What are Third-Party Integrations? All about Third-Party Integrations!

“Third-party integration” is something that has truly revolutionized the way web and mobile solutions work to the point that people who are not well versed in Tech are familiar with the term. Let us be real, almost every brand on the face of the planet has a dedicated website or an application. This allows them to widen their horizons with respect to attracting new customers and retaining existing ones - basically attracting new business opportunities.

All brands and enterprises, regardless of their size, need to develop a high-quality website or application with lesser development time and great efficiency. This is where third-party integrations come in handy!

Let us say that your business has a cutting-edge website that offers great page load, easy navigation, and responsiveness. Even after all your efforts, you find it hard to retain customers due to one flaw in your workflow - slow lead response time. To rectify this issue, the best-suited approach to go with would be to incorporate third-party integrations that could help you reduce the lead response time magnanimously! This is just one of the many benefits that integrations provide by connecting a couple of applications together.

But, what really is a Third Party Integration?

Third-party integration is a connection between two or more apps that are built on an external platform using different APIs (Application Program Interfaces).

This is the key differentiating factor between a traditional app and a third-party integration.

In much simpler terms, a third-party integration helps a user of existing application leverage the functionalities of an independent platform to foster integrations between applications. These integrations add more pizzazz and functionality to an application.

The third-party APIs enable developers to create efficient solutions in a short span of time by making use of existing components rather than creating a new set of code. A great example of this would be - You want to create a food delivery application and the influx of inquiries are much more than you are equipped to handle. Instead of creating a chatbot from scratch, your tech team can leverage an existing API and integrate it into your application for a much faster and equally efficient solution!

What is an API?

API stands for application programming interface — a ******set of definitions and protocols to build and integrate application software, an interface used by developers to programmatically interact with software components outside of their own code.

Uber is one application that is built using many API integrations. It uses Google Maps for Navigation, Braintree for payment gateway, and Twilio for live chats. This has allowed Uber to save tons of money in development and focus on what matters the most - their customers.

Examples of APIs ➖

• For any online transactions, applications make use of Paypal to make transactions.
• Weather applications make use of external APIs wherein the APIs are responsible for collecting relevant data on the weather forecast while the application displays data.
• Twitter bots that leverage Twitter APIs for action.
• Websites like Skyscanner that enable booking a flight on a website.
• Platforms like Medium that enable you to log in through your Facebook and Google credentials.

Types of APIs

1) Public APIs

This kind of API is available for any developer or brand to use. Public APIs may require moderate authorization or may be completely open. Usually, businesses that offer Public APIs seek monetization through a per-call cost. While people oftentimes mistake public APIs with open APIs, it is important to note that not all public APIs are open. They also streamline their focus to external users to access data.

2) Partner APIs

Partner APIs are not available to the public and need some kind of entitlement to access them. These also pave the way for B2B activities. For example - if a firm wants to share some kind of data with an outside business, partner API can enable the integration of the data system with the external parties. There is a strategic onboarding process involved with partner APIs, unlike Open APIs which are available to the masses.

3) Internal APIs

Internal APIs or private APIs are mostly used within a business to integrate the data and system into the business. As the name suggests, Internal APIs are only exposed to internal systems and are not available to the masses. These APIs are largely used by enterprises that want to become more efficient in aspects like Customer Service.

4) Composite API

Composite APIs unite multiple data or service APIs to build a structure of related or interdependent operations. These can be created using API creation tools. Composite APIs can be advantageous to handle complicated API behaviors and are proven to enhance speed and performance over individual APIs.

Benefits of Third-Party Integrations ➖

1) Consistency

Let’s keep it real - If you are a developer or a business that is well-versed with web and app solutions, you must be aware of how tedious it is to have multiple integration methods implemented into a solution.

Third-party integrations ensure that the brand and integration both are in line with the goal to allow the business to structure and scale their integrations with a single, cutting-edge method.

2) User Experience

Third-party integrations offer a better user experience than traditional integrations. Traditional inputs in fact pose to be a more difficult approach to go with as they require a lot of text inputs. They help your user navigate through your website/ application seamlessly without disrupting their natural habits and routines.

3) Speedy Production

Third-party integrations allow your business to save a lot of time in development. As it takes months to build an integration, third-party integrations can do the job in a couple of days! This enables the firm to shift its focus to other important aspects of its business.

4) Lower Cost

As there will be no external development costs associated, it will save your firm tons of money to incorporate third-party integrations. This capital can thereby be used in the future to add more features to your application in the future.

Native integrations are not always free of cost. A lot of times, accessing these integrations may require you to upgrade your plan. Third-party integrations, on the other hand, can be extremely affordable.

5) Pick and Choose the Best Features

By using Third-party integrations, you can add the best of the best features to your application without spending a fortune! Many companies that create these integrations are subject matter experts in their focus area and leveraging their expertise into your application also gives your app a whole new feel! This also allows you to avoid any unnecessary challenges during app production.

6) Flexibility

As pre-made solutions, native integrations may increase your workload for creating new things. Third-party integrations enable the user to deploy the integrations at his convenience.

This is why third-party integrations are widely loved in the design and development landscape as they offer tons of benefits to the user as well as the business.

Interesting Facts and Stats about Third-Party Integrations !!

1) An increasing number of applications per company drive the need for application integration even further

2) Application integration (aka system integration) is still one of the top challenges for IT

On applications usage:

• Deloitte and Mulesoft (2022): companies now use an average of 976 applications, with only 28% of these to be integrated
• Okta (2022): large organisations have 187 applications deployed on average
• Beamy (2021): companies have an average of 190 enterprise cloud based application software solutions in use
• Blissfully (2019): companies use an average of 137 business cloud based apps

On the importance of application integration:

• Ascend2 (2018): 44% of marketers see poor integration as top challenge for succeeding in generating valuable insights from data
• Jitterbit (2021): 45% HR specialists identify accessing and combining data from several HR-related business software systems as one of top problems
• Deloitte (2021): 45% respondents in procurement cite poor integration as the second main barrier to the effective application of digital technology
• Deloitte and Mulesoft (2022): 38% of respondents see integration of siloed business software applications as their biggest challenge to digital transformation

Other isolated statistics:

• In 2019, Gartner cited analytical or BI environments as the top application integration scenario (86% of respondents), followed by legacy software systems integration (79%), partners and ecosystems (68%), building of a single source of truth (65%), and process automation in Human Capital Management sector (63%)
• 2021 Hyperautomation Survey (Gartner) revealed that 11% of business technologists consider an EiPaaS as one of the top three tools they use most
• On average, business technologists use at least two vendors’ application solutions to drive business processes automation within their organizations
• Cleo’s 2022 report found that 85% of supply chain companies believe they’re losing a lot of money because of insufficient business software system integrations; out of these, 24% say they lose over $500K per year – nearly a quarter of respondents and an uptick by 6% from the year before

(Source- Click here)

Third-party integrations are the way to go!

Third-party integrations have become a great source to quickly add powerful functionality to a solution. Most of the new-age tools use APIs for online payments, social logins, maps, and many other services. Just make sure you choose the right integrations that work well with your target audience, make sense to your app, and maintain support. With this approach, you will be good to go!

Have any questions? DM us on our socials!

We’re quirky and informative here: Apric’s Twitter handle

We’re aesthetic and fun here: Apric’s Instagram Page

Until then, Stay tuned for our next blog! Ciao! 🙂