下一代SaaS產(chǎn)品的未來——集成與生態(tài)

原作者：Clement Vouillon

編譯：T客匯 李哲

核心提示：日志系統(tǒng)（SOR）的變革對第三方應(yīng)用市場產(chǎn)生了哪些影響？

關(guān)于本系列文章

在 B2B 軟件系統(tǒng)中，日志系統(tǒng)（SOR）一直有著舉足輕重的地位，當(dāng)前 B2B 軟件環(huán)境變遷迅速，因此我們希望用一系列文章對其進(jìn)行具體分析。這個系列將包含三部分：

• 第一篇文章的重點是探索 SOR 的定義和變革的原因，并分析其在當(dāng)前環(huán)境下面臨的挑戰(zhàn)。
• 第二篇文章將關(guān)注這些變化對 SaaS 初創(chuàng)公司的影響。
• 最后一篇文章將對未來幾年的發(fā)展進(jìn)行探索。

第三次浪潮的贏家

前一篇文章介紹了兩大宏觀趨勢——日志系統(tǒng)（SOR）的大眾化和類型化，它們塑造著B2B軟件市場的圖景。結(jié)果是，越來越多專門化的SOR服務(wù)于越來越多的客戶（特別是中小企業(yè)）。

如同大多數(shù)的科技革命，這第三次浪潮也要經(jīng)過一定的過程：從浪潮的先驅(qū)，經(jīng)過市場教育、贏家的出現(xiàn)，一直到最后被社會廣泛的接受。

對于SOR來說，第一次浪潮是水平化的本地部署的ERP系統(tǒng)，微軟、SAP、Oracle Sage等是這次浪潮的贏家。第二次浪潮是SaaS的SOR，SalesForce、Workdays、New Relic等是這次浪潮的贏家。如今，我們可能正處在第三次浪潮——細(xì)分化SOR的中間階段，本次浪潮的一些贏家（Slack、Segment、Gusto、Docusign、GitHub、Intercom等等）也已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)。當(dāng)前的軟件行業(yè)圖景越來越像一個相互連接的平臺和第三方應(yīng)用的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)網(wǎng)絡(luò)。

而且，它對下文我們要分析的工作流應(yīng)用產(chǎn)生了巨大影響。

對工作流應(yīng)用的影響有哪些？

在此提醒：“我們可以簡單地將軟件世界劃分為日志系統(tǒng)（SOR）和工作流應(yīng)用（Workflow Application, WA）。日志系統(tǒng)是特定部門或公司的單一可信來源。如，CRM 系統(tǒng)是公司銷售信息的權(quán)威來源，ERP 系統(tǒng)則是公司財務(wù)信息的權(quán)威來源。日志系統(tǒng)的價值在于其為公司管理團(tuán)隊生成報告和提供洞察力的能力，而工作流應(yīng)用能夠使員工更好的開展工作?！薄獊碜约t點創(chuàng)投Tomasz Tunguz。

隨著軟件平臺的不斷增加，工作流應(yīng)用如何更好地適應(yīng)這一環(huán)境也就變得越來越重要。

文章的剩余部分將圍繞創(chuàng)始人需要回答的以下三個實際問題展開：

• 我的應(yīng)用為什么要與SOR集成？
• 應(yīng)該怎樣構(gòu)建集成？
• 它能否成為一個獲客渠道？

一、為什么要與SOR集成？

我們需要分清兩種類型的工作流應(yīng)用：

• 作為SOR的延伸和擴(kuò)展的工作流應(yīng)用
• 獨立的工作流應(yīng)用（它們可以不依附任何SOR而存在）

作為SOR的延伸和擴(kuò)展

隨著越來越多的SOR向平臺過渡，在這些平臺上建立起來的SaaS產(chǎn)品的數(shù)量也在不斷增加，它們提供額外的功能或者特定功能的增強(qiáng)服務(wù)。這些產(chǎn)品天生需要與一個或多個SOR集成。

