When discussing product planning, it’s easy to get caught up in individual features. But it’s worth stepping back to ask: What’s the most important feature we need to deliver? Is it an intuitive user interface that eliminates the need to export data to spreadsheets? Or perhaps it’s providing organisation-wide dashboards and reports that deliver both operational and strategic insights. Maybe it’s about implementing business processes and workflows, with built-in customisation, automation, and validation to streamline operations.

These are all important, and Aurora excels in each of these areas. But arguably, the most impactful feature we deliver is connection—the ability to integrate seamlessly with the other third-party systems your organisation relies on.

The Hub and Spoke Model

Think of your Asset Management system like Heathrow Airport: a hub connecting numerous destinations. Without a hub, you’d need direct routes for every single connection—an expensive and inefficient approach. With a hub-and-spoke model, however, you only need to build a single integration between your Asset Management system and your other core systems.

This approach minimizes effort and risk while simplifying your system architecture. For example, integrating your Asset Management system with your Finance system and Contractor system ensures that when a defect is logged, it seamlessly flows through the necessary steps—from ordering materials to notifying contractors and managing budgets. This ensures transparency and efficiency, whether defects are reported through a corporate CRM, a public-facing app like FixMyStreet, or Aurora’s own Report It portal.

Even as organisations adopt innovative AI-based road survey solutions like RoadMetrics, Route Reports, or Vaisala for defect detection, the challenge remains: How do you ensure these solutions connect with your contractors, manage finances, and prevent duplicate reports? With Aurora’s integration capabilities, once the data enters your system, the rest is handled automatically.

Beyond the Core: Expanding Integration

Connecting to the “big three”—CRM, Finance, and Contractor systems—is essential, but integration doesn’t stop there. Aurora can also connect with your corporate GIS, leveraging Web Mapping and Feature Services (WMS/WFS). This allows data like highway adoption extents to be displayed in Aurora or, conversely, data from Aurora, such as active Digital Traffic Regulation Orders (D-TROs), to be shared with other teams.

Built for Seamless Integration

Aurora’s integration capabilities are powered by Microsoft Azure, utilising modern technologies like open REST APIs, Azure Logic Apps, and Azure Blob Storage. With OAUTH 2.0 authorisation protocols and data stored in an Azure SQL Server database, Aurora ensures compatibility with tools like Power BI for reporting or direct database access through views.

Endless Possibilities

Just as Heathrow connects you to over 200 destinations, Aurora opens endless possibilities for your data. By integrating all your systems into a single, central hub, you gain a streamlined, scalable, and efficient way to manage operations. Once your data is in Aurora, the connections and opportunities are limitless.