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Contact us if you need a Mobile Payments integration Modern mobile payment systems make this task easier, but before choosing one you should understand how they all work. In our new article, we’ve explained how mobile payments are organized and which things to consider while integrating them with your app. Check it out and start getting an edge with the right mobile payment solution. Introduction of Google Wallet (now is Google Pay) inspired a gradual decline of traditional heavy leather wallets. It's no longer OK for mobile apps to use one tunnel for card-based transactions. To reach a wider audience of progressive users, one should also accept other payment types like digital wallets, Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments, and cryptocurrencies. However, integration of mobile payments functionality into a mobile app is more than just adding a new app screen and writing a bunch of code. Read our article to find out what things to consider while adding mobile payments to your app. Mobile payment gateway A mobile payment gateway is a front-end technology that authorizes a transfer of funds between a user’s payment portal (mobile phone) and the merchant acquiring bank. One can think of it in the same way as of a traditional Point of Sale (POS) terminal. Source: squareup.com At checkout, the gateway transfers the cardholder information to the issuing bank to verify the request. The data is further handled by a payment processor at which one has a merchant account, although some processors have their own gateways. At this stage, the bank will either approve or reject the payment with the corresponding message appearing on the end user’s mobile screen. The payment gateway is actually an API you integrate to make a request for charging a customer's card. Most reputable payment platforms provide an API that works with the backend language of your mobile app. Using this API, the app can talk to the payment platform. Typically, API integration services can complete the integration within a few working days. The data traffic that goes through a gateway is transferred privately and always enciphered. If the payment information was transmitted right to the processor (without a gateway stage) it could be easily interpreted. This would allow an intruder to make fraudulent transactions. Integration strategy The integration strategy depends on the types of goods being offered to the customers. Typically, there are two options you can have: Virtual goods (in-app purchases). Both Apple and Google take a 30 percent off any transaction that is made within your mobile app for in-app purchases. For this reason, both OSes do not allow using any third-party payment services and provide the developers with their specialized StoreKIt framework and In-App Billing API for iOS and Android respectively. The purchases are made in AppStore or Google Play via Apple or Gmail accounts that users are already supposed to have. Source: developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit Physical goods and services. When it comes to the goods and services outside of the app, both Apple and Google recommend using third-party mobile payment gateway providers. However, a platform will charge a percentage of the transaction as a fee. The most common figure is 2.9 percent. How to choose a payment solution According to the annual Mobile Payments & Fraud report, merchants that provide mobile payment capabilities in their apps offer a wide range of payment methods. However, there is a gradual shift from standard credit and debit cards to PayPal, mobile wallets, ACH or bank transfer payments, prepaid cards and cryptocurrencies. The top two consideration when choosing a payment method are: How well it integrates with your payment platform and bank account. In fact, most of the well-known payment platforms support the popular mobile payment solutions like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Samsung Pay as well as ACH and traditional swipe cards. For cryptocurrency adopters, there will be probably a need to turn to specialized payment gateways. Yet, such payment giants as Paypal (through Braintree) and Shopify do allow their customers to pay with bitcoin, while Stripe has officially stopped its support. How secure payment data is. “The biggest fear of corporates and consumers is that transactions will not be processed properly, that their bank access details might be compromised and that their data and therefore their money may be stolen. This is why the focus on data and data security is the key to the future," Chris Skinner, Digital Bank: Strategies to launch or become a digital bank. Today, mobile payment providers have a set of security measures to stick to. Most of them never store raw cardholder information without tokenizing or encrypting it. Tokenization is a process of substituting sensitive information like the PAN (primary account number) with an algorithmically generated non-sensitive counterpart called a token to prevent credit card fraud. It means that during the payment processing the actual card data is never exposed. Tokenization is mathematically irreversible unless you get access to the original key used to generate a token. Even if the system is hacked, all the fraudster will see is a bunch of randomized devalued symbols. Source: https://developer.samsung.com Encryption transforms the data into a form unreadable by anyone without a secret decryption key. Its purpose is to ensure privacy by keeping the information hidden from anyone for whom it is not intended, even those who can see the encrypted data. Both practices decrease the number of systems allowed to see the customer’s data, thus reducing the scope of PCI Compliance. However, neither Apple Pay nor Google Pay does adhere to the standard. Therefore, they need to be integrated with the PCI-compliant payment platform, like PayPal’s Braintree or Stripe and the issuing bank must be PCI compliant. Final thoughts Integrating payments to a mobile app may seem not a big thing as reputable payment systems provide well-built APIs. Yet, being aware of the industry nuances can help to avoid unwanted risks related to the security considerations and technology deployment.

Source: https://actioncoach.co.za ‘In software systems it is often the early bird that makes the worm.’ Alan Perlis In September of 2016, users downloaded approx 130 billion apps from the App Store, and about 2.23% of those downloaded were financial apps. In 2018 the picture looks like that: Source: www.statista.com Financial apps didn’t gain popularity on charm alone. Finances, at last, became a manageable task you can resolve from any place and using different devices. In the mobile section, you can see advisors, budget-builders, online-banking and many more. However, here we’re interested mostly in web applications that stand behind every modern company in the world.  But even though some companies are making good dough, the inside is dying out. Integration is the easy way to prevent your business from fading away and increase software functionality. ‘Grow fast or die slow.’ Silicon Valley series Cooperation expands your software. And this in turn gradually improves the quality of the services you offer, and make them relevant for the next decades. And before we start, the key questions of the article are: What is financial software, its definition, and types Accounting software Insurance software Banking software Trade and stock exchange software Why integrate these virtual creatures? Monsters under the covers Small business vs Large enterprise   Intro to the financial software Financial software is designed to automate, assist and store financial information, whether it personal or business. Moreover, this software store, analyse, and handles management and processing of financial transactions and records. It may be a standalone software or a part of a financial information system (IS). Most financial software incorporates all aspects of personal or business finance and provides numerous features, including: Basic financial data management Financial transactions Budgeting Account management Financial assets management   Financial software also may provide other related services, such as accounting, bookkeeping, and be integrated within other enterprise information systems. Accounting software Source: financialfuse.co.uk Accounting software automates accounting and finance-related tasks. It stores and analyzes transactions within diverse functional domains of accounting and finance. Key features: Integration with banking & insurance systems Accounts payable Accounts receivable Cash flow management Tax and compliance management Payroll management Insurance software Source: https://bancorpinsurance.com Insurance software is designed to help manage day-to-day operations and monitor the administrative side of insurance companies. Moreover, it allows clients to check their policy information, fill out forms and make online payments over the internet. Banking software Source: https://www.rcrwireless.com/ Banking software typically refers to Core Banking and trading software that is used by investment banks to access capital markets. Features of the banking software are: Commercial billing system (refinancing and some daily operations, including billing, collections/recovery, and interest rate adjustments) Making and servicing loans Opening and managing new accounts Processing cash deposits and withdrawals Processing payments and cheques CRM (Customer Relationship Management) activities Managing customers accounts Setting minimum balances, interest rates, number of withdrawals allowed etc. Maintaining records for all the bank’s transactions.   Trade and stock exchange software Source: http://cryptotimes.org Trading software helps investors improve their stock picking decisions through its fundamental analysis and advanced technical analysis. Stock market trading software is relied on by traders to pick out shares quickly. Some of the most common features include: Placing Trades Technical Analysis - (interactive charting capabilities, including both chart patterns and technical indicators) Fundamental Analysis (financial statements, analyst ratings, etc.) Programmatic Trading - advanced trading software rules out the necessity of manual clicking by developing programmatic trading systems. In addition, there’s the function of backtesting designed to see how automated trading systems would have performed in the past Paper Trading means placing faux trades. That way, traders can test out their skills and see how they would perform before committing actual capital   Why integrate? ‘Companies in every industry need to assume that a software revolution is coming.’ Marc Andreessen Well, first of all, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There’s no need to pay millions for the app that implements everything that has already been done. Instead of the one-shot-application, gather the best existing ones. Secondly, spreading business functions across multiple applications creates a flexible business with a choice to get the best (accounting package, CRM etc.). However, implementation of the request commonly involves several inner systems at once. This creates the necessity of a solid connection between them so that the data flow becomes much safer. Moreover, optimization of systems interaction (elimination of any discrepancies between them) decreases the overall time of development and prevents the need to start from scratch.   