What is an app without data? While that might sound like a Zen koan, there’s actually a very simple answer: not much of an app at all.

Although not every app you build these days requires access to data sources, those apps are really few and far between. Today, an app’s value is primarily derived from its connections to data. The challenge is that integration to enterprise data sources is a lot easier said than done.

If you’ve ever had to deal with integrations, you know what I’m talking about. Each system has its own specificities, and there’s a multitude of authentication flows and connection protocols; some systems are REST, others SOAP, other GraphQL, and others something older and proprietary!

To make matters even more complicated, 2020 proved to us that, more than ever, organizations need to deliver fast and be agile enough to cope with and adapt to market changes. And do this while trying to hire the best IT talent to fulfill business demand.

To help organizations be more productive and agile, as well as widen the market talent pool by allowing less experienced developers the ability to configure complex integrations, we’re excited to announce the General Availability of the Integration Builder, a tool that will help you remove the complexity of building integrations, dramatically changing the integration process from a development task to a configuration step.

Introducing Integration Builder

Integration Builder is a wizard-style approach that allows you to quickly connect your apps to the data sources they depend on with the security and scalability your organization demands. In just a few clicks, you’re able to generate integration service modules that have all the necessary code (authentication flow, encoding, parsing) required to call an external system.

In other words, this tool removes the complexity of integrating with existing systems, opening new opportunities for companies with smaller dev teams or less experienced developers to reduce development time and address complex integration scenarios with ease.

With Integration Builder, organizations can:

  • Remove complexity from developers day-to-day job by simplifying the integration process;
  • Decreases lead time, assuring developers focus on what’s important to implement business requirements;
  • Do more with existing resources by reducing talent needed to do complex integrations scenarios;
  • Promotes agility by making changes easy and augmenting integrations footprint based on business requirements;

Integration Builder Key Features and Capabilities

Some of the key features and capabilities of the Integration Builder include:

  • Connectors to the most commonly used SAP, Salesforce, and Microsoft data sources to ensure that integrations between systems of record and OutSystems applications are resilient and perform as expected.
  • Great findability, offering the ability to inspect the available APIs of external systems, while selecting only the right ones for OutSystems applications.
  • Connectors 100% supported by OutSystems and designed to promote reusability, maintenance, and application independence.
  • Limitless customization of generated connectors, easily extend connector logic to fulfill IT requirements
  • Easiness to change existing connector configuration, add and remove fields, and swap out existing connections.

Need to see it to believe it? Check out the demo below to watch the Integration Builder in action:


On a Mission Supported by Integration Builder

Our mission at OutSystems has always been to give every organization the power to innovate through software. Our AI-driven, visual, model-based development and collaboration tools not only simplify the complex but help you deliver more power and expressiveness throughout the full development lifecycle. You can create a modern development practice that enables IT and multi-functional business teams from across the organization to collaborate and solve their most pressing challenges.

Integration Builder is a perfect example. It enables any developer to add integrations to the most common enterprise systems of record without having to ask an integration specialist for help, automating and smoothing the path of using connectors. The result is that you can develop integrations just as fast and efficiently as you develop the apps themselves, ensuring integrations that will work correctly and adjust easily to future demands.

The Integration Builder has been available under an early access program, and the feedback has been great.

And it is now available for all OutSystems users in all editions! To learn more about Integration Builder visit this page or watch Accelerate the Development of Integrations with Integration Builder webinar.