Category: Enterprise Integration Solutions

Press Fast-Forward: How to Reduce Time to Market with Digibee’s iPaaS

Posted on February 2, 2023 by - Cloud Migration, Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

There are many financial benefits to enterprise integration and employing Digibee’s enterprise iPaaS, such as the cost saving of being able to use more junior developers, but beyond that there are also sizable financial gains to be made through speed, namely the benefits of a faster time to revenue through a faster product release cycle.

A recently-conducted Forrester Total Economic Impact™ of Digibee Report provided an opportunity for a third-party assessment that systematically explored the outcomes of partnering with Digibee for enterprise Integration. Using a composite organization modeled on the characteristics of interviewees’ organizations, this TEI report attributed +$1.3M of the +$5.9M total benefits Present Value (PV) to allowing a faster time to market for new products and services – that’s over one-fifth of total monetary benefits!

How Data Analytics Integration with EI Support Retail Demand Forecasting

Posted on January 31, 2023 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, Retail

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Retail information systems must find a way to work as a conduit between the digital world and the physical world, a real challenge when both are constantly changing in different ways.

On one end, the customer expects a quick, easy, personalized omnichannel experience from the comfort of their couch, on the other end your retail IT solutions have to not only provide that, but then also provide a fast and seamless delivery of the physical items they bought, even if it’s 200 pounds of Italian marble for their kitchen counter. 

Every physical product requires raw materials, manufacturing, and then shipping to (at a minimum) the end user. As there is no way around incurring these costs, ending up with excess inventory can quickly become a major expense.

But since this manufacturing process also takes more time than a customer would be willing to wait, in most cases it has to be completed prior to a client’s order, meaning a retailer again ends up in a challenging position where they risk having too much or too little on-hand. In this way, accurate retail demand forecasting is essential for preserving your bottom line.

>> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

How Integration Capsules Accelerate Digital Transformation

Posted on January 26, 2023 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions

Is outdated technology holding back your digital transformation efforts? You’ve probably heard that integration solutions can help modernize legacy architecture, but which one is right for you, and how can you minimize integration costs and disruptions to your operations? In this post, we’ll explore reusable integration capsules and how Digibee uses them to make integration simple and efficient.

Many organizations are moving toward IT system integration as a way to modernize their enterprise, accelerate digital transformation, improve business processes and achieve better results from their digital transformation strategy.

Why In-Demand Tech Jobs Will Still Be Hard to Fill in 2023

Posted on January 24, 2023 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

The “Great resignation” is over, and with it some of the hiring challenges seen in the past years. Moving away from the pandemic lockdowns and into global economic unrest, what jobs continue to be hot in a cooling market?

If recessions are upon us, will we soon see the historical high unemployment seen in past recessions, and therefore a swift change in favor of employers who had previously struggled to source talent? Not quite. Forrester predicts that 80% of companies will pivot their innovation efforts to prioritize resilience, meaning that while some roles may now be less competitive, or even at risk, the roles that most closely align with the goals of resilience will stay as in-demand tech jobs in 2023.

Retail Digital Transformation in 2023: Loud and in the Cloud

Posted on January 19, 2023 by - Cloud Migration, Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT, Retail

The cloud, combined with digital technologies, has reinvented how retailers connect with and serve their customers. Once the domain of megastores and e-commerce platforms with the budget and resources to support on-premises infrastructure, today the cloud is unlocking digital customer experiences for retailers of all shapes and sizes. 

And merchants are loving it, able to create personalized and curated experiences across multiple channels while driving up conversion rates and average order value (AOV). But it wasn’t always like this.

>> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

How Will Composable Enterprise Architecture Help Organizations Win?

Posted on January 17, 2023 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

If we’ve learned anything over the past few years, adapting quickly to change is essential to the survival of the business. The foundation upon which we build our critical IT infrastructure must be capable of moving quickly, efficiently, and securely for the company to survive.

Field CTO Tam Ayers, shares his prediction for the next years.

Composable architecture provides us with the flexibility we need to weather the storms (known and unknown) that lie ahead. Instead of resisting change and investing to stabilize the status quo, composability allows us to embrace change so we can grow and even thrive despite whatever the world throws at us.

Some enterprises are well on their way, with composable architecture an established standard. Others are just beginning their journey. Where does your organization stand?

