Have you ever wondered how automation and integration can transform your business, making it more efficient and scalable? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I sit down with Gert-Jan Wijman from Celigo to explore the revolutionary impact of process automation on businesses across various sectors.
Celigo's integration platform is at the forefront of enabling automated, scalable business processes by seamlessly connecting data across different systems. Gert-Jan explains how this eliminates human intervention in routine business tasks, allowing data to flow smoothly between systems, removing bottlenecks, and ultimately making business processes more scalable.
We delve into the critical role of proper platform and integration approaches in harnessing the potential of underused business technologists. By lessening the burden on IT departments while still providing them with the necessary oversight, Celigo's platform empowers "citizen integrators" – non-IT employees with technical skills – to contribute significantly to automation initiatives. This approach not only accelerates implementation but also brings valuable business context to the table.
Gert-Jan shares how automation is particularly beneficial for businesses operating across multiple countries and regions. By ensuring efficient connectivity between systems and intelligently handling errors and changes, Celigo's platform supports agile processes that can adapt to different market demands and regulatory environments.
We also discuss the impact of AI on integration and vice versa. Celigo leverages AI for error handling, using pattern recognition to resolve issues automatically, thereby making business process management more efficient. This integration of AI not only enhances the automation process but also ensures more reliable and consistent operations.
A significant focus of our conversation is the e-commerce and retail sector, where automation plays a crucial role in providing consistent omnichannel customer experiences. Gert-Jan highlights how automation frees employees from repetitive tasks, improving their overall experience and enabling them to focus on more strategic activities. For customers, this means seamless interactions across various channels, which is essential for a positive shopping experience.
Gert-Jan provides compelling examples of how brand aggregators on platforms like Amazon use Celigo's solutions to integrate acquired brands rapidly, leveraging economies of scale. This capability also extends to expanding brands into new geographical markets quickly and efficiently.
As we look ahead, Gert-Jan shares insights into emerging trends, particularly the convergence of integration, automation, robotic process automation (RPA), business process management (BPM), and API management for the mid-market. He emphasizes that companies increasingly seek integrated automation platforms rather than separate tools, and Celigo's roadmap reflects this trend by evolving into a broader automation platform.
Join us in this insightful episode as we explore how Celigo is redefining the landscape of business automation and integration. How can automation transform your business operations? Listen in to find out, and don't forget to share your thoughts on this exciting topic!
[00:00:01] Are businesses truly leveraging technology to streamline their operations and enhance scalability?
[00:00:09] Well, today on Tech Talks Daily, my guest today is from a company called Soligo,
[00:00:15] a company at the forefront of redefining how businesses integrate and automate their processes.
[00:00:21] And in this episode we'll discover how their approach is not only improving efficiency,
[00:00:26] but also empowering citizen integrators to take a more active role in organisations technological advancements.
[00:00:35] From enhancing global operations to tailoring solutions for e-commerce and retail sectors,
[00:00:41] we're going to attempt to uncover how integration platforms can transform business landscapes.
[00:00:47] But enough scene setting for me, buckle up and hold on tight as I beam your ears all the way to Amsterdam,
[00:00:53] where today's guest is waiting to join me.
[00:00:58] So a massive warm welcome to the show. Can you tell everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do?
[00:01:06] Yes, first things Neil, before having me, my name is Gert-Jan Wijnman.
[00:01:11] I'm vice president and general manager for the EMEA region at Soligo.
[00:01:17] And I have a 30 years career in enterprise software, working with different product categories from PLM e-learning,
[00:01:27] asset information management, enterprise architecture and now in integration and automation.
[00:01:33] Well, automation is a huge topic right now.
[00:01:37] And that's one of the reasons I invited you on, I wanted to demystify a few things around that.
[00:01:41] And I am conscious there will be a few people listening, hearing about Soligo for the first time.
[00:01:46] Just to set the scene for the conversation, can you tell me a little bit more about Soligo's approach to automation?
[00:01:52] How it enhances both efficiency and scalability for businesses?
[00:01:56] Because I think very often people can get lost in the technology or the solution.
[00:02:00] But it's that delivery, isn't it, of efficiency and scalability, etc. That's where the magic happens.
[00:02:05] Yes, you're right. And there are also many different approaches to automation, of course.
[00:02:11] And there's different ways of maybe achieving a certain outcome.
[00:02:14] So Soligo's approach is that what we do is that we allow companies to run an integrated business process over different applications.
[00:02:25] So key business processes like, for example, order to cash are being executed with different underlying applications,
[00:02:34] being an ERP or an online store, a warehouse systems or a third party logistics system.
