SaaS Company Transforms Integration Capabilities
How a leading SaaS provider revolutionized their integration approach by transitioning from custom-coded solutions to standardised, reusable automations.
Project Overview
- Reduced integration time from weeks to ~20 hours
- 54 customers successfully using new integrations
- Pre-packaged solutions for 5 major HCM systems
- Improved service margins with recurring fee model
Background and Context
The enterprise SaaS platform is used by over 4,000 organisations worldwide to streamline their business processes. A crucial aspect of their offering is the ability to integrate seamlessly with various third-party applications, particularly their clients' enterprise systems.
As the company grew, so did the demand for integrations with various enterprise systems. Their customers specifically needed seamless connections between the SaaS platform and their core business systems, particularly industry-leading enterprise applications.
The Technical Services Director identified that their integration capabilities had become a critical bottleneck in their growth strategy. Their existing integration platform, Jitterbit, was no longer meeting their evolving needs, and a new approach was required to scale effectively.
Challenges with Previous Integration Solution
The company experienced significant challenges with their existing integration software, which were hindering their growth and impacting customer experience:
Sub-optimal Customer Experience
Customers faced significant delays in getting their systems integrated with the recruiting platform, leading to frustration and delayed time-to-value.
Growth Limitations
The slow pace of integrations was preventing faster customer onboarding and overall business growth, creating a growing backlog of integration requests.
Resource Constraints
Jitterbit required extensive custom coding and dedicated developer resources, which created significant inefficiencies and strained their development team.
Maintenance Burden
Customised integrations became a hindrance when changes or alterations were needed, resulting in complex support scenarios and rework that negatively impacted profitability.
Limited Scalability
Jitterbit lacked the scalability, flexibility, and global support necessary to meet the growing demands efficiently as the company expanded its customer base.
Solution: Workato and Cloudorizon Partnership
To overcome these challenges, the company strategically decided to move to Workato, an integration platform known for its ability to build complex workflows and its comprehensive connector library. They also partnered with Cloudorizon, a Workato ecosystem expert, to accelerate the implementation and maximize the platform's potential.
Why Workato?
The selection of Workato was driven by several key factors:
- Ability to build more complex and sophisticated workflows
- Comprehensive connector library with superior flexibility
- Recipe-based approach allowing for wide range of triggers, actions, and conditions
- Dynamic, adaptive automations tailored to specific business needs
Cloudorizon's Contribution
The partnership with Cloudorizon was instrumental in revolutionizing their integration approach. Key contributions included:
Paradigm Shift in Integration Approach
Shifting from Jitterbit's less agile data tunnel approach to Workato's more dynamic trigger-based automations.
Standardised Integration Patterns
Creating reusable templates to accelerate future implementations and ensure consistency.
Pre-packaged Enterprise Solutions
Building ready-to-deploy integrations for the top 5 enterprise systems used by customers.
Implementation Framework
Establishing best practices and a comprehensive implementation playbook.
Implementation Approach
The implementation followed a phased approach, focusing on developing core components and gradually building a comprehensive integration ecosystem:
Phase 1: Core Development
Developing core connectors and recipes for the most commonly used HCM systems, establishing the foundation for all future integrations.
Phase 2: Deployment and Documentation
Deploying the initial set of integrations and creating comprehensive playbooks to ensure consistency in implementation.
Phase 3: Expansion
Building new integrations based on the established components, expanding the range of supported systems while maintaining consistency.
Phase 4: Productization
Designing integrations as service products with standardised pricing and implementation processes, shifting to a recurring fee model.
Recipe-Based Approach Benefits
Results and Impact
The adoption of Workato and the partnership with Cloudorizon yielded significant positive results:
Time Savings
Standard connector implementation time decreased dramatically from weeks to approximately 20 hours.
Customer Adoption
Successful implementation of Workato integrations for 54 customers, with high satisfaction rates.
Service Margins
Shifting to a productized, recurring fee model improved profitability and predictability.
Transformative Impact
As a result of working with Workato and Cloudorizon, the company dramatically simplified client integration projects and became significantly more efficient while maintaining target margins. What previously took months of custom development could now be completed in approximately 20 hours using pre-packaged solutions and standardised integration patterns.
Reduced Support Burden
The new approach significantly reduced the support burden on their team while maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction. The standardised patterns made troubleshooting and updates much more straightforward.
Improved Business Model
The shift to a productized costing model with recurring fees allowed customers to manage costs over time and improved the company's service margins, creating a more sustainable business model for integration services.
Key Takeaways
- The company successfully transformed its integration capabilities by moving from custom-coded solutions to standardised, reusable automations.
- The partnership with Cloudorizon was instrumental in maximizing the value of Workato and establishing a sustainable integration framework.
- Pre-packaged solutions for major enterprise systems dramatically reduced implementation time and improved customer satisfaction.
- The shift to a productized, recurring fee model improved service margins and created a more predictable revenue stream.
- What was once a bottleneck for growth has been transformed into a competitive advantage, positioning the company for enhanced scalability and continued success.
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