3 Keys to Successful Software Integration

We get a kick out of making our customers lives easier through websites and software that just works. Ultimately the biggest bang for buck for our customers is in software integration…but what does that mean?

In a nutshell its taking one piece of software and getting it to talk successfully to another piece of software to save manually transferring information that businesses need for daily operation.

Think automatic transfer and syncing of your online sales to your accounting software or your newsletter subscribers to your email marketing program, these are good examples of time savers for busy people and the list of integrations is endless.

Your website provider should be talking to you about how you can save time and money through integration, but before you get their help here are three important keys to successful software integration.

1. It should be cost-effective – get ready to think about the time cost of manual data entry versus the effort to integrate. No one has an unlimited budget so have an approximate idea of the time you are spending on that manual task to start with.

2. It should clearly replace a time-consuming process – don’t settle for a partial integration when the full process is what gets the win. Make sure your provider clearly identifies what you are getting and the benefits

3. A willingness to work with others to get the job done – we find that the key factor in successful integration projects is a willingness to work with other software providers. It is so rare for companies have one supplier for everything, so being able to talk to the people who already support your business is absolutely critical

Did we already mention we love software integration? And once you’ve taken the step to connect dots in your business that you did not know were possible we think you will too!

Paypal – Friend or Foe?

We get this question all the time, should I use Paypal to process credit cards for my online sales? And the short and easy answer used to be yes, because it was the most widely recognised credit card processing engine that integrates quickly and easily into your website.

But with time come different options and in a lot of cases less frustration for you and your end customer. Some of our customers use their bank gateway because they have access to the funds within 24 hours. Some processors like Stripe are a seamless way to get payments, keeping users onsite with a minimum of fuss.

And with the US government weighing into how they think Paypal should operate when it comes to shadowy entities making online purchases the game changes yet again.

WebPOS eCommerce solutions still strongly supports Paypal as a preferred way for our customers to process credit card transactions online but our software has evolved to support many different processors. Get in touch with us for more details at 1300 796 771.

Diamonds, Puppies and Taxes are Forever…but technology changes and so should you

We love Smart Company, they produce articles relevant to businesses of all sizes and they always answer the question, “So what, why should I care?” And we love their work so much that we wanted to reiterate the significance of their article on why a website isn’t forever.

We recently blogged about why you should care about mobile responsive design, and maybe all you heard was blah, blah, blah. Fair enough if you feel like people are holding it over your head but Smart Company has again summarised why your website has to change over time – see here!

We share your pain and having to update websites, technology and software to help our businesses run better, those unexpected costs are always frustrating. But the reality is consumer and business habits change and that means you have to also.

It doesn’t mean to have to change everything all the time but if you have a good technology and software advisor to your business then they can help sort out the wheat from the chaff to know what deserves your money and attention and what can stay as is.

Check out our Free Guide to Website Design, a Free Download from this page (click on the orange button) to get an idea of what you need to consider in 2015 for your website.