July 23, 2021

The Perfect Time for an Embedded Integration Platform?

When is the perfect time for an Embedded Integration Platform

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Integrations

Use Case Introduction

When is the perfect time for a new project? Simple question, multivariable answer. Starting even a small initiative within your organization requires a lot of preparation and most importantly readiness for change. Employees are usually reluctant to change, many of the established processes require modifications and this adds additional costs on top of those you pay for the project implementation itself.

As you can see in this article, enterprises are using around 200 different apps and this number is increasing with 30% per year. Therefore it is quite possible your customers to be using various apps and systems together with your offerings or services. It might be quite challenging to work with all these various tools together. In such cases system integration can make the process smoother, by seamlessly connecting different software tools and making them speak to one another. The faster your client syncs with your software or service, the happier they will be. That is why you need to help them with the integration project. Do you have the time and resources to evaluate third-party integration vendors for this? Why not offer it as an extension to your offerings? It will make things a lot easier.

Embedded Integration Platforms can become an extended arm to your software or service and give you the opportunity to adopt and provide an out-of-the-box integration solution.

Adopting a ready-to-use software such as an Embedded Integration Platform is more simple, easy and saves tons of time compared to going to third-party vendors or creating an integration from scratch. For more insights on why you shouldn't go for a homegrown integration read our article.

Research & Budgets

  1. After the comprehensive introduction it is time for you to understand whether you have a need for an Embedded Integration Platform. You can easily grasp that need when you ask customers one question: How much value would the option to integrate our product/service with your systems bring?. On a scale of 1 to 10 if you have a number bigger than 5, its probably a good idea to continue evaluating this opportunity.
  2. The next step would be to make a meeting with your Product Managers to see what is their opinion on the matter and whether they are seeing the need for having an integration platform. The trend towards having an embedded integration platform is growing and now more than 80% of vendors either have it in their portfolio or are in the process of adding it.
  3. The third step would be to speak with 2-3 customers and assess their specific integration use cases. This would make the adopting and budgeting steps much easier since you will have an idea of what exactly to look for.
  4. Budgets - we know this is tough, but lets be honest  this is an investment, which will bring high ROI immediately. You can offer it to both existing and new customers, which makes things even better. From our experience we can say that two of the biggest ITOM vendors, who are now leveraging ZigiOps as an Embedded Integration Platform saw almost 200% return on investment in the first year only as their net income grew exponentially. Consider this initiative as a high ROI for the long-term.

Adopting an Integration Platform

Choosing which integration platform to whitelabel is probably the most complex step in the process. However, if you manage to get a grasp on the customer use cases from the beginning, choosing the right integration tool should be easier. Be careful when assessing different vendors since most of them tend to have hidden costs for more complex integrations. For more details on this topic, you can check our Top 8 Things to Watch Out for with Integration Vendors. The more flexible and scalable the integration platform is, the better. This way you will cover 90% of the customer use cases and wont have to pay additional development fees in case of more complex integrations. Once you choose the integration platform things should be easy to set up. The timeline from acquiring the product to starting to offer it to customers should be no more than 1 month. The main features you should be getting from such a deal are the following

  • Full Product Customization  Adapt the integration platform to your branding, name it as you see appropriate and change anything you want to make it feel yours.
  • Access to Sales & Marketing Materials  You should get access to a variety of videos, presentations, leaflets and other materials necessary to kick off your new feature as soon as possible.
  • Onboarding & Training  All employees and partners who will be using or selling the integration hub on your side, should get extensive training, onboarding and support by the integration vendors team.
  • Adequate Support  Such partnerships build important long-term relationships. You need to receive enterprise-grade support from the integration vendor.

Benefits of having an Embedded Integration Platform

Think of adding an Embedded Integration Platform as seamlessly extending your portfolio of solutions. You can achieve it without any additional development and engagement of employees, by simply adopting an off-the-shelf solution.

Building an integration platform from scratch is expensive, takes a lot of time and doesn't cover many use cases. The best thing to do here is add a mature integration product, which can immediately bring benefits to your business and customers.

Here are some of the main benefits of having an Embedded Integration Platform:

  • Extend your portfolio of solutions/services
  • Start offering integrations to both existing and new customers
  • Very short adopt/release cycle
  • Align your systems with those of customers in a few clicks
  • Increase your added value and stay ahead of competition

The ZigiOps Integration Platform

ZigiOps was created with scalability and flexibility in mind. The integration platform gives users the ability to create, modify and launch their integrations in a few clicks. With the predefined integration templates the process becomes even easier and suitable for people with no technical background.

Being a highly flexible no-code integration platform makes ZigiOps the perfect choice for an Embedded Integration platform. The adoption to release ratio is short, there are no hidden additional development costs and you get all the support and sales materials you need.

Conclusion

As the saying goes: The best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The second-best time is now. It is the same with enhancing your offering and providing your clients with an easy, out-of-the-box way for integrating the systems they are already using with your products and services.

Now is the time to skyrocket client satisfaction with an Integration Platform. Get in touch with us and we will create a custom offering for our Embedded Integration Hub, tailored per your needs.

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