Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Chris McNabb, CEO of Dell Boomi (Part 4)

Sramana Mitra: If you look at the integration space, what do you think are open problems that new entrepreneurs should be looking at solving?

Chris McNabb: The one thing to recognize is integration shouldn’t be an afterthought for all of the reasons I talked earlier about why integration is becoming strategic to an enterprise. Let’s say they’re trying to create a SaaS. Anytime you create SaaS, integration is going to be a part of that. As an entrepreneur, you can decide, “Let me connect my system to the other system.” You have to appreciate the scale that your business is going to get to.

How would you like to hand-build 10,000 integrations and have them changed because of a new feature or something that’s changed the integration requirements? If integration isn’t in your core business, it may be worth your time to look at an effective way to get an integration approach that scales for your business. You are going to need to recognize that many of the people you may be selling to may have existing integration technologies.

If you bring a product to market that has built-in integration, you’re actually making their world more complicated. They already have an integration tool that they want to use. You have to make sure that you have an option for them to simplify their environment and leverage integration products that they know. No matter what you’re doing, integration is going to be a key part of what it is. It’s going to be enterprise strategic. High-level people in the organization are going to have a very definitive opinion about that topic when it comes to engaging the new firm that you’re creating.

Sramana Mitra: Do you want to add anything that we haven’t covered?

Chris McNabb: If there’s one other thing that I think about, pace of play for businesses today continues to accelerate. This is for entrepreneurs of any kind of a product. Businesses are trying to move at a faster pace. If you can provide ways for them to engage your organization, it’s a very critical way to engage. If I can go see a product that I like, I can go to your website. The next thing you know, it’s on a truck to get to me. Whatever it may be, a frictionless sales is very important.

Sramana Mitra: Great. Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 4 in the series : Thought Leaders in Cloud Computing: Chris McNabb, CEO of Dell Boomi
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