SaaS Integration: A Magical Tale of Integration in the Cloud

Once upon a time, in the enchanted land of Techonia, there existed a kingdom known as Cloudville. In Cloudville, magic was abundant, and the inhabitants relied on the power of the clouds to make their lives easier and more efficient. They dreamed of acquiring a legendary magical gem known as the SaaS crystal. It was rumoured this could integrate cloud-based powers, allowing them to work together harmoniously.

That almost sounds like a fairytale, doesn’t it? But, we promise that you don’t have to be a wizard to intelligently integrate your SaaS applications. In this blog, you’ll learn what SaaS integration is, the potential it can deliver to your company by looking at different SaaS integration scenarios, and finally, how we can help you achieve all these benefits with our Cloud Integration Services and Connectors. Let us go on a magical journey to the enchanting world of Cloudville.

What is the magic behind SaaS integration?

In Cloudville, lived Simon, a humble and kind-hearted wizard known for his extraordinary mastery of technology’s magic. He dreamed of integrating cloud-based services to bring prosperity to the realm. Unfortunately, the realm was also plagued by a great feud between two warring families – the Nimbuses and the Stratuses. Simon saw the potential in the SaaS crystal’s power to unite and embarked on a journey, facing challenges and a dragon named Emberclaw. The dragon posed a riddle to Simon. “What is the key to unlocking the power of SaaS applications?” Emberclaw questioned with a rumbling voice. Thinking hard, Simon replied, “The key to unlocking the power of SaaS applications lies in understanding the unique abilities of each and finding the common language to connect them.”

SaaS integration, also known as Software as a Service integration, is the process of connecting and combining different cloud-based software applications to work together seamlessly. These days, many businesses and organizations use a variety of SaaS applications to manage different aspects of their operations, including customer relationship management (CRM), human resources, marketing, project management, and more.

SaaS applications are hosted and maintained by third-party providers such as SEEBURGER, allowing users to access them over the internet without the need for on-premises installations or infrastructure. While these SaaS applications are powerful on their own, their true magic is unlocked when they can share data, communicate, and collaborate with one another.

SaaS integration typically involves using specialist tools, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), webhooks, or middleware platforms to enable data exchange and shared functionality among different SaaS applications. Through integration, businesses can streamline their workflows, improve data accuracy, and eliminate manual data entry, leading to increased productivity and efficiency. Doesn’t that sound like magic?

How SaaS integration enriched everyday life in Cloudville

The dragon was impressed by Simon’s wisdom and granted him the legendary SaaS crystal. Our humble hero returned to the village of Cloudville and used the crystal’s power on the warring families so that they would start communicating with each other and interacting harmoniously. As he neared the kingdom, a radiant light started emanating from the crystal as the spell began to work its magic. With the mediating power of the SaaS crystal, the families found that they did have a common language and in dialog with each other, discovered that their unique abilities and perspective on the runnings of the kingdom complemented each other. The King was overjoyed and grateful to Simon for bringing harmony and prosperity to the realm. And so, the tale of SaaS integration spread across the enchanted land, and wizards from far and wide sought to learn the ways of the clouds and the power of the SaaS crystal, all inspired by the selfless actions of the humble wizard, Simon, who taught them that true magic lies in connecting and working together. From that point on, SaaS integration found its way into Cloudville in a wide variety of scenarios, making the Cloudvillians’ lives easier and Simon became popular as SaaS integration master of network across Techonia.

SaaS integration can also make life in the real world easier, as many of our 10,000+ satisfied customers have already discovered. Let’s look at a few common SaaS integration scenarios you may find in a successful company.