ChartMogul就是這類軟件的典型代表。ChartMogul是一家為基于訂閱模式的企業(yè)提供服務(wù)的SaaS公司，需要與企業(yè)客戶的支付系統(tǒng)(Stripe, Braintree, Chargify, Paypal等)相連接，以分析它們的賬單數(shù)據(jù)，幫助它們更好地了解業(yè)務(wù)。ChartMogul基本上就是在這些支付SOR上，建立起了一個額外層。

與SOR深度集成的第二種類型的產(chǎn)品屬于垂直化的擴(kuò)展。

當(dāng)一個SOR的體量足夠巨大的時候，它實際上就成為了它這個軟件類別的平臺。比如說SalesForce，以SalesForce的體量，它已經(jīng)不再需要為五花八門的利基市場（niches）和行業(yè)開發(fā)特定版本的產(chǎn)品。

相反，它們會讓第三方應(yīng)用做這個工作。例如，Veeva就是一家完全在SalesForce上建立起來的，做制藥和生命科學(xué)行業(yè)的CRM起步的十億美元級別的公司。

對現(xiàn)成的SOR進(jìn)行垂直化拓展，是一種切實可行的商業(yè)戰(zhàn)略。

獨立的工作流應(yīng)用

對于獨立的工作流應(yīng)用，情況就有些復(fù)雜了。當(dāng)出現(xiàn)以下幾種常見情況時，可以與SOR進(jìn)行集成：

• 你的大多數(shù)客戶都在應(yīng)用某個SOR，而你的競爭對手大多數(shù)也已經(jīng)和它進(jìn)行了集成。

在這種情況下，你應(yīng)該果斷地與這個SOR進(jìn)行集成。例如說，你為企業(yè)部門開發(fā)了銷售軟件，那么很可能你需要盡快與SalesForce進(jìn)行集成。

• 你的工作流應(yīng)用需要原始數(shù)據(jù)才能正常運行。

許多工作流應(yīng)用需要原始數(shù)據(jù)才能正常運行。這種情況下，一種有效的策略是直接從現(xiàn)有的SOR上獲取數(shù)據(jù)。

例如，如果你開發(fā)了一款案源計分（?lead scoring）產(chǎn)品，那么你應(yīng)該和Segment集成以獲取客戶的現(xiàn)存數(shù)據(jù)，而不是讓你的客戶手動導(dǎo)入數(shù)據(jù)，或者等待你的產(chǎn)品累積足夠多的數(shù)據(jù)。

• 你的工作流應(yīng)用產(chǎn)生的額外數(shù)據(jù)可以添加到現(xiàn)有的業(yè)務(wù)記錄上。

這可能是工作流應(yīng)用和SOR之間最常見的連接方法：數(shù)據(jù)同步。

如果你的工作流應(yīng)用可以產(chǎn)生新數(shù)據(jù)或者修改現(xiàn)存的業(yè)務(wù)記錄，那么你應(yīng)該進(jìn)行數(shù)據(jù)的自動同步。你或許可以通過第三方API平臺（比如Zapier））這一非常簡便的方式實現(xiàn)這一目的。

二、應(yīng)該怎樣構(gòu)建集成？

我和那些已經(jīng)創(chuàng)建集成的創(chuàng)始人們經(jīng)常討論到的話題是，他們之前都低估了創(chuàng)建和維護(hù)集成所需要付出的資源。

需要考慮的第一個方面就是平臺的API成熟度。一些平臺如SalesForce，擁有非常成熟的開發(fā)人員支持系統(tǒng)。如果你的產(chǎn)品想要在SalesForce AppExchange上出現(xiàn)，需要花費幾千美元進(jìn)行應(yīng)用審計（安全性和可用性）。規(guī)模小一些的SOR沒有如此高級別的管控。

