Th e B e g i n n e r s G u i d e To

DATA INTEGRATION
Everything you need to know about the
process and benefits of data integration.

www.bedrockdata.com
INTRODUCTION
Do you spend too much precious time scouring through
different systems for one specific piece of information?
Or perhaps youre wasting time and money manually
exporting and importing data from one system
to another.

Whether youre looking to integrate financial data about

a client into your CRM, integrate your marketing teams
lead list into your support system, or even sync your
product data into your CRM for your sales team, you
may be forced to go through multiple databases to find
the right data. This can be frustrating as well as time
consuming, and in the fast paced corporate world, time
is money.

Gone are the archaic days of

sifting through company data one
by one, or transferring it manually
with endless spreadsheets.

Now, thanks to advancements in software technology,

you can integrate everything you need into one easy-
to-use system. The whole purpose of data integration
is to streamline data availability and the data retrieval
process, so that your team can be more efficient.

If this sounds like something you and your company

could benefit from, keep reading. Weve put together
the quintessential beginners guide to data integration
so you can better understand the process. This guide
should also show you exactly why you would benefit
from a data integration service like Bedrock Data.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
What Exactly is Data Integration?. . .......................................... 3

How Data Integration Works: The Almighty API............... 4

Deciding How to Integrate Your Data...................................... 6

Field Mappings.. ...................................................................................... 7

Starting Your Integration................................................................. 8

Integration Risks and Considerations.. ................................... 9

Ongoing Maintenance and Improvements.. ....................... 10

Conclusion. . ............................................................................................. 11

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W h a t Exa c t l y I s
DATA INTEGRATION?
In the simplest of terms, data integration consolidates your data together
into one place from many different software platforms and databases. Your
data is then normalized and synced back out to the systems/databases as it
changes in near real-time.

This data warehouse serves as a virtual snapshot of all your records, and the mapped
fields that youve defined. If your company uses more than one system or database to
store your data, you would benefit from data integration.

Additionally, if your company employs more than 100 employees, data integration will
help you to stay organized and keep your data in sync with no manual effort.

Once the data transfer is complete and all of your sales, marketing, finance, employee,
and client data is in one place, you wont ever have to perform manual data manipulation
again. This alone should be enough to make you consider implementing a data
management and integration service for your business.

CRM

LEADS CONTACTS ACCOUNTS OPPORTUNITIES ACTIVITIES

BACKUP APIS

CONTACTS ANALYTICS ACCOUNTS ACTIVITIES

MKTG

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How Data
Integration Works: HOW AN API WORKS

APIS
EXPLAINED
For starters, API stands for Application
Programming Interface. Just like you use a
User Interface (UI) to interact with systems,
APPLICATION/CLIENT
computer programs can interact with APIs of
those same systems. APIs are how data on
the web is moved around any system, even
amongst the most popular apps out there,
including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

APIs are the backbone of any data

integration system. To apply APIs and their
functions to everyday life, think of them
API REQUESTS
like gossiping. Just like you would take
information you hear from one friend and
share it with another, an API allows data
to be shared between multiple software
platforms.

With regard to your business systems, APIs

share the information you have scattered
throughout different departments and
applications. This makes it easier to find SERVER DATA SOURCE
the data that you need, because it will
automatically be in any system you connect.

API RESPONSE

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H ow D a ta I n te g r a t i o n Wo r k s :
APIS EXPLAINED CONTINUED...

When you utilize a data integration
service, you want to make sure all of your
companys information is shared with the
data warehouse. This information would
then be moved between each of the
different software platforms you may use
on a daily basis. This will ensure that when
youre looking for client data, it will be in
all systems youre using, rather than
just one.
Just like With gossiping, the story you
tell can be embellished as it is shared
amongst different people. Unlike
gossiping, though, when your data is
shared in this way, you dont have to
worry about it being corrupted by outside
sources. The information you seek once
everything has been compiled into one
system will be just as pristine as it was
before the transfer process.