• Integrating CRM and marketing automation software with the ERP system is a powerful combination that allows businesses to streamline their sales and marketing efforts, while also benefitting from more comprehensive, helpful data. Automatically combining data from CRM and marketing automation provides a more comprehensive view of customer interactions, helping businesses make data-driven decisions. At the same time, this fuller picture of the customer allows for better customer segmentation, more personalized marketing campaigns and efficient data tracking and tracing, all of which improve customer engagement, and increase overall efficiency. Integration ensures that both sales and marketing teams have access to the same comprehensive customer data, and leads generated through marketing initiatives can also be automatically transferred to the CRM system.
  A typical integration scenario is connecting SAP S4/HANA, Salesforce and Marketo. This consolidates disparate customer records into comprehensive master data in the ERP (here, SAP), which is automatically drawn upon by Salesforce for CRM purposes and Marketo for targeted marketing campaigns, while they feed back to the master data in turn.
• Integrating project management and project collaboration tools allows team members to access project updates, share files, and communicate within a unified environment, enhancing teamwork and project efficiency. Project management tools are designed to help teams plan, organize, and carry out projects efficiently, while collaboration tools facilitate communication and teamwork among project members by enabling real-time discussions, file sharing, document collaboration, and instant messaging, particularly in this era of remote working.
  An example of integrating project management and collaboration software is linking Microsoft Planner with SharePoint. Microsoft Planner is a task management tool within the Microsoft 365 suite, while SharePoint Online is a collaboration and document management platform. By integrating Microsoft Planner with SharePoint Online, project teams can streamline their collaboration, keep project tasks and documents organized and visible, and maintain better transparency and communication throughout the project lifecycle.
• Integrating e-commerce and inventory management systems is crucial for running a successful online retail business. Integration enables real-time synchronization of product data and inventory levels, quicker order processing and more, ensuring efficient operations and a better customer experience. Since the integrated systems ensure that product availability and stock levels are automatically updated across all sales channels, there’s a reduced risk of overselling and stockouts. This brings advantages to the table such as streamlined order processes, efficient inventory forecasting, reduced operational costs, harmonized multichannel selling, and ultimately, greater customer satisfaction.
  An ordinary integration might involve seamlessly connecting a web shop, like MAGENTO, with a warehouse system owned by a 4PL provider, integrating a track & trace service from the forwarder, and incorporating your SAP ERP in the backend. This integration efficiently covers and manages the entire customer process.
• Integrating accounting and payment gateway systems is essential for businesses to streamline their financial processes, ensure accurate bookkeeping and facilitate seamless payment transactions. This integration lets you efficiently record financial transactions, reduce manual data entry and increase financial visibility through automation, improved accuracy, real-time insights and enhanced security levels. Third-party integration services or APIs can be utilized to connect the systems if native options are not available.
  One example of accounting and payment gateway integration is linking QuickBooks with PayPal. QuickBooks is a popular accounting software used by businesses for financial management, while PayPal is a widely-used online payment gateway that allows businesses to accept payments from customers. This integration simplifies payment management and enhances financial reporting capabilities, making it easier for businesses to track their income and expenses effectively.
• Integrating HR (Human Resources) and payroll systems is a fundamental aspect of modern workforce management. This integration enables seamless data flow between the HR and payroll departments, streamlining cross-departmental processes, ensuring accurate compensation, and improving overall employee management. For example, when new employees are onboarded onto the HR system, their information seamlessly flows to the payroll system, simplifying the setup of their compensation and benefits. This integration also helps ensure that payroll calculations comply with labor laws and tax regulations, as well as streamlining the generation of payroll reports and tax filings.
  An example of HR and payroll integration is linking the HR software Workday with the payroll processing system ADP (Automatic Data Processing). Workday is a comprehensive human resources management system that handles various HR functions, including employee onboarding, time tracking, benefits administration and performance management. ADP is a widely used payroll processing platform that manages payroll calculations, disburses payments and calculates and retains tax.

SEEBURGER – your enchanting partner for business integration

One platform, one experience, any integration style, anywhere deployment. SEEBURGER is an integration software and services company with over 1,000 employees worldwide. Family-owned since 1986, SEEBURGER transforms businesses and the IT landscape with the SEEBURGER BIS Platform — a cloud-based, agile, secure and scalable integration platform.

BIS enables you to seamlessly connect and integrate applications, technologies, services and people across your entire ecosystem. With BIS, anyone can master the easiest to the most complex integrations with one platform in any cloud, a hybrid environment or on-premises. Its capabilities include a complete API management solution as well as a comprehensive toolset for integrating legacy systems.

True to the cloud trend, we also offer the SEEBURGER BIS Platform with all its capabilities as an iPaaS. Choose which integration tasks you wish to perform in-house, and which to outsource to SEEBURGER.

We at SEEBURGER also offer a number of pre-built connectors and prepackaged integration processes to cover a specific integration need, or the integration of a specific system or service interface. The connectors contain added value ranging from expert documentation on how to address integration challenges with standard BIS platform capabilities, to a ready-to-run SEEBURGER Connector. Last but not least, they also include all necessary license modules and information to address any integration scenario.