Topic: Modernization

With host Cait Porte, Chief Marketing Officer at Digibee

In this episode of “Integration. Redesigned.,” our host, Digibee’s Chief Marketing Officer Cait Porte, is joined by Customer Success Manager Paula Arencibia, for a discussion highlighting the rapid speed of integrations with Digibee’s iPaaS and differentiated delivery model. Paula dives into our comprehensive three-phase onboarding program that enables and empowers our customers. She explains how Digibee gives access to functional analysts, solution architects, customer success managers, and developers, so we can enable faster integrations and successful implementations – for projects of any scope.

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Full transcript

CAIT PORTE:

Welcome back, everyone. I’m Cait Porte. We are joined today by Paula Arencibia from our Customer Success Team, and I am so excited to have her. We were just chatting about her diplomas that we see in the background, if you’re watching the recording of this, but very excited to talk to you today.

The topic is on speed, and is the world really ready for the speed at which we can deliver here at Digibee? And I think it’s a very interesting piece of advice that we certainly want to give the group. But, Paula, sitting with our customers, knowing what you know, your advice is going to be hugely valuable today. So welcome.

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

Thank you. Thank you.

CAIT PORTE:

I love that we have such a diverse group of people that we talk to here. 

So, Paula, I think there’s a few things that we need to go through before we jump in and answer the question of is the world ready? So, why don’t you walk me through how fast we’re actually talking about here? Right? Maybe talk a little bit about some examples that we’ve had here at Digibee on speed and integration speed and deployment speed because everyone cares about how quickly you can get work done, right? We’re all trying to find ways that we can get work done faster. So what do you think?

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

Absolutely. Well, so the average delivery time of an integration project with Digibee is about 90 days. But, I’ve seen integrations being delivered in as fast as three weeks. Once we get what we need ready, it’s very fast to actually put our integrations live. And then I think that compared to your actual traditional integration project that normally takes anywhere between six to nine months, that is a huge accomplishment for Digibee.

CAIT PORTE:

I mean, the 90 day mark is huge. I just hired a bunch of people – we have hired a bunch of people here at Digibee in the last six months – I think over 100 at this point. And that 90 day mark is where you sort of feel dangerous. So the fact that we can get customers on the platform, integrating integrations complete in that 90 day window is really a feat that I think we’re not seeing in a lot of other places in the market. 

When you think about the delivery model that we have – and we internally certainly think that we have a delivery model that’s differentiated, and it’s one of the things that we talk about – but when you think about that being a differentiator, how are you implementing that? So, can we maybe walk through what approach that we take with customers so that they can have that successful timeline that we just talked about?

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

Yeah. So I think two things that I am super proud to talk about is how fast we deliver and how we deliver. Right. Like you’re saying, we have our own little methodology to deliver our projects. So, I think what really affects the speed time here, like I said, it’s the technology that we use, which I’m sure there are a lot of people have talked about how we are low code, a drag and drop, and how it’s fast to onboard your developers. Those things are amazing, but also the methodology. Right? 

So, how do we normally work once we get the client onboarded? All of our clients go through more or less three stages with Digibee. So, the first stage is what we call our first impact. And this is when the customer is just starting their relationship with Digibee. We get together, and we want to show the impact that Digibee can cause in your company. So we’ll draw out, choose one project to integrate.

We’ll get everything that we need ready and in place. We will build it for you. We will show you how we build it, and why we build it that way. So you’re not in the dark on how we build the things and why we build it that way. And then we’ll put it live, right? 

And then once we put it live, the definition of a project being live for Digibee, it’s a little bit different than your regular company. Right? So for us, being live is not only switching your pipelines to production, but it’s also having the customer being comfortable with the platform and the very basics of the platform on how we operate, looking at a few logs, knowing how to maintain those pipelines that are going to production for your first project, and also defining next steps. Right? So these three components, putting your pipelines in production, knowing how to operate the very basics of the platform, and having our next steps defined, that’s the first phase of what we call putting your project live. This is what we call your first impact. 

