Remember the old days when end-to-end software platforms made sense?

Back when software had to be integrated with complicated, custom code, it was painful to connect applications made by two different companies. Buying every application from one vendor at least gave you “one throat to choke” if systems failed to work together.

Unfortunately, compromise was rampant when buying into a platform. Much of the software was acquired, cobbled together, and marketed as though it was one application. Users were left discovering limitation after limitation. And the platform vendor was all too happy to charge huge services fees to build custom features to address shortcomings.

The good news is that platforms are an outdated concept. The even better news is that they have been replaced by specialized multi-tenant cloud software. Here are three reasons why:

1. Multi-tenant cloud software solutions connect very easily with each other.  They are built from the ground up to be easy to talk to, with connection protocols any web developer can use.
2. Multi-tenant solutions typically use a single API connector shared among all clients. Kibo does one connection to Demandware, and it’s done for every client who wants to use it. The economics are fantastic.
3. Ease of integration has overtaken “one throat to choke” as the critical factor in buying software. This is because the number of applications required to run a world-class Enterprise business is high, regardless of what platform you have.

Try this thought exercise. Pretend you bought every single business application Oracle offered: eCommerce, ERP, Warehouse, Human Resources, CRM, etc.

Even after your Oracle rep high-fived you for getting her a free trip to Larry Ellison’s private Hawaiian island, you would still need to integrate dozens and dozens of external systems to your Oracle “platform.” Just considering eCommerce, you would still need to connect to an email service provider, payment gateway, gift card vendor, fraud engine, recommendation engine, search analytics, marketing analytics, shipping carriers, call center, reviews engine, content delivery network, and more.

This exercise shows it is really important to have software that is easy to integrate with. A retail platform is no longer something that is made by one company so it kind of works together. The new retail platform is comprised of specialized applications (like order management) that are in and of themselves easy to integrate with.

Even better than easy integration is integration that’s already done. Integration you don’t even have to pay to setup or maintain.

Kibo’s SNAP connector program is an example of how a multi-tenant solution provides out of the box integrations for clients. We have dozens of integrations to leading systems, which means lower implementation costs and no maintenance costs.

For example, just about every retailer needs to integrate shipping carriers and payment gateways to their order management system. With Kibo, integrations to UPS, Fedex, USPS (via Endicia), and Canada Post are already in place.  Literally with a flip of a switch, a new client on-boarding with us can have the benefit of these SNAP connections.

Similarly with popular payment gateways like Cybersource, Vantiv, Paypal, and TD Bank.  Ready to go.  We are pre-integrated to five gift card gateways, too.

Kibo is always adding more integrations, which just adds to the value of our best-of-breed order management solution.

Contact us to learn more about our integrations.