Delivering excellent customer experiences is no longer a matter of differentiation — it is a matter of survival. While individual experiences and interactions are the building blocks of customer loyalty, a holistic customer journey is the mortar that binds those blocks together.

At a hotel, for example, the stay is as important as the booking interaction, the conversation the guest had about Wi-Fi issues, the loyalty program, and so on. Customers are more demanding in the digital economy, and their expectations for personalized and context-relevant interactions have never been higher. Ultimately, the customer relationship is as strong as the weakest link on the customer journey.

To meet customer expectations today, an organization must facilitate seamless cross-app data sharing by integrating the many different applications the customer interacts with throughout their journey. A successful integration strategy will allow a company to generate multidimensional customer insights, anticipate customer needs, and minimize churn.

Uber is the perfect example. While many cite Uber as an example of digital disruption, the impact of integration on its success is often overlooked. Taxi companies have had access to the same customer data for at least 20 years, but they were previously unable to connect the applications and utilize the data in a way that created predictability and changed customer expectations. Agile integration bridges that gap, opening up almost unlimited opportunities for innovation in today’s digital world, and transforming the way companies compete.