- What is embedded iPaaS?
- Reduced development overheads
- What is white-labelled software?
- Running multiple or single process tasks
- Low-code designer facilitates ease-of-use
- Pre-built connectors enable rapid integration
- Customisable integration flows
- The benefits of multi-tenancy
- Managing integrations and workflows
- Embeddable integration marketplace for SaaS
- Benefitting from scalability and flexibility
- The benefits of embedded iPaaS
What is embedded iPaaS?
An embedded iPaaS is a cloud-based integration solution designed to help OEMs and software vendors, especially SaaS providers, integrate various applications, data sources and services directly into their products.
Unlike traditional iPaaS (integration platform as a service), which connects different systems within an organisation, embedded iPaaS is designed for software vendors and OEMs to build and offer immediate (native) customer-facing integration features to their customers as part of their own products. This allows end-users to integrate various applications and services with the vendor’s software without the need for complex coding or third-party tools.
Reduced development overheads
For software vendors, embedded iPaaS reduces development overheads by eliminating the need to understand complex API documentation and design integration architectures within their software. Instead, they can embed an existing platform into their software, resulting in significant time and cost savings, as well as allowing them to focus on other product features and enhancements.
This approach also reduces the burden of maintaining and updating custom integration code, as the iPaaS providers handle these responsibilities.
Additionally, iPaaS solutions are often offered to software vendors as white-labelled products, meaning that the software vendor can rebrand the solutions as their own.
By using embedded iPaaS, software vendors can accelerate the time-to-market for new features, as integration capabilities can be added quickly and efficiently. This can lead to a more agile development process and greater adaptability to changing market demands.
Additionally, reduced development overhead means fewer resources are needed for integration-related tasks, allowing companies to allocate those resources to innovation, customer support or other strategic areas.
What is white-labelled software?
White-labelled software is a product or service that is created by one company but rebranded and resold by another company as if it were their own. The term “white label” refers to the concept of providing a product or service without any branding, allowing the purchasing company to apply its own brand, logo, and identity before reselling it to end-users.
Companies use white-labelled software to quickly expand their product offerings without the time and cost associated with developing new software from scratch. It’s a way to enter a new market or offer additional services without the complexities of software development and maintenance.
White-labelled software provides several benefits:
- Faster Time to Market: Companies can offer new products or services quickly without the lengthy development process.
- Reduced Costs: White-labelling is often cheaper than developing software from scratch, as the development and maintenance are handled by the original provider.
- Scalability: The white-label provider manages infrastructure and scaling, allowing reselling companies to focus on customer acquisition and support.
- Flexibility: Companies can customise the software to meet their branding and functional requirements.
White-labelled software is a practical solution for companies seeking to expand their offerings without extensive development, allowing them to focus on branding and customer relationships.
Running multiple or single process tasks
An embedded iPaaS often supports the capability to run multiple or single process tasks, providing flexibility in how integrations are designed and executed within a software product. Whether multiple or single processes are chosen depends on the integration requirements, complexity and desired outcomes.
Single-process tasks, or point solutions, refer to individual integration flows that execute a specific set of operations. This could be a simple data transformation or a connection between two applications. These tasks are straightforward, with a clear beginning and end, making them ideal for basic integration needs or scenarios where a consistent, repeatable process is required.
Multiple-process tasks involve running several integration workflows concurrently or in a specific sequence. This approach is beneficial for more complex integrations that require multiple steps, such as fetching data from one system, transforming it, and then sending it to another system. The ability to manage multiple tasks allows for greater flexibility and can support more complex business processes, automation and orchestrated workflows.
Supporting multiple processes provides scalability and adaptability, enabling software providers to offer advanced integration features within their products. On the other hand, single-process tasks simplify the integration process for more straightforward use cases, allowing for quick and easy setup.
Ultimately, the choice between multiple or single processes depends on the level of integration complexity, scalability needs and customisation required by end-users.
