As small and medium-sized businesses
(
SMBs) increase their use of
Software as a Service (SaaS) technology, the need for
integrating the technology with the rest of the businesses
applications is becoming more critical. What they're finding,
however, is that it's a job easier said than done. | | | | | What happens is that you've got
all these different solutions running in different places and
integrating them can get a little tricky.
Laurie McCabe
vice presidentAccess Markets International
Inc. |
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According to research firm
Saugatuck Technology Inc., as more companies
use SaaS, the need to integrate those applications with the rest of
a company's systems grows. In fact, 17% of SMBs are using more than
one application delivered via SaaS, according to the Westport,
Conn.-based firm's findings.
"In the early days of SaaS, a lot of applications were
standalone and running in silos," said Liz Herbert, a senior
analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "People just weren't focused on
the challenge of integration. They were focused on customisation.
Now we're seeing SaaS used more broadly."
As a result, SMBs are grappling with how to integrate their
applications without making a risky investment in time and
cash.
In the early days of SaaS, applications were primarily the
concern of each individual business unit. Human resources used one.
Sales used one. The head of a department was less concerned with
integrating the applications with the rest of the company's systems
than with making the product perform a specific business function.
The applications didn't need to communicate with other software to
deliver value.
But integrating applications delivered through the SaaS model
carries some risk for SMBs, because they lack the resources to
correct for mistakes. Part of the value of SaaS is its ease of use
and its subscription-based pricing model, which offers low up-front
costs and the ability to avoid vendor lock-in. SMBs often don't
want to spend the resources necessary to get SaaS applications to
interact with other SaaS products and on-premise applications, only
to find they are unhappy with the result.
"It's a mixed bag," said Laurie McCabe, vice president at the
New York-based Access Markets International Partners Inc. "On the
one had, SaaS applications are built on open standards platforms
and open architectures. In that way, they're almost more amenable
to integration than proprietary on-premise applications. But on the
flip side, you have this situation with SaaS where you could be
running RightNow for CRM and Intact for accounting and OpenAir for
project management. What happens is that you've got all these
different solutions running in different places, and integrating
them can get a little tricky."
Mike West, vice president of Saugatuck, said, "Integration is an
important issue with respect to Software as a Service, and while
most SaaS vendors offer a range of ways you can integrate SaaS
solutions with on-premise software, it varies from company to
company depending on what their competencies are."
West said many companies offer integration through hosted
services and appliances. Other major SaaS vendors have created
partnerships that offer customers a suite of applications that are
integrated with each other.
"If you're exclusively on a platform like Salesforce.com and
using Salesforce.com plus other cooperating companies on
AppExchange, they have their own platform that offers integration,"
West said.
By the end of this month Boomi Inc., a Berwyn, Pa.-based provider
of data and application integration technologies, will offer a beta
version of Boomi On Demand, an SMB-oriented tool for integrating
SaaS applications with each other and with on-premise software.
This product, itself, is a SaaS technology that is cheap and easy
for SMBs to use, West said. The software, he added, is geared
toward midmarket companies that may lack the expertise to do
complex integration.
Boomi offers a Web-based user interface that allows SMBs to map
their systems visually. The platform offers a drag-and-drop
approach to integrating applications using templates that Boomi has
created for a variety of SaaS products.
"These solutions don't require any coding," McCabe said of
Boomi. "It's basically like a visual integration platform. You can
just look and see these business processes and what you want to
integrate. A business person can do this. You don't have to hire a
programmer. That's huge [for SMBs].
"The up-front risk for this is really low," McCabe said. "If you
were going to integrate an accounting system, a project management
system and a customer relationship management system, you could
hire a contractor and pay a lot of money, thousands up front. You
may or may not be happy with the end result. With Boomi, you pay
per connection per month. Say it doesn't work. You've just lost a
few hundred dollars. And it's probably a lot easier right off the
bat to see if you get the results you need. If not, your sunk cost
is a lot less than if you were paying for a one-off project."
Let us know what you think about the story; email:
Shamus McGillicuddy,
News Writer