In today's fast-paced digital environment, educational institutions like schools, colleges, and universities are constantly seeking ways to enhance their operations and improve efficiency. These institutions often rely on a variety of software integrations to manage different aspects of their operations, such as student information systems, learning management systems, financial aid platforms, and communication tools. While these integrations are essential for handling diverse tasks and data, they can also lead to a fragmented system that is challenging to manage. The lack of seamless integration between these platforms can result in data silos, increased administrative workload, and potential errors in data handling. This disjointed approach can be frustrating for admissions and marketing teams, complicating the process of accessing and sharing information. In this blog post, we will explore the different avenues that can be taken to integrate these systems with HubSpot.
An integration works by allowing different software systems to communicate and share data. When one application needs information from another, it sends a request through an API (Application Programming Interface), which acts as a bridge between the two systems. The receiving system processes that request and sends back the relevant data! So in summary, an Integration is just a neat way of automatically transferring data from one system to another. In HubSpot, there are two main types of integrations, that being native and custom integrations:
A native integration is a built-in connection between two software applications, allowing them to work together seamlessly without the need for third-party tools or complex custom setups. HubSpot supports over 1,000 native integrations, which can all be seen via the HubSpot App Marketplace. These integrations are the ones that you'll be using the majority of the time, and are usually relatively easy to set up! The app marketplace is always expanding, with more popular apps being added every month. However, if you can't find exactly what you need, a custom integration may be worth exploring.
Custom integrations are more complex to set up than Native 'out of the box' integrations, which can be set up in just a few clicks! However, if you want a system you use to pass data to and from HubSpot, and it's not supported natively, this avenue can be one worth exploring! Whilst the setup can be time-consuming and costly, the long-term benefits of a custom integration can be worthwhile for Admissions teams wanting to reduce manual intervention.
Here’s a summarised breakdown of how the implementation and deployment of a custom integration could work:
Define Requirements: Identify the specific needs and goals for integrating HubSpot with another tool.
Developer Documentation: Utilise HubSpot's developer documentation to understand available API endpoints and integration capabilities.
Build Integration: Develop the custom integration using HubSpot's APIs, ensuring data flows seamlessly between HubSpot and the connected application.
Testing: Test the integration to confirm data sync and functionality meet requirements.
Deploy and Monitor: Implement the integration in your live environment and monitor its performance to ensure it continues to meet business needs.
At HubGem, we've teamed up with the wonderful team at Cursor to build the first-ever custom integration between HubSpot and iSAMS (a popular school management system). This saves schools time, allowing schools to manage the admissions journey through HubSpot, and then pass this over to iSAMS upon their enrolment. This is just one example of how custom integrations can be utilised to connect systems together, that otherwise couldn't!
However, if a custom integration seems a bit out of scope, and the system you want to integrate with isn't natively supported, then an iPaaS solution may be something worth exploring!
iPaaS stands for 'integration platform-as-a-service', and can basically allow two or more systems to pass data to each other which may not be natively supported. Think of it as a simple way of building a custom integration! The most popular iPaaS solution on the market is Zapier, which can integrate with over 7,000 different apps, but there are other options available that all operate in a similar way.
Using an iPaaS solution like Zapier can incur some additional fees based on how many times the 'zaps' you set up are fired on a monthly basis, but they can often be cheaper than a custom integration. There are some limitations to these apps in terms of what actions can be fired from system to system, but it can be a really good compromise if Native and Custom integrations aren't an option. I've personally used Zapier quite a lot in conjunction with HubSpot, and I think it's a really viable solution depending on your use case!
As you've hopefully gathered by now, there are several different ways that a school's tech stack can be integrated within HubSpot to reduce manual workloads and increase efficiency! If you have any questions on integrations in general (or within the education space specifically) feel free to reach out to be at olly@hubgem.co.uk and I'd be happy to help/share my expertise where I can! :)
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