Moreover, integration makes the connection between supply chain management, customer relations management, and business intelligence simpler and smoother. So, instead of changing the whole application some business processes will become automated due to the “simple” integration solution. So, in order to support the effective implementation of business functions and reliable data exchange, software integration is a good choice. If you want to perfect your business, we at Belitsoft are quite experienced in integration solutions. Contact us here for a free quote and expert advice! Monsters under the covers The pitfalls concealed under the thoughtful word “integration” may change one’s mind to get the ball rolling. However, let’s get through the cover and see the truth. Data security is the most important aspect of finances. And here’s the place for the tethered goat to hide because data protection is what many companies struggle with. Careless integration may compromise it: a hacker accessing one of the systems can access them all. In this case, the integrated app is a weak spot. Moreover, integrating applications can actually create new vulnerabilities, because the figurative portals through which data flows from one system into another are the natural Achilles heel that crackers and/or your own employees can have an advantage of. When it comes to the finances, enterprise software inevitably comes up. Here, software promoters offer EAI suites that provide cross-platform, cross-language integration in addition to cooperation with many popular business apps. However, the true challenges of integration span far across business and technical issues. For example: Enterprise integration requires a change in corporate politics. Business apps mostly focus on a specific functional area, such as Customer Relationship Management, Billing, Finance, etc. As a result, many IT groups are organized in alignment with those. Once the most critical business functions incorporated into the integration solution, that well-functioning solution becomes vital. A fail here costs millions of dollars in lost orders and misrouted payments which lead to angry and never-come-back customers. Next difficulty you may probably meet is lack of control. In many cases when you want to integrate your software with others’ legacy systems and/or packaged applications. They can’t be changed just to be connected to your integration solution. This often leaves your developers nothing more than making up for deficiencies or peculiarities inside the applications and differences between them. Moreover, despite the widespread need for integration solutions, only a few standards are broadly used today (XML, XSL and Web services). In the meantime, the excitement centered around Web services has led to new fragmentation of the market, resulting in a flurry of new “extensions” and “interpretations” of the standards. Even though XML is treated as a versatile way of presentation, bringing all data exchange to it is just the same as if somebody wrote all the documentation in the world using only the Roman alphabet. It is common, but cannot be easily understood by all readers. So, in spite of the same “interpretation way” (XML), we have to meticulously eliminate the semantic differences between systems what will cost time and additional efforts.   Small business vs Large enterprise. All that different? Source: http://www.dijitalyol.com Enterprise integration software is the use of software and computer systems' architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications. it mainly focuses on system interaction, EDI, data exchange, and distributed computing devices: The first question is why to integrate already complex software that runs behind the scenes of a huge corporation. Well, it is clear that any company, especially large and “extensive”, works well while all the elements cooperate perfectly. So frankly speaking, most of the giants that exist today have integrated their systems and live happy life serving clients and milking them as long as they need to. Now let’s put puzzle pieces together. To realize how extend the enterprise back-end itself, see the main ERP modules: What makes the enterprise integrated software so different from the “ordinary” one? Well, all the systems above are linked and operate naturally as a network. Moreover, software integration improves data flow across multiple systems by modifying the connections between them into solid links and cleans them up by means of API. Important thing is that API gets an access to the systems’ information without breaking the connection between them. These facets as a whole create secure point-to-point communication channels, what allows developers to access information responsibly without affecting the connection. The key purposes of enterprise software integration are to make the easy access to the information and turn the app into the complex versatile field with the entire business stuff on board. From now on you don’t have to use any additional tools to offset the blank spaces of the original application. Conclusion Flexibility mostly defines constant development which is the crucial aspect to be in demand on the market. While you read this article, the modern IT industry keeps changing. To survive and open up new levels one needs to move with times and learn how to cooperate. Integration is another word for the partnership where systems perfect each other and grow. And even if you don’t run a company $100M company, it doesn’t mean integration is less profitable. Integration is one of the numerous facets which make the remote functioning of giant corporations safer, easier and helps to earn money having only clouds over the head. In the end, software integration makes data exchange more efficient, reliable and secure what improves the communication between diverse enterprise applications manifold. So, if you’ve chosen the path of IT and already think through the common pitfalls that drove many successful startups to an earlier grave, start the creation from the very beginning with us!

What is Healthcare Integration? Healthcare integration or, more precisely, health data integration and utilization, is the process of aggregating the health data from different sources for further collaborative use to improve clinical decision making and patient self-management support. According to studies, integrated healthcare is likely to reduce cost and improve outcomes.  However, health businesses often struggle with aggregating health data (both of structured data and unstructured data) from initially unconnected healthcare data sources such as EHR systems, hospital information systems, medical imaging systems, wearable devices, health applications and so on, as well as with further utilization of integrated data. To overcome the issue, integrated health information platforms are implemented. They have three critical components: the main data integration server, healthcare integration tools connected to required data sources, and dashboards/reports for end users. Data extraction (E), transformation (T) and loading (L) into a unified database - this is how a typical simplified ETL/ELT-based health data integration process may look like.   To make it real one needs: use a unified database to put data in, use data extraction scripts for each data source,  use data transform scripts to modify the extracted data to required format to fit the structure of the single database, use data loading scripts to import the transformed data into the database.  After the data is integrated, the task is the utilization of integrated data that is realized through different user interfaces including dashboards and reports.  Healthcare Integration Tools Healthcare data integration tools are divided into custom and off-the-shelf ones.  The advantage of custom data integration tools is your full control over functionality, for example because of data security requirements. It’s an option if tools available in the market are unable to meet all your needs. Among the cons of commercial data integration tools there are may be:  complex pricing models: customers find cost planning difficult in determining scenarios and budget projections; high licensing costs for particular tools and a longer time to achieve ROI objectives; hard-to-understand documentation;  limited integration capability with other solutions. In its turn the pros of ready-to-use data integration solutions are their capabilities of immediate implementation. However, there are three “ifs” involved:  if the tool is right for you,  if you don’t have to buy the entire platform,  and if there are no problems with finding skilled implementers. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools (2021) lists 18 vendors who provide off-the-shelf data integration tools that can be purchased independently from broader data management platforms. They excluded vendors that only provide support for open-source platforms/frameworks or development platforms, which need to be heavily engineered/customized for specific data integration tasks/use cases and/or are specific to a single data integration/data delivery style (such as stream data integration only). The key issue is how to select the right tool in support of the health data management solutions in your healthcare organization.  To narrow down the list you need to understand what types of data integration techniques you need to use, and, accordingly, which data integration tool provides this functionality.  Data integration techniques: bulk/batch data processing (processing of a large volume of data all at once not in real-time through ETL or ELT procedures; it can be used, for example, for patient management or verifying patient eligibility); data replication (copying data and storing them at different physical locations through change data capture (CDC) procedures); data virtualization (access, and manage data in real time when requesting via middleware without replicating it in a physical repository); streaming data integration (major use case is real-time analytics for sensor data); data synchronization (synchronizing data between two or more sources and target location and updating changes automatically between them). data orchestration (process of coordinating the execution of different data processing tasks). Gartner suggests that tools from 18 vendors meet all criteria, and tools from additional 10 vendors (Honorable Mentions) almost meet them.  Their matrix consists of Liders (including Microsoft, and Oracle), Challengers (including Qlik), Niche players and Visionaries. As to Honorable Mentions this category includes Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform.  For companies which are interested in evaluating and procuring tools that specialized ONLY in one data delivery style (for example, data replication, data ingestion, API integration, self-service data preparation or data virtualization) or support one use case (such as cloud data ingestion and migration), one data type (such as IoT data integration) or one scenario (such as location intelligence through geospatial data integration focus) Gartner recommends confidently start with the vendors in the Niche Players (including Adeptia Connect, CloverDX Data Management Platform, and Safe Software).  Additional criteria that may help you find the best data integration tool: support integrating data across different cloud infrastructures and synchronize it with on-premises data sources and targets; don’t necessitate the movement and persistence of data into a specific vendor repository or cloud ecosystem;  allow to integrate data across different data stores, applications or multicloud/hybrid environments to avoid potential vendor lock-in challenges and data silos; allow data engineers to build, manage, operationalize and even retire data pipelines in an agile and trusted manner, as well as run their pipelines in various execution environments;  allow optimizing code and pipeline execution through pushdowns, containerizations and serverless execution. EHR Integration as the Core Component of Healthcare Integration EHR can be connected with dozens of essential medical systems to enable easy data exchange, eliminating data entry repetition, and saving both physicians and the IT department hours. If necessary, data from legacy systems can be converted into EHR along with the integration process, which may include encounters, transcription data, radiology data or vaccination information. Different organizations have different needs, but below are some of possible integrations: medical device EHR integration, telehealth EHR Integration, integration EHR and billing, EMR lab integration, and PDMP EHR integration.  