One thing that contractors should be educated about when considering integrations between the systems in their existing tech stack relates to the “open API” myth. This is the assumption that an open application programming interface, which allows two systems to connect and transfer data, is the only way to integrate between two systems.
The term “open API” is frequently misunderstood, much like “integration” itself. We routinely hear this in the market, with consumers expecting an effortless “plug-and-play” solution that connects with anything and everything—which is not necessarily the case. Development work is still required to enable the connection, and it can be more complex depending on the contractor’s integration and workflow goals.
There is a time and place—and different market segments—for both open API connections and purpose-built, point-to-point integrations. True alignment with integration partners makes the experience safer, more scalable, more cost effective and much better for the end user.
Contractors with the open-API-solution mindset typically end up with an overly complex tech stack, trying to implement many disjointed technologies with the expectation that they will all communicate via an open API. A better practice is to maintain a manageable tech stack with the most robust, construction-focused offerings rather than implement disjointed add-on products with an open API expectation.
A complex tech stack introduces several high-risk factors for the contractor: too many low-quality solutions in place, difficulties creating simple processes and procedures for using all of these tools internally, poor customer service when getting to the root of the business need when liaising with multiple customer-service providers that do not speak to each other (despite their API connections), and high long-term opportunity costs. The more complex the tech stack, the more breaking points you fall victim to, and the longer it takes to reach a resolution and get back to business.
While it ultimately depends on the contractor’s goals, a wise strategy is to take a construction-focused buying approach and look for construction-focused software providers with native integrations to maximize on one customer experience, reduce risk and gain long-term value.
