Wasting developer time on self-build integration?

When enterprise retailers face integration challenges, a familiar line comes up in conversations: “Our dev team is handling it.”

It’s a fair response. Many large commerce organisations have dedicated developers who are smart, capable, and deeply embedded in the business. 

But just because they “can” build integrations “should they?” Is that really the best use of their skills?

In-house integration may promise control but ultimately stifles growth 

Talented developers can easily become trapped in a relentless cycle of reactive fixes, creating patches, managing APIs and customising point-to-point connectors.  In fact, developers working for retailers that rely on self-build strategies can lose up to 10 hours every week basically keeping the “lights on” and systems talking.  

Mending broken workflows and feeds between ecommerce, WMS, CRM, and ERP, manually logging third-party errors, managing one-off scripts, and scrambling to stay live during peak trading, all eats up valuable dev time.  

Time that could be spent on optimising the tech stack, solving operational problems, or helping to attract and convert new customers. 

Break the cycle and boost available dev time by ~25% 

To reduce the integration burden and commerce complexity, enterprise retailers are increasingly switching from legacy self-build to Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) which is a cost-effective, efficient and flexible way to connect their entire commerce ecosystem – inside and out.

A MACH-certified low code/no code platform like Patchworks offers reusable connectors, easy-to-use tools and dashboards to help automate, orchestrate and optimise workflows seamlessly and in real-time.  

It looks after the basics and adds value where it counts, freeing devs from traditional integration chores so they can do higher-value work and hit important KPIs.

iPaaS isn’t about replacing developers, it’s about amplifying their contribution

Let’s be clear this isn’t a “buy vs build” narrative that pits platforms against people. It’s about giving IT and dev teams back the time they need to do their best work and make a bigger difference to the business.

IPaaS doesn’t replace your development team, it turbocharges them, transforming them into enterprise heroes that can focus 100% on servicing, extending and enhancing your other retail functions.  Here’s how:

1. Freedom from repetitive fixes
   No more spending hours maintaining brittle custom connectors or patching broken APIs. iPaaS platforms offer pre-built connectors, reusable logic, and centralised error handling, significantly reducing your dev team's reactive workload.
   
   
2. Accelerates strategic projects
   With less time spent on integration maintenance, dev teams can finally focus on tackling important projects. For instance building automation and improving tools, enhancing the CX or experimenting with AI to pave the way for Agentic Commerce.
   
   
3. Increases visibility and control
   iPaaS platforms provide clear monitoring, alerting, and governance so devs aren’t stuck debugging in the dark. Non-technical users can often manage day-to-day flows, while devs retain full control over architecture and logic.
   
   
4. Reduces technical debt
   Point-to-point connections create hidden complexity. iPaaS gives your team a scalable, centralised framework that evolves with the business, rather than needing constant rewrites.
   

Why it’s a strategic imperative for enterprise retailers

Enterprise retail must move fast and at scale. Whether it’s launching new channels, expanding into digital marketplaces, onboarding new fulfilment partners, or rolling out loyalty tools.  Your internal tech team needs to keep pace without burning out. That’s impossible if they’re stuck solving the same integration issues over and over again.

With iPaaS, new integrations are faster to deploy, and existing flows are more stable and transparent which means your team spends more time on innovation, less time firefighting and papering over the cracks. Importantly, you get happier developers who are finally doing the kind of work they want to be doing.

Build a team-centric approach with iPaaS

If you’re serious about growing your commerce business, your internal dev team should be focused on building what makes your business unique, not gluing together systems in the background.

An iPaaS platform like Patchworks gives your team the freedom, tools, and headspace to focus on high-impact projects, without sacrificing integration performance. Because you didn’t hire developers to build yesterday’s fixes, you hired them to build the future.

Find out more about how Patchworks iPaaS empowers your dev team here.