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Is your iPaaS holding you back on your cloud journey? 

An iPaaS might seem like the easy way to accelerate your journey to the cloud. But be careful! It might be a trap. Before you go all-in on an iPaaS, look at the bigger picture.  

1: Avoid IT quicksand. Think beyond an iPaaS.

The cloud. The super scalable, automated, unlimited possibilities of the cloud. 

Cue blue skies. And an inviting alpine lake calling you with its crystal-clear waters. Followed by menacing darkness on the horizon, and the first crack of lightning

Still ready to jump in?

You know the pressure to accelerate your cloud journey, starting with an iPaaS. Everyone else is doing it to save money, deliver new services and revenue faster, and improve customer experience in one simple leap. But the complexity of reimplementing apps, migrating data, and retraining IT is more than a minor hurdle.

FOMO, unrealistic expectations, and declining customer service  

What’s holding you back is all the uncertainty. You need to act, but don’t know when, or how. Is it too late? Or too soon? Is it too risky?

Here’s what you’re probably experiencing:

  • Constant pressure on your IT teams. Expectations that literally can’t be fulfilled with your current resources, coupled with knowing you need to meet those expectations somehow, is a perfect recipe for anxiety.
  • Fear of missing out. All your competitors are rolling out new apps and services. And if you can’t match or ideally, surpass—them, your organization will fall further and further behind.
  • Declining customer satisfaction. Once it’s lost, it’s gone. And that’s in the good times. When markets get turbulent, customer satisfaction becomes a matter of business survival. But not before they come for your job. And let’s be frank, 40 percent of current Fortune 500 firms won’t exist in 10 years. Will yours be one of them? (And will you still be there to find out?)

It’s quicksand that can slow your cloud journey even when things go right. And it can drown your IT staff if things go just a little bit wrong. And things do go wrong: Cleo reports a 40% increase in companies losing $1 million annually due to poor integration in 2021. 

40% Increase in Companies Losing Over $1 Million Annually Due to Poor Integration 

- 2022 Market Report: Cleo Survey

And while the benefits of the cloud are definitely real, the risks tend to be glossed over. But don’t worry, many in the market tell you, just get an iPaaS. Problem. Solved.

Not quite.

Can that iPaaS do APIs and B2B? If not, you may have fallen for the iPaaS industry trap.

We still think an integration-Platform-as-a-Service, or iPaaS is a great idea. In fact, we love it. But iPaaS buyers need to be informed in order to avoid making a costly mistake. Think beyond just getting an integration platform deployed to the cloud, or iPaaS in name only. An integration strategy should also handle B2B and APIs—and it should encompass hybrid environments. Read more to find out what we mean.

2: Why you feel this way

It may be counterintuitive that something as promising and powerful as the cloud can make you feel so much stress. But your concern is based on concrete risks—carrying serious consequences.

The most significant is the trap of doing everything the way you’ve always done it before. You need to think bigger, because even though whatever you’re doing is working for now, the ever-growing demand on your IT resources just to maintain the status quo is leading you to a strategic impasse.

Here’s what you’re up against:

SaaS app proliferation

You’ve seen that SaaS apps are multiplying everywhere. And since they aren’t integrated with your backend systems— data silos and strategic business visibility issues are multiplying even faster. None of this is sustainable, and you know it. But what you don’t know is which trigger is going to cause this whole thing to grind to a halt. Or when. 

The average company with 200 to 500 employees uses about 123 SaaS applications.

- Martechtoday.com

So while a SaaS app can be a quick, short-term fix for a specific business goal, it also leaves behind a trail of IT requirements from maintenance to integration with existing workflows and processes. This adds to the IT backlog and further slows the initiatives needed for growth. Until, well, there’s no room for growth at all. Game. Over.

New technologies require new expertise

You’ve watched from the sidelines as one competitor after another completes their cloud journey. Here a modern interface. There an omni-channel experience. Here a cool new service. There—one of your customers. Then another. Then…

API-led, self-service apps, and the ability to quickly create and evolve customer-facing tools are simply table stakes now when you go head-to-head with your competitors.

And Hybrid integration is a great way forward, but not if you wait too long. And not if you jump at the wrong solution. If it’s not a multi-use case, multi-cloud, multi-persona, multi-deployment powerhouse that can integrate everything and give your customer something to smile about, you might as well sit on the sidelines and become a spectator. The bottom line is your customers expect a modern, connected and easy experience but the digital transformation required to meet those expectations is increasingly complex and more difficult to navigate with constantly changing needs. A misstep today can have a lasting impact on your ability to compete in the future. You need to make smarter decisions faster to create experiences that your customers, partners and employees expect so that you can compete in this world of fast, always-evolving change.

