The LINK® Value Proposition
Addressing the high cost of custom (build-your-own) integration software
The vast majority of the integration market in the SMB space is occupied by custom, home-built integration systems, often built by consultants or in-house staff using programming languages such as C# or Visual Basic and no formal integration software.
The custom approach is often taken because:
- Companies feel their systems or problems are unique and no formal integration solution will work for their special needs.
- After searching the marketplace, no solution is found that lists their business system(s) explicitly.
- The only general integration systems they believe will work with disparate systems are high-priced applications in the large enterprise marketplace.
Unfortunately for companies that choose the custom approach, they typically do not see a return on their investment.
There are two phases to building a custom integration – building the integration engine and building the actual integration.
- The cost of building the integration engine (the tools and training needed to create an integration) can easily grow to over $100,000 and take several months.
- The cost of building the actual integration will vary greatly depending on how many integrations you are building.
If you are using in-house staff for this project, the cost of these two phases does not factor in the time your IT staff will spend away from their regular tasks to complete this project.
Here is something to consider:
The costs of building a custom integration can be avoided by purchasing cost-effective, formal integration software. Missing Link Technology offers The LINK®, a turnkey integration solution. We provide everything for you, as well as a timeline that you can count on to include with your project.
To see how it would work in your business, watch this short video: