It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that when it debuted in 1999, Salesforce triggered a “Big Bang” in the enterprise app universe. From its humble beginnings in Marc Benioff’s San Francisco apartment, it radically transformed how software is delivered and used.
Salesforce quickly became a pioneer in cloud-based delivery that eliminated downloads and installs. Its Software-as-a-Service CRM was always on and available anytime, anywhere, and its configuration-based (instead of code based) development made it easily accessible to non-developers.
Almost twenty years later, this Big Bang has kicked off a far-reaching evolution of the enterprise app ecosystem; it’s now much larger, more diverse, and complex. In fact, the typical enterprise uses over 1,100 apps—and that number continues to grow!
As SaaS has become mainstream, more and more enterprises have embarked on long-term digital transformation journeys. They’ve adopted Salesforce as their CRM, but they also likely use Workday for HR and ServiceNow for their IT helpdesk. Many have also adopted novel workstream collaboration platforms like Slack.
But their journeys go far beyond cloud migration and app adoption: digital transformation also means that businesses rely on their IT teams more than ever before to navigate the new enterprise technology ecosystem. IT must leverage digital to help the business do more, more quickly. They’re the linchpins of digital transformation—and, increasingly, the backbone of the organization.
If IT is the backbone of the organization, then the integration platform is the central nervous system. In the world of high-tech, high-speed businesses, integration tools are responsible for enabling a seamless flow of information and overall digital transformation of business by connecting all of these apps and enabling new business services.
Every organization will have a different set of transformational objectives with different priorities, but the key steps in every business’s integration roadmap are:
- Modernizing by unlocking the data in legacy systems and make it available for consumption as APIs and services
- Automating manual processes for operational efficiency, reduced cost, and increased productivity; and
- Innovating by investing in intelligent technologies and platforms to rapidly iterate and harness the power of AI, bots, IoT, and RPA.
Traditional iPaaS solutions, however, emerged during an era when cloud computing was still in its infancy, API connectivity was limited, and IT owned and managed most business apps. These platforms just aren’t suitable for the wide range (and high volume) of integrations and automations that modern businesses require.
You need a platform that helps you innovate faster than ever to create value for your business and new experiences for your customers. Digital transformation requires that this platform not only unlock the data in your business systems but that it also leverage emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, and bots—all while keeping your IT team lean, costs low, and delivery agile. In other words, you need an intelligent automation and integration platform.
That’s why we created Workato. Today, over 3,500 organizations choose Workato for Salesforce integration and automation, making Salesforce one of the most popular apps among our customers!
Not sure whether Workato is right for you? We’ve collected the best use cases and customer spotlights into The Only Advanced Salesforce Integrations Book You’ll Ever Need. In this newly re-vamped Salesforce integration eBook, you’ll learn:
- How Workato enables integration and automation across your cloud apps, ground apps, databases, files, and API services
- What some of the most popular Salesforce integration and automation use cases are for sales, customer support, finance, project management, and marketing
- Whether Workato’s Bulk Actions feature is a better option for moving your data
- How organizations like Slack, Venn Technology, and Tides Canada save time and money with Salesforce integration and automation
- And much more!
