Once identified as an exclusive vendor sponsor, enterprises are proud to associate themselves with SAP Shop, Microsoft Shop, or Oracle Shop. They were the pioneers in application offerings. A widespread belief that the “best of the breed” applications encompass rich functionalities and support from third-party consulting firms boosted that idea. Vendors assured product stability and security based on market share instead of implementation cost, time to market, user experience, and technologies.
In the last decade, omnichannel evolution positioned technology to the front seat. Implementation period and solution success mattered as opposed to vendor brand or their market share. There is a broad acceptance for niche players in exchange for the “Must have” features and reduced implementation time. System Integrators played a crucial role in making this transition successful in the long run.
Importance of System Integrators Experience
Monolithic systems are fading faster, and the majority of the enterprises are in the process of upgrading or modernizing the legacy systems through cloud adoption. A growing trend on APIs, Microservices adoption dilutes the application architecture, meaning applications are broken into modules and business functions.
Customizations on the cloud are out of the question as there are no opportunities to customize from the vendor side, unlike the legacy world. But custom features are unavoidable in enterprise implementations as every business functions in a certain way, and industry standards are not practical.
This situation demands a solid system integrator player familiar with cloud application architecture, touchpoints (APIs), industry best practices, customers’ long-term road map to propose and develop a custom solution. The majority of the time, that gap will be a deal-breaker in a SaaS cloud implementation.
A combination of technical expertise, application knowledge, industry exposure, and customer business understanding is critical to handle delicate requirements.
The automation industry’s increased advancements have led to an extensive need for system integrators, who play a vital role in streamlining workflows and processes for effective management, reducing operational costs, and ensuring system efficiency.
It is highly infeasible to hire in-house consultants as the solution portfolio spreads across multiple vendors. System Integrators are irreplaceable players for application integration, custom development, and automation programs.
Characteristics of SIs
Recently, Forbes lists out the best qualities of Supply Chain System Integrators (SIs). Here are some of the characteristics of renowned system integrators:
- Unbiased View on Product and Industry Best Practices
- Essentially, it’s less expensive to have a WMS implemented by System Integrators with consultants based out at lower-priced regions rather than WMS consultant suppliers. The reason is that SIs have many experienced people both, On-site and off-site who can deliver their best support and services.
- Practical Implementation Experience
- It’s evident that WMS implementations are certainly not easily accomplished tasks, but it could be much easier to go with streamlined processes and efficient integration. For example, a top-tier system integrator has proven that WMS implementations could be a piece of cake when industry players come into action, with arecent implementation in just 4.5 months. Extensive system integrators have various experiences with different vendors that deal with other notable vendors.
- Global Presence & Cultural Fit
- Having the ability to work with companies in different levels and industries needs people to add to their needs. Based on region, system integrators will recognize the cultural significance that applies to each company and make sure that specialists speak the language and are aware of the cultural value companies may have. The ability to adapt is the reason for its success and its increasing global presence.
One such company, ITOrizon, fits these characteristics. Are you interested in learning more about this system integrator? Check out their recent implementations.