[00:02:41] And if these systems are not connected and the data do not flow from one system to the other,
[00:02:48] then it will require human intervention to have that process run end-to-end.
[00:02:54] And what we do is that we eliminate that human intervention, allow the data to flow from one system to the other.
[00:03:02] And in this way, we remove the human bottleneck and make the business process scalable.
[00:03:08] Now, that is how the scalability is achieved.
[00:03:12] When it comes to the efficiency, there are different ways of making these connections.
[00:03:17] Obviously, we provide for that platform, which we call an IPaaS.
[00:03:22] You can see it as what used to be called middleware prior to the age of the cloud.
[00:03:28] And that IPaaS allows to build, maintain and operate these underlying integrations
[00:03:35] to allow or to support the automated business process to be done in a much more efficient way.
[00:03:43] And especially that operation on our side is important because business processes do have errors that occur
[00:03:51] and maintaining them is also a massive challenge because business processes change over time
[00:03:57] and company changes, etc.
[00:03:59] And so having a platform where you can do that efficiently is really important to be agile.
[00:04:06] It really is.
[00:04:08] And every IT department I've ever been a part of or encountered are always super tight on resources
[00:04:14] and do so much with a short or a smallish team.
[00:04:18] And one of the things that stood out for me as well about when I was researching you at Soligo
[00:04:22] was how you're helping organizations tap into some of that underused tech talent
[00:04:28] and mitigate the strain on their IT departments through automation.
[00:04:32] Is that something you can expand on too and how you do that?
[00:04:35] Yeah, so this is indeed a topic that a lot of industry analysts also write about these days.
[00:04:41] And so there's a lot of tech talent in companies today
[00:04:45] that is not necessarily part of the traditional IT departments.
[00:04:48] I think here also of the younger generations, they do not only have that talent
[00:04:54] but they also have a different experience should be working and interacting with systems.
[00:05:00] And they are maybe also sometimes a little bit more autonomous in that regard.
[00:05:04] So that talent is there and that's a huge opportunity for those IT leaders
[00:05:10] that see that as a way to build leverage, to deliver solutions for the company
[00:05:16] and to push the company forward in a wider digital transformation initiatives.
[00:05:23] Now, that is of course the theory.
[00:05:27] It can only happen when these citizen integrators,
[00:05:31] as we call that tech talent in the business,
[00:05:34] as they have the opportunity through a relatively, let's say, easy to use platform
[00:05:40] that is catered to their specific role,
[00:05:44] that they can contribute to these automation initiatives.
[00:05:48] And that is what we provide.
[00:05:50] And in that way, they can play a crucial role,
[00:05:53] not only because of their technical skills,
[00:05:55] but also because they bring more business context
[00:05:59] and sometimes have better understanding of the desired business process
[00:06:03] than the IT people have.
[00:06:04] So in this way, it benefits, it's not only additional resource and additional talent,
[00:06:11] but it is also a different perspective that can bring better business outcomes.
[00:06:16] This is a tech podcast, which means we have both done brilliantly to go 10 minutes
[00:06:21] without mentioning AI, but it is the talk of the town at the moment.
[00:06:24] But again, I want to focus less on AI and more about the business value that AI can generate.
[00:06:30] So can you tell me a little bit more about how you see the role of AI
[00:06:34] in enhancing integration solutions and how it interacts with existing automation frameworks?
[00:06:40] Because again, that's the cool part, isn't it?
[00:06:43] It is. So actually we're doing already for a long time,
[00:06:47] we're building AI into the product.
[00:06:49] So prior that it became sort of very much front and center
[00:06:53] due to these large language models.
[00:06:54] So an area where we have focused on traditionally is on the error management side.
[00:07:01] So this is about the operational phase where the business process is being executed
[00:07:07] and errors do occur.
[00:07:10] Errors occur because of data incompatibility, errors occur, for example,
[00:07:15] because one of the application that is supporting the business process is going down.
[00:07:19] And in these situations, the view would be that the platform is so intelligent
[00:07:24] that it can auto-resolve the situation.
[00:07:27] And for that, we built in this intelligence that can track based on patterns
[00:07:33] or based on resolutions of the past,
[00:07:36] what is the best course of action to resolve a certain error?
[00:07:40] If it cannot be done automatically, then at least it should give an intelligent update
[00:07:45] to the operator and instructions what they can do in order to resolve the problem.
[00:07:51] So error management and making the management of the business processes more efficient.
[00:07:59] And of course, knowing what they need to do that in some ways,
[00:08:03] that's the easy part. But when embarking on that journey,
[00:08:06] there's a few hurdles that can crop up.