The Upsides of Composability

In the article Digibee’s Top 3 Tech Predictions for 2023, I zeroed in on the important role composable infrastructure will play in helping businesses manage short and long-term change. 

I believe it will be a critical business differentiator in the year ahead, helping to insulate companies from unexpected economic downturns, global conflicts, pandemics, energy crises, and other disruptions.

“In turbulent times, composable business principles help organizations master the accelerated change that is essential for business resilience and growth. Without it, modern organizations risk losing their market momentum and customer loyalty.”

David Groombridge,
Research Vice President, Gartner

Those organizations that leverage a composable or microservices architecture are destined to win. In fact, analysts at Gartner predicted that companies leveraging composability will have outpaced their competition by 80% in the speed of new feature implementation alone. 

Additional advantages include:

1. Resilience in the face of change

Even with edge technologies and the most precise AI algorithms, accurately determining what lies ahead will never be an exact science. While it remains a business imperative to analyze and predict, we must also be prepared to quickly pivot when unanticipated change occurs. 

With composability, the company leverages a modular IT model, one that allows it to easily replace individual components with technology better suited to address whatever is happening in the market.

Those companies that rely on a monolithic architecture–one where components are tightly coupled–are unable to engineer change without impacting the entire ecosystem. With such a rigid model, it is extremely difficult to respond to disruptions in the moment.

For example, due to global supply chain issues, a retailer must continually adjust its ecommerce store to reflect fluctuating inventory levels. If the retailer is unable to make these changes in real-time, the customer experience erodes and the business ultimately fails.

2. Freedom to explore and grow

Composable infrastructure is liberating, allowing organizations to experiment with new innovations to find the perfect fit. And the experts agree, with Gartner predicting that 20% of Global 2000 CEOs will report an increased appetite for risk and improved resilience, attributed to modular business redesign. 

No longer shackled to monolithic technology stacks, the business becomes agile, challenging entrenched beliefs and exploring a range of scenarios that best serve the company. Instead of investing significant resources to simply keep the lights on, IT and Development teams are freed up to focus on innovation and the future.

The business is no longer limited by technology. Instead, it is empowered to explore its potential and chart its future, regardless of what it may hold.

3. Lower cost with higher returns

Composability lessens our reliance on a subset of technicians and developers with the broad experience required to manage a monolithic ecosystem. This depth of knowledge will no longer bottleneck how we resource for change. Instead, everyone will innovate, allowing us to tap less experienced (and less expensive) resources to do the work. 

As a result, IT will become more centralized. Greater responsibility will rest within the lines of business where technicians and developers will be hired and dedicated to focus on specific business requirements for the business unit.

While IT spend is predicted to increase, the investment will focus on increasing efficiencies, streamlining processes, and greater employee productivity. Composability supports these outcomes, embedding digital capabilities throughout the business.

The Role of Digibee’s iPaaS in Achieving a Composable Architecture

Digibee customers rely on our low-code iPaaS to support their composable architecture, helping connect modern systems with outdated and contemporary technologies. Our platform includes reusable components such as Digibee capsules for additional efficiencies, significantly reducing the time needed to develop and deploy new integrations to accelerate innovation.

If you’re interested in how Digibee can help your organization evolve to a modular IT environment, we’d be happy to show you how. Book your choice of a 15-minute Discovery Call, 30-minute custom demo, or a 60-minute deep dive to learn more.

How Data Integration Benefits Businesses Beyond the IT Department

Posted on January 12, 2023 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

The right integration solution can mean huge gains for your organization’s IT department. It’s not a secret – in fact, it’s the focus of most articles about the benefits of data integration: reduced costs, improved developer efficiency, and less reliance on increasingly hard-to-find IT specialists. But what about the rest of your business? 

If your IT department is among the few that have no trouble with skills shortages or even with rising costs, you might think you don’t need an integration platform. Don’t fall into this trap. There are a variety of ways other departments can benefit from the adoption of an integration platform as well.

>> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

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Faster Time to Market

Integrations take less time with an enterprise iPaaS solution than when developers have to create point-to-point connections manually. Reducing time spent on building integrations means systems are connected and data exchanged ahead of schedule. The result? Your team can accelerate digital transformation and reduce time to market on new products or services.

