growth.

With Managed iPaaS, we take the complexity out of the equation. Unlike pure iPaaS, where users manage the integrations themselves, we offer an end-to-end service where we handle the setup, management, and maintenance. This allows our clients to focus on growing their business while we ensure that their systems are running perfectly in the background.

A key advantage of our team is that we understand how every integration uniquely impacts the users. Each integration, such as linking CRM systems with ERP, comes with specific data models and user needs. We ensure that our integrations not only work but also enhance the overall user experience.

Wouldn’t you prefer to focus on your core duties, rather than spending time worrying whether your systems are communicating properly?

Learn more about how we’ve helped our customers with SyncCloud here.

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