As a SaaS (Software as a Service) company, you are responsible for providing your customers with an efficient process flow. This is often a lot easier said than done, though. Many SaaS companies face an uphill battle when winning new clients while trying to maintain their existing customers.
Embedded integrations have come along to change this and are a fantastic solution for any SaaS or Ecommerce company, no matter how it’s run. It’s an ingrained solution with scalability and flexibility that lets you transfer data securely and efficiently.
Whether you’re looking to improve the way your company operates or are starting a SaaS business and want to do it the right way from the start, embedded integrations are the way to go.
WHAT IS EMBEDDED INTEGRATION?
Embedded integration solutions are what make it possible for a SaaS platform to integrate (as the name suggests) with other business software solutions. It is safe and secure and is made possible through pre-made (or pre-built) third-party app connectors.
There are so many software solutions available these days that no SaaS company could continue to give customers what they want without embedded integrations.
Embedded integrations make it easier for SaaS and Ecommerce businesses to offer their customers a smooth and efficient user experience.
Streamlined communications between the separate elements that make up your company’s infrastructure are also achieved effectively. This means various digital business tools can be used and operate apart from each other and still be as efficient as possible. For example, you can connect your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to your analytics program so your CRM shares your customer data automatically.
Without embedded integrations, you’ll have to spend resources creating in-house and custom integrations, which can be costly and won’t always achieve the desired outcome.
WHO IS EMBEDDED INTEGRATION FOR?
Integrations are built in two steps: first, someone must write the code. This will allow different apps to communicate. Then, the API of each app must be instructed on how to interact with the other app to achieve specific goals. Whether these goals are as simple as moving data or as complicated as triggering different actions doesn’t matter.
Embedded integrations take care of this code, so you as a company owner don’t have to. You will, however, will have to determine what the solution, or actions taken, must be.
Your integrations will have different focuses, such as iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service), which is for internal integration, and Embedded iPaaS, which is for user integration.
The iPaas will manage the tool, and you’ll manage your customers by giving them the workflows they need.
It sounds very technical, but once you get used to it, making the most of embedded integrations will almost come naturally.
7 BENEFITS OF EMBEDDED INTEGRATION
There are many benefits to using embedded integrations. We’ve highlighted the main pros here, so you can see just why it’s a good idea to jump on this particular bandwagon as soon as possible.
1. You Save Money on Product Development
Developing your own integrations can be a highly expensive process. When you use embedded integrations instead, you’ll save on overhead costs.
Additionally, you won’t have to spend resources and money updating, upgrading, or maintaining the integrations. You will save not only on physical money but human resources as well. This way, your staff can focus on other projects or develop other products and software to enhance the quality of your company. Then, you can simply slot your embedded integration work around larger tasks using a smart style of project management like Kanban.
Embedded integrations are typically available at a monthly or yearly price, making it easy to budget accordingly and never risk going over the budget (as could happen when using your own developed integrations).
2. You Can Bring Your Product to Market Faster
Embedded integrations mean you can get your uniquely developed product to your customers much faster because you’re not saddled with the tasks these integrations can take care of.
You get to connect apps via pre-made connectors and can synchronize them across your digital infrastructure with ease. The need for you to deal with code and maintenance is reduced, meaning you can focus on getting your product on the market and leave the technical stuff to your chosen embedded integration platform.
Additionally, because you’re not developing the integrations yourself and have access to pre-built options, you can launch multiple integrations faster without worrying about your technical overhead. This especially applies if you’re building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and launching it incrementally, as you can simply update your MVP with new embedded integrations as you need them.
3. You Can Scale Easily
A big challenge that SaaS companies face when developing integrations in-house is how limiting it can be. Only so many integrations can be built in-house without a large amount of effort.
The number of connectors required to run the integrations successfully will also increase. Add to that the maintenance of the integrations and the need for new API development each time, and you’ve got a lot going on.
With embedded integrations, none of that will be a problem. As such, scaling is much easier and more achievable. Your embedded integration platform will allow you to link any number of APIs you want, enabling scaling.
If you want to put your customers’ needs first, this kind of ease of integration with the tools they use is necessary.
4. You Can Reduce Customer Churn
If your business is growing, you’re bringing in more experienced customers who will need more sophisticated solutions. That means you have to be ready to give them the features they want without making it difficult for them or your company.
It will become a requirement that you can give your customers more fine-tuned solutions, and for that, you really can’t afford not to use embedded integrations. After all, you want to set your customers up for success, don’t you?
Whether they need to be able to use more custom logic in their workflows or want more flexibility in general, you need to be ready to give them all they want.
If you can’t offer your customers what they need, they’ll simply stop using your services. Customer retention is key to your business, so you need to always be capable of meeting their needs.
