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In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses must navigate a complex web of applications, data sources, and systems. Seamless integration of these elements is a critical factor in staying competitive and responsive to market demands. Microsoft's enterprise integration offering, Azure Integration Services, is the answer to the challenges of modern integration. Thousands of the world’s largest enterprises are already realizing the impact and benefits provided by Azure Integration Services.
To provide businesses with a clearer understanding of the potential return on investment (ROI) when implementing Azure Integration Services, Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study. This comprehensive analysis delves deep into the cost savings and, more importantly, the substantial business advantages that Azure Integration Services can unlock for organizations.
Forrester conducted interviews with representatives from five organizations across various industries, including Financial Services, Insurance, Energy, Utilities, and Manufacturing. These organizations all reported using three or more components of the Azure Integration Services stack, such as Azure API Management, Azure Logic Apps, Azure Event Grid, and Azure Service Bus.
Before adopting Azure Integration Services, the interviewees grappled with complex IT landscapes involving a mix of on-premises and cloud-based elements. They relied on manual scripts for integration, which posed challenges in ensuring data security and compliance across diverse environments. A lack of automation by integration and DevOps teams led to inefficiencies, errors, and delays, limiting executive visibility into crucial data and processes.
Based on the interviews with decision-makers across these five organizations, and a trusted financial model, this 2023 TEI study revealed that Azure Integration Services collectively delivered a substantial 295 percent ROI over a three-year period. This significant return on investment is a testament to the platform's effectiveness. The top three quantified benefits* for the composite organization over a three-year period include:
*Over a three-year, risk-adjusted present value
Deliver modern experiences faster
Businesses increasingly rely on technology to drive growth and deliver innovative experiences to their customers. As shown by the Forrester TEI study, Azure Integration Services provides all the building blocks to power these connected digital experiences.
Integration developers and data architects in the composite organization, for example, experienced a significant productivity boost of 35 percent to 45 percent by utilizing prebuilt connectors, templates, and visual designers offered by the Azure Integration Services platform. This reduced coding and debugging time for custom integrations and enabled the creation of reusable integration components. The resulting efficiency in delivering robust data integration solutions translates to approximately $2.4 million in value for the organization over a three-year period.
Azure Integration Services also brings significant efficiencies to application integration design, architecture, and management tasks. By simplifying deployment and providing managed scalability, infrastructure management, and automated scaling, the TEI study found a 50% increase in productivity by the third year. The DevOps team members, who spend 25 percent of their time on related tasks, benefit from the platform's centralized monitoring capabilities. They can reduce troubleshooting time and are able to easily scale applications without reconfiguration. The total benefit to the composite organization over three years was $869,000.
“Previously, manual deployments took around a week to complete,” said an assistant vice president of engineering at a financial services firm interviewed for the study. “We had to write release documents and coordinate with the infrastructure team to execute each step manually. With our current solution, we simply click a button, and everything is done within seconds.”
Azure Integration Services helped the composite organization experience cost reduction due to fewer application support requests. Integrated environments lead to fewer data entry errors, resulting in fewer support tickets. Azure Integration Services simplifies the process by eliminating complexities, enhancing standardization, and providing error-handling mechanisms. Data administrators can quickly identify and resolve data entry errors, which reduces manual efforts and eliminates downstream issues. These benefits are valued at $654,000 for the organization over three years.
In addition to cost savings, enabling citizen developers also resulted in cost avoidance for the composite organization. Integration developers created reusable components, simplifying the integration process for citizen developers who used low-code/no-code platforms like Microsoft Power Platform. With Azure Integration Services' capabilities and prebuilt connectors, citizen developers could easily connect applications and systems without the need for extensive coding. This collaboration led to rapid development and deployment, driving efficiencies of $475,000 over three years.
Unlock productivity with business process automation
Azure Integration Services provides a robust framework for automating business processes. With over 800 out-of-the box connectors to both Microsoft and third-party services, both in the cloud or on-premises, the platform seamlessly enables workflow automation, allowing organizations to unlock productivity gains, reduce manual intervention, and optimize operations for maximum efficiency.
“Users no longer need to manually input data into various systems because the processes deployed with Azure Integration Suite capture and process the information automatically,” said the AVP of the financial services firm. “This automation has not only improved efficiency but also delivered an ROI for our company.”