所以我經(jīng)常聽到的一個建議是花一些時間做盡職調(diào)查（也就是詢問其他的開發(fā)人員），以便于了解SOR的API質(zhì)量、文件材料的質(zhì)量、使用條款、以及提供的支持的質(zhì)量（許多平臺并不為它們的第三方應(yīng)用提供真正的支持）。

需要考慮的第二個方面就是如何構(gòu)建集成，有以下三個選擇：

• 在內(nèi)部構(gòu)建集成
• 交給IT咨詢公司/平臺合作伙伴構(gòu)建集成
• 選用一個中間層的API平臺

如果你的集成對于產(chǎn)品至關(guān)重要，或與SOR的集成程度很深，那么在內(nèi)部構(gòu)建集成絕對是你的最優(yōu)選擇。但是，一定要做好投入大量開發(fā)時間的準(zhǔn)備。

將你的集成工作外包出去也是一種選擇。一些IT公司專門從事這些工作，甚至一些平臺如SalesForce有對開發(fā)合作伙伴的認(rèn)證。這些公司的優(yōu)勢是它們的知識以及與各種平臺的關(guān)系，但價格會很比較昂貴。所以相對于初創(chuàng)公司，這種方法更適用于大型企業(yè)。

最后，一種折衷的方法是選擇一些提供API連接器的公司如Zapier、elastic.io 等等。作為你的產(chǎn)品和主要SOR平臺之間的中間層，這些產(chǎn)品可以滿足基本的使用情況。

三、如何成為一個獲客渠道

和SOR集成不僅僅是為了提高現(xiàn)有客戶的滿意度，還是為了獲取新客戶。在某些情況下，這些平臺可以成為獲客渠道。

當(dāng)我詢問SaaS公司創(chuàng)始人，這些平臺是否為他們帶來新客戶的時候，絕大多數(shù)人的回答是肯定的。成為獲客渠道的方式有以下幾種：

• 平臺應(yīng)用市場

以上許多SOR都會為它們的客戶提供一些第三方應(yīng)用目錄：SalesForce AppExchange,?Xero add-ons marketplace,?Intuit marketplace,?Workday marketplace,?Zuora appstore,Gusto appstore,?Slack app directory,?GitHub app directory,?Zendesk app marketplace,?Hubspot marketplace,?Marketo marketplace,?Docusign appstore,?Segment catalog,?Stripe listing等等。

這些應(yīng)用目錄的等級也是多種多樣。一些成熟的應(yīng)用市場如SalesForce可以顯示用戶評論和用戶使用情況，另外一些應(yīng)用商店如Xero很簡單但很實用，甚至還有一些如Stripe只提供最基本的應(yīng)用列表。

當(dāng)然，一個成熟的應(yīng)用市場更容易帶來新客戶。但也有一些創(chuàng)始人告訴我，一些小規(guī)模的應(yīng)用市場如Zapier或Segment.com也為他們帶來了數(shù)量可觀的新客戶。

• SOR的客戶成功團(tuán)隊

如果你的產(chǎn)品可以帶來真正的附加價值，而且你與SOR平臺保持著良好的合作關(guān)系，那么平臺的客戶成功和支持團(tuán)隊可能會將你的應(yīng)用推薦給它們的客戶。

• 內(nèi)容營銷

上述的一些平臺也會通過寫博客文章、客戶認(rèn)證以及發(fā)送營銷簡訊來推廣第三方應(yīng)用，這些也會為你帶來新的客戶線索。

• 軟件中間商

有一些創(chuàng)始人反應(yīng)，軟件中間商會搜索上述應(yīng)用市場，有時會聯(lián)系他們幫助分銷產(chǎn)品。

你可能會問，以上這些獲客渠道究竟可以產(chǎn)生多大的價值？答案可能會令你失望，因為我也不能夠提供確切的數(shù)字。但是通過與創(chuàng)始人的談話，我收獲到了以下內(nèi)容：

• 顯然，一些公司在SalesForce APPExchange上做得很好，產(chǎn)生了數(shù)十萬美元的價值。而在其他應(yīng)用市場上產(chǎn)生的價值相對較小。
• 對于我采訪到的大多數(shù)創(chuàng)始人來說，應(yīng)用市場只是額外的而不是主要的獲客渠道。
• 大多數(shù)創(chuàng)始人收獲的月經(jīng)常性收益（MRR）在幾千到幾萬美元之間。

英文原文：

The emergence of the third generation winners

In?the previous post?we saw that two macro trends?—?the democratization and unbundling of system of records?—?were shaping the B2B software landscape. The consequence is an increasing number of specialized SOR?for an increasing number of customers (especially SMBs and SMEs).