WEBSITES

CONNECTED 3RD PARTY

TV APPS APPS

APIS
DELIVER DATA
MOBILE WIDGETS,
APPS GADGETS,
BADGES

CLOUD SOCIAL
COMPUTING NETWORKS

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D e c i d i n g H ow To
INTEGRATE YOUR DATA
Once youve made the decision to
integrate your data into one system, all
thats left is figuring out how you want to
go about it.
There are a large number of data
integration platforms to choose from, so
it all comes down to features, price, and
how comfortable you are with different
software applications.
While some services require self-setup
as well as a working knowledge of SaaS
administration, others can be done by a
third party reseller.
Our goal is to teach you about data integration so that
you can setup and administer your integration on your
own, without our help.
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Bedrock Data for instance, is a self-signup
and self-administration service. Our goal
is to teach you about data integration so
that you can setup and administer your
integration on your own, without our help.
We will also provide support and training
over the phone with your team, well also
monitor the initial transfer before the data
integration even starts.
This will take a lot of the potential
headache out of the process for you and
your company and you can be assured that
it will be done properly.
FIELD MAPPINGS
This is probably the most important part of any data integration project. When youre
moving every piece of information your company has produced or needs on a daily
basis between systems, you want to make sure everything matches up properly. With
different people making changes to customer or client information, sometimes fields
wont link up properly.

FOR EXAMPLE
Say you have a client named Robert Owen. Depending on who hes spoken to within your
company, his name could be entered into different systems as Robert or Bob. Choosing
which systems should own certain fields will ensure that data overwriting is controlled to
your specifications.

BOB

ROBERT

CONTROLLED DATA
ROBERT OWEN OVERWRITING

To make sure your fields are matched properly, youll want to use a system that allows you
to keep all of your mapped fields in one central spot. It will also be helpful if that system
tells you where data conflicts may live so that you can address them.

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S ta r t i n g Yo u r
INTEGRATION
Once you have your fields mapped and youve defined the data that you want to sync
between systems as a part of your integration, youre ready to start the integration app.

When starting your integration, there are a couple of considerations to note:

1 Do you want all of your existing data to be synced between the systems that
youve connected? This will essentially create a mirror of your data in the
systems that youre integrating.

2 Would you rather starting syncing data on a go forward basis, meaning that no
old data will be synced immediately. Only new and edited data will be synced
after you start the integration.

Once the integration process is complete, youll be able to search for information in any
system that youve integrated. No longer will you be forced to manually peruse through
each and every system your company uses to find specific data for each client
or employee.

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I n te g r a t i o n
RISKS AND
CONSIDERATIONS
One thought that may have crossed your mind as you have been considering a data
integration project:

What if my data gets screwed up?

First of all: its a totally valid concern. Secondly,

if youre using a platform like Bedrock Data,
there is very little to worry about.

Remember, most all data integration platforms

on the market today will, by default, only sync
your data on an ongoing basis, meaning
that the platform is not going to go back and
overwrite data in one system or another.

Now, as your data changes, its the data

integration softwares job to keep your data in
sync, so certain data may get overwritten in any
system. The key there is to make sure that the
right fields are being overwritten in
priority order.

FOR EXAMPLE
If youre integrating a finance system and CRM, you likely want the finance system to own
the revenue field, as it will be consistently more accurate. In this case, you want the
finance systems field to be able to overwrite the CRM.

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Ongoing
MAINTENANCE
AND IMPROVEMENTS
Life in the corporate world can change at
the blink of an eye. Some companies can
start out with their emails on one platform
only for this to change if theyre bought
out by another corporation.

Before data integration, this was cause

for irritation and aggravation because
of all the work that went into updating
this information. Back then, you would
have to access each and every system
your company used to update every
email address for every employee of that
company. With Bedrock Data, thanks to
your clean field mapping, you only need
to make one change and it is automatically
With Bedrock Data, synchronized across the board.

thanks to your clean Because of the instant synchronization

field mapping, you offered by Bedrock Data, should the
only need to make systems you normally use go through
maintenance or improvements, the amount
one change and it of work on your end is
is automatically minimal. On the other
synchronized across hand, we are also always
making improvements to
the board.
our own system to make
life easier for everyone.

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IN CONCLUSION
Hopefully weve provided you with any information you may need to make an educated
decision about implementing a data integration system for your company. Should you
have any questions about anything that may not have been covered in this guide, feel
free to contact us at any time. We will be more than happy to get you started.

EASILY INTEGRATE
YOUR BUSINESS DATA
You can use Bedrock to sync between your
cloud business systems and keep a running backup
of your critical business data.

TRY BEDROCK
FOR FREE

Bedrock Data is a data management platform that allows businesses to synchronize and
manage their data quickly and easily.

Bedrock connects to a lot of different business systems, including CRMs, ERPs, Marketing,
Email, Support, Finance and E-commerce systems. Connect with us to learn more, or just
get started with an integration today.

745 Atlantic Ave. 3rd Floor Boston, MA. 02111 1-877-588-2671 sales@bedrockdata.com www.bedrockdata.com

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