The TEI study’s composite organization achieved end-user efficiency through automated data entry and validation. Integration requests are evaluated based on their potential to save time and enhance end-user productivity. By implementing these integrations, employees can concentrate on more meaningful and productive tasks rather than manual data entry. The resulting reduction in manual tasks and streamlined data entry processes creates efficiencies valued at $3.5 million over a three-year period.
Supercharge growth with real-time actionable insights
Similarly, the composite organization experienced incremental revenue growth by leveraging data insights and driving innovation at a faster pace. The IT group focuses on introducing new systems, improving integration processes, and enhancing error monitoring to ensure data integrity and reliability. By providing consistent, accurate, and trustworthy data, the organization enables informed decision-making and can prioritize revenue-generating innovation initiatives. These efforts result in a value of $3.2 million for the organization over a three-year period.
“The integration has established a single source of truth for data across different systems,” said the head of global IT for a manufacturing firm interviewed for the study. “Having a centralized and reliable data source ensures consistency across the organization and enhances decision-making.”
Additional benefits
Not all benefits can be quantified, yet that does not mean they are less important. Customers interviewed in the study shared anecdotal benefits that were not quantified because it was not feasible to measure, or get the data.
For example, customers reported that seamless integration of multiple systems using Azure Integration Services enabled knowledge sharing and set the foundation for advanced analytics. Organizations also mentioned implementing robust security measures, including RBAC and permissions, resulting in resilience against hacking incidents, strict access controls, compliance, and protection of environments, while Azure's secure infrastructure mitigates risks.
In addition, Azure Integration Services integration eliminated data silos and improved data accessibility, ensuring improved data quality, consistency, and a unified view across systems for global teams.
Finally, the study reported that scaling up the number of instances and service tiers in Azure Integration Services was straightforward, and upgrading to a production-grade environment can be done with a click of a button, and that Azure API Management and Azure Logic Apps streamline new hire onboarding by facilitating discovery, access setup, security, and integration, resulting in faster integration and reduced onboarding time compared to previous on-premises systems.
Get started with Azure Integration Services today!
Microsoft Azure Integration Services provides a comprehensive toolset for secure and seamless cloud application integration. The platform enhances developer efficiency, boosting productivity and accelerating time to market. Be sure to download the full Forrester study here and contact your Microsoft account team to learn more about how to get started with Azure Integration Services today. To learn more about Azure Integration Services, visit our website.
Continue reading...
To provide businesses with a clearer understanding of the potential return on investment (ROI) when implementing Azure Integration Services, Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study. This comprehensive analysis delves deep into the cost savings and, more importantly, the substantial business advantages that Azure Integration Services can unlock for organizations.
Forrester conducted interviews with representatives from five organizations across various industries, including Financial Services, Insurance, Energy, Utilities, and Manufacturing. These organizations all reported using three or more components of the Azure Integration Services stack, such as Azure API Management, Azure Logic Apps, Azure Event Grid, and Azure Service Bus.
Before adopting Azure Integration Services, the interviewees grappled with complex IT landscapes involving a mix of on-premises and cloud-based elements. They relied on manual scripts for integration, which posed challenges in ensuring data security and compliance across diverse environments. A lack of automation by integration and DevOps teams led to inefficiencies, errors, and delays, limiting executive visibility into crucial data and processes.
Based on the interviews with decision-makers across these five organizations, and a trusted financial model, this 2023 TEI study revealed that Azure Integration Services collectively delivered a substantial 295 percent ROI over a three-year period. This significant return on investment is a testament to the platform's effectiveness. The top three quantified benefits* for the composite organization over a three-year period include:
- Gain in integration developer and data architect productivity valued at $2.4 million.
- Incremental revenue growth driven by data insights and the speed of innovation valued at $3.2 million.
- Business efficiencies from automated data entry and validation valued at $3.5 million.
*Over a three-year, risk-adjusted present value
Deliver modern experiences faster
Businesses increasingly rely on technology to drive growth and deliver innovative experiences to their customers. As shown by the Forrester TEI study, Azure Integration Services provides all the building blocks to power these connected digital experiences.
Integration developers and data architects in the composite organization, for example, experienced a significant productivity boost of 35 percent to 45 percent by utilizing prebuilt connectors, templates, and visual designers offered by the Azure Integration Services platform. This reduced coding and debugging time for custom integrations and enabled the creation of reusable integration components. The resulting efficiency in delivering robust data integration solutions translates to approximately $2.4 million in value for the organization over a three-year period.
