Bridges, not islands
            

A leading enterprise collaboration suite of web and video conferencing solutions. It offers platforms for calling, messaging and meetings, as well as a hub with hundreds of apps to enhance the virtual office environment. Its platforms had more than 600 million monthly users at the end of 2020.

As a leader in web-based business applications, this company has long known the world of work is changing. Even before a global pandemic shuttered offices around the globe for months, coworkers were more spread out than ever—with employees adopting an ever-growing number of Software-as-a-Service applications to get their jobs done most effectively. For this industry leader, this spelled massive opportunity. Its app hub showcases hundreds of industry-leading apps—used for everything from messaging to human resources to project management. Its hub is engineered with one central goal in mind: seamless, unified workplace communication.

The key to achieving this lay in its ability to integrate these apps with the wider suite to allow the flow of real-time information. While some of the hub’s apps came with built-in, out-of-box integrations, many didn’t. Early on, staff attempted to build these integrations themselves, by learning the APIs of external tools and developing workflows from scratch. This process, though, was sluggish: every time an app released new APIs or functionalities, staff were left with time-consuming updates. Management considered outsourcing the task to an external vendor, but this promised to be costly and meant ceding too much control over development.

The company needed a middle ground: a way to retain control over their integrations but avoid the grinding backend maintenance that had become a constant source of headaches. Luckily, they found the perfect fix: webMethods.io, the powerful integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) from Software AG.

Developing workflows like pros

The choice of webMethods came down to two main factors: its unmatched cloud-to-cloud integration capabilities, and its intuitive user interface that made developing workflows a cinch. webMethods already supported hundreds of pre-configured enterprise connectors; developers could simply drag and drop them onto a canvas, choose from an existing set of triggers and actions, and quickly have a complex automation at their fingertips. Taking this approach allowed the team to create custom workflows within minutes—and ultimately build an arsenal of bots to connect users directly to their favorite apps.

“The ease-of-use webMethods gives us is invaluable,” says a product manager at the company. “It enables us to quickly test new ideas—and build our integrations without requiring multiple resources working day in and day out.”

An arsenal of bots—for seamless collaboration

For the team, the platform’s capabilities soon translated into tangible results. After adopting webMethods in 2018, the company turned to bot-building. In the three years since, it’s introduced more than 50. There are bots to create polls during virtual meetings; a Salesforce bot lets users of the popular customer relationship management platform utilize its many functionalities directly within the platform—without even opening Salesforce itself. Better, faster integration, has also enabled third-party developers to create apps and open them up to customers—enabling the app hub to continually expand its catalogue.

“We’re seeing an increasing number of third-party integrators understand the value that our collaboration platform can bring to their product, and how we can be better together,” the product manager says.

For users, a bigger and better integrated app hub means opportunities to improve workplace efficiency are greater than ever—and just at the right moment. Over the course of 2020, as professionals around the globe abandoned cubicles for kitchen tables and home offices, the platform’s monthly users grew fourfold: by December, 600 million people were relying on the platform for at least some of their business tasks. The platform’s connectivity with external apps was key to making the work-from-home transition as seamless as possible. And with the virtual workplace here to stay, at least in some form, it will continue to give the company a leg up on the competition. It’s no surprise, then, that it is doubling down on its commitment to bots: the team is planning to build 50 more in the next six months alone.

This coming scale-up marks the next chapter in the story of a truly connected forward-looking enterprise—which is committed to helping workers everywhere become unified, collaborative, and ultimately more effective. But it’s just as much a tale of the virtues of webMethods.io—the integration platform that’s enabled them to get there.

“Our motto is to build bridges, not islands,” the product manager says. “Thanks to Software AG, we’re able to do just that.”