[00:08:08] So what are some of the common challenges that you've seen businesses face
[00:08:11] when implementing automation?
[00:08:14] And how are you addressing some of these hurdles?
[00:08:17] Yes. Yeah. So indeed, there are hurdles.
[00:08:21] And like everywhere in IT, projects can fail if not done in the right way.
[00:08:27] It's not only about technology.
[00:08:29] There are also cultural sides, et cetera, et cetera.
[00:08:32] So a couple of very specific things that we see.
[00:08:36] So one area is lack of business process maturity.
[00:08:41] So companies not having really explicit business processes documented
[00:08:46] or do not have the idea of what it should look like going forward.
[00:08:49] And in those situations, what can help a lot is if there are templates
[00:08:55] or even pre-built integrations that are best practices from different industries
[00:09:02] and that can be leveraged as a starting point to implement a certain business process.
[00:09:06] So for example, I mentioned earlier the order to cash process.
[00:09:10] At a higher level, it is totally uninteresting what are the underlying ERP
[00:09:16] or storefront or 3BL or et cetera.
[00:09:19] It's just as a higher aggregate, it is a similar type of process.
[00:09:24] And we can provide these recipes to our platform and we provide them
[00:09:29] for free in most cases to our clients so that they can leverage them
[00:09:34] and in that way, they have a fast track to a best practice business process
[00:09:43] that otherwise they would have to invent themselves.
[00:09:47] And that would take a lot of time and can be also pretty painful.
[00:09:51] Now, another area is if a company has a sort of structure
[00:09:57] where all automation and integration is delegated to IT,
[00:10:00] so different than what we talked about before and the business is just
[00:10:05] the customer waiting for certain outcomes to be delivered to them or solutions,
[00:10:10] then there is typically a very large and in these situations,
[00:10:15] the prior approach that we talked about, so levering the business
[00:10:18] and using a platform that can also be used by the business
[00:10:22] can be a way to reduce that backlog or to even let that disappear.
[00:10:27] There's an old saying, I think it was an IBM leader nearly 10 years ago
[00:10:32] and she said that the last best experience we have anywhere
[00:10:35] becomes a standard expectation for every future experience we want everywhere.
[00:10:40] So how does integrating different business applications,
[00:10:43] how does that influence the overall customer and employee experience
[00:10:47] within a company? Because again, huge talking point right now.
[00:10:51] Yeah. So starting with the employee experience,
[00:10:54] I think there's different ways that automation can impact them
[00:10:58] actually in a positive way. There's of course always concern about
[00:11:02] maybe job losses that are associated with it,
[00:11:05] but the way we see it is that freeing employees up
[00:11:09] by letting them do creative things instead of repetitive tasks
[00:11:14] is an enormous plus. This is something that's a win
[00:11:17] for the business as well as for the employee.
[00:11:19] And another area where we think automation can also
[00:11:24] play an important role is in the overall experience
[00:11:28] of an employee working at a certain company.
[00:11:31] And think here about having really a consistent experience
[00:11:36] working with the different business processes, regardless of
[00:11:40] where you work from in a geographic sense
[00:11:43] or whether it has remote or in an office.
[00:11:45] And that is of course also in the last couple of years
[00:11:49] with the COVID, that has been a huge topic.
[00:11:51] And for us actually a driver also for more demand
[00:11:55] for our type of solutions.
[00:11:57] And what about the customer experience side of things?
[00:12:01] What are you seeing there?
[00:12:03] Yeah. So for the customers, automation is really essential
[00:12:07] in retail for having a good experience with the seller
[00:12:11] that is fundamental for repeat orders,
[00:12:15] for loyalty and all these things.
[00:12:17] And without integration, you are really not able
[00:12:22] to provide that consistency and ease of business,
[00:12:26] ease of being to do business with.
[00:12:29] So think here of somebody doing an online purchase
[00:12:34] and instead of returning it in the, let's say,
[00:12:37] traditional way through the online store, decides,
[00:12:41] no, I want to bring it in a physical store back.
[00:12:45] If you do not have integrations, then your systems
[00:12:48] will not be able to deal with such a scenario.
[00:12:52] Another tiny example is a shopper who is looking
[00:12:56] for something on your website.
[00:12:58] And if they see there are things that are for sale,
[00:13:03] but they are not in store in the end,
[00:13:05] then that is always a big frustration.
[00:13:08] So display information of stock that is available
[00:13:12] and then prevent people from having disappointments.
[00:13:16] Another example where integration is key
[00:13:19] in order to make the experience pleasant for the shopper.
