WrightStudio/Adobe
Stock
Tech
market
observers
predict
organizations
will
increase
IT
spending
this
year,
driven
in
part
by
digital
transformation.
But,
a
survey
by
Salesforce’s
MuleSoft
division
shows
that
trying
to
achieve
transformation
by
scooping
up
applications
might
not
get
you
there
if
the
strategy
doesn’t
include
using
application
programming
interfaces,
automation
and
other
methods
to
integrate
them.
SEE:
Research:
Digital
transformation
initiatives
focus
on
collaboration
(TechRepublic
Premium)
The
online
survey
of
1,050
IT
leaders
from
global
enterprises,
in
partnership
with
Vanson
Bourne,
aimed
to
uncover
how
much
organizations
stand
to
gain
from
digital
transformation
and
to
understand
the
IT
strategies
that
work.
Among
the
findings,
a
third
of
organizations
plan
to
invest
in
robotic
process
automation
to
drive
efficient
growth.
Demand
for
automation
was
strong
across
nontechnical
teams
including
human
resources,
marketing
and
product.
Jump
to:
A
big
increase
in
use
of
applications
Based
on
responses
to
the
survey,
conducted
in
October
and
November,
2022,
businesses
increased
the
number
of
applications
they
use
by
10%
in
the
12
months
prior
to
over
1,060
on
average.
However,
fewer
than
one-third
of
those
apps
were
integrated,
creating
data
silos,
rising
costs,
duplicated
work,
productivity
bottlenecks,
and
disconnected
experiences,
according
to
MuleSoft.
Thirty-six
percent
of
those
surveyed
—
all
of
whom
work
at
an
organization
with
at
least
1,000
employees
and
hold
at
least
a
managerial
position
in
an
IT
department
—
said
integrating
siloed
apps
and
data
was
their
biggest
digital
transformation
challenge.
Matt
McLarty,
chief
technology
officer
at
MuleSoft
said
integration
woes
are
due,
at
least
in
part,
to
older
platforms
or
platforms
that
were
never
designed
to
play
nicely
with
APIs.
“Some
of
that
could
include
back-office
functions
that
are
in
an
exclusive
domain,”
McLarty
said.
“But,
there
are
definitely
major
challenges,
as
some
applications
are
built
without
the
assumption
that
users
might
want
to
connect
into
the
app,
while
others
are
designed
well
with
hooks
for
APIs.”
SEE:
Top
5
IT
trends
you
should
remember
from
2022
(TechRepublic)
McLarty
added
that
one
aspect
of
the
need
for
robotic
processes
articulated
by
those
surveyed
may
well
be
that
some
of
those
antediluvian
applications
only
allow
for
integration
through
a
user
interface.
“Robotic
process
automation
allows
a
component
to
act
like
a
person
using
the
user
interface
to
provide
an
integration.
You
don’t
want
to
do
that
all
the
time,
but
it
is
a
way
to
crack
into
hard-to-get-at
applications,”
McLarty
said.
APIs
and
low-code
capabilities
for
nontechnical
users
Virtually
all
of
the
respondents
said
they
use
APIs
to
integrate
applications
and
data
to
create
exceptional
customer
experiences
and
generate
revenue.
Furthermore:
-
Sixty-eight
percent
of
organizations
that
said
they
were
ahead
of
planned
digital
transformation
progress
said
they
have
a
mature
strategy
—
including
low-code
tools
—
to
empower
nontechnical
users
to
easily
integrate
applications
and
data
sources. -
On
average,
based
on
survey
responses,
organizations
are
generating
38%
of
revenue
from
APIs,
compared
to
35%
a
year
ago.
Also,
75%
of
organizations
now
have
a
top-down
API
integration
strategy.
McLarty
said
that
top-down
strategy
for
API
integration
allows
for
greater
efficiency
across
an
organization,
as
it
can
lead
to
agile
software
that
can
be
“reused”
for
different
applications.
The
study
found
that,
on
average,
47%
of
organizations’
internal
software
assets
and
components
are
available
to
developers
for
reuse.
“Organizations
are
encouraging
much
more
involvement
(in
API
integration
strategies)
from
business
leadership,”
said
McLarty.