A reduced time to market means more time to generate revenue. And more revenue benefits your entire organization. Forrester analysts estimate $1.3 million in increased revenue over three years from the faster time to market with Digibee’s iPaaS. 

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Source: The Total Economic Impact™ Of Digibee’s Enterprise Integration Platform As A Service (eiPaaS), a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Digibee

Improved Reliability

An iPaaS also improves the reliability of system and application performance. Because Digibee’s low-code platform reduces the risk of human errors and includes built-in monitoring, disruptions are minimal, and identifying and addressing issues is quick and easy.

The price of downtime is continually increasing, and delays in accessing real-time data can negatively impact decision-making. The right iPaaS can help improve the reliability and security of your systems, regardless of size or scale.

When the Weir Group needed to integrate systems used by 11,500 employees across 50 countries, they turned to Digibee for a solution. 

Digibee connected their business-critical systems with existing corporate ERP and SAP systems, optimizing data flow, implementing rigid security protocols, and adding proactive monitoring to minimize disruptions.

Enhanced Customer Experience

The “customer is always right” adage has never been more true than it is today. Consumers’ expectations of brands they do business with are on the rise, and enhancing the customer experience was the top priority (by a significant margin) in McKinsey’s 2022 State of Customer Care Report. 

Your internal teams may have no choice about dealing with slow, inefficient business processes, but your customers won’t put up with an experience that falls short of expectations. Another business benefit of integration is that it can empower you to deliver the experiences your customers desire – with new technologies and maximized efficiency.

GJP Hotels & Resorts, a leading Brazilian hospitality chain, was facing increasing customer churn as guests voiced frustration over tedious, time-consuming check-in and check-out processes. The company partnered with Digibee to digitize workflows and integrate its Property Management System with self-serve technology. The results were almost immediate:

  • 100% reduction in guest complaints
  • 80% reduction in guest wait time
  • $300,000 saved in the first year

    • Everyone Benefits from Integration

    It’s not all about IT. Stakeholders in departments at every level of your organization can realize the business benefits of integration. But open communication about integration priorities and goals is critical. 

    When we surveyed over 1,000 enterprise IT professionals in early 2022 for our State of Enterprise Integration Report, we observed a significant disconnect between different players when they were asked who owns enterprise integration. The C-suite, IT experts, product teams, and citizen developers can all benefit from the right integration solution – but only if they’re working in cooperation instead of competition.

    Realize the Business Benefits of Data Integration

    Whether your organization is looking for an iPaaS solution to help modernize legacy infrastructure, implement a digital transformation strategy, or just increase your operational efficiency, Digibee can help.

    Our low-code iPaaS makes it easy for IT experts and citizen developers alike to build, deploy, and maintain integrations to support your business goals. And you don’t just get a service provider when you work with Digibee – you get a partner, by your side every step of the way and fully committed to your success.

    Download a copy of the TEI of Digibee’s eiPaaS for full details on the data integration benefits your business can realize with Digibee. Or, book a custom demo to see for yourself what our solution can do for your business.

    Why Isn’t Your Integration Platform Helping to Reduce Your IT Backlog?

    Posted on January 10, 2023 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions

    IT teams are under increasing pressure to resolve burgeoning backlogs. Perceived by internal stakeholders as a critical business blocker, failure to execute on these initiatives impacts the future success of the business. With too many projects and not enough time or resources to make headway, a neglected backlog of work also impacts IT morale. No one likes a backlog.

    Enterprise integration is a critical capability when it comes to reducing your backlog. The technology validates and transforms data traveling between systems, which in turn supports automation and other efficiencies essential in rapidly knocking items off the list. 

    But for businesses that rely on traditional integration solutions, IT backlogs continue to grow with no relief in sight–despite the high costs of the technology. These ROI challenges are compounded by the investment in resources (training and time) so your developers can manage the significant workload needed to implement and manage the technology.

    >> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

    IT Backlogs, it’s a Resourcing Problem

    And herein lies the problem. After investing time and money in training some team members on the solution–or even worse, competing on the open market for new hires with the skills, it makes no sense to assign these expensive resources to the lower priority integrations that comprise your IT backlog. 

    However, Lines of Business (LoB) owners waiting on IT to deliver the missing link in their technology strategy (the link that will resolve a chronic and critical inefficiency), don’t consider their projects to be low priority. When push comes to shove, LoB stakeholders may even go rogue and build their own integrations using one-off tools that place the enterprise at risk. And so the pressure on IT continues to mount. 