Medical Device EHR integration The quality of clinical decisions is directly related to immediate availability of the most current data to physicians.  Often, nurses have to transcribe and chart manually vital signs like respiratory rate, oxygen saturations, temperature, systolic blood pressure, pulse rate, level of consciousness and so on.  The information is not available immediately and it’s associated with the risk of inaccurate and incomplete patient ID, transcription errors or lost readings.   Actually, it’s better to have a list of patients up on the screen, so that one can go around and individually look at the triggers’ alerts if measurements are outside normal ranges. The workflow automation in this case may look as the following: Patient's barcoded wristbands send patient vital signs to the medical device integration middleware; The middleware is configured to get information from the hospital devices using different protocols and to communicate with the EMR using HL7 messages; It understands patient's identification numbers and can update the right patient records in the EMR system; Such middleware supports sending device data results to EMRs in both PDF report form and HL7 discrete data (all versions of HL7® 2.x, 3.x, extended and non-standards compliant versions, including the HL7 FHIR® standard). In addition, there is also built-in support for DICOM, NCPDP, CCD/CDA, X12 EDI and more. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a valuable tool in conjunction with telemedicine. Telehealth EHR Integration Not all video platforms are designed for telehealth from neither a HIPAA nor interface standpoint. Especially if one needs to download a separate application. Actually, it’s better to embed a telehealth solution within the EHR system to make a doctor’s workflow similar to checking in a patient at the office. Such integration eliminates multiple clicks to switch between documentation and video screens. The patient can also have easy access to telehealth via the patient portal and can schedule a future appointment by staying on the video chat after completing the visit. With the camera and the EHR on the same screen, doctors are able to look at the EHR while doing documentation and then move their eyes a little to look into the camera and talk to the patient. Additional options for EHR medical documentation during telehealth visits include using speech recognition solution for dictation, or using a scribe during the appointment. The added bonus is the ability to have several users in the visit at one time, for example, a nurse can enter and leave the visit without disrupting the visit for other participants.  Telehealth solutions also allow providers to share screens with the patient while going over diagnostic results or providing patient education. The provider can easily create a visit summary and send it to the patient with orders for diagnostic tests through the same interoperable interface.  Integrated EHR and Billing Often, EHR systems and the revenue cycle billing (RCB) systems are different software. So the billing team spends a considerable amount of time cross checking patient data and filling up the claim forms. Especially, when clinical information is needed for proof, for example, that a particular condition was diagnosed before a therapy can be authorized. Integrated EHR systems automatically pull the required data, including coding, from the patient forms and medical records to the claim form reducing the chances of mistakes. Such integration typically requires HL7 interfaces to exchange demographics, appointments, encounters, and charges.  Built-in alerts and reminders help ensure that providers record all relevant procedure codes, diagnosis codes, and supporting documentation in each patient’s medical record. This approach reduces the risk that payers will deny claims.  EMR Lab Integration Often, some components of the lab test result (as a separate HL7 ORU RO1 result message) are sent to a provider clinic EMR hours before others, even when they are part of one ordered test. Physicians are being overwhelmed with a seemingly endless stream of medical lab result alerts.  Actually, all medical lab results under one order should be sent together on a single result message to a provider. The workflow automation in this case may look as the following: receive separate messages from the Lab system; organize the data in a database; aggregate multiple messages into one message, if they are associated with one order ID; send all combined messages to a provider clinic EMR on a specified schedule. PDMP EHR Integration To combat prescription drug abuse the prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) is implemented as a statewide electronic database which collects data on controlled substances. Often, doctors have to stop working with their EHR, log into the PDMP, put in all the patient information (enter username and password; navigate to a patient request; enter a patient’s first name, last name, and date of birth; determine a date range to search; select which states to query; click ‘search’....), wait for a return to come back in, and then look at it. That could take up to 10 minutes for each client. Actually, it’s better to integrate the EHR or Pharmacy Management System with PDMP. The workflow automation in this case may look as the following: The patient’s demographic information passes from the EHR to the state PDMP to execute the search automatically, for example, when the patient arrives for the appointment; The PDMP creates a risk factor for the patient, transfers the data back into the EHR system, and links it into the patient’s EHR to show the doctor more detailed information on the patient’s past prescribing history. Healthcare Integration Challenges Patients’ diagnoses, medications, and other key information should be accessible regardless of where they were documented. EHRs must be able to share data between different health systems especially when providers need to get information from previous visits. While the EHR system is the core component of modern healthcare, healthcare integration challenges often mean EHR interoperability challenges. EHR Interoperability Challenges Interoperability is the successful exchange of health information, when patients and clinicians have data when and where they need them. However, today there are some factors that prevent interoperability, including inadequate patient identity matching and low utilization of HL7 FHIR API. Using efficient data analysis and visualization tools, like run charts, can significantly contribute to the ongoing monitoring and enhancement of these processes. Inadequate Patient Identity Matching Patient identity matching is the possibility to successfully search each patient’s record in disparate systems and know that it refers to the same person.  The absence of this feature leads to safety problems, for example, if an allergy listed in one record is not documented in another system, individuals may get treatment that should be avoided. It also leads to costly repeat tests.  Another problem is false positive matches which could result in patients getting treated based on information of other patients, including incorrect diagnoses or unneeded medications. Main factors to inadequate match rates: One system may contain addresses in a single field, while another - in several fields by separating street names from the city and state. It’s hard to impossible to match such data. Different systems match different persons as the same one due to the insufficient amount of data to compare, for example, the availability of different records with the name Maria Garcia and the same birthdate doesn’t mean that the records describe the same person - in some regions, certain names are extremely common.   Different systems aren't capable of matching different records with one person due to the lack of information in one of the systems because the necessary data was not initially entered.   Despite the fact that currently there is no existing solution to achieve perfect match rates for all patients, several actions can be taken to better link records. Health care providers and technology vendors can embed phone number verification as well as some other solutions like the use of biometrics as the identifier. The use of smartphone applications with these features can help millions of patients, especially individuals with multiple chronic conditions and those who seek to be more involved and engaged in their care. Low Utilization of HL7 FHIR API API sends information back and forth between a user and a website or app. API-enabled apps focus on improving clinical workflows and advancing patient care to motivate patient and provider adoption.  APIs are a more cost-efficient route to EHR optimization for specific branches of medicine, for example, for pediatric use. Agencies continuously put out new policies and guidelines and their implementation in the EHR requires huge investment. APIs allow to create independent specialized software modules to extend EHR functionality, they are easier to develop, and test. Regulations require use of the most recent version of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standard (at date of publication) and the associated implementation guides, which were developed by Health Level Seven International (HL7). FHIR allow providers to exchange only the information needed to inform care decisions - such as a list of medications or recent diagnosis, mitigating the need to exchange full clinical documents. For example, the Immunization FHIR includes only the patient, vaccine given, the administering practitioner, and some other data. When third-party developers request information like  whether a patient received a particular vaccine, they receive only the requested data elements from the system. API-based clinical decision support (CDS) tools can synthesize years of patient data in useful ways, transforming the health record from simply an information repository into an analytic technology. Embedded in the EHR such systems eliminate requirements to do extra steps like to manually launch an antibiotic recommendation app, input relevant data, and then return to the patient record to enter the suggested medication and dosage. However, variation in FHIR implementation, differences in data vocabularies, and a lack of a standardized patient matching solution hold the API implementation back from reaching their full potential. More companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, created fully managed FHIR cloud platforms for storing data in FHIR format, as well as securing Protected Health Information (PHI). These platforms allow developers to deploy FHIR services in the cloud, provide access control and audit, legacy data. How Belitsoft Can Help Our EMR integration company integrates healthcare solutions owned by our clients into healthcare organizations' EMR systems, creating lasting value for providers, patients, and administrators. We have experience managing successful client-facing integration projects, working in integration-focused roles, integrating external solutions via SMART on FHIR, and handling technical project management and solutions engineering at B2B healthcare software companies.