No future-proof integration/cloud migration strategy

Transforming a business takes time, effort, and resources. And you don’t want to waste the valuable IT assets and architecture you’ve already heavily invested in.

The decisions you need to make about strategy can be confusing.

For instance, microservices and APIs each offer exciting ways to gather new data, and use the data you already have, to do new things. But to do this requires expertise in containers, cloud security, operational challenges like failover, and more. Not likely without a fully automated DevOps lifecycle. And not possible without a future-proof integration and cloud migration strategy.  

3: Rethink integration for innovation by going hybrid

Here’s the good news: for every doubt that’s been gnawing at you as you consider this or that iPaaS, there’s a concrete answer if you know what to look for. And that means there are concrete solutions on the market that can solve your problems.

Hybrid integration. Effective automations. Smart data pipelines for data integration. Robust B2B capabilities. And API security and innovation that locks down what’s important and lights a fuse under new lines of revenue.

All of this is possible if you focus on solutions that:

1. Prevent data from being disconnected or going inaccessible

You need easy and reliable connectivity for all of your data sources—wherever they live, and whatever they do. That means data in SaaS apps, legacy and mainframe apps, custom apps, and any flavor of cloud you can dream up.

Integrating and automating everything—from applications to IoT devices and beyond—will make your business processes more efficient. It will also make your enterprise more agile than any startup. An iPaaS can expedite business processes and workflows by synchronizing data and automating integrations, eliminating data silos, and allowing for better visibility and easy access to your data.

The upshot is that you gain better insights so you can make better business decisions.  But the right iPaaS is built for both business users and IT. That means easing the IT backlog rather than adding to it. And unleashing those expensive, rock-star developers on innovation rather than burning their time (and your money) on boring tasks that don’t exactly have them loving their job.

2. Make IT & business co-innovation partners

As low-cost competitors move into the market, you need to react quickly with new services and apps to delight your customers and prevent customer churn. If you’re constantly relying on the same team for this, your IT backlog ends up growing indefinitely. But the best iPaaS and hybrid integration solutions chart a profitable path forward by democratizing integration.

Developers and integration specialists will be able to build high-performing, advanced services in Java and FLOW logic. Business users, application teams, and SaaS superusers will be able to create automated workflows using advanced services and prebuilt connectors in a drag & drop user interface.

That’s why you should look for solutions that let your developers go deep with full control—while also giving your non-technical users the ability to create and maintain integrations without having to know code. When everyone can contribute, you get more services, happier customers, a shrinking IT backlog, and a serious competitive edge.

3.Unlock and capture value from ALL of your data, in any format and in any location

Data analysis is crucial in today’s market; it helps companies improve processes, provide superior customer service, and compete. And data is everywhere, from internal applications like SAP to external services that add context like traffic and weather. Today the lines between application integration and data integration are merging, as companies strive to ingest and analyze vast quantities of information. There is so much data, in different formats and locations, that managing it is difficult and time-consuming. That is why businesses need a robust and comprehensive platform that covers all aspects of integration - application, data, API, IoT and process. A platform that can also build and run the smart data pipelines needed to power data integration across hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, and that is fully prepared to power your modern data ecosystem for analytics, AI/ML, and smart applications.

The most comprehensive, future-proof iPaaS will enable companies to utilize and take action on all of their data as it moves between on-premises applications, data streams, SaaS applications, legacy data stores and cloud data platforms.

4.Support incremental and strategic Digital transformations

Resist letting the fear of missing out push your organization towards rushing into a digital transformation that leaves your core systems behind. Or heedlessly implementing point-to-point SaaS integrations for short-term gain at the cost of increasing fragmentation.

The best hybrid integration solutions will let you create reusable access points for valuable customer data. And the right iPaaS will let you move to the cloud strategically, and incrementally, so that you can modernize at the right pace, and drive innovation without breaking your core business advantages.

An iPaaS should provide a unified, hybrid integration platform that runs in the cloud as well as on-premises. It should come with hundreds of connectors to packaged and legacy apps, as well as SaaS apps, mainframes, and IoT devices. You should be able to connect to and get value out of your existing systems.

Moving incrementally puts you in charge of your timing as you reduce the expense and effort of on-prem systems in a sustainable, strategically smart way. With a roadmap in place, your organization can transition to the more reliable cost model of subscription-based systems, and shift to accessible user interfaces that empower business users to “self-serve,” rather than be dependent on IT.

