Success in the Cloud Begins with Integration

Grazed from Forbes.  Author: Bob Moul.
 

Now that cloud computing has turned from an “if” to a “when” proposition, enterprises of all sizes are asking a lot of questions beginning with “how.” How will we make the transition? How much will it cost? How long will it take? And perhaps most importantly, how high a return will we see?…

It’s hard to contemplate taking on new technology projects during these particularly tough economic times, but companies that invest in Software-as-a-Service are seeing returns that far outweigh the initial expenditures allowing them to devote more of their budgets to innovation instead of maintenance. Here are a few companies that serve as great examples of how to confront a key challenge of transitioning to the cloud – integrating with existing on-premise or other cloud applications.  

Because all-in-one application suites can be expensive and lack functionality for some critical areas of the business, they are often unappealing to growing businesses. An alternative is to integrate best-of-breed cloud applications with existing on-premise applications in which you’ve already invested. This can seem daunting but doesn’t have to be with evolving cloud-based integration solutions that can actually speed SaaS adoption and increase return on investment.

 Learning by Example

Take Blackbird Vineyards, an artisanal wine producer in Napa Valley, California and its sister firm, the wine collective and art gallery Ma(i)sonry. They fully integrated Salesforce Sales Cloud with their existing register management system, financial applications and Web-based compliance software. The result is a truly integrated and customer-focused sales and marketing process consistent across every brand the businesses sell.

Founded in 2003, StorageCraft Technology Corporation provides disk based backup, disaster recovery, data protection, migration, and security solutions to businesses of all sizes. Although the need to collect sales and customer data was a top priority, the company knew they would eventually need a flexible application to help with other business activities such as marketing and customer support. Today, the company has a portfolio of applications that are nearly 100 percent cloud based, with more than a dozen SaaS applications and cloud services ranging from salesforce.com to Vertical Response to Constant Contact. They also consulted a third-party integrator who customized an integration with Salesforce and Dell Boomi to fit their needs. Today, more than 80,000 contacts are stored in StorageCraft’s Asia-Pacific Salesforce CRM application.

Companies of all sizes can learn from the approach these companies have taken and unlock themselves from the inefficiencies of legacy computing models. Effective cloud integration technologies are the key to moving forward with a clean slate, unburdened by legacy integration products that limit the flexibility of SaaS solutions growing businesses want and need to use.

The concerns companies have long had about how to best engage in the cloud are real, but they are now addressable. Success in the cloud begins with a cloud integration strategy, as the companies who have embarked on the journey have discovered.