Why Outsource API Development Focus on your Core Competencies If you have limited experience with API integration for your business application, you may encounter several potential risks, such as insufficient security measures for end-users, and incorrect management of authorization and authentication. By outsourcing to seasoned API professionals, you mitigate these risks. Get a Cost-Effective Solution  Discover talented API developers beyond your local area. When outsourcing API development, you get access to skills and expertise at an economical cost. You don't have to maintain and recruit an entire unit of employees and save money on infrastructure such as sitting space, devices, software, etc.   Why API Developers from Belitsoft Experienced Pros Only Trusted by tech companies worldwide, we have successfully matched hundreds of developers. We ensure expert, custom-matched talent meets your business needs. Every API developer goes through a screening process to assess their communication skills, remote work readiness, and technical abilities (both API-specific and domain-wide).  Given our services' full-cycle scope, aside from API, we can assemble cross-functional teams of senior project managers, web developers, app developers, user interface designers, and other technical professionals who follow a well-defined development process to create a fully functional solution.  Effortless Hiring We handle all timesheets, billing, payments, NDAs, background and reference checks, and legal issues so that you can focus on product development.   Choose the engagement type that suits you, whether part-time or full-time and change it anytime.  Whether you have a temporary staffing need or aim to scale your engineering team, our global pool of remote dedicated developers is sure to fit your requirements. Adjust your team size as needed. How to Hire an API Developer from Belitsoft Tell Us Your Needs Provide us with as much detail as you can about the API developer you need. Our director of engineering will work with you to clarify your goals, technical requirements, and team dynamics. Share the role description, technical specifications, and hiring budget. Get Qualified Candidates Receive candidate profiles that match your engineering needs. Our API solutions expert will pre-screen API developers to ensure you receive only the best talent. Choose who to interview based on your preferences. Hire with Confidence When you're ready to make a decision, select an API developer to hire. Our team will conduct a manual profile review, video self-introduction, and technical interview or peer programming session to assess the candidate's technical background, work experience, and soft skills. Once you're satisfied, sign an NDA and let us handle the rest of the paperwork. Collaborate and Track Progress Communicate with your new API developer through chat or video calls, share files, and monitor project progress. Effortless Payments Receive invoices and make payments easily. Try working with your new API developer during a trial period to ensure a good fit before committing to a long-term engagement. How Much Does it Cost to Hire an API Developer? Custom API development has a custom price. Things that impact the cost: Years of experience and technical skills. Timeline for API development project completion, need for development team scaling, the complexity level of API requirements, and data format (WebSockets, JSON, REST, etc.). The availability of product specifications (rough idea; clear idea but no specifications; precise written specifications/wireframes...) and management experience (your experience managing development teams means you don’t need to outsource a dedicated project manager and the price will be lower). Engage with us to get an upfront cost expectation for an API developer. How Do We Vet the Best API Developers Experience and product complexity evaluation We review the developer's experience and the complexity of the products they have built. Candidates who demonstrate the depth and have worked on end-to-end projects move to the next stage. Communication skills assessment During an introductory call, we evaluate the developer's ability to communicate effectively. We also gain a deeper understanding of their technical experience and motivation for API development. Technical evaluation We conduct one or more interviews to assess the developer's involvement and performance in building complex software products. Problem-solving abilities test We test the developer's mental agility and problem-solving abilities through a combination of live evaluation and timed coding tests, including algorithmic and skill-specific problems. Verification of past experience We reach out to past clients and/or employers to verify the developer's real-world experience. We also gather inputs on reliability, punctuality, communication, and responsiveness. Continual performance assessment Throughout each engagement, we assess the developer's performance and ensure they maintain Belitsoft's quality standards. API Developer Skills API Design Patterns Design a good API Good API means that API is operational, expressive, simple, and predictable.  The API system is operational when it performs the tasks users actually want, supported by non-operational features like latency (e.g., the core task should take a few milliseconds, not minutes) and accuracy (e.g., the output should be as expected). The API system is expressive when it lets developers specify goals using self-documenting interfaces, like  "orders.filter(status=PAID)" instead of specifying instructions on how to achieve this like "orders.get(3, true)". It relies on  abstractions, like "loan.apply(amount=5000, term=12)", that mirror real-world workflows and incorporate business terminology financial teams use when discussing loans. So there is no space for constructions such as "loan.post({"amt": 5e3, "t": 12})", which focuses more on how programmers interact with HTTP. The API system is simple when the functionality that users want is exposed in the most straightforward way possible. For example, a translation API should not hide the ability to detect the language of input text inside a method designed for returning the translated text, it’s better to create a new method designed for this purpose like “DetectLanguage()”. Another approach to simplicity is to make the common case 'awesome and fast' and the advanced case 'possible.' The complex advanced settings are hidden by default from typical users who just want to deal with frequent scenarios and are available only to those who specifically seek them. So, if a translation API includes the concept of an ML model, it’s not necessary to ask the user to specify it upfront, as it can be done later if needed. The API system is predictable or unsurprising when it relies on repeated, consistent patterns (e.g., naming fields consistently). API users don’t learn API details by thoroughly reading the full documentation but just enough to accomplish what they want. If they learn that a field is called "text" in one request message, they’ll assume (as an educated guess) that a related method takes an "input.content" parameter with the same field name. If this assumption fails (e.g., because another message names the field "inputText", "content", or "textContent"), their productivity will decrease, and they’ll have to spend time figuring out why their assumption failed. Many APIs are built by multiple teams, where each member may name fields differently—especially if different people are responsible for different fields. Over time, these seemingly insignificant inconsistencies become much more important. Implement API Naming Conventions Best Practices Senior API developers should be able to employ principles and strategies to choose good names for different components of an API and distinguish good names from bad ones when designing and building APIs. It’s obviously possible to change API names after we realize they are bad, even if they are already in production. However, after changing the name of a frequently used function, you have to update all references to that function name with a big find-and-replace across all public source code available. This is not possible if a client has already copied that source code and made it private. The API’s name should be expressive. In other words, it should clearly indicate what it represents: If a function or RPC, then something like "DeleteAccount" If a resource or message, then something like "WeatherReading" If a field or property, then something like "postal_code" If an enumeration value, then something like "Color.RED" The API’s name should be simple or as long as necessary for clarity—no more and no less: "UserPreferences" is a better name for a resource used to store a user's preferences. "UserCustomPreferences" is a bad choice (the "Custom" does not add much). "Preferences" is a bad choice (unclear whose preferences—system-level or administrator-level). The API’s name should be predictable. If you group similar asynchronous messages together and use the name “topic” in one place, do not use “messaging_topic” in other places for the same goal, because the same name should represent the same concept, while different names should represent different things. Understand the Differences Between Remote Procedure Call (RPC) and REST API Architectures Experienced API developers often use REST API to perform so-called CRUD operations on a server, for example, to add a product to a database, retrieve the contents of a music playlist, update a person’s address, or delete an article from the website. As to RPC calls (or modern implementations such as gRPC for streaming), it’s great for stateless functionality, like to make complicated calculations or to run a procedure on the remote server (use an ML algorithm to detect fraud, transfer money between accounts, get a weather prediction for the town based on the postal code, take a picture with a remote device’s camera, or restart a server). Backend API Development Backend API developers understand and implement third-party integrations smoothly in applications, enabling business logic to be accessed from web, mobile, and IoT devices. They have a good grasp of security concepts like OWASP to ensure data security. Their focus is on delivering work with low latency and scalability, from design to coding and final release. These developers manage the exchange of data between the server and users, primarily focusing on server-side logic for high performance and quick responses. They may also integrate front-end elements developed by others. A basic understanding of front-end technologies is needed. An ideal API developer candidate has experience with complex tech implementations and a drive to continually improve and simplify systems. Responsibilities: API interface and service development (internal/external) Improving efficiency through identification of areas for improvement Developing, testing, deploying, and supporting services Monitoring and reporting features for service effectiveness Independent solution design and architecture API engineering, building, and scaling Web service design, development, documentation, and maintenance using AWS API Gateway, Lambda, and other serverless tech. API developer vs Backend Developer Backend developers and API developers both work on the backend of an application, but with different focuses. Backend developers create server-side logic, while API developers - the communication channel between systems and parts of the same system, or application programming interface allowing data and functionality to be shared. It is usually implemented through a web service API using REST and JSON. It's not about front-end interface. The front-end interface is the user interface of an application and is what the user interacts with. It is implemented using technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The front-end interface communicates with the backend, typically through an API, to access data and functionality and is responsible for visual presentation. Skills to look for in Java API developer A Java API Developer is responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining API specifications using OpenAPI Specifications/YAML to ensure scalability and security. The role involves working with various application teams to understand their business needs, ensuring API documentation is up to date, and troubleshooting API-related issues. Key skills and qualifications of a dedicated Java developer to build an API include: Experience in Agile methodologies, specifically Kanban or SCRUM. Knowledge of Java technologies (Java, J2EE, Webservices, Spring, Spring Boot). Hands-on experience in developing Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring Integration or Node.JS based Microservices. Experience with API Gateway & Management, Docker & Kubernetes, AWS cloud products, and API security protocols (e.g. OAuth, SAML). Responsibilities of a Java API Developer include API management platform readiness, API portal setup, API gateway development, API implementation, security policies implementation, and full lifecycle API project management. The individual is expected to act as a subject matter expert in API development and support multiple projects. Skills to look for in .NET API developer To be a skilled ASP.NET