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- Zapier: Automate your workflows without being a programmer
In many small and medium-sized enterprises, it's common to find disconnected processes between different work groups. Each team may use a certain application because it provides particular advantages, but it doesn't integrate with the ones used by other departments. Learn what Zapier is and how it can integrate applications to develop powerful workflows, at low cost, in a short time, and without being a programmer.
The direct consequence of the lack of connection between the different applications used by a business team is the loss of time, increased rework, and the consumption of more resources, among many other things. This can be the difference between survival or death for many companies, especially smaller ones.
To connect those workflows, it's necessary to hire qualified labor to perform costly and complex integrations, whose investment is not always easy to recover. With Zapier, you can create solutions tailored to your company's requirements without needing to know programming and in just a few simple steps.
What is Zapier?
It's a solution that allows you to integrate applications that don't naturally adapt to each other. In this way, you can achieve greater functionality in your business at a very low cost and in a short time.
Zapier is cloud-based and very easy to use, as it only requires you to connect the applications you need with your respective accounts. Then, you select a trigger and establish the subsequent actions, in this way you will see how the data flows.
Each of the created processes is called a Zap, and you can create as many as your company requires and that your chosen plan allows.
When you create a Zap, an API or Application Programming Interface is created. That is, programming code is automatically generated based on your particular need, which will save you time, effort, and money.
It supports more than 3,000 applications, including the most popular ones such as Google Sheets, Gmail, Slack, Excel, Word, Mailchimp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Zoho Forms, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho Desk, and more.
Thanks to this, Zapier offers solutions for accountants, financial advisors, marketers, health professionals, trainers, designers, programmers, customer service agents, lawyers, project managers, writers, and more.
These workflows are also secure, as Zapier encrypts the data that is transferred between applications and has two-step authentication, as an additional layer of security.
Some interesting ways to use Zapier
Imagine that every time you publish an article on your blog, you communicate it to your community through a tweet. You can automate this action through a Zap.
If you have an online store, when a purchase is made, you must make a accounting record of the transaction, and this is usually done manually. With Zapier, you can integrate your store with the accounting application, so that this record is automatic.
Every month, you create reports on the activity of your Instagram account, but you need to record the data to create your statistical charts. If you create a Zap, you can automatically throw that information into an Excel file and create your charts in seconds.
If you have to handle projects, you can create forms in which your clients include their guidelines or requirements. Through a Zap, it's possible to automatically create cards in Trello so that it can be executed by the team and easily supervised.
As long as the applications you need to integrate are supported by Zapier, you have an immense number of combination options that will make it easier to create solutions tailored to your needs in a short time.
Price
Zapier offers a free plan and four paid plans. With the free plan, you can create up to 5 automations that execute 100 tasks per month. The paid options vary widely, as each one has multiple alternatives to choose from. However, their prices range from $19.99 to $3,599 per month with annual billing. You can purchase these plans with a credit card, Paypal, or ACH.
Conclusions
Zapier is a cloud-based solution that allows you to create integrations automatically, quickly, and at low cost. It is cloud-based and supports over 3,000 applications. The processes created are custom APIs and are called Zaps. Data transfer is encrypted and provides multiple layers of security. If you found this article useful, please share it!