Something is missing.
Can you see it?
If you’ve been to the WizeHive website and gotten the lowdown on the benefits of a robust, full-lifecycle platform like our Zengine, and if you’ve been to the sites of other platforms, you may have felt like you were playing one of those “spot the differences” games parents and teachers placed in front of you as a kid. There are similar features, sure. But then there are differences.
Here’s a clue: one of WizeHive’s key features and part of its industry-leading flexibility is its ability to integrate. But integration is a priceless feature that seems to be missing from many of today’s other application management processes. In fact, it’s one of the three things we think ANY software you purchase should have (more about that further down). So why is it so important, and just how helpful could it be in improving your application management process?
New to the concept? It’s simple -- in fact, that’s it’s biggest selling point. Integrations allow two or more software products to speak to each other, share data, and perform tasks. When your programs have integrations, you can set up all sorts of triggers that eliminate the need for you to enter data twice or do extra work outside of the system.
Integrations are powerful and helpful for many reasons -- they help you work seamlessly with other programs and software, save you time, eliminate errors, and help extend the lifespan of your platform. Instead of downloading and then uploading, or copying then pasting, or -- horror of horrors -- actually manually re-entering data, integrations between your systems easily transfer data for you.
Some software products and platforms come with a few integrations built-in. Cool. Some require you to create webhooks or APIs to add them in. Not as cool, especially if you are not a developer and have no clue what either of those are. Zengine? It comes with 1000 and counting. This means you can connect without lengthy and expensive integration effort.
Impressive, huh? Knowing we wanted to offer our customers this rich integration feature, we made a calculated investment, designing Zengine to easily interface with other software systems through a plugin-in.
Zapier is a platform that deals in integrations. The folks at Zapier want everyone to get along, and so they spend their days working to create code that allows tons of popular business and personal programs to talk to each other. Nice, huh?
They also allow for automations, which take things one step further when it comes to speeding up your workflow. For this they have developed code-based discussions called Zaps. If you are working on software code and want an action -- also called a trigger -- in this program to generate a result in another program out there, you create a Zap to make it so.
OK, it’s slightly more complicated than that, but not really. The basic takeaway is that Zaps allow developers to fairly easily connect databases, which means they allow you to have a more seamless, streamlined work process.
When we were building Zengine, we knew we wanted to bring in Zapier. By allowing Zaps to work within Zengine from the start, we were essentially setting up all our customers to be able to integrate their application management process with countless other systems they may be using … or will decide to use one day.
Right now, the crew at Zapier has a list of 750 or so programs that can utilize Zaps, and that number is continually growing. Gmail. Got it. Salesforce? Covered. Quickbooks? But of course. Check out the ZapBook, their list of compatible programs, and see just how many you use are already included.
While 750 is a big number, there’s a chance what you need your platform to do is more complex. If you need integrations not available via Zapier, not to worry. We've got that covered too thanks to our robust API options and a team that can get you connected.
If you are considering upgrading to Zengine, begin thinking of how integrations will make your life and the jobs of your team easier, and be sure to discuss the best way to set them up with your Solution Developer or Implementation Lead. And make note of the programs you aren’t using yet, but might be one day. Zengine and a few Zaps might be taking your process to the next level sooner than you think.