Web API developer, one should have knowledge in the following areas: Understanding of HTTP protocols and RESTful API design principles. Proficiency in using .NET framework, specifically .NET Core. Strong C# programming skills. Experience with ASP.NET Core, including the use of middleware, controllers, and models. Knowledge of Entity Framework for integrating APIs with SQL databases. Understanding of security measures such as OAuth2 authentication and SSL encryption. Ability to write automated tests using xUnit or similar testing frameworks. Familiarity with front-end technologies such as Angular or React. Ability to monitor API performance, troubleshoot issues, and implement solutions in a timely manner. Understanding of API documentation, including Swagger documentation. It's recommended to be familiar with Authorize.NET API as it is a popular payment gateway solution used for online transactions. Here are some other types of .NET APIs to know: ASP.NET Core Web API: A high-performance and scalable API framework for building RESTful APIs with .NET. ASP.NET Core SignalR API: A real-time communication API for building real-time applications such as chat, notifications, and live updates. Microsoft Graph API: An API for accessing data and insights from Microsoft 365 cloud services such as Exchange, OneDrive, and Azure Active Directory. For businesses considering Azure cloud migration and API modernization, the expertise of .NET API developers in Azure API Management is crucial to quickly build and publish APIs. Skills to look for in Python API developer The ideal candidate should have a solid understanding of the Python language, including its syntax and data structures. They should be able to write performant, elegant, and legible code that is easy for team members to contribute to. They also should be capable of solving challenging tasks that go beyond everyday Python API development. Python API developer should have solid experience in Python web frameworks such as Flask and FastAPI. They should be comfortable developing and maintaining REST APIs within a microservice architecture. The candidate should have experience interfacing with databases, including knowledge of ORM on Python and MongoDB. They should be able to write unit tests for their code and be familiar with Linux. A good grasp of scalability and experience developing performant applications is essential. The candidate should be able to write highly legible code using design patterns and best practices. The candidate should have a general understanding of web application backend development and be familiar with Linux. They should be able to write good Python unit tests. If planned that candidate may join the engineering department in a team of Python backend developers, their mission will include the conception, development, and optimization of the API and associated services and functionalities. They will participate in the technical design of the API in collaboration with a software architect and ensure the consistency and quality of the code in production. They will also participate in code reviews with their peers on Gitlab.

APIs fail to perform consistently, alter, or produce errors with new releases? The cause of such malfunctions is a lack of testing. Strategies for Organizing API Testing The Testing Quadrant The Testing Quadrant helps arrange tests in the right time and order and not to lose resources. The Quadrant allows for combining technological and business tests. Technology stands for the correct features. All the parts of the API should work properly and consistently in any situation. Business testing is making sure the product has been developed according to the customers’ needs and goals. An image of a Testing Quadrant. Each of the four quadrants contains certain tests. However, those tests should not necessarily be performed in a particular order Quadrant 1: Unit and component tests Quadrant 2: Manual or automated exploratory and usability tests. Requirement refinement Quadrant 3: Functional and exploratory tests Quadrant 4: Security tests, SLA integrity, scalability tests Quadrants 1 and 2 include tests that detect development issues. Quadrants 3 and 4 focus on the product and its possible defects. The top quadrants 2 and 3 check if the API corresponds to users’ requirements. The bottom quadrants 1 and 4 contain technology tests, i.e., internal issues of the API. When a team is developing an API, they apply tests from all four quadrants. For example, if a customer needs a system for selling event tickets that can handle high traffic, the testing should start from the fourth quadrant and focus on performance and scalability. Automated testing is preferable here, as it provides faster results. The Testing Pyramid Another strategy for arranging API testing is based on the Testing Pyramid. The Testing Pyramid demonstrates how much time and expenses unit tests, service tests, and UI tests require Unit tests are cheaper and easier to conduct than end-to-end tests. Unit tests are the base of the Pyramid. They relate to the Quadrant 1 from the previous strategy. Unit tests include testing small separated parts of code. They check if each “brick” of the construction is solid and reliable. Service tests are more complex and, therefore, slower than unit tests. They require higher maintenance costs due to their complexity. Service tests check the integration of several units or the API with other components and APIs, that is why they are also called integration tests. Service testing allows developers to verify if the API responds to requests, if the responses are as expected, and if the payloads are returned as expected. The tests are taken from the Quadrants 2 and 4. End-to-end tests are the most complicated. They focus on testing the whole application from the start to the endpoint and includes interactions with databases, networks, and other systems. End-to-end tests demand many resources for preparation, creation and maintenance. They also run slower than unit or service tests. End-to-end testing allows developers to understand that the whole system is performing well with all the integrations. These tests are situated at the top of the Pyramid because they perform at low speed with high costs and their proportion should be much smaller in comparison with unit tests. From the perspective of a project owner, end-to-end tests seem to be the most informative. They simulate the real process of interaction with an API and demonstrate tangible results if the system works. However, unit tests should not be underestimated. They check the performance of smaller parts of the system and allow developers to catch errors in the early stages and fix them with minimum resources. Testing the API Core: Unit Testing The main characteristics of unit tests are their abundance, high speed, and low maintenance costs. When testing separate parts of the API, developers feel confident that their “bricks” of the construction are correct and operate as expected. If we develop an API for booking doctors appointments, the “bricks” of the unit testing might be the following: Correct authentication of patients Showing relevant slots in doctors’ schedules Appointment confirmation and related updating of the schedules Unit tests are self-contained, as they are run independently, do not rely on other tests or systems, and provide transparent results. If the test fails, it is easy to detect the reason and correct it. Sometimes tests are written before the code. This style of development is known as Test Driven Development (TDD). This way, tests guide the development process. It allows developers to know what their code should result in beforehand and write it in a clean and well-structured manner. If the code is changed and the implementation breaks, tests quickly catch the errors. An outside-in approach is a way to perform TDD. With this approach, developers ask questions about the expected functionality from the user’s perspective. They write high-level end-to-end tests to make sure the API brings users the results they wish. Then, they move inwards and create unit tests for individual modules and components. As a result, developers receive a bunch of unit tests that are necessary on the ground level of the Testing Pyramid. This approach saves developers time as they do not create unnecessary functionality. Tuning Parts Together: Service/Integration Testing While developing an API it is important to confirm responses that match expected results. Service testing verifies how the API operates and how it integrates with other systems. Service tests are divided into two groups: Component tests for internal checks Integration tests for checking external connections with databases, other modules, and services Component testing is conducted to see if the API returns correct responses from inbound requests. Tests from Quadrant 1 verify if all the parts of the API work together. Automated tests from Quadrant 2 validate the right responses from the API, including rejecting unauthorized requests. For example, to test the authentication component of the API that books doctors’ appointments the following endpoint should be tested: When sending an unauthorized request, the response should return an error of 401 (Unauthorized) When an authenticated user sends a booking request, a successful response of 200 (OK) is sent Integration testing allows developers to verify the connections between the modules and external dependencies. However, it is not practical to set up the whole external system for this test. That is why only the communication with external dependencies is checked. Thus, bringing the whole database of authorized patients to check its dependency with the booking API would become an end-to-end test, not an integration. Contract testing allows conducting integration testing while building an API. Tested interactions save developers’ time and guarantee compatibility with external services. To put it simply, the contract is an agreement that describes the rules of interaction between two entities. For example, when a patient books a doctor’s appointment, the contract specifies how the booking API interacts with the authentication service or patient database. Developers use contract testing to verify whether those interactions happen according to the rules set. Testing for Vulnerabilities: Security Testing Security testing stands in Quadrant 4 and is also a very important part of API development. API specialists perform various types of security API tests such as Authentication & Authorization, Input Validation, Business Logic Flaws, Sensitive Data Exposure, Rate Limiting & Throttling (to prevent Brute force, DoS attacks), Transport Layer Security, Error Handling, Endpoint Security (only required HTTP methods are used), Dependency and Configuration, WebSocket & Real-Time API Testing. For the booking API from our example they ensure that the whole doctor’s schedule or the information about other patients can’t be captured by malicious users or “attackers”. Checking the Entire Functionality: End-to-End Testing Finally, we have reached the top of the pyramid. We are using automated testing from the Quadrant 2 as a part of End-to-End execution. This approach verifies core cases and confirms that the systems work together and give correct responses. To test an external API that should interact with multiple third parties it is not realistic to copy those systems and simulate how their UIs work. It would be a waste of time. That is why it is recommended to set test boundaries. For example, for our booking API, necessary services, such as authentication service, might be included in testing, while other external dependencies like messaging systems are excluded. This way the tests will target the most critical functions of the system and will not require additional time. Another important point in organizing end-to-end testing is using realistic payloads. Large payloads may cause the APIs to break. Developers should know who their consumers are. How Belitsoft Can Help? Experienced software development companies like Belitsoft offer API development and testing services across industries, including software testing in financial services. We manage complex projects in fields like data science, machine learning, and data analytics, to ensure compliance, security, and reliability. Our experts in automated testing know how to maintain the balance between sufficient test coverage and confidence in a product and leverage regression testing to safeguard against unintended impacts during updates across financial systems and other critical workflows. Belitsoft offers the following API testing services: Functional Testing Validation Testing Load Testing Stress Testing Security Testing Reliability Testing Integration Testing End-to-End Testing Negative Testing Contract Testing Performance Testing Usability Testing At Belitsoft, we understand the importance of sensitive data and use the best principles and tools to protect our clients at the development stage. If you are looking for domain-specific API expertise (from real-time data analytics to HIPAA-compliant healthcare platforms), audit-ready quality, or a scalable testing team, the Belitsoft software development company offers outsourced services tailored enterprise systems. Contact us today to discuss your project requirements.

