Integration is the work of connecting different applications, data and systems so that they function together as a coherent whole.
In a company, tools multiply: CRM, ERP, billing tool, business application, data warehouse. Without integration, information is re-entered by hand and drifts apart. Integration relies on APIs, scheduled data flows, message buses (such as Kafka) or dedicated platforms.
The word has other meanings worth telling apart:
- web integration: turning a graphic mockup into HTML and CSS pages, the job of an HTML integrator
- continuous integration: automatically merging and testing code on every change (the CI in CI/CD)
- system integration, in industry and defense: assembling hardware and software into a working product
Integration is often where the costliest problems of an information system hide.
Why it matters when hiring
The word integration in a job title is confusing: web integrator, system integration engineer and developer of interfaces between software are three distinct jobs. Specify which one you are looking for. For application integration, the right profile knows APIs and data formats and can handle errors between systems, which you can check by asking them to describe an integration that went wrong.