IFTTT - Not just an integration platform, but a jumping off point for new ideas and functions
November 12, 2018

IFTTT - Not just an integration platform, but a jumping off point for new ideas and functions

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with IFTTT

IFTTT is being used as an automation bridge in my organization between a building automation platform and a lighting system, Office 365 (for notifications of events), a visitor management system (Envoy) and a security platform. We've found considerable use out of levering many of the already existing recipes to quickly enable functionality without requiring programming knowledge, as well as their significant library of integrated systems. Some of the platforms that we've begun utilizing were selected because they were already integrated with IFTTT.

Pros

  • They have a strong library of integrated applications, making for a wide range of options when it comes to trying to share data or structure tasks between systems. Chances are if you're trying to get System A to talk to System B, they've already done the work to connect the two and there's a recipe in place that takes 1-2 clicks to get going in your own organization. It's about as simple as it can get.
  • The recipe list is very large and since anyone can contribute workflows through IFTTT, it's not limited to whatever IFTTT-only can dream up, you can get actual useful real-world uses for various systems. Many of the recipes that I've utilized have been picked because I was wondering what was possible and stumbled upon a useful workflow.

Cons

  • The only issue I think I've ever had is a short delay in getting things to happen when using IFTTT as the middleware. In some cases it doesn't matter, like taking a picture when a door opens, but in others it can be a bit irritating, like turning on a light when an individual trips a motion sensor (a 5-10 second delay there is the difference between an intruder being caught in the act and someone passing through an area unnoticed until it's too late). Some kind of notice about potential delays in processing time would be useful when dealing with complex recipes.
  • We use the free version of IFTTT so there hasn't been a negative ROI on our business, though the delay in processing some events has a negative impact on satisfaction at times. I don't like walking into a room and making it 6-7 steps sometimes before a light comes on due to processing delay between the building automation system and the lighting system. Otherwise though, the benefit it provides in connecting other platforms together easily and without requiring the services of an API programmer more than makes up for the negatives there.
Office 365 has a program called Flow that functions similar to IFTTT, however, IFTTT has more integrations with 3rd parties and Flow has problems with getting triggers to go off properly. Unless there were some corporate requirement to utilize Flow only or limit integrations, I wouldn't leave IFTTT due to the wide range of recipes offered by end users. I regularly visit the IFTTT site to see what else end users have published as it gives me ideas for other novel uses of my platforms.
IFTTT shines when you have limited programming capabilities and you need to connect disparate systems together. Chances are whatever need you have has already been done and there are quick and easy recipes to enable cross-platform functionality, though IFTTT is primarily for cloud-based connections - you're not going to be able to use it for connecting some on-premise services to a cloud vendor.

IFTTT Feature Ratings

Pre-built connectors
10
Connector modification
7
Support for real-time and batch integration
8
Monitoring console
5

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