We build APIs for EHR systems, patient portals, and mobile applications. Need help with API development or testing? Let’s talk Patient Access API The patient access API was originally required to establish an API that allows members to access the following health information via a third-party application of their choice: claims and encounters provider remittances and enrollee cost-sharing information clinical data, including lab results, if maintained by the health plan formularies and preferred drug lists, and covered drugs in any tiered formulary structure or utilization management procedures (for Medicare Part C plans). This Final Rule expands the required API data to include: information about prior authorizations (excluding drugs) it must be available via the API no later than one business day after data is received by the payer Patient historical data from January 1st, 2016, onwards must be made available Now health plans must begin reporting annual metrics to CMS about patient access API usage in its current state. These metrics should be in the form of aggregated, de-identified data, summarizing patient use of the API. Provider Access API  The Final Rule requires health plans to adopt a Provider Access API, which allows In-network providers to request patient information from the payer.  Patient data (claims and encounters, excluding provider remittances and enrollee cost-sharing information, USCDI data classes and elements, and prior authorization information, excluding drugs) must be available to the provider via the API.  The sharing of patient information requires health plans to maintain a provider attribution process, to associate patients with in-network or enrolled providers with whom they have a treatment relationship.  Additional requirements are as follows:  Payers must allow patients to opt-out of having their data made available to providers.  Payers are required to provide plain language to patients about the benefits of API data exchange and their ability to opt-out. Payers are required to provide plain language to providers about the attribution process and how to request patient data.  Payer-to-Payer data exchange  Health plans are required to implement and maintain an API to support the exchange of clinical data between health plans at the patient’s request.  The result is an improved continuity of care when a patient changes health plans and continued access to their health records.  Health plans must establish and maintain processes for identifying previous and concurrent health plans and allow patients to opt into the data exchange.  The final rule requires health plans to comply with the following:  Claims and encounters, excluding provider remittances and enrollee-cost sharing information, USCDI data classes and elements, and information about prior authorizations, excluding drugs, must be made available via the API within one business day after receiving a request from a health plan. Only historical data with a date of service within five years of the request for data is required.  For members with multiple health plans, data must be exchanged within one week of the start of coverage and at least quarterly thereafter.  Current members must be allowed to opt-in by January 1st, 2027; and new members within one week of coverage.  Information received by other health plans must be integrated into the Patient and Provider Access APIs.  Health plans must provide plain language information to patients that explains the benefits of the API and their ability to opt-in.  Prior Authorization process improvement and reporting  Alongside the API implementation described above, health plans will need to make changes to prior authorization processes beginning in January 2026.  First, payers must send prior authorization decisions within 72 hours for expedited (urgent) requests and 7 calendar days for standard (nonurgent) requests. Approvals must state the date approved or circumstances under which the authorization ends and denials must cite a specific reason for being denied.  For items or services that are not subject to prior authorization rules, integrated health plans must send notice of its determination within 14 calendar days.  Second, health plans are required to report annual metrics about prior authorizations to CMS, beginning on March 31st, 2026, for the prior calendar year. These metrics include 4 standard prior authorization metrics, 2 expedited prior authorization metrics and turnaround time metrics for both standard and expedited requests. Further, an annual report must be made public, listing all services that require prior authorization.  Third, Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS ) eligible clinicians, hospitals, or critical access hospitals (CAHs) are required to report a new attestation measure, the Electronic Prior Authorization measure, beginning in the CY 2027 performance period to be paid in the MIPS payment year, two years later (e.g., first payment in CY 2029). How to Comply With the CMS Final Rule Implement or Modernize your Health Data Management Platform The CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule does not explicitly mandate a "Health Data Management Platform" by name, but it clearly requires payers to achieve the core functions such platforms provide to comply with the rule’s data consolidation and interoperability requirements. Payers must aggregate and maintain five years of patient data (claims/encounters, clinical/laboratory data (via FHIR standards like US Core), prior authorization decisions (excluding drugs), and documentation supporting prior authorizations). This necessitates consolidating data from fragmented sources (EHRs, labs, pharmacies) into a single, FHIR-compliant repository—a core function of Health Data Management Platforms (HDMPs). As payers must implement a Patient Access API that includes prior authorization data (approvals, denials, reasons), a Prior Authorization API that enables providers to submit/receive decisions directly from EHRs, and a Payer-to-Payer API to share historical data with other payers (with patient consent), HDMPs are also a helpful option here because they simplify API development by normalizing data into FHIR formats and automating exchanges. As payers must report annual metrics on Patient Access API usage (unique users, demographics) and publicly disclose prior authorization approval/denial rates and appeal outcomes, HDMPs also support automated metric tracking and audit-ready reporting. While CMS doesn’t prescribe specific tools, HDMPs address three gaps traditional systems cannot. How Belitsoft Can Help Belitsoft specializes in building custom, interoperable solutions, including health data management platforms tailored to healthcare data governance and compliance. Let’s talk We can collaborate with clients to support their implementation needs and long-term strategy, including the following:  Analyze current data infrastructure. Understand current system capabilities, technology and business requirements. Implement the transformation. Provide end-to-end technical support for the implementation and managed services.  Healthcare IT. Implementing HL7 & FHIR and prior final rules.  We rely on the following resources and standards: United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) HL7® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) Release 4.0.1 HL7 FHIR US Core Implementation Guide (IG) Standard for Trial Use (STU) 3.1.1 HL7 SMART Application Launch Framework Implementation Guide Release 1.0.0 FHIR Bulk Data Access (Flat FHIR) (v1.0.0: STU 1) OpenID Connect Core 1.0 Interoperability compliance with the policies outlined in the Final Rule requires investment. However, health plans also have an opportunity to use the technology needed for compliance to align with value-based care goals. The industry is increasingly adopting value-based care payment models, and this growth is expected to continue in the coming years.