Low-code designer facilitates ease-of-use
Embedded iPaaS typically offers a user-friendly interface that enables non-developers to create, configure and manage integration workflows with minimal coding. This approach democratises the integration process, allowing business users and end users to build and customise integrations within the software product where the software is deployed.
Low-code designers typically provide a visual interface with drag-and-drop capabilities, allowing users to select components, define connections and set up automation logic without writing extensive code. This simplifies complex integration tasks, enabling users to create integrations between various applications, data sources or services within the embedded iPaaS.
This flexibility reduces the reliance on IT or specialised developers, shortening development cycles and improving time-to-market for integration features. By providing a low-code designer, software vendors can offer their customers a customisable and adaptable integration experience, enhancing the product’s appeal and versatility.
Essentially, low-code designers represent a significant advancement in integration technology, making complex integration tasks accessible to a broader audience and fostering innovation through user-friendly design.
Pre-built connectors enable rapid integration
These platforms often come with pre-built connectors for popular SaaS applications and services, enabling rapid integration with widely used software solutions.
Pre-built connectors are pre-configured integrations that allow software providers to quickly connect to various applications, services and data sources. These connectors significantly reduce the time and effort required to integrate external systems, offering out-of-the-box functionality for common integration scenarios.
In embedded iPaaS, pre-built connectors are crucial because they allow software vendors to offer integration features within their own products. This means that end-users can connect their preferred applications or services to the product without extensive custom coding or third-party tools.
Pre-built connectors cover a wide range of popular applications, including customer relationship management (CRM) systems, enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, marketing automation tools, databases, and cloud storage services.
The advantage of using pre-built connectors in embedded iPaaS is the speed and ease of implementation. Software providers can use these connectors to rapidly expand their product’s integration capabilities, enhancing customer satisfaction by enabling seamless connections with other business tools. This accelerates time-to-market for new features and helps maintain competitiveness in the software industry.
Additionally, pre-built connectors contribute to a more consistent and reliable integration experience. They often come with built-in error handling, security features and support for different authentication methods, ensuring a robust integration solution for end-users.
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Customisable integration flows
Customisable integration flows refer to the ability for end-users to create and configure integration workflows within a software application or platform. This concept is central to embedded iPaaS, as it allows users to tailor integrations to their specific needs, providing a flexible and adaptive integration experience.
This enables end users to define how data moves between different applications, services or data sources, typically involving setting up triggers, conditions, transformations, and actions to create a seamless workflow. Users can customise these flows using visual interfaces, often with drag-and-drop functionality, making it easy to design complex processes without extensive coding or specialised technical skills.
Customisable integration flows offer several benefits. First, they empower users to automate repetitive tasks, reducing manual effort and improving efficiency. Second, they provide flexibility to adapt to changing business requirements, allowing users to modify existing workflows or create new ones as needed. Third, they contribute to a personalised user experience, where individuals can design workflows that align with their unique business processes.
The benefits of multi-tenancy
As a cloud-based service, embedded iPaaS is designed to serve multiple customers at once, ensuring that each integration is isolated and secure.
Multi-tenancy is a software architecture principle where a single instance of an application serves multiple customers, called tenants. Each tenant shares the same infrastructure and resources while keeping its data and operations isolated from others.
This architecture is common in cloud-based services, allowing providers to efficiently serve many customers with reduced operational costs. Each tenant can customise certain aspects of their environment, but the underlying infrastructure and application logic are shared.
Combining these concepts means that software vendors can offer integration capabilities to multiple customers through a single, shared platform, ensuring data isolation and security while allowing customisation for each customer.
This approach enables software vendors to scale efficiently and deliver seamless integration features within their applications, improving user experience and reducing development overhead.
“We immediately moved over to the multi-tenant environment as soon as it was available. As we were in control of the server we could host all of our customers on it knowing that we’re not all sharing the same thing; it’s all separated thanks to the different instances within it. BPA Platform 2024 has made things a lot easier in terms of managing when tasks are running etc via the multi-tenant environment that is now included. I think it’s interesting the way Codeless Platforms has developed BPA Platform and the multi-tenancy because that ultimately makes it a lot more economically viable.” Dan Clibbens, Operations Director, Percipient
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Managing integrations and workflows
A management console is a centralised interface that allows software vendors and their users to monitor, control and configure integration workflows within an integration platform.
