The reality of the enterprise problem
Over trillion dollar will be spent on enterprise software each year 2020 according to Gartner. And to date, modern enterprises have had two options: buy big, monolithic packages that often excel in nothing; or buy small, focused ’best of breed’ apps and risk an integration nightmare.
First off, the major software monolithic platforms purchased by IT departments provide tools to make thousands of different features for thousands of different types of users. These products are cumbersome when they are overloaded, often perceived as hostile by the user, and difficult to learn. What’s more, this obstacle isn’t bypassed when they move to the cloud in an attempt to keep up with changing trends. But since these products seem to solve everything, they’ve been successful for quite some time and become the status quo in the software market.
In the meantime, the ’best of breed’ (BoB) apps have been the preferred choice by business executives, and they have increasingly received support among all employees. With the consumerization of enterprise technology, products now enter a company from the bottom up, rather than the top down. In the private space, you can easily compose your own suite of software tools to accomplish a task. To throw a birthday party, for example, go to the app store and get a calendar app, a social app, an invitation app, click the “allow integration boxes” and you’re set.
Those who have grown up today with the ease of an app store are entering into the positions at enterprises. They want their daily business tools such as accounting and smart marketing tools to be as accessible as messaging apps and car navigators. Enterprises must endorse this through the fast and easy delivery of efficient tools and data to employees and customers who need a certain software or information to accomplish a special task.
Although these have been the two prevalent options among enterprises, the reality is that 68 percent of IT projects fail. Integration of applications and data is the largest obstacle. These failures are forcing CIOs and CEOs at enterprises to seek change from the status quo.
The new app ecosystem economy
When multiple small apps band together, they can challenge the status quo – this is the app ecosystem economy. Today, new technology is allowing this to happen, allowing:
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Enterprises to mix and match best of breed apps in suites in a fast, easy and affordable way.
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Each enterprise to optimize business performance enabled by best of breed apps.
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Enterprises to combine data from many apps to new automated processes, in itself creating new apps.
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New business models to outperform the existing ones in the enterprise software business.
The incumbent software platforms will not be replaced by a single app, no matter how elegant, intuitive, and powerful the app is. That’s because a single app can never replace the full functionality of the large players’ platforms. The best of breed apps must be able to be mixed-and-matched without the need for the complex, time consuming integration projects that are common today.
A single mobile payment app, for example, cannot replace a full retail solution. However, combining best of breed apps for ordering, accounting, product stock and point of sales results in a virtual retail suite that can outperform the larger players. A fast and easy way to integrate and maintain these integrations are two critical conditions to gain the significant value over long time.
According to Gartner, “Through 2020, integration work will account for 50% of the time and cost of building a digital platform,” this is a barrier enterprises need to overcome. As new technology is now solving the vital, if not all, components of the ”integration nightmare”, this will have a major impact enterprise software vendors and enterprises.
The next generation of integration solutions
Technology comes before the revolution. Always. The new generation of Enterprise integration platforms will not only transform the data integration industry; it will forever change the enterprise software industry.
How?
By combining integration, automation and operations in one easy to use cloud platform, with a flexible low code “you can fix it yourself” approach it makes it possible for enterprises to abandum the monolithic one size fits all solutions and enables a “best of breed strategy”, were the best software for the task can be chosen.
The BoB softwares are islands of data and functionality where integration bridges the systems and harmonizes data for business benefit and not compromizing the future development. Also if you select wrong BoB or want to replace one; it’s so much easier to change or replace those.
The hybrid architecture makes the” Enterprise integration Platform as a Service” (EiPaaS) to a path to the future for enterprises struggling with heavy investment in legacy. Keep what works fine right now, add what is needed now to beat the competition, then when time is right lower the cost by retiring costly legacy. All enabled and orchestred by the eiPaaS.
Time to band together
The enterprise software landscape will change dramatically in the near future. The new software landscape will be simultaneously fragmented and connected, with new business models created by collaboration among many small vendors and enterprises of all sizes, with new business models created by enterprises enabled by easily integrated data and best of breed apps.
It is time for vendors and talents to band together in order to provide businesses with the freedom to use the best tools needed to meet their goals, instead of being locked into a single vendor that is a jack of all trades, but master of none.