SaaS Provider Handbook - MuleSoft

SaaS Provider Handbook: Introduction
SaaS Provider Handbook:
How to Make Your App
Enterprise Ready
...............................................................................................................................
Enterprises are adopting more and more SaaS Applications. However
many SaaS apps are not enterprise-ready; their APIs are not well
documented, nor do they work easily with third party applications - either
on-premise or in the cloud. SaaS applications that do not hook into
existing systems, lack stickiness and can be easily replaced with another
SaaS solution, increasing customer churn rates for vendors, and lowering
monthly recurring revenue, impacting overall key performance indicators.
This brief how-to-guide will give you insight into key technology trends
impacting Enterprise customers, and provide best practices from both a
product, sales and marketing standpoint to repeatedly land and expand
within these accounts.
About MuleSoft
MuleSoft provides the most widely used integration platform to connect any
application, data service or API, across the cloud and on-premise continuum.
Supporting billions of transactions per day, MuleSoft is used in production
by global leaders in major industry verticals, including Walmart, MasterCard,
Nokia, Nestlé and Honeywell, and powers integrations with leading SaaS
vendors such as salesforce.com, NetSuite, Workday, Intuit and Box.
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Contents
Table of contents
...........................................................................................................................................
Trend Spotlight:
Top Technology Waves impacting the Enterprise
How-to guide
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Understand the end-to-end business process your application supports
Identify complementary third party applications
Make your SaaS application “Plug and Play”
Simplify the customer buying process and user experience
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Trend Spotlight
Trend Spotlight:
Top Technology Waves impacting
the Enterprise
.............................................................................................................................................................
Connect SaaS to Win. Enterprises focus on connecting applications,
devices and data silos to create a competitive advantage.
The mega-trends of SaaS, mobile and Big
Data are converging to create a
massive new wave of business
opportunity for Enterprises. It’s no surprise
that by 2020, IDC predicts SaaS adoption
to exceed $140 Billion as more mission
critical applications such as CRM and
ERPs are moving to the cloud. In addition,
devices such as smart phones and tablets
will soon outnumber traditional laptops
and desktops connecting to the internet.
The adoption of both SaaS and mobile
devices either through IT buying centers
or “shadow IT” has created a massive
fragmentation of information and business
process in the Enterprise. While SaaS and
mobility are disruptive trends
independently, what is related, and
creates even more urgency for
Enterprises is the emergence of open
APIs.
..........................................................................
“
There is massive buzz around
SaaS, mobile and Big Data,
but the secret nobody talks about is
that Enterprises can’t make any of it
work without connectivity.”
Ross Mason, Founder and VP Product Strategy, MuleSoft
..........................................................................
Since 2008, open APIs have seen
explosive growth in the market. From
2010 to 2011 the number of open APIs
doubled from 3,000 to 6,000. Now in
2013, there are nearly 14,000 public APIs.
APIs, application programing interfaces,
are the core technology that enables
cloud based and on-premise
applications, in addition to mobile
devices, to exchange information and
interact with other systems.
Leveraging these technology trends
Enterprises are free to not only select a
best of breed application, but can more
easily streamline their internal business
processes to engage more closely with
customers. Orchestrating real-time
information sharing and process
automation gives organizations the
ability to differentiate their product or
service from the competition unlike ever
before. This connectivity creates a gap
so large in delivery, even the most
talented engineering teams would
struggle to keep up at such a pace.
Consider the airline that provides mobile
check-in and mobile boarding passes,
or the retailer who provides check-out
through an associates mobile device. In
order for each transaction to take place,
the applications and devices
supporting that process must share
information almost instantaneously,
otherwise the service fails.
Welcome to the new era of
hyper-connected applications and
devices. May the most connected, easy
to use SaaS application win mind-share
(and wallet) within the new Enterprise.
