Author
January 18, 2024
Let me start this blog post by stating that some of our most pleased customers here at Digibee are former users of legacy iPaaS platforms. You may have seen the news of our feature release using AI to seamlessly migrate integrations from other platforms to Digibee. Or some of our customer stories of already using iPaaS technology, turning to Digibee to overcome major integration challenges. Plenty of proof that Digibee can help, even if you already run an iPaaS.
But change is hard. That phrase is a cliche because it’s so true. And most technology professionals have at least one terrible memory associated with the phrase ‘rip and replace’ – where a technology replacement is so difficult that the new solution ultimately underwhelms in comparison to the toil in the transition.
Add to this the reality of how busy IT and development teams constantly are, juggling priorities and scrambling to meet deadlines. Technology replacements need to be prompted by a justifiable, quantifiable reason to act, with a defined set of desired business outcomes. If an embedded solution is “just good enough” then its replacement plan can get delayed and delayed. The true benefits of a better alternative will have to wait for a crisis.
Indeed, most Digibee customers who leave another iPaaS are doing so for a specific reason – be it end of support of a legacy on-prem iPaaS solution, a new technology deployment that demands a modern approach to integration, or frustration with ever increasing costs with no commiserate increase in benefit.
All Digibee users enjoy the scalability and agility of our iPaaS not just as backend infrastructure but as a platform for innovation. But to get to that plateau of composability, you need to start with the decision to move. So, in this post, we’re sharing the 5 reasons to not replace an established technology, as included in our eBook, ‘Does your integration strategy inspire or impede?’ My goal is to show that our team and our technology are poised to help to not only improve your development team’s resourcing and output, but to get you there more quickly and easily than you might have thought possible.
5 Reasons to NOT replace your iPaaS
Change is never easy. Whether you choose to rip and replace an existing system or implement a contemporary integration solution to coexist with an incumbent, it’s likely you will encounter some (if not all) of these objections:
1. “Ripping and replacing an established technology is too disruptive. The resources should be invested elsewhere.”
As with any proposed business investment, a detailed ROI will provide you with a strong position in countering this objection. As you research vendors, ask them to explain how their implementation model will ensure disruptions and downtime are minimized. Emphasize these capabilities within your ROI analysis, including a detailed offboarding strategy.
2. “The existing integration solution is too convoluted and interconnected. We will never unravel the coding that’s been created over the years.”
This is a common hurdle, especially for enterprises that have built some or all of their integration infrastructure in-house. Raise this in your discussions with potential vendors and ask how each would approach this scenario. Vendor responses should be constructive, including step-by-step details of how they will support this phase of the transition.
3. “We stand by our decision to invest in the incumbent solution and we’re not backing down.”
Personalities play a big part in decision-making. When you encounter a stakeholder who’s digging in their heels, take the time to understand their rationale when they selected the existing product. Often, the business case they made (efficiencies, cost savings, innovation, etc.) aligns with your project, potentially converting them to a proponent. If they are intransigent in their position, propose a hybrid model where old and new co-exist, with the new iPaaS focused on work that needs to be done, such as IT backlog projects.
4. “We don’t need to add even more vendors, especially when we already have an integration provider.”
Similar to the first objection, share a detailed ROI plan that reflects the savings in time, resources, and money that will be achieved with a new iPaaS, whether working in tandem with the old system or as a replacement. It’s difficult to counter a proposal that delivers measurable benefits to the business.
5. “Budgets are tight and it will be difficult to justify the spend when we already have a solution in place.”
Again, a strong ROI model will distinguish how the upside outweighs the downside when it comes to the spend. Modern-day iPaaS (unlike legacy integration) is extremely cost-effective, providing a simple pricing model that delivers all capabilities such as implementation and support services. For many enterprises, the shift from on-premises to the cloud converts the investment from CapEx to OpEx, delivering additional financial upsides.
Digibee: 2 paths to modernizing your integration strategy
All 5 of the above reasons to not change are valid. Yet, as our descriptions under each statement suggest, each is addressable in the vetting process of a potential replacement.
When that replacement is Digibee, development and IT teams are commonly attracted by a few specific aspects of our iPaaS that legacy, monolithic integration providers can’t provide. One is the empowerment of all developers – not just integration specialists – to easily build, monitor and adapt integrations. Another is the composable nature of our platform. The serverless, born in the cloud architecture is built on microservices, so change management is easy and repeatable without the usual degree of code customization enterprises have become used to.
Sometimes wholesale replacement of an iPaaS is justifiable, and in many situations necessary. The speed in which Digibee can empower that change to meet deadlines imposed by end of support or other urgent, time-sensitive needs is well established.
The other option is to use Digibee in conjunction with established iPaaS to burn down the backlog of integrations that legacy technology and not-enough-integration-specialists simply can’t get to. This provides an alternate path to utilize Digibee to empower your developers and modernize your integration strategy in phases.
Next steps with Digibee
We always love to hear from architecture and development leaders about how you’re currently approaching integration strategy, and how you anticipate that strategy’s evolution. If this blog struck a chord with pain points that you know your development team is enduring, but haven’t found a sufficient way to address them, then let’s talk.
If you’re interested in learning more about Digibee’s born in the cloud iPaaS for a simpler, faster, and modern approach to integration, then contact us for a demonstration or visit our website.
