4 Best Practices to Consider Before Your Next Data Integration Project
Data integration has become less challenging with the availability of new solutions that meet every need. Prioritizing systems, collaborating with IT and preparing for AI innovation are the current keys to success.
By many accounts, there has never been a better time to invest in HR technology, as artificial intelligence (AI) can now analyze data more efficiently than ever, providing detailed insights and automation. Analytical power is all well and good, but with organizations stacking technologies to perform a multitude of functions, data integration needs to be a top priority.
According to Sapient Insights Group's 27th Annual HR Systems Segment Report, midsized organizations maintain between three and 15 separate HR solutions, while larger enterprises often manage as many as 55. If data across these systems lacks integration, leaders — and AI — will struggle to make sense of it in context.
Ultimately, data integration can help organizations be more strategic, make datasets more powerful and make decisions more informed. When executed properly, it can even support ongoing compliance with laws and regulations, workforce planning, AI adoption and the modernization of HR operations to enhance the employee experience.
Getting ahead of common HR-IT disconnects
Before kicking off any integration work, it's worth taking a clear look at the day-to-day data challenges that can hinder HR and IT teams. Common issues include:
- Data inconsistencies that require ongoing maintenance for accuracy and timeliness of data: For example, onboarding details that sync in one system but not another
- Manual entry or duplicative work that risks productivity: For example, recruiting tools that don't talk to core HR
- Compliance risks due to outdated records: For example, analytics that don't line up with finance's recordkeeping
These issues tend to surface quickly once integration begins and can risk productivity and compliance if outdated or inconsistent records spread, so it's important to resolve them early to help kickstart integration with clean data, clear alignment and a low risk profile.
4 best practices to consider before your next data integration project
To help reduce mid-project headaches, here are four best practices for organizations to consider before embarking on their next data integration initiative.
1. Establish a set order of integration
Organizations hoping to streamline their HR functions should first understand that every integration initiative requires time, patience and effort to succeed. Thankfully, the breadth of integration solutions has expanded to keep pace with the number of systems and data-synchronization use cases. These capabilities reduce the burden on HR and IT in many instances, with prebuilt integrations, data connectors and custom-integration tools making the process much simpler.
There isn't a perfect order for integration, but organizations may benefit by focusing first on payroll or on an effort that combines payroll with time and core HR. If that seems ambitious, tackle payroll and time first to establish a data model and infrastructure that meet the demands of payroll functions. Building out core HR and talent can be followed by an integration into payroll.
Core HR often seems like a natural starting point because it offers quick progress, but you must keep its connections to other parts of the business in mind to avoid slowdowns. When organizations approach integration in the right order, the work can flow more smoothly and deliver results that last.
2. Align the efforts of HR and IT
In a 2025 Nexthink survey, 64% of IT leaders predicted a complete HR-IT merger will happen within five years, while 31% predicted HR and IT will not merge but become far more collaborative during that same period.
Bringing HR and IT together is a straightforward way to minimize data-integration headaches in the short and long term. When the two teams stay in sync, the entire process progresses with less friction, reducing people-related risks, enhancing data management and providing clear visibility into what's happening across an organization. Collaboration keeps strategies aligned, giving leaders a chance to catch minor issues early — before they grow into major problems.
It also helps to talk through system requirements as part of an integration plan. If each team focuses only on its own tools, gaps start to form. At scale, these gaps can hurt functionality and the user experience, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities for productivity and cost savings over time.
Using technology to strengthen collaboration between the two functions is simply practical. Tools that support custom integration work can help teams tackle bigger challenges while lightening workloads for both groups, and automatic integration methods, such as scheduled file transfers and API-based real-time updates, can reduce the need for manual work that complicates integration initiatives.
When HR and IT opt for a mix of custom-integration development and strategic alignment, they can transform roadblocks into opportunities for efficiency and innovation, laying the groundwork for long-term success.
3. Prepare for an AI future
Responding to AI's impact and facilitating proper AI adoption long-term starts with a well-integrated data infrastructure, where systems, workflows and insights flow seamlessly across an organization. It's not just about automation; it's about building connected decisioning that relies on unified data moving freely between HR, payroll, benefits, recruiting, finance and other workplace systems. Without that underlying interconnectedness, even the most advanced AI solutions may operate in silos, struggling to deliver organization-wide impact.
"AI delivers its greatest value when it can tap into an integrated ecosystem," says Vincent Civetta, vice president, product development, ADP. "It's helpful for organizations to understand how their platforms can connect, what data moves between them and whether their systems can support an integrated experience that empowers AI solutions."
By investing in prebuilt integrations, connectors and custom-integration tools, organizations can set the foundation for AI to analyze, predict, advise and reshape how work gets done. Building this integrated ecosystem today can help ensure your organization is ready to utilize AI and let it transform processes, productivity and the employee experience across the enterprise.
4. Start your integration journey with the right partner
Every organization's integration journey is different, but it doesn't have to be complicated. When you're ready to move from planning to action, ADP offers multiple options for getting started: connecting current systems, evaluating new HR technology with embedded integrations or designing a custom path with expert support.
"When a new employee joins our team, we use the API integration from ADP API Central to share and connect all their information — title, work location, pay rate, supervisor, all of it — with all our other systems. ADP is just more reliable than our previous provider, and I'm happy we switched."
— Robert Willson, President, APS Materials Inc.
Explore ADP Marketplace or download our technical whitepaper to learn more about data integration and the solutions available to you.
