Integrating your solution into your customer’s software is one of the most important missions for any B2B SaaS provider. If you cannot do this properly, you may face a lowering in sales, customer dissatisfaction, and further attrition.
SaaS integration is connecting a SaaS solution to another app or computer system so that they can function together and automatically exchange data.
The appearance of cloud integration providers, open API deployment, and open source created various opportunities to cover the need for SaaS integrations. There are several approaches, so all you have to do is choose the right one considering the SaaS software.
In the article, we will discuss what they are, how they differ and how to find one that will suit all your requirements.
Vendor-based approach vs. Developer-based approach
There are two main approaches to SaaS software integration: vendor-based and developer-based.
The developer-based approach is used if you have the capacity of a development team to deliver the integration. If not, you can use the third-party services and find the software vendor, becoming his client or partner, to do it.
Each of these approaches has a variety of possibilities for integrating your SaaS software. Let’s define them further.
SaaS software integration in vendor-based approach
There are three approaches to integrating your SaaS software when you involve a third party. Each has specific cases of use and depends on your software solution.
Solution Integrator
Solution integrator builds and deploys integrations on your behalf. They offer you individual solutions for integration, but frameworks or practices they use are general for time and cost reduction matters. Keep in mind that the frameworks software integrators use will affect the repeatability of solutions.
There is a great variety of service providers like that, so you can choose the one with a good reputation and considering your budget. The benefit of Solution integrators is that you pay for it once and don’t have monthly fees. They are usually pretty accommodating in terms of structuring and monetization of the project as well.
It is worth using this approach if integration is not the most significant part of your work. The other reason to consider solution integration is if your software or the product it is integrated into is complex, highly customized, and has a specific domain, or the technologies are specific for every customer and deployment.
As Solution integrators have a profound experience in integration, they can handle any integration problem if it occurs. They usually integrate small sets of software, thus doing it seamlessly. Though one software development project may differ, the outcome can be specific in your case.
iPaas partner
iPaas stands for integration platform-as-a-service. Partnering with one, you will get a cloud-based integration software product with different levels of complexity and simplicity.
This approach works well if you have no capacity and desire to do the integration work and your integrations are repetitive for customer-specific requests.
Also, iPaas is preferred if the client’s data is involved in the integration and tends to grow. They manage well scalable and repeatable solutions and consider specific requirements in integration.
The two disadvantages of choosing iPaas partner are that it may incur an additional cost for your customer, as a monthly fee must be paid. The price may vary from $50 to 500$ per month. As well as you give the service provider a large quantity of your customer’s experience.
Embedded iPaas
The embedded iPaaS provide the cloud software product that allows the production team to build and deliver integrations with a third party’s product. Those integrations are white-labeled. Instead of building such integration from scratch, embedded iPaas give access to integration tools to develop the workflow. It will allow you to quickly master integration and provide it with the help of your team but in less time.
This approach is best when you can’t make an integration but want to embed it into your product.
Developed-based approaches to SaaS software integration
If you have a development team to deploy your integrations, you can use one of the three approaches to leverage the process.
Bespoke Integrations
Bespoke integration is a process of custom integration and deployment performed individually for every customer. The whole team of project managers, QA testers, and developers participates in the development process.
In this case, you have complete responsibility for what you get in the end and make sure that the customer receives what was requested. However, it is costly and time-consuming and requires a solid technical team and management.
This approach is used if your customers have high and unique requirements or complex products in which you must embed your SaaS software.
Proprietary Integration Framework
If the integration requests are similar and tend to repeat, you can consider building a proprietary integration framework. Thus you will have your platform and can reuse the architecture again and again. An adequately built framework can deal with operations of integration monitoring and failure reaction.
Consider this approach if your integration requirements are unique and you are requested to make it quite often. The framework requires a dedicated development team to build it, and your product team has to understand it. Assess whether it’s worth building something that isn’t your main product.
Open source integration platform
Some SaaS software providers deploy an open-source integration platform, which allows for building bespoke integrations. Though it is technically easier than building your framework, your team must grasp the new open-source platform. They also usually have a given framework and if you have to customize some tools, it may be more complex and costly, rather than building it on its own.
On the contrary, it will reduce the time and cost spent on developing and maintaining one integration and provide you with a wide range of solutions. If your company is generally open to open-source solutions and you want to take charge of integration, this option may be the best for you.
How to choose the best approach to SaaS integration
The approach to SaaS integration will depend on various factors and should be beneficial for you in terms of effort and finances and benefit your clients.
For example, if integration is part of your value proposition, your integration products are complex and require specific solutions, it makes sense to invest in propriety software.
The number of ecosystems you integrate will also dictate what approach is better for you. If you have 10 integrations overall, there is no use in building your product for it.
It will also depend on the composition of your team and capacities. An integration process requires a team with good technical skills. Moreover, setting up the managed integration process can confuse your clients if your integration is easy to handle.