Like most tech evolutions this third wave goes through the cycle: precurSOR, market education, emergence of winners and widespread adoption.

For SOR?the first wave was about horizontal on-premise ERPs with Microsoft, SAP, Oracle Sage… being the winners, the second wave was about the first SaaS SOR?with SalesForce, Workdays, New Relic… being the winners and we’re maybe in the middle of the third wave, specialized SOR, with the emergence of the first winners (Slack, Segment, Gusto, Docusign, Github, Intercom…) of this generation.

The current software landscape increasingly looks like a network of interconnected platforms and third party app ecosystems:

And it has major implications for workflow apps which we’ll analyse in the rest of the post.

What are the consequences for workflow applications?

As reminder:

“A simple way of dividing the software world is?system of record vs workflow application. Systems of record are the single source of truth about a particular department or company. Systems of record are valued for their ability to generate reports and insight to the company’s management team […]?On the other hand, workflow applications enable workers to do work.“ From?Tomasz Tunguz.

Since more and more software platforms are emerging, it becomes increasingly important for workflow applications to adapt well to this environment.

To discuss the many consequences that this changing landscape involves, the rest of the post is structured around three practical questions that a founder could ask himself today:

• Why should I connect my application to a SOR?
• How should I build the integration??
• Can it become a customer acquisition channel?
• Why should I connect my SaaS to a?SOR?

We need to distinguish two types of workflow applications:

• Workflow applications which are SORadd-ons / extensions.
• Workflow applications which are stand-alone apps (they can exist without any SOR).

SOR?add-ons and extensions

As more SOR?are transitioning to platforms there’s also an increasing number of SaaS products that are built on top of them and which approach is to offer extra features / specific enhancements. These products inherently need to be connected to one or more SOR.

ChartMogul?is a great example of such software. ChartMogul is a SaaS, for subscription based companies, that connects to their payment system (Stripe, Braintree, Chargify, Paypal etc…) to analyze their billing data and help them understand their business better. They basically built an extra layer on top of these payment SOR.

The second type of products which is tightly linked to SOR?are “vertical” add-ons.

Once a SOR grows big enough it can become the de facto platform of its software category. Ex: SalesForce. At this scale the SOR operator doesn’t bother building specific versions of its product for the myriad of niches and industries that might need it.

Instead they let third party apps do that job. For instance?Veeva?is a Billion dollar company that started as a CRM for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry purely built on top of SalesForce.

“Verticalizing” an existing SOR is a real viable business strategy.

Stand-alone workflow applications

In the case of stand-alone workflow applications the answer to the question is a bit more nuanced. Here are some common situations for which it makes sense to integrate with a SOR.

The majority of your customers is working with a SOR and the majority of your competitors is already integrated with it.

Then you should definitely offer an integration too. For example if you develop a sales software for the enterprise segment chances are high that you need to offer a SalesForce integration ASAP.

Your workflow application needs initial data in order to work properly.

Many workflow applications need initial data before they can work properly. A good strategy to avoid the “empty product” effect is to fetch that data directly on existing SOR.

For example if you develop a lead scoring product, instead of asking your users to import data manually or to wait that your product fetches itself enough information, you can create an integration with?Segment?that will access the customer’s existing data.

Your workflow app creates additional data that can be added to existing business records.

This is probably the most common connection that exists between workflow applications and SOR: data synchronisation.

