Adopting a platform approach is hard to prioritize. It is easier to focus on building new product features to add value to customers at a lower cost to develop. 

Yet, having a siloed approach to a SaaS product is obsolete. With the average companies using 254 applications (364 for enterprises), customers are demanding complete solutions with strong interoperability. In fact, the ability to integrate has become the single most important factor in selecting a SaaS vendor, even before price. 

In a world with 100,000+ B2B SaaS products, how could it not be?

‍

The capacity to manage integrations has become a key element to enable business growth for any software company. In 2019, more than half software companies reported losing between $250,000 to $500,000 of annual revenue in the form of lost orders, missed SLAs, and lost revenue opportunities due to poor integrations. 

Having an effective integration approach requires SaaS vendors to shift from a product to an ecosystem mindset, where the entire company thinks about how the product relates to its ecosystem, not just its tool segment. It requires understanding where your product adds distinct value, and to prioritize integrations based on where you want your product to fit within the entire tech ecosystem. 

Having an ecosystem mindset means:

1. Assessing customer needs over their entire tech stack not your tool type
2. Understanding which potential partner can fit in and seeing integrations as part of your product
3. Building features enabling integration and collaboration. 

Almost every major SaaS today has a thriving ecosystem of software and services firms who grow around their core platform. SaaS leaders like Okta, Shopify, Atlassian or Slack have more than 2,000+ integrations. Companies like Aircall report that over 50% of their revenues in North America come from integrations and partnerships. 

Yet, nearly a third of software companies say that they lack skilled resources to build and manage integrations within an ecosystem. 

At Heedjy, we’ve built the perfect tool to accelerate the development of your ecosystem strategy, while keeping your developers focused on what’s truly unique to your business.  

Excited to learn more about how we can help you roll out an ecosystem strategy?