Azure Integration Services also brings significant efficiencies to application integration design, architecture, and management tasks. By simplifying deployment and providing managed scalability, infrastructure management, and automated scaling, the TEI study found a 50% increase in productivity by the third year. The DevOps team members, who spend 25 percent of their time on related tasks, benefit from the platform's centralized monitoring capabilities. They can reduce troubleshooting time and are able to easily scale applications without reconfiguration. The total benefit to the composite organization over three years was $869,000.
“Previously, manual deployments took around a week to complete,” said an assistant vice president of engineering at a financial services firm interviewed for the study. “We had to write release documents and coordinate with the infrastructure team to execute each step manually. With our current solution, we simply click a button, and everything is done within seconds.”
Azure Integration Services helped the composite organization experience cost reduction due to fewer application support requests. Integrated environments lead to fewer data entry errors, resulting in fewer support tickets. Azure Integration Services simplifies the process by eliminating complexities, enhancing standardization, and providing error-handling mechanisms. Data administrators can quickly identify and resolve data entry errors, which reduces manual efforts and eliminates downstream issues. These benefits are valued at $654,000 for the organization over three years.
In addition to cost savings, enabling citizen developers also resulted in cost avoidance for the composite organization. Integration developers created reusable components, simplifying the integration process for citizen developers who used low-code/no-code platforms like Microsoft Power Platform. With Azure Integration Services' capabilities and prebuilt connectors, citizen developers could easily connect applications and systems without the need for extensive coding. This collaboration led to rapid development and deployment, driving efficiencies of $475,000 over three years.
Unlock productivity with business process automation
Azure Integration Services provides a robust framework for automating business processes. With over 800 out-of-the box connectors to both Microsoft and third-party services, both in the cloud or on-premises, the platform seamlessly enables workflow automation, allowing organizations to unlock productivity gains, reduce manual intervention, and optimize operations for maximum efficiency.
“Users no longer need to manually input data into various systems because the processes deployed with Azure Integration Suite capture and process the information automatically,” said the AVP of the financial services firm. “This automation has not only improved efficiency but also delivered an ROI for our company.”
The TEI study’s composite organization achieved end-user efficiency through automated data entry and validation. Integration requests are evaluated based on their potential to save time and enhance end-user productivity. By implementing these integrations, employees can concentrate on more meaningful and productive tasks rather than manual data entry. The resulting reduction in manual tasks and streamlined data entry processes creates efficiencies valued at $3.5 million over a three-year period.
Supercharge growth with real-time actionable insights
Similarly, the composite organization experienced incremental revenue growth by leveraging data insights and driving innovation at a faster pace. The IT group focuses on introducing new systems, improving integration processes, and enhancing error monitoring to ensure data integrity and reliability. By providing consistent, accurate, and trustworthy data, the organization enables informed decision-making and can prioritize revenue-generating innovation initiatives. These efforts result in a value of $3.2 million for the organization over a three-year period.
“The integration has established a single source of truth for data across different systems,” said the head of global IT for a manufacturing firm interviewed for the study. “Having a centralized and reliable data source ensures consistency across the organization and enhances decision-making.”
Additional benefits
Not all benefits can be quantified, yet that does not mean they are less important. Customers interviewed in the study shared anecdotal benefits that were not quantified because it was not feasible to measure, or get the data.
For example, customers reported that seamless integration of multiple systems using Azure Integration Services enabled knowledge sharing and set the foundation for advanced analytics. Organizations also mentioned implementing robust security measures, including RBAC and permissions, resulting in resilience against hacking incidents, strict access controls, compliance, and protection of environments, while Azure's secure infrastructure mitigates risks.
In addition, Azure Integration Services integration eliminated data silos and improved data accessibility, ensuring improved data quality, consistency, and a unified view across systems for global teams.
Finally, the study reported that scaling up the number of instances and service tiers in Azure Integration Services was straightforward, and upgrading to a production-grade environment can be done with a click of a button, and that Azure API Management and Azure Logic Apps streamline new hire onboarding by facilitating discovery, access setup, security, and integration, resulting in faster integration and reduced onboarding time compared to previous on-premises systems.
Get started with Azure Integration Services today!
Microsoft Azure Integration Services provides a comprehensive toolset for secure and seamless cloud application integration. The platform enhances developer efficiency, boosting productivity and accelerating time to market. Be sure to download the full Forrester study here and contact your Microsoft account team to learn more about how to get started with Azure Integration Services today. To learn more about Azure Integration Services, visit our website.
Continue reading...