If your workflow application generates new data or modifies existing business records then it makes sense to offer automatic data sync. And if it’s not critical you can probably do it through a third party API platform (Zapier…) which are very convenient for this purpose.

How should I build the integration??

A common theme that comes back when I discuss with founders who have built such integrations is how they underestimated the resources required to build and maintain one.

A first aspect to take into consideration is the platform’s API maturity. Some platforms like SalesForce are extremely mature with real developer support. For instance to appear on SalesForce?AppExchange?you need to pay a fee of several thousands dollars and to go through an app audit (security and usability) before you are accepted. Smaller SOR?don’t have this level of control.

As a consequence a common advice that I hear is to spend some time doing due diligence (a.k.a ask other developers) to learn more about the quality of the SOR’s API, the quality of the documentation, the terms of use and also the quality of the support offered (many platforms don’t offer real support to their third party apps).

The second important aspect to take into consideration is how you choose to build your integration. Three options are offered to you:

• Build the integration in house.
• Entrust your integration to an IT consulting firm / platform partner that will build it for you.
• Use an intermediary API platform.

The in-house option is definitely the way to go if your integration is critical to your product or goes deep into the SOR. But be ready to allocate plenty of developers’ time to it.

Outsourcing the development of your integration is also possible. Some IT firms are specialised in it and some platforms, like SalesForce, even havecertifications for development partners?. The advantage of these firms is the knowledge and the relations they have with the platforms but they are costly and better suited at big companies than young startups.

Finally, a good compromise between the two options mentioned above is to use API connectors like?Zapier,?elastic.io?etc… These products act as intermediaries between you and major SOR?and are very interesting for basic use cases.

How can it be a customer acquisition channel?

One of the major reason to integrate with a SOR is not only to please existing users but also to acquire new ones. In some cases these platforms can be interesting acquisition channels.

When I ask SaaS founders whether these platforms bring them new customers the vast majority answers yes, mainly through:

Platform Marketplaces

Many of the SOR?listed above provide a catalog of third party apps available for their customers:?SalesForce AppExchange,?Xero add-ons marketplace,?Intuit marketplace,?Workday marketplace,?Zuora appstore,Gusto appstore,?Slack app directory,?GitHub app directory,?Zendesk app marketplace,?Hubspot marketplace,?Marketo marketplace,?Docusign appstore,?Segment catalog,?Stripe listing?etc…

All of them are not equal, far from, and it ranges from sophisticated marketplaces powered by algorithm fueled with user reviews and usage (SalesForce) to simpler but real appstores (Xero) or even minimalist bullet point listings (Stripe).

Obviously the more mature and sophisticated an add-ons marketplace is, the more it has the potential to bring new customers. The best one, by far, is SalesForce which is known as a very valuable distribution channel if you manage to rank high (and that’s not easy).

But some founders told me that they managed to get a decent amount of new customers through smaller marketplaces such as Zapier or segment.com.

SOR?Customer Success Team

If your product brings real added value and if you manage to build a good relationship with the platform, it’s possible that the customer success or support team suggests your app to their customers.

Content Marketing

Some of the platforms cited above also write blog posts, customer testimonials and send marketing newsletters that promotes third party apps, which can bring new leads.

Software resellers

Another interesting aspect that I discovered while speaking to founders of third party apps is that software resellers are scouting these marketplaces and sometimes contact them to distribute their product (and obviously ask for a fee, based on performance, classic affiliation).

Now you’re probably asking yourself how much $ these channels can generate. Well I’ll probably disappoint you because I cannot provide clear numbers but while discussing from founders I could learn that:

• Clearly some companies are doing really well on SalesForce AppExchange and you can do hundreds of thousands of dollars there. The other software platforms are all smaller than this one.
• For the majority of founders I’ve interviewed the marketplaces were nice additional customer acquisition channels and not their main one.
• The majority told me than they could generate from a couple of thousands to several tens of thousands $ of MRR.

生成海報

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