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Trend Spotlight
SaaS Adoption
$180 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Source: Forrester Research
$160 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
$140 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
$120 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
$100 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
$80 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
$60 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
$40 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
$20 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
$0
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
iPaaS
SaaS
PaaS
IaaS
Mobility
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Source: Gartner, Inc.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1.6 billion
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
mobile devices
by 2013
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Smartphones
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tablets
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Laptops
Desktops
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Open APIs
3 months
6,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
4 months
Source: Programmable Web
5,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
6 months
4,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
9 months
3,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
18 months
2,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
8 Years
1,000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
0
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Step 1
Step 1:
Understand the end-to-end business
process your application supports
....................................................................................................................................
Regardless of who purchases your application - Line of Business or IT- it
is either the main character, or supporting cast member in your customers
production.
Understanding the end-to-end business process your application supports,
and how your application plays a role is key to assessing the criticality of
your solution to your customer. The more ingrained you are in the business
process and in the collection and storage of data, the less likely a customer
will be to switch from your solution to another.
Unfortunately for many enterprises, very few SaaS providers think about
their application in terms of the business processes they support, and as
a result do not connect their application to complementary or neighboring
apps. As a result, creating the connectivity layer - or app gap - falls into
the lap of the customer. This means that your customer will be forced to
manually integrate each application within the business process on their
own, increasing the overall cost of your application, and slowing time to
value.
Gartner Application Integration predictions for 2016- 2018
Source: Gartner Predicts 2013: Application Integration, Published: 14 November 2012
....................................................................................................................................................................
by 2016
Midsize to large companies will spend 33% more on application
integrations than in 2013.
Integration of data on mobile devices will represent 20%
of integration spending.
....................................................................................................................................................................
by 2017
....................................................................................................................................................................
by 2018
More than 50% of the cost of implementing 90% of new large
systems will be spent on integration
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Step 1
Sample business processes by application type with
common integration challenges
Application
Type
Common Customer
Business Processes
Common Customer
Integration Challenges
Human
Resources
Acquire new talent
Onboard new employees
Retain top talent
Off-board existing employees
Migrate data from legacy HR
systems in batch or real-time
Synchronize data between
recruiting and other ATS
applications
Streamline I9 Approval Process
Synchronize employee personal
and compensation information
between payroll, and expense
Employee
and Customer
Collaboration
Sharing of information and
assets between internal teams
Sharing of information and
assets between customers and
community members
Perform one way sync from
existing on-premise document
repository to cloud repositories
Create bi-directional sync
between PLM, project
management and CRM
applications
One way synchronization
between on-premise applications
and mobiles devices
Finance
Create an end-to-end order
management process
“order-to-cash”
Connect ecommerce
applications and systems
Quickly onboard new partners
and integrate into new shops
Extend ecommerce platform to
customers, partners and
suppliers
Seamless synchronization of
invoice, payment, and order
details
Synchronize services across
clients, providers, and core
eCommerce platforms
Connect applications & systems
such as Warehouse, SEO,
advertising, shipment,
and CRM
Integrate an order management
system with an external Web
Service
Integrate eCommerce site,
order management, CRM and
ERP systems
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Step 1
Application
Type
Common Customer
Business Processes
Common Customer
Integration Challenges
Marketing
Automation
Identify market opportunities
Drive awareness and
engagement with prospects
Build pipeline for sales
Accelerate the sales cycle
Aggregate buyer research data
from multiple survey sources
Connect marketing and social
media and collaboration tools
Connect google Adwords, email
marketing and inbound
marketing, event marketing,
fundraising activity responses to
Marketing Automation platform
Synchronize leads within
demand generation tools with
CRM systems in batch or
real-time
CRM
Reach new prospects
Create closed loop follow up
process for leads
Provide a single place for
tracking opportunity data
Analyze pipeline to quickly
identify bottlenecks in
sales cycle.