Now, the second phase would be together, right? So this is where you already know the capabilities of Digibee. You’ve already seen how Digibee can impact your business. And that’s how we start working together into a second project or third project. In this phase, what we want to do is show you all the resources that Digibee has to offer to empower your team to start using the platform themselves. Right? So, we talk about Digibee Academy, we talk about our workshops, we talk about development sessions with our teams, and really hands-on together with our team that delivers the project. Showing you how the magic happens, right? Showing you how we work and how we can truly get empowered and a little bit of a deeper knowledge in Digibee. 

And then, our third and last phase would be a phase that we call “you got this”. Right? So, that would be a phase where you’ve already gone through your first impact, you’ve already built it with us. And this is the phase where you feel comfortable enough to start building yourself. So you either have a team or a person or, you know, a group that knows how to operate Digibee. They could even go through our development bootcamp where they learn the best practices on architecture and our platform, and they really feel confident enough to start dealing with the projects on their own. 

And, it’s important to say that your delivery team, the squad that takes care of you at Digibee, will be present every single step of the way. Right? It’s not because you’re in the last mile and you’re developing by yourself that you don’t have access to our architects, that you don’t have access to your customer success manager, and your functional analysts. We’re there to help you in every single way, every single step of the way there. But it’s really important for us that we measure our success on how our customers are adopting the platform and really getting to know the capabilities of what we have to deliver.

CAIT PORTE:

When I was thinking through this, I tried to say, okay, for the audience, what does this really equate to? And I think the best thing we can equate it to is maybe personal training or fitness. 

So, everyone can get a gym membership. Everyone can get an integration platform. There’s a million of them out there. Right? We pick them all for different reasons. But the ones that are most successful, the programs that you run that are most successful when you’re trying to improve your exercise fitness regime, get in shape, whatever it might be, get back in shape, maybe just keep it going, is when we have accountability partners. And, so I think Digibee can act as that personal trainer, right? “Oh, I just got to the gym for the first time, and I don’t really know what I’m doing here.” And someone walks you through and they say, “okay, well, we have this offering and we can walk you through it.” 

But, your team acts as a personal trainer to make sure that the whole team knows how to use the gym, the Digibee gym, if we want to think about it that way. And I love that model where we’re working for you, working with you, and then we’re enabling you and empowering you to use that gym all by yourself. And I think that that’s what we really what we lean into when it comes to Digibee. 

And having that all included is one of the things that I think makes a real difference. Your team is part of the journey here at Digibee, and we really lean into that enablement model for our customers. So I love, for those in the audience that are listening, saying, “well, what does that actually mean?” Well, it’s kind of like having your own personal trainer for no additional cost. I think we can get away with it. What do you think?

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

I think so. That’s a great analogy. I like it.

CAIT PORTE:

So, when you think about this, right? The customers themselves are facing a number of challenges, whether it’s actually getting everyone aligned, or making sure that they understand the product or the platform. What about our delivery model is really a differentiator in your mind? And we may have already talked about it, but I’m curious if you are thinking that one or two things come up when you think about either the challenges that a customer is facing or how we differentiate? What are some of the things that you think from a customer’s perspective make us better and different?

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

I think that the team that delivers your integrations, they’re extremely capable. They have been working with Digibee probably for a while and even our “Digibabies,” the new ones coming in and starting to work with us, they have the skill set necessary to help you and to empower you. Right? 

So, normally Squad works with the Customer Success Manager that helps you ensure that your product is being delivered, that everything is happening the time that it should, that the sponsors are well aware of everything that’s happening in the project and that we get everybody engaged. 

And, then you have your functional analyst, which he’s the person responsible to draw the sequence diagrams and help you explore what you want to happen in that integration and set the rules. 

And, then we bring our amazing developers that once we have all of that specified, they go and they deliver it and they make it beautiful. 

And, also our solution architects. When we’re talking about a little bit of a more complex integration, when we’re talking about scalability, when we’re talking about reusability of those pipelines, right? We bring those characters into the picture to help you. So I think the team that we engage while using the methodology and implementing that methodology really makes a huge difference.

CAIT PORTE: 

I think it makes a huge difference when you’ve got the right people in place. Right? One of the things that we’ve talked about here is that we want technology and platforms to work for the company, not the other way around. We don’t want you to have to adjust the way that your team works in order to get that done. 

