In today's interconnected world, businesses face the challenge of integrating disparate applications, data, and devices to achieve seamless operations. MuleSoft emerges as a powerful solution, empowering organizations to connect anything, anywhere. Learn what MuleSoft is, what it does, and how it creates connected experiences.

Introduction

In today's modern business, information and technology is power.

As businesses expand, the data they generate and process also grows exponentially. Without data, companies will not be able to make important decisions that impact their future.

But to gather, store and process the massive volume of data, the traditional methods cannot keep up and that is why more and more organizations are pushing for digital transformation. Digital transformation is no longer seen as an option, but a necessity. Customers expect fast, digital, and on-demand experiences, or they will take their business elsewhere.

Simultaneously, modern businesses have to rely heavily on IT teams. They keep things running smoothly, protect the organization's data, and push the business forward with new technologies.

As crucial as they are, IT teams are often overwhelmed with routine requests and new ideas thus it can be hard for them to get everything done. According to the 2022 Connectivity Benchmark report, only 44% of IT teams completed all the projects asked of them last year - 52% of which were delivered late. This slows down the entire business. Furthermore, with budgets growing tighter and worker skills becoming scarcer, these challenges only get harder to overcome.

Most businesses now have to balance reducing the delivery gap and advancing in the digital transformation process. To solve this huge challenge, it is essential to understand how integration drives digital transformation. Enters MuleSoft.

What is MuleSoft?

MuleSoft is one of the most widely utilized integration platforms that help varying businesses connect their data, devices, and applications in both cloud computing environments and on-premises. Moreover, with MuleSoft, organizations will have the tools to automate workflows and processes and create incredible digital experiences - all on a single, easy-to-use platform.

Founded in 2006 by Ross Mason, MuleSoft was acquired by Salesforce in 2018 and now uses MuleSoft technology as part of its Salesforce Integration Cloud. MuleSoft has over 1,200 customers worldwide in almost every industry.

Forrester Research found that MuleSoft customers experienced a return on investment (ROI) of 445% within just three years and were able to free up 90% of developer time from maintaining APIs and integrations.

Some people might have been wondering, why a mule? The name MuleSoft derives from the drudgery or "donkey work" involved in data integration that the platform was created to escape (before MuleSoft, integration was done mostly by hand-coded APIs and numerous systems are connected through point-to-point connection). Additionally, since a mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse, the company wanted to show that their software can deliver the strength of a donkey to haul the heavy workload and the speed of a racehorse to get things done quickly. As a result, we have MuleSoft.

What does MuleSoft do?

MuleSoft helps IT teams with three things: unlocking systems and data with integration, automating everything to increase productivity and efficiency, and creating connected digital experiences. With a composable approach where every digital asset of the organization is a reusable product, teams can now deliver projects much faster.

How MuleSoft integrates technology and data.

How does MuleSoft integrate technology and data?

Undoubtedly, data is one of the most valuable assets of any company. Without it, business leaders have to make educated guesses instead of informed decisions, marketers would simply shout into the void, and sales teams would have no idea who to call. That's why every team needs access to the right data to do their job well.

An average company has 976 individual applications holding its data, and it poses difficulties to ensure that everyone has the most up-to-date information across these systems. Integration solves this by connecting all the applications across the enterprise so people can access the exact data they need.

MuleSoft integrates with ease by combining composable APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), cloud-based integration principles (also known as iPaaS - integration platform as a service), and robotic process automation (RPA). With this combination, MuleSoft customers can integrate any system and unlock any data set.

MuleSoft's automating capability.

The demand for automation is on the rise across the entire business and it is usually the IT teams who will be in charge. But with limited manpower and budgets, it's hard for them to carry out the tasks.

MuleSoft provides the Anypoint Platform - a unified solution where reusable automation, components, workflows, and integrations are built securely and efficiently. This platform helps us to adapt quickly to constant change and business complexity. Plus, now with the no-code capabilities, automating repetitive manual tasks becomes even easier which can connect data from any system.

How does MuleSoft create connected experiences?

Customers expect a connected experience. They don't want to see the seams where your systems and departments meet.

To thrive in a competitive industry and meet customer expectations, companies need to provide an integrated and seamless experience for their customers by leveraging the latest technologies. APIs will be the key that enables businesses to achieve this by unlocking data so it can flow smoothly between channels.

MuleSoft provides many predefined APIs for all types of applications and systems. By pre-adding the API to the legacy system, customers can immediately have a modern way of interacting with the system without the need to know how it works.

Moreover, with MuleSoft, every integration, automation, or workflow that is already created can be bundled into digital experiences. Whether it's a new mobile shopping application, an interactive e-commerce platform, or a customer data portal for employees, these can be built quickly with assets that are already created and functioning from past projects.

MuleSoft case study

Lotus's - a popular retail brand that has more than 2,500 outlets in Thailand and Malaysia - aimed to double its sales in 2 years by improving customer loyalty and adopting an omnichannel strategy.

Because of its rapid growth, the company has accumulated multiple disparate systems and data sources across new acquisitions, partners, and supply chain operators. Without a proper integration solution, it is difficult for Lotus's to take control of their necessary data and gain visibility into its business.

Furthermore, their existing IT infrastructure and point-to-point customer code integration proved to be outdated, costly and labor-intensive 0.which tied their hands to connecting existing systems, adding new systems and accessing data. As a result, Lotus's needed a more flexible systems integration solution to connect front and back-end systems at an accelerated pace to support its sales goals and business growth.

Lotus's decided to adopt MuleSoft and Salesforce to solve this challenge. They chose Salesforce Customer 360, deploying Marketing Cloud, Service Cloud and MuleSoft Anypoint Platform.

Leveraging the Anypoint Platform, Lotus's was able to integrate more than 370 systems across its entire business and partners 70% faster than it would have used customer integration, enabling the launch of its e-commerce platform in just 18 months rather than 5 years.

Data flows across the business, from in-store and online sales to warehouse management, order fulfilment, and other core functions. This digital transformation allowed Lotus's access to reliable, near-real-time information about what items are in stock and at which location, improving availability and delivery performance.

The company was also able to quickly combine its ecommerce and loyalty platforms and launch a new customer mobile app. Even with 12 integration layers, they launched the app in just 3 months by reusing APIs. Lotus's even extended its integration to partnering third-party systems, such as Lazada, Shopee, HappyFresh, and Foodpanda, to cater to their customers' preferred online platforms.

Integration of order management, inventory, and website systems resulted in 98% inventory accuracy across more than 2000 Lotus's stores for 250k active SKUs per store and its warehouses. This provided accurate and on-time order fulfilment, improving customer experience.

A significant contributor to the program's success was the ability to reuse 70% of its APIs, which helped Lotus's save considerable development time and costs, accelerating its speed to market. On average, project delivery times were improved by 30% for integration projects, enabling the IT to do more with fewer resources, and enhance collaboration between key functions such as DevOps, testing, and security.

Conclusions

Today, it is more crucial than ever to access and leverage data to drive true digital transformation in business. MuleSoft provides almost all the necessary tools to achieve this ultimate objective. It is not only easy to implement but also delivers fast. With a huge library of predefined/reusable APIs and the capability to automate every operation, delivery time is greatly reduced. Additionally, companies can easily integrate all of their data across their entire enterprise with ease and acquire a deep insight into their business. Last but not least, with MuleSoft, customers of businesses can have a seamless experience and easily gain access to their services and products. MuleSoft can and will be a powerful tool to help drive businesses to success if they know how to use it.