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SaaS integration is a commonly cited concern that companies mention when wondering about whether to use SaaS, but some companies are finding ways to work around any challenges. I recently spoke with Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio, about SaaS integration. Listen to the podcast or read the transcript below.
KD: Hi! I'm Krissi Danielsson, and today as a guest I have Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio. Appirio has had a lot of experience with implementing integrated SaaS, so we'll be talking about concerns that companies have about SaaS integration. Chris, can you talk about how Appirio runs integrated SaaS internally?
CB: Sure, we all come from integration backgrounds at Appirio. Companies like Webmethods, BEA, TiBco, etc. and when we founded the company, build a company, we decided to build it ground up on, right now, three major SaaS platforms and that includes SalesForce.com, Google Enterprise or Google Apps and Amazon's EC2 and S3. As a result, we've been able to build an end-to-end infrastructure that allows us to manage the entire business from recruiting to resource management to professional services, automation, our billing process and truly running an end-to-end global integrated SaaS platform. All our messaging and collaboration also happens via Google which has been integrated back into SalesForce.com.
KD: So, that sounds like it's working pretty well. So do you think there are valid integration concerns that enterprises might have when they're thinking about SaaS solutions or do you think most challenges with SaaS integration can be overcome.
CB: Yeah, I think, on the surface, there's been a lot of skepticism or concern in the past regarding SaaS solutions and in the past, various organizations have from the business-unit level sprouted up what I tend to call "SaaS silos". In fact, the major platforms like Salesforce and Google have very rich APIs, open APIs that are allowing large enterprises to integrate very effectively, whether it be through their web services layer, the APIs directly or using enterprise service buses like a Tipco, Cast Iron methods, etc. And, if you look at the stats, Sales Force, for example, is processing over 150 million transactions a day, better than half of those transactions are integration transactions, are not native transactions to the platform but are integrated to other applications. So, it's in effect one of the largest integration platforms out there today. In essence a lot more effective, in our opinion, than traditional enterprise software, which is, again, where many of us came from.
KD: All right. So looking to the future, do you envision a future in which companies are going to be typically able to run almost anything on demand and why do you think the model is so strong?
CB: Yeah, we, you know, we founded the company to accelerate the adoption of on-demand in the medium to large enterprise. We believe solving the problem in the enterprise is a different challenge than historically solving it for the small to medium business where you can build from the ground up. In the enterprise, you have different concerns and have to focus on the change management migration and integration and moving from legacy on-premise to on-demand and that's the charter of Appirio in the end. Today, you look at the enterprise software market, a $200 billion market of which only about $10 billion of it is SaaS today. Our goal is to drive that $10 billion to $200 billion, not all of which being on-demand or software as a service. We believe it can get there and will get there. It's a matter of having the business aligned more so with the CIO and to come up with a comprehensive strategy to make that migration over time. It's not just a business-driven approach anymore. It's a holistic, enterprise strategy and we're seeing more and more of our large enterprise customers really look at it as a strategic weapon vs. looking at is as point projects and as a band-aid here and there. And so, we believe that trend will continue and it's a long term trend. We believe it's just at the beginning of the middle to large enterprise and, you know, we're excited for the future.
KD: All right. Because we have a little more time, can I also ask, maybe, if there's a company that's interested in implementing SaaS but concerned about integration, would you have any advice for them?
CB: Yeah, I think the first thing we would say is "look at it as a holistic integration challenge or project, don't look at it as a point solution". I think, again, historically, people have looked at implementing software as service to solve a specific niche or point problem whether that be just sales force automation or service and support or, you know, calendaring, different components. Our suggestion is, you know, look at it more holistically and in some cases, when we look at the apps portfolio of a large enterprise, we can find, you know, dozens and dozens of SaaS silos. Instead, we say, take a step back, look at your enterprise integration architecture, then also look at your overall comprehensive SaaS strategy and blanket it across the enterprise, across business functions as opposed to solving a point business problem. Again, a lot of the larger players, the integration players, the Tipco's, the Informatica's of the world, the Cast Irons, they really have done a nice job in integrating with the various SaaS platforms so the level of sophistication of these platforms is relatively high and, again, to look at it as a point solution would be a mistake.
KD: Great! We've been talking with Chris Barbin, CEO of Appirio. For more on Appirio, you can visit their site at www.appirio.com. Thanks for listening!
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