At elearning software development company Belitsoft, we know how to integrate CRM and LMS, create a new LMS with CRM integration, or add CRM to your learning platform. We are open to hear your needs and help you implement them. Let’s discuss your challenge now! 5 CRM and LMS Integration Use Cases The key benefit of CRM and LMS integration is that customer’s actions documented in one system can initiate actions in the other system. These actions are called “triggers”.  Let’s take 5 use cases to see how this integration works and what marketing and sales tasks it resolves. 1. Sales Prospect Learning When a prospect subscribes to your blog, watches a demo, downloads a whitepaper, or registers for a webinar, CRM tracks these activities. Every link your sales prospects click and every page they visit on your website are also tracked. Then, all these triggers are shared with your LMS.  Having all this information, your marketing team can engage prospects by driving timely training recommendations, managing the timing and tone of targeted messages for cross-selling and up-selling communication.  Also, your sales team can identify which accounts have been inactive for a long time, and make a proactive effort to reach out to such customers. hubspot.com 2. Customer Learning CRM stores information about your customers, including what and when they bought, why, and how many times they interacted with your support team.  When all these triggers go to the LMS, they allow to create personalized customer training recommendations and intelligently build customers’ learning paths. Well-trained customers tend to buy more, write to support less, and stay loyal to your product longer. The sooner your customers find value from using your product or service, the more likely they’ll invest in your brand again.  Phil Nanus, Vice President of Customer Success Research for TSIA, says: “The goal of customer success is to enable effective adoption of technology and services, which can lead to contract renewal and more revenue from existing customers through up-sell and cross-sell.” CRM and LMS integration for customer learning also reduces support costs. Your profit margin decreases with every support message or phone call from a customer.  Providing customers with relevant learning content minimizes the number of basic inquiries.  The integrated LMS serves as a self-service tool with video manuals, step-by-step guides, etc that resolve customers’ questions in the moment of need. learninglight.com 3. Partner Certification With LMS–CRM integration, you can create channel certification programs for partners’ training and entitlements. Such programs favor a well-organized tiered channel relationship structure.  For example, some of your partners complete training. They achieve a certified partner designation. And their commission rate automatically increases from 10% up to 20%. pega.com 4. Sales Staff Learning All sales teams use a CRM for account management. It makes the system ideal for onboarding and ongoing product training. Thanks to LMS and CRM software integration, your employees can practice their professional skills directly in the CRM they use for work. For that, a new tab is added inside the CRM. It displays a personalized training plan and the course content.  Your employees will learn on a regular basis, and you can assess onboarding training outcomes, ongoing training performance, and course completion. trailhead.salesforce.com 5. Talent Nurturing via Talent CRM Let’s mention another, not typical but innovative application of CRM and LMS integration where CRM stands for Candidates Relationship Management. Such a CRM is usually called a Talent CRM. A Talent CRM helps HR professionals reach out, build and nurture relationships with potential job candidates. Potential candidates apply for the training course or event through the LMS. Their data go to the CRM where the L&D team can enroll a trainee into the course. The company’s instructors then track the learning progress. After the trainees complete the course, the data about their skills and course completion transfers to the CRM. As a result, the HR department gets a pool of candidates.  When the company needs to fill the required positions, they are aware of the availability of the necessary professionals and can hire the right person fast.  Such an approach to talent management allows companies to avoid the talent shortage. avanture.net How to Integrate CRM and LMS? CRM and LMS integration is performed with the help of API. This is a set of protocols, standards, and tools that let different platforms communicate and share data. Once the LMS administrator installs the API, you can decide which fields and data from your LMS to push to CRM.  The fields and data that can be transferred to CRM can include actual and completed courses, scores, and certificates along with all contact details. How can organizations start with LMS+CRM-driven customer training? Here are the top recommendations: Start with a small training course Building a massive training curriculum with dozens of courses is a risky methodology. Take an agile approach and just get started. Then get feedback from the first customers to adjust the training process if needed. It’s like building an MVP - the method that’s proved its efficiency. Choose a solid LMS Choosing the right LMS will help you provide a quality learning experience. Your purpose is to provide a quality learning experience. The best option will be a customizable LMS that will grow with you for the next few years covering the growing needs of your education services. Create a custom LMS from scratch with in-built CRM integration Apart from using a ready-made LMS and customizing it for your needs, you can opt for a custom LMS development featuring all the integrations you need for business (CRM, HRIS, ERP, etc). Focus on key data You should understand what data you’ll measure to assess the ROI of your customer training. Make sure at the starting point that the system gathers the key data you need. The core features for smooth CRM and LMS integration Auto-enrollment Users can be automatically enrolled to LMS from CRM based on contact or user profile fields to reduce manual assignments and possible errors. The process may look the following way. In the templates module of your CRM, create an email template with a link to the training platform with log-in instructions. Use a single unlimited use access code (enrollment key) and rotate it periodically. Then you need to create a workflow rule in the CRM with a trigger based on an opportunity stage. Usually, the change of case status serves as a trigger. You can also set up the workflow action to trigger after a certain number of hours/days after the case status changes. The customer receives the message with instructions and can start using the training course through the LMS right away. Single-Sign-On This is an authentication method that permits to securely log into both CRM and LMS with one click. No need for a set of additional login credentials to improve the user experience while providing extra security. User data synchronization It implies the ability to automatically sync learners with their account in CRM using a unique identifier (email, name, address, birth date, ID, social security number, etc).  As a result, you can view all user learning records directly in the CRM. Usually, it's an extra tab with access to the learning course information. It permits launching and assigning courses, viewing material, etc without leaving the CRM. Training recommendation Training recommendation engine analyzes input data that may include user metadata (age, gender, or membership); user interactions (views, likes, or signups); item metadata (description of purchases, their category). Based on such triggers taken directly from the CRM, customers get relevant recommendations for courses. Course analytics in CRM LMS can automatically transfer data about the training process directly to the CRM. These data usually involve: Trainee first name, last name, and email address; Course titles and links; Enrollment and completion statuses; Certifications; Promotion or access codes used (can help track performance by channel); Subscriptions; Date and time of registration. Why can't CRM work without LMS anymore? The original purpose of a CRM where you store all of your customer and partner data is to manage and track this information, including: New customer acquisition rate; Repeat purchases and renewals; Complementary and cross-product purchases; Support call or trouble ticket volumes; Customer satisfaction scores. But all these powerful capabilities of a CRM don’t directly lead to an increase in sales. As you’ve seen, you can resolve this issue with the custom CRM development featuring LMS integration for the training of employees, partners, franchisees, distributors, and most importantly, your customers. Customer education is another great business benefit from such an integration. It’s not focused on connecting directly with customers before, during, and after a sale with the purpose to improve customer experience. It involves easy product onboarding and feature adoption, ongoing engagement, and overall customer success. Educated customers are the most loyal and profitable customers. To confirm, let’s look at the research led by the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA). At least 64% of customers use products more after they participate in training ( eLearning, virtual instructor-led, classroom, or on-site).  The LMS capabilities together with the CRM functionality give great strategic benefits for a company from the point of view of sales, brand awareness, and human resources. We can do CRM and LMS integration for your business fast and accurately. Contact us for more details!

