As your organization looks to build customer-facing integrations, you’ll have a few options to consider.

You can build native integrations, or any integration that your developers scope, implement, and maintain; you can build embedded integrations through the use of an embedded iPaaS; or you can implement unified integrations (which use unified APIs, or an aggregated API for a specific category of software).  

We’ll explain why unified integrations can be a great option by breaking down their benefits. But before we do, let’s align on the definition of unified integration as well as walk through some examples.

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What is unified integration?

A unified integration is any integration that’s built with a unified API. It’s often used in popular software categories, such as HRIS, CRM, and ATS.

Related: Everything you need to know about universal APIs

Unified integration benefits

Here are some of the benefits of unified integration:

Scales customer-facing integrations effectively

Unlike native integrations and embedded iPaaS solutions, which force you to build one integration at a time, unified integration platforms allow you to offer dozens of integrations with a single API build.

Improves customer retention

Allowing clients to integrate your product with their specific applications can motivate them to use your product further and in higher-value ways. Some unified integration platforms, like Merge, also make it easy for you to oversee integration activities, identify errors, and resolve them quickly. Taken together, you’ll be able to offer more reliable, high-performing integrations that go a long way in improving customer retention.

Increases close rates

Customer-facing integrations are table stakes for staying relevant—especially in a crowded and mature market. But if you manage to offer more integrations than your rivals, or deliver higher-performing integrations, you can stand out to prospects and, all else equal, win them over.

Expands your total addressable market

Companies of different sizes and in specific regions and industries tend to use a unique set of applications in a software category. In the marketing automation space, for instance, small and mid-sized businesses might use Brevo (previously known as Sendinblue) while enterprise organizations might rely more on HubSpot.

By using unified integrations to scale up your integration offerings, you can better address the needs of different markets and experience less friction when trying to expand into each.

Unified integration examples

Now that you know the benefits of unified integration, your next question is likely around the unified integration platforms that exist and are a good fit for your organization. 

The vendors often specialize in specific types of software, so we’ll break down the most common ones for a few popular categories:

• CRM: Merge, Apideck, Revert, Vessel, and Knit
• HRIS: Merge, Apideck, Finch, and Kombo
• Accounting: Merge, hotglue, Apideck, and Rutter 
• Ticketing: Merge, Poozle, and Truto

There’s a common thread across these categories: Merge, the leading unified API platform, offers unified integrations across them.

In addition to offering hundreds of product integrations across key software categories, the platform provides comprehensive data models (in addition to features like Field Mapping to access custom data); robust integration management capabilities, such as logs and automated issue detection; a seamless end-user experience through Link, and much more.

Learn more about Merge by scheduling a demo with one of our integration experts.