    Yes, you may have extra hands, but only a subset of these hands are qualified to do the work. 

    This is where Digibee comes in.

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    Burning Your Backlog With Digibee 

    In a recent conversation with an American multinational consumer goods corporation, we uncovered yet another scenario where developers certified in a traditional integration platform had to dedicate all of their time to higher priority integrations, leaving the lower-priority IT backlog work untouched.

    The company supports 20-30 integrations with their existing platform, with about 8 integration developers certified in the technology. Factoring in headcount, licensing, and subscriptions, freeing up resources to tackle the IT backlog simply wasn’t cost-effective. 

    Once we understood the challenge, Digibee’s place in the IT value chain became clear. Rather than divert expensive resources from higher priority projects, Digibee’s enterprise integration as a platform (iPaaS) technology could manage and deliver the less urgent (but important) integrations. 

    This makes sense for a variety of reasons:

    • Digibee is fast, reducing time to market by as much as 70% so you can start burning your IT backlog in weeks instead of months or years, allowing you to accelerate your digital transformation
    • Digibee is cost-effective, with a simple pricing model (fewer than five SKUs in total) aligned with your data flow and no additional charge for implementation services to architect+build+deliver your initial integrations, premium connectors, and enhanced monitoring. No certification or time-consuming training required, and no extra charges for support. What you see is what you get (and you get a lot).
    • Digibee is accessible to all developers. We enable all of your developers (not just the ones certified in a particular solution). Within 10 days, using our low-code integration platform, any of your developers can create and implement integrations. 

    With Digibee handling your IT backlog of work, the company doesn’t need to deprioritize its important business integrations. Instead, team members certified to perform the specialized work can do that work. Digibee will do the rest.

    Next Steps 

    No longer limited by the traditional integration technology work model, you now have the time and resources you need to light a big fire under your backlog. But before you begin, here are three important steps to help optimize the success of your project:

    Review your backlog

    Some IT backlogs include projects that were added many months and even years ago. Do a detailed review and ensure the items on your IT backlog still matter. Get rid of the ones that are redundant or that offer no value. While you’re at it, do a stack ranking of all the items remaining on the list so your backlog project team focuses on the most important or high-value initiatives first, working their way down the list. 

    Leverage the cloud

    Wherever possible, prioritize backlog projects that focus on moving legacy applications to the cloud. The speed and efficiency of cloud-based infrastructure will provide enduring value, helping to resolve chronic IT pain points today and in the future.

    Assess your workforce

    Once you’ve validated (and hopefully shortened) your backlog, identify the skills and knowledge needed to complete the projects. Digibee customers utilize less experienced personnel to manage a significant portion of the work. This model allows your senior developers to focus on the highest value activities while more junior staff handle the lion’s share of the work.

    For a deep dive into all the benefits of choosing Digibee’s modern integration solution to support your IT backlog, including detailed comparisons between the traditional MuleSoft model and Digibee, read the white paper: 5 (+1) Reasons to Choose a Modern Integration Solution.

    For more information, visit our website, read our customer success stories, or contact us to book a demo.

    How Will IT Spending Trends Drive Innovation in 2023?

    Posted on January 5, 2023 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

    It doesn’t take an expert to identify that the US economy – and really, the global economy – is not at its most stable. Discussions on recession, cost-cutting, and finding efficiencies are everywhere. And in many cases, the IT department is the focus of those looking to free up extra dollars amid economic instability.

    At the same time, the tech industry outlook offers stories of innovation, integrations, and new solutions. The contrast is stark. What is the future of an IT industry on the cusp of so many new developments without the funds to pay for them? And which IT spending trends will shape enterprises in 2023?

    >> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

    8 Benefits of Cloud-Native Architecture

    Posted on December 28, 2022 by - Cloud Migration, Enterprise Integration Solutions

    There was a time when using the cloud was an innovative idea for businesses. But the evolution of technology marches on, taking the corporate world with it. Simply storing organizational data in the cloud or using a cloud-based “as-a-service” solution is no longer enough. Cloud-native is the new cloud. But why is cloud-native important?

    >> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

    Improving Developer Efficiency: Do You Spend Too Much Time on Integrations?

