SaaS Integration: RealPage

RealPage, a Texas-based Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, specializes in property management solutions for the multifamily industry. Owners and property managers of apartment buildings, condominium complexes, military housing units, student living sites, and senior living communities use RealPage’s hosted software solutions to manage and streamline the entire life cycle of the rental and leasing process.

The RealPage product suite includes OneSite, a line of property management systems that automates and facilitates spending/purchasing, property maintenance and servicing, budgeting, accounting, and document management. OneSuite also supports central reporting and analytics, providing users with up-to-date information about their rental properties.

OneSite can be easily integrated with other SaaS solutions from RealPage. These include YieldStar, Velocity, LeasingDesk and Level One Leasing Center. YieldStar is an asset optimization system that enables property owners to better manage revenue streams by optimizing rental prices based on availability, demand, and market intelligence.

To reduce the amount of time spent processing utility bills, Velocity provides a robust utility management solution. Users can also leverage Leasing Desk and Level One Leasing Center, which support applicant screening processes and sales and marketing activities, respectively.

The Challenges of SaaS Integration

The growing popularity and use of SaaS solutions from vendors like RealPage has resulted in many tangible benefits for enterprise users: lower costs, greater scalability, and improved efficiency. At the same time, the deployment of multiple SaaS applications creates new challenges for users as data becomes increasingly scattered across different cloud silos.

To break down these cloud silos and maintain business efficiency and agility, enterprises need an effective integration strategy that connects data and systems across the cloud and enterprise. RealPage users, for instance, might integrate the company’s various SaaS products with the following:

• other SaaS applications and cloud services, such as LivePerson integration or Concur integration
• on-premise legacy systems
• social media platforms
• desktop applications

Custom SaaS Integration Solutions

One approach to SaaS integration is to build your own connectors. This typically involves a team of in-house developers or integration consultants who write, test, and deploy custom code to connect your SaaS applications.

Such an approach allows companies to tailor integrations to meet particular business needs and produces relatively quick and inexpensive solutions. As a long-term strategy, however, the disadvantages of building custom integrations far outweigh the short-term benefits.

Custom-built integrations, for instance, require ongoing maintenance and upgrades to optimize performance. This means that companies need to devote time and resources to a codebase that isn’t a core part of their business. Custom connectors are also typically point-to-point integrations, making it difficult to add or modify systems and scale up.

Perhaps most importantly, custom solutions can cost more than anticipated in the long run. By relying on an ad hoc approach as opposed to a strategic integration solution, companies often find themselves in a rip-and-replace situation.

iON: The Easiest Way to Integrate SaaS and Cloud

In light of the burdens associated with building and maintaining custom integration solutions and the relative lack of packaged solutions currently available, Mule iON has emerged to fill a critical gap in cloud integration.

iON is an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) that enables users to connect SaaS-to-SaaS and SaaS-to-enterprise simply and quickly. Fully based in the cloud, Mule iON includes a robust set of features for connecting applications across the cloud and enterprise.

Users can take advantage of the following:

• No coding required: With Mule iON, users can connect SaaS applications quickly without writing a single line of code. Out-of-the-box cloud connectors help users quickly connect the most popular SaaS applications while drag-and-drop configuration tools let them build custom integration applications (iApps) without the need for technical expertise.
• Secure Integration: In addition to connecting various SaaS applications and cloud services, Mule iON also supports SaaS-to-enterprise integration. With the Secure Data Gateway, users can access data located behind the firewall without compromising security.
• Scalability: While your integration architecture might start out small, it will likely grow as business needs change. Mule iON seamlessly scales up as the number of integration points increases, allowing users to add new systems quickly and flexibly.
• Visibility and Intelligence: Many existing integration solutions, both custom-built and purchased, lack reporting capabilities and provide little to no visibility into integration flows. Mule iON comes with a browser-based management portal that provides users with critical information for addressing problems and maintaining performance.
• Hassle-free maintenance: Mule iON eliminates the maintenance burdens associated with building custom integration solutions, such as infrastructure, provisioning, scaling and more. Users can instead focus on building and deploying their applications while Mule iON takes care of the rest.