Migrate data from legacy CRM
systems (one time, batch or
real-time)
Synchronize product catalog with
Connect lead database to sales
campaigns
Streamline contract signing and
negotiation
Convert opportunities won to
orders and invoices
Import invoice/ payment info from
sales
Connect direct sales CRM to
renewal platforms
Gather data from marketing and
CRM platforms to analyze
customer buying process, time
and conversion rates by stage
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Step 2
Step 2:
Identify areas to expand your application
to increase customer value
..........................................................................................................................................................
You’ve successfully developed the best in class application in your space,
that is central to your customers business process. Congratulations -
The order forms are likely pouring in! Now, how do you keep your
customers from churning
One of the primary ways SaaS companies
provide additional value to their customers
is through adding additional product
functionality. This has traditionally be
done by building the related features into
your core platform, acquiring companies,
or through partnerships with other best of
breed software providers. With the
emergence of SaaS, mobility and open
APIs, SaaS providers now have the
opportunity to also extend their business
through their API.
Today we see a spectrum of companies in
the SaaS Marketplace looking to capitalize
on these technology trends. Companies
range from niche best of breed
functionality such as SurveyMonkey and
HootSuite, to all in one vendors that
provide functionality across a customers
end to end business process, such as
Salesforce.com.
Regardless if you are a niche best of
breed or a all-in-one application provider,
there is a connectivity gap of information
and business processes between your
solution and existing customers
gap - the SaaS provider, their partner
ecosystem or the customer Some of the
most successful SaaS companies in the
market have focused on simplifying and
enabling third parties to use their API.
SaaS providers that make discovery of
and development to their API easy, simple
and accessible to customers and partners
are more likely to secure new customers,
partners and retain existing clients.
Spotlight: Amazon’s Product Advertising API
pioneered a new business model.
“
to create widespread industry buzz
and adoption for “open Web” APIs — APIs
that are publicly accessible for most any
developer to use. The big reversal with this
API is that, rather than Amazon choosing
its business partners, Amazon let its
business partners choose it. This resulted
in Amazon having an embedded presence
on websites across the Internet. From the
start, the API has been available via REST
and SOAP. Amazon does not provide
current usage numbers, but as early as
2003, the company stated that 85% of API
calls were through its REST API. Since
then, APIs from Facebook, Twitter, Google,
and other major players have expanded
their businesses and driven industry
innovation with APIs”.
Excerpt from Forrester report: Establish Your API Design Strategy
by Randy Heffner, June 11, 2013
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Step 2
Where do you fall on the SaaS provider continuum
Market Awareness and Demand Gen: Best of Breed Vendors
Customer Lifecycle: Salesforce.com
PRO TIP
Not sure where to extend your application to
Leverage user surveys to assess and prioritize customer integration needs
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Step 3
Step 3:
Make your SaaS application
Plug and Play
......................................................................................................................................
To enable third parties to use your application, you need to make
your API as simple as possible. One of the biggest oversights
by SaaS and API providers, is understanding that the customer
application can make an impact in their environment. What is
your API capable of What are the limitations What is the fastest
path to value for the consumer The best way to accelerate
adoption of your application and reduce barriers in time to live, is
to enable easy plug and playability of your application.
Plug: Is the API of your application designed to support the business
processes and use cases of your customer Can you allow third
parties to connect to your application preserving your IP while at the
same time extending your business model to allow an ecosystem to
be built around you
Takeaway:
guidelines so it is easy for consumers of your application to easily
extend it. Identify the key business processes that you support with
your application and be explicitly clear in communication of this in
your API documentation.
Play: Does my application provide the necessary hooks and
supportability through a modern, adoptable and easy to on-board
APIs that will attract and delight developers
Takeaway: Ensure you follow best practices when publishing your
API and that the necessary tools and technologies to support
integration to your API are readily available.
These Enterprises are also API providers
DID YOU
KNOW
Source: Forrester, Establish Your API Design Strategy by Randy Heffner, June 11, 2013
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Step 3
APIs in Action
Pharmaceutical Enterprise
Customer Case Study
......................................................................................................................................................
