Application Orchestration: Many Channels, One Platform

There are numerous possibilities to reach out to potential and existing customers today, with the entry of mobile technology, followed by Social Media Channels and eventually, the cloud-companies. The challenge with such a vast spectrum of communication channels is the uniformity of experience.

The Eligibility to call oneself Omni-channel

Brands become omni-channel only when they can objectify the real-life perfection of their products/services on to the virtual world across all channels. Retailers are feeling the heat of such a necessity, as is evident through the Retail Systems Research Omni-channel Benchmark Report, which spells that over 50% of the retailers find establishing such a uniform and functional experience across channels a difficult task.

Retailers have realized that data, processes and systems have to be integrated to make sure that customers receive a satisfactory experience. Does this imply that they have to restructure their projects completely? How can they avoid such an expensive and time-munching task?

Introducing App-Orchestration and Weighing Alternatives

This is possible through Application Orchestration where various apps are brought together for synchronizing data and automating processes. One could also take up point-to-point integration to bring the apps together. However, this has faced a history of incompatibility issues (application dependencies aka ‘spaghetti code’).

There are three main functions of application orchestration: integration of apps without coupling them together, centralized management and monitoring of such integrations and capacities of message routing, alteration, security and dependability.

Orchestrating flow of Information

The name ‘App Orchestration’ sums up the spirit of this solution where every system/API/process has an independent existence, along with required sub-sections. Every part possesses a data set like Orders, Stock information/levels, Customer details, Twitter/Facebook and other social media channels, Product specs and EPoS. Each business system can come up with such categories which will house the data efficiently.

Once the sections have been created, the next step is to orchestrate them together. This involves uniting the sections with each other such that the touch-points and systems are linked into a single and unitary information-flow. This can be utilized by any user (sales members, customers, and management staff) of any device. Model journeys can be created by connecting sections with one another.

You can also engineer a schedule of deployments of changes which can be applied across the infrastructure of your system.

No technical language required

With the active use of graphic editing and flow-based infrastructure, any user who might have negligible grasp of technical language can built customer journeys easily. The drag-and-drop option allows addition of required parts which can be transported to different regions for perfecting the experience. Many application orchestration tools comes with series of modules which can be used to set up the application infrastructure.

Easy Integration into Any Process

When the first step of creating sections of data is complete, they can be smoothly incorporated into any process. For instance, a user can build a library easily that can be brought forth while creating a journey.

Minimal Burden on Budget

What makes application orchestration an out-of-the-box solution? It begins with data present in useable formats. This means that processes and experiences can be constructed without difficulty, then put on trial and modified without heavy charges. As the changes take effect, you can witness the effect. Moreover, a better method is to apply the changes to a certain region and check on their results before implementing them system-wide.

Accurate and Powerful Analytics

Since a series of diverse sections become part of this app-orchestra, the accuracy of insights is increased. With live dashboards, companies can check their most popular items, social media mentions, voucher redeeming statistics and monitor time taken for carrying out services.