It’s important to keep your customers happy. Whether that means providing excellent customer service and support (complete with the use of reliable internet phone systems) or through embedded integrations, you must be prepared to do it all. Else, you risk losing it all.
5. You Can Embrace DevOps
DevOps is a project management and development approach that prioritizes Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD). It’s changed how software developers work. Thanks to DevOps, developers can focus on customizing their products as they go rather than starting a project, releasing it, and re-doing it years later. For a SaaS company, DevOps can take everything to the next level.
Embedded integration allows you to be more flexible and give your customers more support.
DevOps can simplify your workflow and help you give a better solution to your customers. You can customize your product and take the approach everyone seems to be taking these days: buy the frame and build your product on it. It’s faster and much more efficient.
6. You Can Integrate Without Hiring Experts
One of the greatest benefits of using embedded integrations is that you don’t have to hire a bunch of experts to take on various tasks. Embedded integration platforms come with hundreds of ready-made connectors as part of the package.
You’ll find that most of the applications you and your customers use can be integrated through these pre-made connectors. And even if the platform is missing a connector or you need something more custom, developing it within the platform’s integrations isn’t impossible or extremely difficult.
And because you’re not adding high-level experts to your staff, you’re saving a lot of money to boot!
7. You Can Automate Workflow
Workflow automation is more than a buzzword used by managers hoping to get their teams to work more efficiently. It’s something that’s become almost expected these days, and it’s possible with the right tools.
Embedded integration platforms make workflow automation a lot more achievable and less of a hopeful dream. Your staff can enjoy drag-and-drop workflow builders that they can design and customize to their heart’s content — reducing their workload considerably.
Users who are more tech-savvy and knowledgeable about coding and how these platforms work can truly make the most of workflow automation with embedded integrations. They will be able to create workflow automations that really take their efficiency to higher levels.
EMBEDDED INTEGRATION OPTIONS IN 2022
Now that you know about embedded integrations and how beneficial they can be, we will show you the best options to choose from. The following list is in no particular order.
Zapier
Zapier is one of the top embedded integration platforms, and it’s very popular with SaaS companies all over the world. It is compatible with more than 4,000 web apps without the need to write any code.
It is optimized to give you quick responses, and you should be able to automate just about anything. Since it has more integrations than most other platforms, it can improve efficiency at a higher rate.
Customers vary greatly, from those focusing on Ecommerce email marketing to B2B and SaaS companies, showing how versatile and effective Zapier really is.
Zapier may seem a bit expensive, but once you consider everything the platform offers, you’ll find it’s well worth the price.
Workato
Workato is another very popular embedded integrations platform that is available and suited to IT teams and SaaS companies. With Workato, you can automate workflows without compromising your security or the level of control you have.
No coding is ever necessary, and you can expect real-time outcomes from events. Thanks to the patented technology and Machine Learning (ML) used by Workato, automations are faster than with many other similar platforms.
Boomi
Boomi may be a little lesser known than our two first platforms, but that doesn’t mean it has to stand back from them. The amount of code necessary to make the most of Boomi is absolutely minimum, and this cloud-native platform makes integrations a lot faster. In fact, it can cut down integration times from weeks to days (and, in some cases, hours).
Easy management and clear visibility are the aim of the game for this platform, and it continues to deliver outstanding integration capabilities to its users.
Prismatic
Although Prismatic is usually considered one of the very best options for B2B software companies, it works for SaaS companies, too. It offers a very quick way to build new integrations into other apps and gives you a native integration marketplace.
With Prismatic, you get a complete embedded iPaaS solution with intuitive integration, lots of support, and reliable cloud infrastructure. It makes scaling easy and secure while requiring little to no coding to work effectively.
This is also a great option for anyone who has coding knowledge and plans to use it with their chosen platform.
Cyclr
Last but not least, we recommend taking a look at Cyclr. It is another iPaaS toolkit that makes it possible for SaaS companies to expand their integration capabilities with ease.
It’s easy to create powerful integration workflows, and the level of coding knowledge necessary is the bare minimum. Automating workflows is also surprisingly easy with Cyclr.
There are many other options to choose from, of course, but these are the most popular and most recommended we could suggest. If you find another embedded integration platform and like it more, use it! You should follow your business instincts whenever possible.
MAKE THE MOST OF EMBEDDED INTEGRATIONS TODAY
As a SaaS business, you’re always looking for new ways to give your customers exactly what they want and more. Embedded integrations are what you need to do so. You can offer customization and ease of use without putting in any hard work yourself.
These platforms give you a competitive advantage, keep your customers interested, and allow for easy scalability. What more reason do you need to start using one of the options we suggested? Get started with an embedded integration platform today; you won’t look back or regret it!
Author’s bio:
Mark Quadros is a SaaS content marketer that helps brands create and distribute rad content. On a similar note, Mark loves content and contributes to several authoritative blogs. Connect with him via LinkedIN or twitter.
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