    Posted on December 19, 2022 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

    Enterprise integration is no longer a nice-to-have – ensuring your data and systems are seamlessly, securely integrated is vital to your ability to grow and compete in a digital-first world. But at what cost?

    Measuring developer productivity

    Developer productivity is an increasingly important KPI for organizations looking to control IT costs without affecting growth or innovation. And as more businesses focus on ensuring they’re getting the most out of their IT department, more attention is being paid to how developer efficiency is measured.

    DO

    • Tie developer performance to business outcomes
    • Look at functionality gained, problems solved, or value added

    DON’T

    • Count lines of code or number of bugs fixed
    • Focus on hours worked
    • Track the number of tasks completed

    >> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

    Integration and your IT team

    If developer productivity metrics are tied to business outcomes, you’ll need to identify the goals of your integration project (or projects) to understand how efficiently your team is performing.

    Key objectives for enterprise integration include:

    • Enabling AI and automation
    • Improving data security
    • Reducing operational costs
    • Improving time to market
    • Supporting digital transformation 
    • Upgrading legacy systems

    Without successful integration implementation, companies can face:

    • An inability to adopt new technologies
    • Inefficiencies that affect business success
    • Lack of agility to respond to market changes
    • Wasted IT resources

    Achievement of critical objectives – or elimination of challenges – offers a valuable way to tie developer efficiency to business outcomes. And once you’ve measured the productivity of your IT team, you can start looking for ways to improve it.

    Benefits of a low-code platform

    The intuitive visual drag-and-drop interface of Digibee’s iPaaS reduces the time and developer skill level required to build integrations, while our built-in monitoring makes integration maintenance easier and more efficient. In Forrester Total Economic Impact™ of Digibee’s iPaaS1 report, analysts quantified how companies can boost developer productivity with Digibee.

    Building integrations

    The Forrester TEI report values developer efficiencies realized in building integrations at $2.1 million over three years2, noting that the Digibee platform empowers developers to build new integrations as much as 75% more efficiently than point-to-point solutions.

    • Ease of use: Digibee’s low-code integration platform has a gentle learning curve, reducing the time it takes developers to understand and use the platform
    • Reusability: The ability to reuse existing integrations means developers don’t have to start from scratch for every connection, reducing the time spent on deploying integrations
    • Troubleshooting: Digibee’s integrated logs and metrics simplify the process of understanding when – and, more importantly, why – an integration isn’t working, reducing the amount of time spent on troubleshooting new integrations

    Maintaining Integrations

    Forrester analysts put the value of integration maintenance developer efficiencies at $370,0003, noting that Digibee almost completely eliminates the need for developer rework – a notable feat, given that 98% of enterprise IT professionals report having to rebuild at least one integration in the past 12 months.

    • Legacy integrations: With Digibee’s iPaaS, the time taken to maintain legacy integrations decreased to one hour for every four previously required
    • New integrations: Time needed to maintain new integrations also dropped to one hour for every four previously spent

    Increase the efficiency of your IT team

    Digibee’s low-code platform and integration monitoring tools can significantly reduce the time your development team spends on manual tasks related to building and maintaining enterprise integrations. 

    The increased developer efficiency your team will realize using our iPaaS directly translates to progress on key objectives like cost savings, faster time to market, increased agility, and the ability to embrace new technologies that support innovation and growth.

    But you don’t have to take our word for it. Download your copy of the Forrester TEI Report for a closer look at all the benefits your organization stands to gain by partnering with Digibee – or book a no-obligation demo to see our solution in action.

    1 A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Digibee
    2 Savings for a hypothetical company with 20,000 employees and annual revenue of $5B
    3 Savings over 3 years for a hypothetical company with 20,000 employees and annual revenue of $5B

    Digibee’s Top 3 Tech Predictions for 2023

    Posted on December 14, 2022 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

    I recently moderated a discussion with three of my colleagues, Co-founder and CEO Rodrigo Bernardinelli; Peter Kreslins, Co-founder and CTO; and Tam Ayers, Field CTO, North America. It was a fascinating session where we shrugged off the constraints of today to explore what we believe we’ll experience in 2023. Since we tend to focus on our customers, it’s easy to forget that Digibee is an enterprise too. So the future IT industry trends we predict in 2023 are ones we will share with all enterprises. Read on!