The New Automation Mindset, Chapter 14 makes a compelling case: modern businesses win, not by operating in isolation, but by becoming platform-driven – embedding themselves in the ecosystems their customers already live and work in. Every application begs their users to live in their domain, but customers aren’t moved because, well, in reality, people move faster than technology. The applications that win are the ones that become part of the inherent fabric of an enterprise’s business, the ones that help drive action and make meaningful decisions. These technologies are the only ones that are capable of collaborating seamlessly and deeply with every other piece of technology companies use.
To accomplish this, product companies have to take a serious look at their integration strategy, and be mercilessly honest with themselves. Are you meeting your customers where they work? Are you reducing operational friction or creating more? Are you making it easy for customers to connect your product to their stack or forcing them to build brittle, one-off solutions on their own?
This is where a platform-driven mindset fundamentally changes the game.
Your Customers Don’t Want Integrations, They Want Outcomes
When buyers evaluate technology solutions, integrations aren’t a nice-to-have; they’re a must. Whether it’s syncing CRM data to financial systems, connecting HR platforms to IT service desks, or moving data between industry-specific tools, your customers expect your product to work seamlessly within their existing workflows.
A key point from The New Automation Mindset is that integrations aren’t just a technical requirement, they’re a value multiplier. Every new integration you enable amplifies the usefulness of your product, creating new, compounded use cases and driving deeper product adoption. Companies that treat integrations as a strategic growth lever, rather than a cost center, unlock measurable improvements in customer retention, product stickiness, and revenue expansion.
The Network Effect of a Platform-Driven Business
One of the most powerful ideas in Chapter 14 is the concept of network effects in platform-driven businesses. The more integrations and connections your product can offer, the more valuable it becomes – not just to new customers, but to your existing base as well.
Each integration you release increases your product’s value, making it harder for customers to churn and easier for you to cross-sell, upsell, and expand accounts. In short, integrations fuel ecosystem loyalty.
Today’s buyers don’t just want systems to connect, they want those connections to trigger business processes automatically. Platform-driven businesses that go beyond data syncing to offer workflow-level automations between customer systems stand out against competitors. Platform-driven companies win by being first to offer new, high-demand integrations. The faster you can respond to market shifts and customer requests, the more valuable your product becomes within your customers’ ecosystem.
Businesses to stop viewing their products as standalone tools, and instead as operating system components within their customers’ broader technology stack. This shift means prioritizing flexibility, openness, and interoperability over proprietary lock-in.
Companies need to embrace this model without overburdening their engineering teams. It’s about meeting customers where they work, enabling connections with the tools they already rely on, while remaining central to their daily workflows. Every integration you offer opens the door to ecosystem partnerships, co-marketing, and new revenue streams. The more your product connects with other platforms, the more visible and indispensable it becomes in your market.
The Impact: Stickier Revenue, Happier Customers, and a Stronger Ecosystem Position
Embedding integration capabilities directly into your product drives tangible outcomes:
- Faster time-to-value for customers
- Higher product adoption and usage
- Reduced churn and stronger renewal rates
- New upsell and expansion opportunities
- Stronger ecosystem partnerships and network effects
Most importantly, it positions your company as a platform-driven business; one that thrives by helping customers get more out of your product and the other tools they already rely on.
The future belongs to platform-driven businesses. And in a world where customer integration expectations are rising, embedding scalable, flexible integration capabilities into your product is the smartest move a company can make.
If you’re ready to evolve from product-centric to ecosystem-centric and become a true platform partner for your customers, Workato Embedded Platform is built to help you get there.
Workato Embedded Platform gives companies the infrastructure to scale this advantage quickly — providing access to a massive library of pre-built connectors, with the ability to build new ones rapidly as customer needs evolve.