We have briefly compared it with other standards of the industry in one of our earlier publications. The most recent version of SCORM - one of the most used specifications (to this day as well) - was released back in 2004. No wonder, some of the businesses could benefit from new ways of receiving and analyzing data about methods and ways of learning for their employees. In this article, as you have already figured out, we write about the real xAPI use and how it simplifies learning and training across different industries. For this article, we’ve made a couple of interviews with xAPI experts. We were lucky enough to get the response from many companies, including Watershed, H2Labs and Veracity Learning whose consultations were of a great value. The mentioned companies all produce the so-called LRS - Learning Record Stores - the storage where performance data is moved for future analysis. We have received the expertise and a plethora of links to real-life case studies that resulted in us finding 6 case studies that demonstrate how embracing xAPI can bring you lots of good. With lots of good, we mean improving employees training speed and efficiency, which led to saving production hours, generating more revenue and… even saving more people’s lives. Let’s progress by looking at all the cases separately. Case #1: AT&T and 670k production hours saved This is perhaps the most quotable and well-known xAPI adoption case. AT&T doesn't need much introduction. It is a huge telecommunication corporation with a quarter million employees (by the time of xAPI adoption the number was around 243,000 and according to data from 2017, it is over 254,000 people now). Source: flickr.com They were trying to find a solution for the effective training for this “army” of personnel across almost four thousand jobs. The basic reporting system was limited to a certain content type. Pre-xAPI compliance records and training materials were stored separately and even had data structured if different formats. Manual analysis of performance data took ages and xAPI standard adoption came to rescue. With the help of xAPI, the data was transmitted to the Learning Record Store. All these immense streams of data from the simulation, different training paths were stored and available for an immediate analysis. The course was adjusted accordingly. We’ve contacted Tim Dickinson, director of strategy at Watershed (LRS provider for this case) to describe this and some other case studies. He admitted that this one is not the most recent but gladly shed the light on what was happening there: ‘In that particular case study, they used xAPI to get very detailed information about the course that would have otherwise could have been developed in many ways. But they were able to create a dynamic course and used xAPI to report on how people progress through it. At&T only created one adaptive course instead of creating many. That saved them time and therefore, money.’ AT&T released the data on how xAPI adoption and course adjustments optimized the time spend for employees training. Updates to the Employee Code Course saved over 670,000 production hours and 160,380 hours of education/training time length. Source: pixabay.com Besides, follow-up surveys after the course adjustments had fewer mistakes, and engagement on the new content was 25% larger than in the case with the old content. AT&T representatives also highlighted the fact their employees did better in interactive simulations with the new improvements implemented on the dynamic course. Quick summary: This case proves that one is able to get good quantifiable results (that can be assessed and put into the open internet to brag about) with xAPI adoption. It is hard to overvalue saving production/training hours within (total number of over 830,000 working hours saved). This is directly connected to the company getting more revenue as their employees get more free time to work on other tasks AND they are better trained for this work. Now let us head to the case that has huge money figures in the title. Case #2: Villeroy & Boch and extra €2.5 million ($2.92 million) in revenue Villeroy & Boch is a big company as well. It specializes in making designer bathrooms and premium tableware. Being a world’s leading ceramics producer, they employ over 8,000 people around the world. Source: wikipedia.org According to the materials of the case study, the management of the company decided to capitalize on the data of a curious research. Turns out, 85% of the time premium products are purchased thanks to an emotional purchase motivation. The new training program of Villeroy & Boch brand was focused on identification of how good their salespersons are in it as well as on the improvement of sales conversation overall. They needed to get as many brand ambassadors (promoters among the customers) as possible The company used a blended learning approach, utilizing a learning platform and an LRS. Brand Ambassador programme was delivering to face-to-face workshops via the platform. The data about this blended learning experience was gathered, transmitted and tracked with the help of xAPI. However, there were some logistical difficulties, and some of the stores haven’t received the full programme. This gave Villeroy & Boch an opportunity to run an A/B testing campaign to compare the results of training in the future. ‘A’ stores are the ones that got only the online component of the programme, and ‘B’ stores are the ones that had full blended approach access. LRS with the help of xAPI got data about learning activities and stores performance. The measured metrics were obviously, conversions, and Average Transaction Value (ATV). The comparison was made with the previous year’s result. The improvements don’t seem too big in percentage. ‘B’ stores performed better than ‘A’ stores by 5.41% on ATV. And in comparison with the last years ‘B’ stores converted 1.17% more customers, while ‘A’ stores had an increase of 0.62% over their previous year’s results. If you think that such an increase might be random, or insignificant, you are mistaken. With the volume of production this retail has, they had the €2.5m ($2.92 m) return on training investment. While this is not a direct proof that the company benefited solely from using xAPI standard, it’s a real case when the conversion rate of a big retail company improved after starting to use this technology. As Erik Walter, International Retail Director at Villeroy & Boch claimed: ‘The results prove that the Brand Ambassador Programme is leading our stores in the right way to higher customer conversion and sales success.’ Quick summary: The big retail company claims that they managed to get themselves €2.5m in revenue after adopting the xAPI standard. Source: pixabay.com Case #3: Behr - Training Via a Phone App This is the company you might’ve heard of if you’ve done some painting recently. They produce paint and sell their products in hardware stores. Source: homedepot.com BEHR have made an HTML mobile app for training their employees. This is what makes this use case so special - the company didn’t use LMS to keep all their data. According to Brian Floyd from BEHR, all the content within the company “lives” on the app server, web server, or is linking to the Behr.com and a DAM (Digital Asset Manager) that the company has. BEHR used xAPI to track what their employees are doing with the app, but they also did some curious stuff with it as well. For example, the data was transmitted back to the app, for a leaderboard. It kept employees motivated to show the best possible results within their training and incentivized those people to interact with the app more to get recognition. Source: techworld.com BEHR has also managed to create a performance support tool to understand how effective the training is. Analysts are able to see the completion level of the course for every individual/region and see how it corresponds with sales figures for the same regions. However, none of the specific figures were released for the general public to see how exactly it helped the company. BEHR are ready to admit that they benefited from xAPI use, but didn’t share how much. Here are the comments of Tim Dickinson, director of strategy at Watershed: ‘One thing that has been tricky for us as we see the greater adoption of xAPI as we see people improving some of their business metrics, is in that we see some unwillingness to share exactly how it impacted outcomes. They don’t want to share that level of details. We’ve run into some challenges where we had some really great case studies from clients where we’ve been able to demonstrate defined specific improvements, but those companies don’t want that info shared publicly’ Quick summary: BEHR case study shows that it is fairly easy to feed data into other applications that power sales training and performance support with the help of xAPI, debunking the myth that xAPI is bad for reporting outside LRS. Case #4: MedStar Health - xAPI contributes to more lives saved? This is the most inspiring case study there is. Saving production hours, getting more revenue and a better-trained sales personnel is all good. But if some technology is able to help save more human lives - that’s what really could make an impression. This is literally the case with MedStar Health, a health care provider in Washington DC and Maryland region. They specialize in emergency situations - and do a lot of training of them, including “Code Blues” - cardiac arrests. Source: lapostexaminer.com As you can guess, training is extremely important for resuscitation medics. The speed of reaction, the frequency of chest compression and medicating the patient timely and on the right dosage were the metrics to watch. The company decided to work at improving those KPIs for better understanding the major flaws of doctors during the resuscitation to get to near-perfect Code Blue simulation. They also needed to understand, whether the current simulation system - including mobile the defibrillator training app (Zoll) and their LMS courses are effective in the first place. MedStar Health hired an LRS provider to work with the data. The data from all the xAPI apps, Zoll and LMS was sent to the LRS. Perhaps in future, the data from the real accidents will be available for the analysis as well. We produce all kinds of E-Learning software in Belitsoft. Contact us here. Or take a look at our e-learning development portfolio first. However, even now with simulations (not real cases), MedStar got plenty of visualized information for further analysis. Quick summary: With the help of xAPI, MedStar Health managed to get all the data on clinicians training in one place. They couldn’t do it without xAPI as SCORM, for instance, is far too ancient to transmit in-field observation results. Source: medstarhealth.org That allows medical company improvement of their training, which, in turn, leads to more saved lives. That would be an oversimplification to say that xAPI saves lives, but it definitely contributes here. Case #5: R.E.A.P.E.R. - xAPI study case of soldier training improvement Rob Chadwick, who is currently the software engineer and co-founder at Veracity was a part of an ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning) Initiative program at the time. We contacted Rob to describe to us the details of this case study. REAPER is actually an abbreviation that stands for Range Experience Acquisition Portal for Evaluation & Reporting. This was a government project. As you might guess from the name of it, xAPI, in this case, was used to get shooting training results to help gauge and improve future training. Source: pixabay.com Instructors used devices to fill in forms that generated xAPI statements. Instead of looking at the bunch of targets on paper marked with pencils, students, coaches, and instructors got detailed heat maps for the analysis. Data analysis gave immediate results. “After they generated a heat map of the target, the instructors saw a white spot where no rounds go. They started to wonder, what was going on there. Instructors came back to the shooting range and figured that a tree branch had grown to the line of sight. From the most left position on the shooting range, one couldn’t see the corner of the target. Nobody could discover it. The students were hesitant to say anything. That was discovered by analysis the data that was in xAPI. That was just one of the many findings from the data. Perhaps the most curious one,” Chadwick said. Source: army.mil Quick summary: With the help of this case study, we can see that learning adjustments thanks to xAPI can be made at almost any industry. Military training is not an exception here. However, Chadwick stated that xAPI is first and foremost an e-Learning specification and is not really a good fit for tracking data that is not directly connected with training, education etc. Case #6: PwC - accounting firm that distributed its course throughout many territories PwC is a leading consulting company in the world. it is actually a network of firms in 158 countries, 743 locations, with more than 236,000 people. Source: wikipedia.org This is a remarkable case study of xAPI use. It is able to illustrate that the xAPI standard is able to help with course distribution across many territories. The company needed a way to host and deliver up-to-date relevant content to their employees wherever they are at any time. In order to do that, they required a keen understanding of where the gaps are in people’s knowledge and how people are consuming the learning information. xAPI and LRS-stored data allowed them to do it perfectly. There is a misconception that the big amount of data can’t be distributed and assessed well enough and quickly enough across many territories. PwC does all that and deals well with all the privacy concerns about data on US and EU citizens. It was a great fit for dealing with GDPR requirements. This is especially important as they don’t have a physical product. Their product is their people and the knowledge they possess. Quick summary: This case study proves that xAPI is able to transmit high volumes of data across the international company without any privacy breaches and violations. Source: pixabay.com Conclusion These are six case studies that should demonstrate how widely xAPI may be used and how many benefits it could bring. Among the improved results of training are saved production hours, better training results for the staff, increased revenue for retailers and so much more. Employees education is a must for modern companies, and xAPI alongside with other technologies significantly simplifies E-Learning knowledge delivery.