Let’s face it- sometimes as event planners we hear the term “integrations” and shut down a little bit. Even the most experienced event technologists understand that setting up and maintaining integrations is not for the faint of heart.
But why continue to do integrations if they are SUCH a pain?
Besides often being unavoidable, there are actually a lot of benefits to incorporating integrations into your event tech stack. We’ll quickly walk you through what those are, and share some tips about how you can make managing your integrations more, well manageable.
What is an integration?
Simply put, an integration allows you to connect data from one platform to another. Some softwares have “native” integrations- meaning you don’t have to do very much to get things set up beyond adding in certain ID numbers to connect the platforms.
Other integrations are not so straightforward.
Still they are important because good data management and reporting is the basis for understanding the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and customer profiles. Integrations are also important because they:
- Allow you to use the tools you already have in place at your company
- Supplement missing pieces of you tech stack since one size fits all platform is hard to do
- Enable you to save money by prioritizing the features you truly need
- Provide special functionality that helps manage data
- Increase automation! Integrations allow for less manual work and can be used over multiple years and events
Tips for making integrations more manageable
In 2023 alone our team implemented 118 custom integrations on various event tech platforms. We’ve brought in our CTO and resident integrations expert Satish Baniya, to share his top advice when it comes to managing integrations.
Here are Satish’s Top 5 Tips for Managing your Integrations:
Begin with the end in mind
Ahead of implementing your integrations, you need to make sure you have an understanding of how you want your data to flow so there’s no confusion. Time and time again I’ve seen integrations fail because the teams have waited until the last minute to see what the end actually is.
Preparation is key
Before you start doing anything, make sure your staging environment/sandbox are ready to go- it will save you time and momentum.
You will also want to make sure that your data points you’re looking for flow back and forth and that this integration will scale. For example if you are expecting to have 70k attendees register you need to have enough resources on your platforms and server. Load testing is key.
Lean into the discovery process
The discovery process is very important. It includes learning what is already there, and what can be added. You will want to make sure to ask as many questions as possible and make sure you have the right parties involved in the discovery calls.
Stay organized
Make sure to document what you are doing and check in with yourself and the roadblocks you’re facing. Data accuracy is important and a messy integration process can lead to errors.
Know how you will measure success
What outcomes are you expecting? And what are you trying to get out of the integration? Often a big part of measuring success involves knowing what upper management is looking for and so you want to make sure your goals are aligned.
Integrations BW supports
Our team supports a plethora of integrations, but here are some examples of popular asks from the past 12 months.
Swoogo x Eloqua
Adobe Recommendations x Rainfocus
Custom BW Agenda x Rainfocus
Atlassian x Swoogo
Amego x Swoogo
Cvent x Amego
Salesforce x Swoogo
Bardot x Cvent
Salesforce x Cvent
Hopspot x Swoogo
Netsuite x Atlassian
Marketo x Swoogo (to cover all needed entities)
Event Base x Rainfocus
Oracle x Rainfocus
Google x Swoogo
SSO authentication
Travel pro x Swoogo
Cvent x Cadence Travel
Passkey x Swoogo
Overall, we see integrations most needed to connect Registration Platforms to Mobile Apps, Payment tools, CRMs, SSO tools and custom agenda tools.
Additionally, integrations are used to ensure data flows 2 ways.
In Conclusion
Any questions about your own integrations? Our expert integration team is always ready to help. Connect with us here or send an email to [email protected] to see if we can help you with your tech stack for your next event or event program.