[00:13:23] And at a time where every business leader is challenged
[00:13:27] with doing more with less, every tech project now
[00:13:30] has got a huge focus on it for things like ROI,
[00:13:32] what business value is it going to generate?
[00:13:35] So just to bring to life everything we're talking about here,
[00:13:39] are you able to provide any examples of how automation
[00:13:42] has successfully benefited, let's say, the e-commerce
[00:13:45] and retail sectors, just to bring that to life a little?
[00:13:49] Yeah. So as an example, so that's always easier
[00:13:54] to use specific cases for this.
[00:13:57] We work or we have the privilege to work with a couple
[00:13:59] of companies that are being called or labeled as brand aggregators.
[00:14:04] So these are companies that, for example,
[00:14:07] drive consolidation on Amazon as a marketplace.
[00:14:11] There are also other marketplaces for which this exists.
[00:14:14] And these companies get funding in order to buy Amazon sellers
[00:14:19] and to drive economies of scale.
[00:14:22] And so what they do is they look for targets to buy
[00:14:27] and then they need to integrate these companies as fast as possible.
[00:14:32] And so in order to do that, they basically use
[00:14:38] their complete ordinal cash process that they have developed
[00:14:42] on their site and connect that to the Amazon store
[00:14:47] of the companies that they acquired.
[00:14:49] So it is a system of cloning and it allows them very quickly
[00:14:53] to consolidate these companies in their complete back-end systems.
[00:15:00] And this is, of course, for a company like this,
[00:15:04] this is not only something like an ROI or something like that.
[00:15:08] This basically enables them to justify the whole rationale
[00:15:13] behind why they exist, right?
[00:15:15] This is the execution of their business model.
[00:15:18] So it is a strategic need to be able to do this.
[00:15:21] Similarly, you can see this also, this concept is by the way
[00:15:25] also used for companies who want to expand internationally
[00:15:29] to different Amazon marketplaces.
[00:15:31] So if they buy a seller, a seller that's, for example,
[00:15:34] active only on the US marketplace, then they can also use
[00:15:38] the same principle of cloning in order to bring this brand
[00:15:42] to marketplaces globally.
[00:15:45] It's not a copy-paste exactly, but it has a lot of cloning in it
[00:15:48] that can be reused and then you have to tweak some things
[00:15:52] and then you have very quickly a larger international presence
[00:15:56] and a lot more consumers that you can interact with.
[00:16:00] And looking ahead, are there any emerging trends
[00:16:04] or technologies in automation that excite you
[00:16:07] or something that you just think will be or could significantly
[00:16:10] impact business processes in the future?
[00:16:13] Has anything got your eye on that?
[00:16:14] Yes, definitely.
[00:16:17] So it's important to understand that what we do is
[00:16:21] we focus on mid-market companies.
[00:16:25] And what we see is that different domains in what is called
[00:16:29] a larger automation space are more and more overlapping.
[00:16:34] So I think here of areas like integration and automation,
[00:16:38] but also robotic process automation, specifically
[00:16:41] business process management, API management, etc.
[00:16:46] And what we think is that going forward,
[00:16:50] especially in the mid-market, that companies will not go
[00:16:54] and buy a best-in-class product in all of these different categories,
[00:16:59] but that they rather would like to work with a platform
[00:17:03] that can support many of these functions,
[00:17:06] maybe not as deep as large enterprises need,
[00:17:08] but that help them to do a lot of different things
[00:17:12] with a single application.
[00:17:14] And this is also a little bit our roadmap.
[00:17:17] So we try to evolve ourselves, to position ourselves going forward
[00:17:22] as a wider automation platform for automation initiatives
[00:17:27] for the mid-market.
[00:17:29] I love that. And thank you so much for coming on here,
[00:17:32] sharing so many incredible insights there that I know will be
[00:17:35] very useful for business leaders listening.
[00:17:36] And I think a lot of business leaders listening,
[00:17:39] they're all feeling the same thing at the moment,
[00:17:41] where we're all trapped in this cycle of continuous learning,
[00:17:44] where every day we're having to learn something new
[00:17:46] to keep up to speed with the pace of technological change.
[00:17:49] So to throw that over to you, I've got to ask,
[00:17:52] is someone right in the heart of this space?
[00:17:54] Where or how do you self-educate?
[00:17:56] How do you keep up to speed with everything?
[00:17:58] Yes. Now, I told you I have 30 years in business.
[00:18:01] I learned from young employees.
[00:18:03] They come with different and fresh ideas.
[00:18:04] But I also leverage, of course, a little bit
[00:18:07] the things I've seen before.
