Splunk integrates systems for real-time order processing

Splunk used cloud technologies such as Salesforce for sales, NetSuite for finance, and other custom applications, including one for fulfillment to enable the early days of growth. They used a data extraction, transformation and loading tool (ETL) to manage the data flows between their systems and for an order fulfillment process across their sales, finance and fulfillment teams. But the ETL tool, as most ETL tools are, was a black box, which made it challenging for Splunk’s developers and IT team quickly drive and support innovation.

Moreover, the ETL tool proved to be incompatible with the company’s fast-moving processes and goal to be a 100% cloud platform, as the tool required an on-premises agent. The ETL tool functioned as a black box, streaming a disjointed flow of still manually updated, error-prone data. It did not provide the open access, data visibility or rich developer community that could help Splunk optimize processes, enable rapid applications development, and identify barriers to efficiency.

The tool also did not have adapters that would rapidly deploy to connect Splunk’s multiple systems or an open cloud-based SOA or Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It required an on-premises hosting agent that prevented the IT team from managing and updating the cloud platform itself and that affected the control they had over their own data. The system also ran in 15-minute cycles rather than in real time, limiting the speed of order processing.

As the end-of-year order fulfillment crunch neared, Christopher Nelson, Senior Director of Business Applications at Splunk, felt the urgency to resolve their mounting integration challenges.

In MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform™, Splunk found the integration partner they needed to continue their pace of high growth. It was the ideal solution for their specific immediate integration needs, but most importantly, their platform for the future. Anypoint Platform offered a built-in IDE, hosted web services and service orchestration that was 100% cloud-based. In addition to a connector software development kit (SDK) for custom connector building, the MuleSoft platform offered seamless synchronization with 120 out-of-the-box connectors, including Salesforce and NetSuite. MuleSoft also provided dedicated hosting, developer support, and integrated technologies that they could seamlessly build on.

“MuleSoft is the platform for our continued agility and its solutions checked all of the boxes, while every other major player out there had very few of the capabilities that we were looking for and needed,” said Nelson.

Within 20 days of launching Anypoint Platform, Splunk achieved a streamlined quote to cash flow, in which license key generation was automated seamlessly. They were able to expedite the fulfillment portion of their Quote to Cash cycle to faster serve their clients, complete processing of their numerous orders by year’s end and increase overall operational efficiencies.

Within the first three months of implementation, they completed approximately 500 transactions and reduced transaction-processing time from minutes to seconds.

“MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform creates tremendous value that overshadows competitors in the market that offer only single tools,” said Nelson. “What you’re getting with MuleSoft is a set of cohesive, unique, easy-to-use integration tools all on a unified, cloud-ready platform.”

For Splunk, an entirely cloud-based solution, rather than infrastructure, is imperative. They foresee vast opportunity for developmental growth leveraging MuleSoft’s open, cloud-based platform. The long-term vision is to form the backbone of their entire back office on Anypoint Platform, for a truly integrated front and back office.

In the near term, they continue to benefit and gain insights from MuleSoft’s accessible data, including log files and CRM data now used to track engagement on their website and to pinpoint when transactions completed or failed. Nelson said, “Leveraging the MuleSoft platform we can monitor the real-time flow of data between our systems. From our website to our ERP, we can monitor how our systems and processes are performing. MuleSoft helped to deliver this quickly.”

With Anypoint Platform, Splunk has the integration backbone needed to grow. “There’s a strong synergy between how MuleSoft can reliably take structured data and funnel it through our own systems that aggregate structured and unstructured data. This synthesis of data is very compelling, and I think it will drive much of what we’ll see and speak about in the future.”

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