“It’s
almost
a
reimagining
of
how
you
utilize
software
assets
in
your
organization,
and
it
follows
a
trend
we
have
seen
over
the
past
twenty
years:
using
APIs
as
a
way
of
breaking
down
the
surface
layer
of
software,
so
you
can
develop
applications
at
a
higher
level
rather
than
building
software
from
scratch.
You
can
pick
and
choose
prebuilt
pieces
you
are
already
using.”
He
added
companies’
embrace
of
low-code
and
no-code
frameworks
are
tacit
acknowledgements
of
the
imperatives
of
a
booming
digital
economy:
There
aren’t
enough
coders
and
developers
to
go
around.
“Low-code/no-code
is
a
category
of
tooling;
the
idea
is
to
develop
tools
that
are
purpose
built
for
people
without
software
background,
so
instead
of
someone
having
to
write
Python
scripts,
I
can
give
you
a
tool
set
that
lets
you
grab
and
combine
data,”
McLarty
explained,
adding
that
the
process
can
be
highly
collaborative.
“What
we
are
seeing
now
is
that
organizations
that
can
put
more
tools
into
their
business
people’s
hands
are
actually
getting
better
engagement
and
ideas,
so
it’s
having
an
impact.
“It
is
a
dance
between
business
users
getting
more
engaged
and
IT
teams
getting
more
information
about
what
the
real
problems
are
and
how
they
both
can
solve
them.”
For
efficient
processes
and
supporting
nontech
workflow,
automation
is
ascendant
MuleSoft
found
that
robotic
process
automation
is
enabling
teams
to
automate
business
processes
and
tasks,
with
33%
percent
of
organizations
investing
in
the
technology
and
92%
of
organizations
saying
at
least
one
department
within
their
company
requires
both
integration
and
automation.
While
developers,
IT
operations
and
application
administrators
are
most
likely
to
be
responsible
for
automating
business
processes,
per
the
study,
departments
that
reported
a
need
for
automation
were:
-
Data
science
(64%) -
Product
(62%) -
Business
analysts
(61%) -
Customer
support
(58%) -
Finance
(57%) -
Marketing
(56%) -
Engineering
(56%) -
HR
(52%)
As
digital
transformation
moves
ahead,
cost
of
failure
rises
The
MuleSoft
study
said
the
cost
of
failed
digital
transformation
is
$9.5
million
annually,
up
from
$6.8
million
in
2021.
But
despite
an
increase
in
IT
project
volume
(41%
growth
year
over
year),
69%
of
organizations
are
ahead
of
schedule
on
digital
transformation
progress
due,
in
part,
to
infrastructure
improvement.
A
rise
in
custom
integration
costs
by
organizations,
which
spent
on
average
$4.7
million
on
custom
integration
labor
during
the
12
months
before
the
study,
showed
an
increase
from
$3.7
million
reported
in
2021.
False
dichotomy:
Innovation
today
vs.
investing
in
the
future
McLarty
said
a
big
surprise
for
him
from
the
study
was
the
number
of
organizations
looking
to
empower
users.
“I
try
to
find
a
balance
between
what
organizations
are
asking
for
and
what
they
actually
need,”
McLarty
said.
“Sometimes
they
don’t
match.
Companies
may
say
they
need
more
developers,
seek
to
hire
more
developers,
and
create
the
best
developer
experience,
but
I
would
ask,
‘have
you
thought
about
broadening
your
capacity
by
empowering
more
of
your
users?’”
While
conceding
that
downsizing
by
big
tech
in
recent
weeks
may,
on
the
surface,
appear
to
have
negated
industry
predictions
for
increased
spending,
McLarty
thinks
established
companies
may
see
layoffs
as
an
opportunity
to
catch
up,
“to
leap
forward
in
terms
of
their
own
digital
transformation
and
in
terms,
generally,
of
industry
rebalancing.”
Also,
McLarty
thinks
companies
that
may
be
considering
putting
off
innovation,
may
be
operating
under
a
false
dichotomy:
solving
pain
points
now
versus
investing
in
the
future.
The
bottom
line,
he
explained,
is
that
when
it
comes
to
doing
things
like
automating
“pain
point”
processes,
empowering
non-developer
knowledge
workers
to
create
solutions
in
collaboration
with
IT
and
employing
top-down
API
integration,
“you
will
both
create
efficiencies
today
and
open
optionality
for
future.
If
you
take
the
innovation
approach
now,
you
can
do
both.”
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