[00:18:09] But you have to do also your reading and research,
[00:18:11] both externally, and we do also some internal research
[00:18:14] about the market and where things are going.
[00:18:16] Reading specific media and in the end,
[00:18:20] maybe first of all, listen to customers
[00:18:22] and what they're telling, what they're doing.
[00:18:24] So it is a lot of things.
[00:18:26] And that's also what makes it all exciting, right?
[00:18:28] This is a space that is super rapidly developing
[00:18:31] and just what we talked about earlier,
[00:18:33] that merger of all these overlapping areas
[00:18:36] is going to be really interesting,
[00:18:38] how that will play out.
[00:18:40] And that is where we are, and we are in that.
[00:18:43] And we can all experience it.
[00:18:46] By the way, for all our Soligo stakeholders,
[00:18:49] so that being our employees,
[00:18:51] but also our partners and our customers,
[00:18:54] we have built something that we call Soligo University,
[00:18:58] which is free online training
[00:18:59] and allowing all these stakeholders
[00:19:01] to learn about us and our platform anytime, anywhere.
[00:19:05] And that is something that we provide.
[00:19:07] So also a little bit catering to the needs.
[00:19:10] People need to be able to learn about you
[00:19:13] in a flexible way.
[00:19:15] Fantastic.
[00:19:17] Well, again, thanks for joining me today.
[00:19:19] But for anyone listening
[00:19:21] that would just like to find out more information
[00:19:23] about Soligo and all the topics we explored today,
[00:19:25] maybe they want to dig a bit deeper
[00:19:27] or contact you or your team.
[00:19:29] What's the best starting point for everything?
[00:19:31] Yeah. So soligo.com is our website.
[00:19:34] It's also the best source for information
[00:19:36] and gives you access to our blog
[00:19:38] where people write about different trends and ideas
[00:19:40] and what they see in the industry.
[00:19:42] So it's not only, let's say,
[00:19:44] a sort of leadership type of area as well.
[00:19:47] So that could be interesting for the listeners, I guess.
[00:19:49] And of course, the rest of the website
[00:19:51] can also be relevant,
[00:19:53] but that speaks for itself, I think.
[00:19:55] Perfect. Well, I'll get those links added
[00:19:57] so people can find that nicely.
[00:19:59] And one of the things I've loved
[00:20:01] chatting with you about today
[00:20:03] is not just about the technology,
[00:20:05] but how technology is helping businesses
[00:20:07] improve efficiency and scalability
[00:20:09] and how the proper platform
[00:20:11] and integration approach
[00:20:13] can help them unlock underused business technology,
[00:20:15] lessen the burden on IT
[00:20:17] while still giving them oversight.
[00:20:19] Pure gold.
[00:20:21] And I'm hoping that's going to set off
[00:20:23] a few light bulb moments for people listening.
[00:20:25] But thank you just for sitting down
[00:20:27] and sharing that with me today.
[00:20:29] It's a pleasure to meet again.
[00:20:31] The big takeaway from my conversation today
[00:20:33] is that thoughtful integration
[00:20:36] and automation strategies
[00:20:38] can significantly boost operational efficiency
[00:20:41] and scalability,
[00:20:43] especially in diverse and dynamic sectors
[00:20:45] like e-commerce and retail.
[00:20:47] And yes, as businesses continue
[00:20:49] to navigate these complexities
[00:20:51] of global markets
[00:20:53] and technological advancements,
[00:20:55] the insights shared today by my guest
[00:20:57] highlight the crucial role
[00:20:59] of platforms like Soligo
[00:21:01] in helping facilitate
[00:21:03] seamless automated processes.
[00:21:05] It's not something you need to do on your own.
[00:21:07] But what are your thoughts
[00:21:09] on using such integrations
[00:21:11] in your own business strategies?
[00:21:13] Do you see a future where every employee
[00:21:15] could contribute to automation?
[00:21:17] As always, enjoy the drill.
[00:21:19] Share your perspectives with me
[00:21:21] by continuing the conversation.
[00:21:23] You can do that by emailing me
[00:21:25] techblogwriteratoutlook.com,
[00:21:27] Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram,
[00:21:29] or by emailing me at
[00:21:31] Neil C. Hughes.
[00:21:33] Let me know your thoughts on this
[00:21:35] and I've also got a fantastic guest
[00:21:37] lined up tomorrow,
[00:21:39] but a completely different topic.
[00:21:41] I'll be waiting bright and early
[00:21:43] in your podcast feed
[00:21:45] waiting for you to hit the play button.
[00:21:47] Hopefully you'll join me again tomorrow,
[00:21:49] but until next time,
[00:21:51] don't be a stranger.