When I went to the doctor recently, she started by asking one simple question: “Why are you here?”
After I gave a short description of my symptoms, she asked me to tell her more about some of them. She didn’t begin by asking me what I wanted her to do, prescribing a pill or naming a diagnosis, she listened, probed a little, and then used what I’d said to form a plan.
As a patient at the doctor’s office, I feel comfortable that they know what’s best for me. I don’t arrive expecting to know exactly what the problem is or which medicine I need. Sometimes I have an idea, or I’ve seen similar symptoms online. Even then, I’m happy to let the doctor do their job. And I would never go to a cardiologist for a broken leg. Both are doctors, but they have different specialties.
This is exactly why you should think of integration specialists as doctors.
Think of Us as Your “Tech Physicians”
Integration specialists aren’t interested in proving you wrong or insisting on our favourite tool. We have a job: to make systems work together so your people can do their work more easily. To do that well, we need to understand what really hurts.
When you walk into the clinic (or, in our case, pick up the phone or open a ticket), we begin the same way a good physician does:
- We ask why you’re there.
- We listen to the symptoms you describe.
- We dig a little deeper to understand the context and severity.
- We propose a plan that fits your actual needs—not what looks cool or what someone else has used. Sometimes your needs demand that we’re a group of specialists concluding together, that doesn’t mean that we don’t know what we’re doing. Only that we are experts in different tools.
What we want to know (and why it matters)
You might have read a blog, had a tip from a friend, or seen a flashy demo at a conference. Those are useful inputs but they’re not a diagnosis. Good integration is about aligning technical choices with your business reality.
Just like medicine, the “best” treatment is the one that helps the patient get better, not the one that looks the most impressive on paper or the one that you are most aware of. A search result, a tip from a friend, or a flashy tool demo can point you in a direction, but it’s rarely the real cure. We bring expertise to sort through the noise and apply the right treatment for your situation.
Below are the kinds of questions an integration specialist will start asking and why each matter:
- Where does it hurt most?
- What is your solution (if you have one) unable to do today that you want to do?
- What’s non-negational?
- How and when should we have a follow-up call?
So, instead of bringing the image you have gotten from your friend who works with “computers”, come to us with a clear definition of what you have today and how you want it to work.
We don’t come in with a one-size-fits-all solution. We come with a listening ear, diagnostic questions, and the aim of making your life easier, just like a good doctor.
So, the next time you reach out, take a number, sit back, and tell us: why are you here?