A management console typically includes tools for setting up new integrations, modifying existing workflows, and overseeing the connections between different applications and data sources. It often provides a visual representation of integration flows, allowing users to quickly understand and navigate the structure of their integrations.
In addition to configuration capabilities, a management console offers monitoring and analytics features. Users can track the performance of integration workflows, monitor data transfers, and identify potential bottlenecks or errors. This information is crucial for ensuring the reliability and efficiency of integration processes.
The management console also plays a key role in maintaining security and compliance. It typically includes user authentication and authorisation controls, allowing administrators to set permissions and restrict access to sensitive integration settings. This level of control helps ensure that integrations are secure and compliant with relevant regulations.
Embeddable integration marketplace for SaaS
Embedded iPaaS may well include the ability to add an integration marketplace within a SaaS product, providing a user-friendly interface to allow users to explore, install and manage integrations with other applications and services.
The primary goal of an embeddable integration marketplace is to simplify the discovery and configuration of integrations. It typically offers a visually intuitive layout with search and filtering capabilities, enabling users to find the specific integrations they need. Each integration is presented with clear descriptions, use cases, and step-by-step setup instructions, guiding users through the configuration process without requiring advanced technical skills.
This approach allows SaaS providers to extend their platform’s functionality, enabling users to customise their experience and meet specific business requirements. By embedding an integration marketplace within the SaaS product, providers can offer a more cohesive and interconnected experience, allowing users to exploit their existing tools without leaving the platform.
Additionally, an embeddable integration marketplace provides benefits such as seamless updates, compatibility checks and centralised management of integrations. This reduces maintenance overhead for users and ensures a consistent experience across different integrations. Ultimately, this type of UX in a SaaS product enhances customer satisfaction by providing an accessible and flexible way to integrate various applications, fostering a sense of a connected ecosystem within the platform.
Benefitting from scalability and flexibility
The scalability and flexibility of embedded iPaaS are crucial factors that enable software vendors to offer robust integration features within their applications. Scalability refers to the system’s ability to handle increasing workloads, while flexibility denotes the capacity to adapt to varying requirements and configurations.
In embedded iPaaS, scalability is achieved through a cloud-based infrastructure that can dynamically adjust resources as demand grows. This ensures that as more users create integration workflows or as data volume increases, the platform can scale accordingly without compromising performance.
Software vendors benefit from this scalability because it allows them to expand their customer base without the need for significant infrastructure changes or additional hardware.
Flexibility involves the ease with which users can customise and configure integrations to meet specific needs. This includes the ability to create diverse workflows, use pre-built connectors, or incorporate custom code when required. Flexibility allows embedded iPaaS to support a wide range of integration scenarios, from simple data transfers to complex multi-step processes.
Together, scalability and flexibility make embedded iPaaS an attractive solution for software vendors seeking to offer integration capabilities. Scalability ensures the platform can grow with user demand, while flexibility enables customisation and adaptability, meeting the unique requirements of different users. This combination allows embedded iPaaS to provide a reliable, high-performance integration experience, enhancing the value proposition for both software vendors and their customers.
The benefits of embedded iPaaS
Embedded iPaaS can be an extremely useful solution for OEMs and software vendors, enabling them to offer powerful integration capabilities within their products without the need for developing their own integration solutions.
This helps reduce development overheads, allowing them to deliver integration features with less effort, lower costs, and a quicker development cycle, helping software providers stand out in a competitive market.
This efficiency benefits both the software vendors and their end-users, leading to a more streamlined and cost-effective integration experience, as well as better user experience and increased functionality.
If you are a software vendor looking for an embedded iPaaS solution, or want to find out more about the benefits of iPaaS and Codeless Platforms’ business process automation tools, download the brochure below or call us on +44(0) 330 99 88 700.