Goal: Create a 360 view of the customer, accessible from a mobile device
Business Owner: VP of Marketing
api
api
api
api
api
api
api
api
api
api
Business Initiatives Applications Used Barrier to Success
Create a 360 degree view
of the customer to help
increase revenues
Make information
accessible globally via
multiple channels: eg.
Web, Social, Mobile
devices
Lower costs & streamline
processes
Customer Web Portal:
Drupal
CRM: Salesforce.com
Campaign Management:
SAP, Marketo
Registration & Validation:
Janrain, Ping Identity
Data silos, individual
solutions & point-to-point
integrations
Existing application set
did not connect to SaaS
and mobile devices
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Step 4
Step 4:
Simplify the customer buying
process and user experience
...................................................................................................................................
From the moment you engage a customer- the beginning
of their buying process to the user experience within your
application- having a simple, seamless experience will be
critical to not only winning, but retaining customers over time.
Best Practice
Business Impact
Product
Offer a pre-built, packaged
integration options for
customers
Provide customers with
complex requirements a path
to customization (eg. offer
pre-built integration templates
with access to a knowledgeable
partner to assist in
implementing the customized
requirements)
Unlock new markets with
integration as an add-on to your
existing offering
Focus your resources on your
applications core engineering
needs, expanding intellectual
property and product
differentiation
Sales &
marketing
Offer integration as a feature or
add-on to your platform
Sell pre-built, packaged
integration through your
existing sales team
Impact top line revenue by
up-selling existing customers
with integration as an add-on
Provide sticky, best in class
SaaS applications and mitigate
risk of competitive
displacements
Services &
support
Provide packaged integrations
that require no coding, only
Have the ability to quickly
diagnose and troubleshoot
integrations versus those
related to your app
Reduce customer onboarding
efforts and support inquiries
related to integrations
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SaaS Provider Handbook: Conclusion
Conclusion
..................................................................................................................................
To successfully land and expand in the Enterprise your application
must have a simple, easy to use and well documented API that
works with existing applications and systems.
If you are ready to engage with a SaaS integration expert, MuleSoft is
here to help. MuleSoft powers integrations for leading SaaS companies
such as such as salesforce.com, NetSuite, Workday, Intuit, Box and
many more.
Learn more about MuleSoft’s SaaS partner program or contact us
to discuss your integration needs today.
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SaaS Provider Handbook: About the Authors
About the Authors
................................................................................................................................................
Sumit Sharma
Director & GM of ProgrammableWeb & APIhub, MuleSoft
Sumit Sharma is passionate about APIs and the power of connectivity.
He brings over 10 years of cloud and enterprise integration experience
to MuleSoft where he is responsible for API Solutions, including APIhub,
the world’s leading API publishing and consumption platform. Prior to
MuleSoft, Sumit was at Nebula, an OpenStack based IaaS private cloud
system provider; and prior to that he was a leader of the Cloud practice at
Deloitte where he pioneered the global cloud computing center of
excellence.
Dan Diephouse
CloudHub Product Management, MuleSoft
Dan Diephouse helps companies connect everything together: cloud
services, applications, databases, mobile devices - he’ll even help
connect your toaster or refrigerator. He brings over 12 years of experience
in integration and middleware to his role as product manager of Mulesoft’s
integration platform as a service, CloudHub. Previously, as a software
architect, he co-founded Apache CXF, a popular open source web
services framework, helped shape Mule, the most popular open source
ESB, and consulted with many of the world’s top companies around their
integration problems.
Katie Burton
Partner Marketing, MuleSoft
Katie loves SaaS and loves the channel. She brings over 7 years
experience in enterprise software and SaaS marketing to MuleSoft
where she manages the recruitment and enablement of leading SaaS
provider and System Integrator partnerships. Prior to joining
MuleSoft Katie held various roles in enterprise software lead generation,
campaign marketing, solution marketing and product marketing. Katie is
an expert in aligning marketing activities to customer buying process
including but not limited to sales enablement, marketing programs and
product positioning.
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