Usually bulk data is loaded from spreadsheets directly into an application’s database, bypassing carefully engineered business logic and safeguards. The dangers range from undetected invalid data (e.g. bad email addresses) to loss of transactional integrity (e.g. unbalanced financials or lost supporting transactions).

Flowgear enforces integrity by importing spreadsheet data into applications via their API’s, enabling them to apply normal transaction processing and data validation controls. The result is error-free database records and an unbroken audit trail.

Without understanding an application’s internal processes, it’s easy to extract the wrong data or reporting information directly from its database. And if the application developer changes the database structure, automated exports will no longer work.

Flowgear interrogates an application through its API. So, regardless of the underlying mechanism for obtaining it, the data selected for export is always correct, even when the database structure changes.

In the past, integrations between applications were carried out using an enterprise service bus (ESB). But only large enterprises, with complex internal systems, technical skills and the budget, could implement an ESB.

Organizations today need an integration solution that can handle both real-time and batch integration needs, that has been built for cloud and mobile usage as well as on-premise, and that can work with a variety of communication formats and protocols. They need a better data transfer engine – an integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS).

Related Article: Is it time to replace your old ESB?

Middleware technologies conceptualized in the 1990s were designed for stable, batch-oriented applications that ran behind a firewall, communicating only via XML and SOAP. The need now is for an integration solution that can handle both real-time and batch integration needs. Read more

Data warehousing gathers information from across the enterprise into a central repository. Here, it can be analyzed with business intelligence tools to deliver valuable strategic insights. The fresher the data, the greater the advantage.

But business-critical data is no longer neatly stored in on-site databases. It can be spread across multiple networks and locations (such as branches and data centres), reside with business partners (e.g. consignment stock), or live in the Cloud (e.g. SaaS applications). Storage formats range from structured tables to unstructured chunks of text. With traditional tools, modern data is hard to manage.

Flowgear’s Cloud-based integration technologies collect a wider variety of data regardless of format or location. Workflows accelerate data warehouse updates to ensure information freshness. And scheduling means the right information at the right time.