Emergent technologies have enabled companies across the globe to increase their operational productivity through automated software solutions and information controls. Many business owners, especially those in the food and beverage industry, have been reticent to automate their factories. Upfront costs are always a factor, but many remain convinced that digitizing their operations will only introduce more unnecessary complexity to their operations.
After Systems Integration
The cost to automate manufacturing plants has lowered significantly in recent years because the latest industrial automation solutions are highly scalable. When manufacturers introduce automated technology to their plants in stages, they can feel confident that implementing more new technology in the future will lead to a strong return on their investments over time.
Businesses that facilitate multiple offices and warehouse sites often struggle to bring their systems together in a way that allows their teams to cohere and communicate productively. Manufacturers currently experiencing productivity losses attributable to multiple systems should take a closer look at converging their various modules under one umbrella so they can operate as a single unit.
Systems integration explained
In the current business technology environment, it’s easy to get caught up in the latest industry fads without developing an effective strategy for making them work with their existing systems. Organizations can invest significantly in the latest industrial automation solutions and even completely automate their factories without realizing the maximum benefits of their new automated technologies. It’s at this juncture that system integration comes into significant play.
Business owners need an effective way to manage their various systems and associated departments. Purposeful and efficient management means you can’t stay on this same path of juggling through multiple systems to achieve just one objective. If you’ve been automating various aspects of your business while introducing new accounting software, to only later implement a digital tracking system in your sales department; eventually, you’ll need a more streamlined approach to managing them all.
When you implement new systems separately, you’re frequently using different vendors to install them. So, the question remains -how do you connect these systems to work as a unified whole? As mentioned, ultimately, you will have to take action to connect your various systems to avoid disjointed and inefficient workflows.
This process of interlinking your various independent systems and applications is called system integration, and it helps companies running multiple solutions increase workplace performance. Below, we’ll take a closer look at four key business improvements you’ll realize after connecting your existing systems.
What are the benefits of system integration?
Implementing new software controls can be a painstaking process if approached incorrectly. Furthermore, if you’ve already installed your preferred technology, why risk throwing them off balance by integrating these solutions? Unintegrated applications and software programs do have their advantages. But, if your current systems seem inefficient and disorganized, here are four ways your organization can benefit from system integration.
1. More streamlined operations
When you integrate varying systems, one of the main benefits is that it allows you to collect all your relevant business data under a single umbrella. When you eventually need to retrieve and process this information, you find the process much more fluid after integrating your subsystems into a one unit. Automation and system integration companies like EZSoft can engineer a solution that allows your business to automate and expedite your manual process while streamlining access to valuable business data.
2. Improved accuracy and better collaboration
System integration usually entails pulling operational data from multiple sources and storing it in one location. Linking your systems reduces the time it takes to access data that would otherwise be synched across multiple systems. If one of your subsystems renders a different output, this information automatically updates to the interlinked system. After integrating all your subsystems, you’ll gain real-time access to relevant data across all your departments under one interface.
Industrial automation solutions from EZSoft allow you to update and synchronize your business information in live-time for more accurate readings. Streamlined access to reliable, up-to-date data improves coordination and collaboration among all system users and enhances decision-making and planning across every area of your organization.
3. Better performance
When multiple systems lead to cross-departmental disconnects, you start encountering efficiency losses that lead to low employee productivity and performance levels. If one of your subsystems updates its data, your others still need to keep pace. This often means manually entering the most current information if your systems aren’t interlinked.
Once you’ve integrated your systems, your central database will update automatically, ensuring that your operators and business staff can always access accurate, real-time information. Streamlining your business data under a single interface allows you to save on labor overhead, as well. Your various teams won’t have to invest copious amounts of their time synching their activities up with those of other departments. This extra time allows your employees to keep the focus on their core business activities instead of worrying about how to handle disjointed software solutions.
4. Enhanced security
Your cybersecurity should never be taken lightly, and system integration can simplify your digital security management tasks. While it might be true that hackers find it more challenging to take down all your independent subsystems at once, a successful cyberattack on just one of them could potentially result in a disruption that leads to an extended unplanned stretch of downtime. If managing multiple security solutions has previously proven difficult, your organization will undoubtedly benefit from system integration.
Where can I find industrial automation companies near me?
EZSoft is a full-service systems integrator of process control solutions for the food and beverage manufacturing and specialty chemical industries. Located in the Greater Philadelphia area, we provide businesses with the latest automated solutions and strategies to keep their operations running smoothly while reducing running costs.
Learn more about how your organization can increase visibility and accuracy with our industrial automation software by completing an online request for contact form or dialing (484) 568-5040 now.