I think that speed is so important because when we realize that there’s a problem – whether at work or school or home – we don’t want that problem fixed right away. We don’t want to have to wait six, nine months like you alluded to in the beginning. And I think that that speed at which you can actually react and the fact that we have this infrastructure set up is really what… if you look at the market, there’s not really anything out there today that can do that. Of course there’s great technology out there, but when you think of the cost associated to get the speed that you’re looking for… You know, some people call it like throwing money at the problem. Right? Now, if you’re wealthy enough to have that be it. Sure, go ahead, throw your money at that problem. But we really want to think about ways to make you efficient, secure, fast. Right? And I think that that’s really what you and your team come in and empower our customers to really go along that journey.

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

Let me comment on that. I just wanted to say, like, our team delivers super fast, but our main objective is to make sure that your team can deliver fast too. Because even though we deliver super fast and we work on sprints, we work in an amazing methodology. If you’re having us build it, you’re still depending on somebody else, right? So our main objective is to empower your team so you don’t have anybody putting that restraint on how fast you can deliver. Right?

CAIT PORTE:

Key point there. We want to make sure that we’re empowering our customers, enabling our customers to get work done. And that’s that model, that three step process that you talked about where it was, okay, let’s deliver the first impact, then let’s do one together, and then let’s have you work on your own and get you there. I love that baby analogy, right? That kid growing up and they’re ready to go off to college or take a year off or whatever they’re going to do after they’ve graduated and are ready to move on. 

If you were to get an ideal customer in the door, walking in, they’ve got a project, they’ve got a problem. What are the ideal, maybe boxes, if you were to check them? That you would say, “hey, this is a customer who we can deliver not 90 days, but even sooner, two, three weeks?” Those are the turnaround times that we’re really looking for. 

If we were talking to customers or customers are listening to this, what would you tell them about how they can get themselves set up or what’s your ideal situation where, hey, this is what makes it really easy to get things going?

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

I think from my experience, the customers that we can deliver the fastest are the customers that are truly, truly engaged. Like, they want to see that integration happen. So because they’re truly engaged and they’re excited, they want to learn, they dive deep. We have many tools that we use to manage our projects to make sure that we’re keeping the communication flowing and going. 

But, when we come and we bring to the table, “hey, we need…”( I don’t know, I’m going to give you an example). “We need the API keys to access your system, or we need to know and talk to somebody that knows how to operate your system,” so we can get some of the ideas on how to get the data on how to deliver the data. Like when they can bring these people to the table and they can give us the resources that we need to deliver that integration fast, things become way more fluid. So, for me, if I could choose a word. It’s how engaged the customer is that really, really impacts the integration delivery time and how eager they are to learn it and to start embarking in this journey at Digibee.

CAIT PORTE:

I love that, we’ll take an eager customer any day. A lot of analogies here today. I mean, I think we’re looking at speed, delivery, making sure, but I think where product is probably the brain of our organization, customer success is the heart. You’re making sure that the blood is pumping, that things are working, that it’s coming and going and we’ve got all those organs being taken care of. And I fully believe and trust everything in your team and what we hear from customers time and time again. I mean, we just heard this from one of the great brands here in the US. And I think that you and your team make the difference and the fact that we’re going along the journey with them makes a huge difference. So, thank you for all of your work because it does not go unnoticed, but certainly is that lifeblood that gets us moving.

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

Absolutely. And I think our team is super passionate about seeing our customers getting to fulfill their dreams, seeing their dreams come true, seeing their systems connecting. Oh my gosh, I cannot tell you how happy I am when I have delivered an integration and my customers say, “hey, you have no idea how much cost we’ve just cut” or “you have no idea how much manpower” or “the workload that has lifted from my team’s shoulder.” It’s really fantastic and that’s what gets us going.

CAIT PORTE:

It’s amazing. And we love all of that feedback and I’m sure that we’ll be telling those stories on future episodes. But Paula, thank you so much for joining. I’m definitely looking to have you on the podcast again.

PAULA ARENCIBIA:

Alright, thank you so much for having me and I’ll see you guys soon.