Question from Reddit user:
Is it possible to connect Infor LN and HubSpot without using the connector offered by Commercient?
I mean, is there an option to integrate Infor LN and HubSpot with a one-time payment, without having to pay an annual fee?
Is the Commercient connector the only option to connect Infor LN and HubSpot, or are there others?
Does anyone have experience connecting Infor LN and HubSpot?
If so, does it work well?
Answer from Nabil:
The short answer is:
No, Commercient is not the only option, and yes, it is absolutely possible to connect Infor LN and HubSpot without paying an annual subscription for a third-party connector.
The key alternative to the subscription model is building a custom integration using the native APIs of both systems.
This is an upfront investment with the benefit of a one-time development cost, which grants you a permanent, highly tailored, and royalty-free solution.
This approach leverages the powerful HubSpot API and Infor’s integration platform, which utilizes Infor ION API and the ION API Gateway, to create a seamless, direct data flow.
The long answer is:
The reason third-party connectors like Commercient use an annual subscription is that they provide and maintain the middleware, the data mapping, and the ongoing support for a wide array of customers and various system versions.
They save you the complexity of building and maintaining a custom solution.
However, if you are looking for a one-time payment option, your best path is a custom integration using the native APIs.
This is a much better and cheaper long-term solution because you are building an asset you own.
Infor LN, especially through Infor OS, provides extensive integration capabilities using the Infor ION API.
This allows you to expose and consume data from Infor LN via a standardized framework.
On the CRM side, the HubSpot API is very well-documented, allowing you to create, update, and manage contacts, companies, deals, and custom objects based on data coming from Infor LN.
The solution involves hiring a developer or systems integrator for a one-time project to build a custom application that acts as the “bridge” between the two APIs.
This custom bridge is hosted on your own infrastructure, which can be a simple, low-cost serverless environment like Google Cloud Platform or an internal server, potentially even using a server-side tagging environment managed by Google Tag Manager or a service like Stape for efficient data routing and transformation, although GTM and Stape are primarily for marketing data.
A more robust, standard development environment is typically used for heavy-duty ERP to CRM integrations.
Once the custom application is built, its operational costs are negligible, primarily consisting of the hosting costs, which are vastly cheaper than annual connector subscriptions.
This allows for real-time data synchronization like pulling customer financial data and order history from Infor LN directly into HubSpot deal records, giving your sales team a 360-degree view without reliance on any recurring subscription from a third-party vendor.
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