5. Enable enterprise-class scaling

The temptation to go low-end is a dead end. Some businesses choose an iPaaS-in-name-only, rationalizing the purchase by telling themselves, “we’ll only ever need this for very simple use cases.”

But even the most simple use cases eventually grow. And all of them inevitably get hit by a data spike that overwhelms the cheap solution. If a platform isn’t designed for enterprise scalability right from the start, it’s going to fail you right when you need it most. And that’s when the pain is going to be greatest. The situation gets even worse when iPaaS connectors aren’t maintained across releases, and you’re forced to redirect your IT team to redevelop, retest, and redeploy all related services. Every. Single. Time. A. Connector. Is. Updated.

The best solutions focus on an API-led, hybrid integration approach.  It starts with a multi-function iPaaS that can securely connect to on-premise applications and data sources, and will scale automatically to fit your organization’s growing integration needs. After all, one of the big benefits of the cloud is scalability. Better-than-expected success should never be your downfall.  

4: Take your business from fragmented to connected

Can any solution simply labeled an “iPaaS” solve your conundrum?

No. Because it depends on more than a name.

Only a truly enterprise-class, API-led solution that brings the full power of hybrid integration can do what you want. It’s how you take your business from fragmented to connected by seeking out a solution that doesn’t just get you to the cloud—but also connects to systems on-premises without having to undergo a major restructuring.

An iPaaS worthy of the label has to do much more than just internal integration. It should help you create integration services and APIs. It should make it easy for you to publish and share applications with other teams. And it should make integrating with businesses and partners a breeze.

Look beyond the label, so that you can: 

  • Integrate anything easily and securely 
    Apps. Data. Files. Devices. Partners. All of it, by anyone. That means empowering both business and IT users to automate business processes. Expanding IT capacity to build new products and services. Freeing up your tech wizards to focus on sophisticated projects. And cleaning out that IT backlog so you can finally focus on innovation.

  • Deliver better customer service
    Exceptional visibility into customer data is what lets you understand what’s happening right now—not in two weeks. It’s also what helps you make better decisions in order to: quickly deliver new customer-centric services, respond to and enhance customer satisfaction, and simplify partner and supplier interactions.

  • Simplify digital transformation
    The way forward should be strategic and incremental. Modernization isn’t about bragging rights. It’s getting the timing right to improve your business and optimize profitability. Success means connecting to both cloud and on-prem systems, avoiding redundancy and losses during the transition, and preparing your business for whatever the future brings.  

5: Ready to see hybrid integration in action?

Then meet webMethods.io iPaaS, the only all-in-one, enterprise-class, more-than-just-an-integration platform that does data and application integration, APIs, and B2B. Like a pro.

webMethods.io iPaaS empowers you to quickly and seamlessly integrate all of your applications, processes and data, in any format and in any location, in the cloud. You’ll simplify integration activities by using one unified platform for API management, hybrid integration and B2B integration initiatives. You’ll be able to swiftly turn integrations into APIs, or create APIs first and build the integrations later, all with total end-to-end visibility into each and every transaction. Accelerate your operational processes and streamline your integrations with trading partners while quickly and securely exchanging B2B documents in the cloud.

webMethods.io iPaaS is an award winning, analyst recognized leader and the only API, B2B, data and hybrid integration combination in the market, making it the industry’s most capable integration platform. webMethods.io iPaaS offers hundreds of prebuilt connectors and recipes for faster development and unmatched visibility across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. You can even build and run your smart data pipelines for data integration across hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, enabling you get value out of ALL of your data with analytics and AI. With flexible pricing for different needs, and 20+ years of experience in designing and building complex, mission-critical systems, webMethods.io iPaaS is uniquely positioned to take your business to the next level.

See how it can transform your business with strategic intent—incrementally. And learn how to add new cloud capabilities as you need them, while maintaining your core systems without having to rip and replace.  

Adapt for speed by keeping your stable legacy systems and modernizing or creating new ones for competitive advantage. Mobile and cloud apps on demand are easy when it starts with your rock-solid legacy systems. And true innovation continues when you can expose existing data and applications with APIs to create modern interfaces.

Try webMethods.io today in your own environment to see how easy it is to get connected.

Our demo is free. So get in touch with an expert for a peek at your profitable hybrid integration, future. 

6. Real-world examples of how an iPaaS drives innovation

Integrate anything easily and securely

webMethods.io iPaaS keeps workforces connected

The challenge
A leading enterprise collaboration suite of web and video conferencing solutions with platforms that have more than 600 million monthly users was experiencing rapid growth driven by the rise of the virtual office. The company needed to integrate hundreds of external apps quickly without ceding control over development.

