Leveraging an embedded iPaaS (integration Platform as a Service) solution can allow you to scale your integrations library rapidly, and improve your users experience with your product. A typical embedded iPaaS allows your users to connect and manage integrations directly within your product. In this article, we'll look at best practices for choosing and using an embedded iPaaS solution.
1: Clearly define your integration requirements and goals before evaluating solutions
Before selecting an embedded iPaaS solution, it's important to clearly define your integration requirements and goals. This will help you choose a solution that meets your needs and ensures that the implementation process goes smoothly. Consider the systems your customers most often want your product to integrate with, the data you need to exchange, and the overall goals of the integration. Having a clear understanding of your requirements and goals will also help you evaluate the capabilities of different embedded iPaaS solutions and choose the one that best meets your needs.
For example:
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What verticals of integrations are relevant to your customers?
- Categories could include ERPs, CRMs, HRIS, E-Commerce, Ticketing, Product Analytics, and more
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What functionality do your integrations need to support?
- Do you need to read data from 3rd party integrations?
- Do you need to write data from 3rd party integrations?
- Do you need real-time data sync, or batch scheduling?
- Do you need support for syncing large volumes of data? How large?
This should help you narrow your search to iPaaS providers that support your requirements out of the box.
2: Involve all relevant stakeholders in the selection and implementation process
Involvement of all relevant stakeholders is crucial for the successful implementation of an embedded iPaaS solution. Make sure to involve your product and engineering teams, your customer success team, your customers, and other relevant parties in the selection and implementation process to ensure that the solution meets the needs of all stakeholders and is properly implemented.
Most commonly, your product team and customers want to ensure that the solution you choose has all or most of the connectors you need available. The development team usually is interested in understanding the ease of implementation and maintenance around these integrations, as well as how they can interact with the embedded iPaaS. For example, your team may ask if the solutions offers an easy to use API, a CLI, or other developer-focused features.
3: Thoroughly test the iPaaS solution before going live
It's important to thoroughly test the iPaaS solution before going live to ensure that it meets your requirements and functions as expected. This may involve testing the solution in a staging environment, as well as conducting user acceptance testing to ensure that it meets the needs of your business users.
Common areas to test and verify include:
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Authorization with the 3rd party integration
- OAuth – does the iPaaS manage OAuth for you via some embeddable UI? Do you have to implement OAuth workflows yourself?
- API keys – does the iPaaS validate API keys out of the box
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Data Sync
- Are the connectors you want available?
- Are you able to read and write the relevant data?
- Are sync speeds up to par with what your customers expectations?
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Developer Experience
- Are the iPaaS features well-documented and easy to work with?
- Does the iPaaS offer any APIs to programmatically configure and manage integrations?
- Does the iPaaS offer any SDKs to make working with the platform simpler?
- Does the iPaaS support developer best-practices like segregated development, testing, and production environments? Automated deployments via CLIs?
4: Set up monitoring and alerting to detect and resolve issues quickly
Once the embedded iPaaS solution is live, it's important to set up monitoring and alerting to detect and resolve issues quickly. This will help you identify and resolve any issues with the integration processes as soon as they arise, ensuring that your customers have a smooth and stable experience.
For example, hotglue offers webhook notifications, email alerts, and integrations with platforms like Datadog to ensure you have complete visibility into integration processes in real-time.
5: Regularly monitor the integration processes to ensure they are meeting your needs
Finally, it's important to regularly review and optimize the integration processes to ensure that they are meeting your customers needs. This may involve reviewing the data being exchanged, the performance of the integration processes, and the overall effectiveness of the iPaaS solution. By regularly reviewing and optimizing the integration processes, you can ensure that they continue to meet your customers needs and are a valuable feature of your product.
Conclusion
In conclusion, leveraging an embedded iPaaS solution can help your business streamline offering integrations to your customers.
By taking steps to clearly define your integration requirements and goals, involve all relevant stakeholders, and thoroughly test the solution before going live, you can ensure you choose the right iPaaS for you and a smooth and successful deployment.
