Integration on the Edge: Data Explosion & Next-Gen Integration

In an article earlier this week, I mentioned four ways that independent software vendors (ISV's for short) could improve their value proposition (and competitive stance) by embracing cloud-based integration solutions.

Just as a quick reference, here are the four methods (yes, I tweaked the name of the last category). Today, I'll talk about the first one - migration services.

It may seem pretty obvious what I mean by "Migration Services", but I hate making assumptions. Essentially what every ISV in their right mind wants to do is:

1) Lower the technical and financial barriers to the purchasing of their software.
2) Make it easier for a potential customer to switch from a competitor's software.
3) Accelerate the successful adoption and implementation of their solution at customer sites.
4) Reduce the effort and time (calendar time and total time) involved in selling the product.

By including a robust integration stack as part of the solution, ISV's can quite easily accomplish these key goals.

For example, if let's assume I am a vendor of a SaaS-based ERP solution that (in one fashion or another).

If my software had the ability to pull data directly out of SAP, JD Edwards/Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle's various ERP solutions, etc. to populate key data items such as customer master, vendor master, material master, and so forth with a minimum of effort, that would accomplish a number of key things:

1) It would reduce the total cost of ownership of my product to the customer.
2) it increases the value of my product.
3) it reduces the amount of technical effort required to sell my product - and resources such as pre-sales engineers are always spread thinly.
4) it reduces the length of software evaluation periods (and the length of the sales-cycle).
5) it increases the "close rate" for deals
6) once customers buy the software, it reduces the support effort required to get them up, running
7) it makes customers "more referenceable" and "referenceable faster".
8) it makes it easier to poach new customers from the competition (i.e. "enhanced ability to capture market share from competitors' customer base).

How are Migration Services Offered?

It really makes no difference HOW such services are packaged or provided. What's important is that they ARE provided. Two simple solutions:

1) embed an integration stack into your product.
2) train pre-sales engineers and implementation consultants on the use of an integration stack. Create a repeatable methodology for implementing your solution using that integration stack.

Would You Like to be Featured in an Upcoming Article?

In closing, I'd like to ask any ISV executives who do not want ALL of the following benefits to contact me:

1) faster "first contact to close" times.
2) increased close rates.
3) improved competitive stance.
4) improved market share.
5) a more valuable product.
6) decreased sales effort.

In a week or two, I plan to write an article entitled "Software Executives Who Need to be Fired".

Executives who:
1) are uninterested in the benefits listed above,
2) want to be featured in the "who should be fired" article,

should include their email address, phone number, company name, and the email addresses of their Board members.