Got Cloud? Get Integrated to Reap the Full Business Value

Cloud is the new normal for most small businesses. But, while the cloud has made it much easier for small businesses to access and use new applications, only 17% of these small businesses have fully integrated them. And, although 29% of have at least partially integrated some applications, 54% still rely on manual Excel file uploads or custom code  for integration, instead of using modern integration solutions or pre-integrated solutions (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Small Business (1-20 employees) Integration Levels and Methods

Most small business owners understand that when apps are integrated, they can spend less time entering and moving data around. And what small business wouldn’t want to be able to have a more unified view of their business, not only to make better decisions, but also present a more professional image to customers?

But as the data indicates, many small businesses think integration is too expensive or complicated. So it was great to talk with Vinay Pai, who leads Intuit’s Developer Group, about Intuit approach to tackle this issue for small businesses. In this video, Vinay and I discussed trends in cloud adoption and integration, and Intuit’s approach to help small businesses reap the benefits of integrated applications.

If you want to slash the time you spend manually re-entering or exporting data, and get a more unified view of your business, this video is for you. Vinay discusses how Intuit is building integrations between QuickBooks and Square, PayPal, AMEX Open and hundreds of other popular apps that small businesses use.

QuickBooks users will find pre-integrated apps at the QuickBooks App Store.

When you find an app you want, you can usually try it for free. If you’d like, you can also opt-in to have Intuit recommend apps that may be useful to your business. Once you decide to buy an app, the data will automatically flow between QuickBooks and the new app you’ve added. Refreshingly, there’s no additional charge for these integrations, clearing the cost hurdle as well.

This post is sponsored by Intuit.