The solution
webMethods.io iPaaS provided unmatched cloud-to-cloud integration capabilities, and an intuitive user interface that made developing workflows a cinch. With hundreds of pre-configured enterprise connectors, developers could simply drag and drop them onto a canvas, choose from an existing set of triggers and actions, and quickly have a complex automation at their fingertips. Taking this approach allowed the team to create custom workflows within minutes—and ultimately build an arsenal of bots to connect users directly to their favorite apps.

The impact
webMethods.io iPaaS allowed the company’s IT team to develop more than 50 app-connecting bots, enhanced collaboration with third-party app developers and vastly improved users’ workplace efficiency. Over the course of 2020, as professionals around the globe abandoned cubicles for kitchen tables and home offices, the platform’s monthly users grew fourfold: by December, 600 million people were relying on the platform for at least some of their business tasks. The platform’s connectivity with external apps was key to making the work-from-home transition as seamless as possible. And with the virtual workplace here to stay, at least in some form, it will continue to give the company a leg up on the competition.  

Deliver better customer service

Simplifying back-office integration with webMethods.io iPaaS

The challenge
Micro-brewery Foreach Brewing is passionate about creating the perfect range of craft beers for its customers but needed to address the headache of poorly connected applications and time-consuming back-office tasks to focus on brewing. The company was experiencing a lack of visibility to customer demand, manual, repetitive tasks, poor inventory management and limited website ordering options, and prohibitive costs for full-scale integration.

The solution
Foreach brewing implemented Software AG’s webMethods.io iPaaS to get its disparate applications working together and to free up time to focus on growing the business. webMethods.io iPaaS provided an easy-to-use solution, with an intuitive drag-and-drop interface to design, assemble, and deploy workflows for apps. It also came with industry-leading developer tools that supported multiple users, which made the team’s main goal of automating business processes extremely simple.

The impact
Thanks to webMethods.io, the applications powering Foreach’s e-commerce platform are now seamlessly connected. When a customer places an order, the team receives an instant notification and can immediately fulfill it. The integration allows the team to see what kinds of products customers most demand and to set up custom order capabilities to facilitate orders containing mixes and matches of different inventory items. 80% of customers now order mixed types of beers, which was a big revelation for the team that is helping them to map out future product lines.

Inventory management is also automated, eliminating label counting. The platform has also simplified the entire financial reporting process. Now, instead of having to manually create reports, all sales are automatically extracted and forwarded to Foreach’s accountant, freeing up even more time to spend on creating the perfect brew. 

Simplify digital transformation

Bigger, faster and better online services with webMethods iPaaS

The Challenge
Digital Dubai is the Dubai government office charged with facilitating the city’s smart transformation. It empowers, delivers and promotes an efficient, seamless, safe and personalized experience for residents and visitors via initiatives such as going entirely paperless, measuring and prioritizing happiness, and using technologies like AI and blockchain. Its smart apps are innovative masterpieces, including those that let people: rate the things that make them happy, manage their digital identity and signatures, acquire a new business license and much more. Digital Dubai needed to reduce complexity and streamline backend communication and integration between Dubai Government entities to reduce friction and enable new innovation. Growing costs, numerous customer experience initiatives, and digital transformation needs were presenting obstacles.

The solution
Digital Dubai took its technology to new heights by implementing webMethods iPaaS. It quickly built a hub to integrate all government entities, impacting everything from its paperless initiative, to making Dubai the happiest city in the world. Just four months after it started the project, Digital Dubai went live exposing government service APIs for unified mobile apps and more. And it did so just in time. When the COVID pandemic hit, Digital Dubai and webMethods kept government services running smoothly and safely—at the tap of a mobile screen.

The Impact
Building on this success, Digital Dubai released the Invest In Dubai (IID) platform in February 2021. Within months the total number of business registration and licensing transactions reached over 5,000, including over 3,500 commercial business licenses and more than 1,500 trade names. Digitally. Remotely. And at record speed. The reach of the program is staggering. Investors from 77 different countries were attracted by IID, with data showing that 9,181 jobs were created by businesses for whom licenses were issued.

webMethods iPaaS is helping Dubai’s leadership visualize and monitor key KPIs associated with all of Dubai’s initiatives. This means that live information on happiness, customer experiences, resident and visitor journeys, and more is fed from the platform to critical webMethods dashboards, in real time. Now, Dubai’s leadership can see, decide and act—so people can thrive. 

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