Thinking of introducing a data integration tool to the functioning of your business? Well, quite a good decision! Combining data from various sources and shaping them into meaningful and sensible information is of crucial significance for every company. You can’t move forward without proper data, and getting the data, and turning them into practical and actionable info, will require you to use one of those integration tools. You can understand the importance of integration more if you read this.
Anyway, while you’ve most probably already done your fair share of research, aiming at figuring out the importance of integration and the benefits of using the right tools, one thing may still be keeping you sort of confused here. Put simply, you know that choosing a great tool is a must, but you don’t know how to pick among all of those different providers that operate on this particular market today. They will all be ready to claim that their tools are best and that they are the ones you should work with, but you know better than to trust their own, subjective judgements.
Thus, you want to form your own, objective judgments. So, choosing a great data integration tool provider will be your main focus after figuring out that you want and need to use one of these solutions for your business. And, since you’re most likely doing this for the first time, understanding how to actually select the best providers may be a bit difficult.
What does it mean if that’s difficult, though? Does it mean you should trust your gut feeling and hope you’ll make the right choice just like that? Definitely not. I have nothing against gut feelings, but they are best left outside the business world and business decisions. You have to be much more practical than that and basically learn exactly how to choose the perfect provider, which is why I’ll help you with right now by offering some advice and tips you can use in the searching and choosing processes.
Here are some considerations to make as well: https://medium.com/@AhmedF/7-key-factors-to-consider-when-choosing-a-data-integration-tool-for-your-business-721752b02930
Try to Get Some Suggestions
Know anyone who could give you direct advice and suggestions regarding these tools and providers? Perhaps you know someone who has been using Adeptia for a while, or a different tool you may find interesting. Or, maybe you don’t really have a clue about which tools and providers exist on this market, but you do know people that, in your opinion, must have used some of those to their advantage. In any of those cases, talking to those people will undeniably come in handy.
How so? Well, they’ll give you their suggestions on the providers you should consider and the tools you may want to use. Having someone to talk to about this will certainly make the whole choosing process simpler, since you’ll at least get a starting point for your research, if nothing else. Getting suggestions from people you trust should, thus, be your first step in the entire process.
Search Online
It shouldn’t be your last step, though. I know you understand that, but you could still easily be tempted to immediately contact one of the providers that the people you know may have recommended. Don’t do it so quickly. You still have a lot of research to do before getting in touch, and your next step should be aimed at finding even more providers than the ones you learned about during your first step.
That next step consists of searching for these providers online. Using your browser, you’ll get to type in all the keywords you deem necessary and you’ll get a lot of relevant results that way. Writing down the names of the providers and their tools is definitely important here since you won’t be able to remember them all, and you’ll need to do further research on them.
Check the Official Sites
Doing further research, naturally, begins with checking the official sites of the providers you’ve come across. This should be a no-brainer. It’s perfectly logical that visiting the websites is a must during any research, including this one. Doing so will help you determine the level of experience of particular companies, as well as possibly check out their track record and get familiar with some of their past clients, that is, other businesses that have used their data integration tools. In short, visiting the sites should help you gather some quite useful information that you’ll later use to make your final choice.
Take a Look at the Features of the Tool
When you come across tools provided by this company or another, such as Adeptia and similar ones you find quite interesting, you’ll also have to take a closer look at the actual features of the tools before making a choice. Figuring out what it is your business needs and what it is that you expect from these tools in the first place will make it easier for you to decide if the offered features suit your needs or not. Thus, identify your needs and requirements first and then start checking out the features of the different data integration tools you’re considering.
As Well As the Reputation of the Providers
Since your aim here is to choose a great provider, you won’t be able to go without checking their reputation. Working with companies that are quite ill-reputed and that have a record of disappointing their past clients is not the best idea. Thus, checking for those clients’ comments and reviews, aiming at determining reputation, is undeniably an important step. Most likely, you’ll get to easily find the reviews both on the official sites and elsewhere online.
Remember to Compare Prices
Not the most significant factor, but price is still relevant. You want it to be reasonable. And, checking and comparing those offered by different providers will help you determine what’s reasonable and what isn’t. This way, you’ll ultimately get to choose, while also keeping all the other factors in mind, the provider that offers the best quality and the most cost-effective data integration tool.