The Next Big Integration Opportunity Starts Here

There is an interesting thing going on lately in my personal life that was previously only a professional phenomenon. Today I’m going to give it the attention it deserves because I’ve learned that it is now dominating every single home electronics conversation these days.

This “thing” needs a label as I believe it represents a global opportunity for MSPs and solution providers. Today, I’m giving it an acronym because, as we all know, nothing gets solved unless it has an easy handle to latch onto. My acronym for this phenomenon is… wait for it… “IF.”

IF stands for “Integration Fatigue,” which I describe as, “the feeling of frustration that comes from knowing that if two companies actually chose to integrate their products, your life would get better, easier, smarter, cooler, faster, etc.” Examples that readily come to mind:

• I would love it if Alexa would integrate with Exchange. If you don’t know Alexa, you can meet her here. “She,” is the voice behind Amazon’s remarkable Echo speaker/consumer information device. Integrating Alexa with Exchange should have been done already.
• While we are on the topic of Alexa, why not integrate it with AT&T Digital Life? In reality, this idea is a bit trickier. Alexa works with some security products already, and Digital Life isn’t mainstream enough to make the cut. I wait with hopeful anticipation for this to happen.
• Waze and my car. This is even more challenging. While my auto manufacturer continues to send me notices about how I can update the map in my car for around $100, Waze updates  its maps every day for free. It also let’s me know about traffic, re-routes me automatically, and makes me aware of opportunities to reduce speed proactively J. It is better on almost every front, and I would love to be able to buy an iPad, slide it into a slot where the navigation system sits today, connect to the car, and be better off.  This will almost certainly never happen; if it does it will be a competitive advantage for someone, not an industry-wide thing.

I could go on and on, but the point is this: Integration used to be—and still is, arguably—the most important tool available to the MSP world to save time, avoid repetitive data entry, and automate business systems. As the democratization of IT continues, the cloud becomes the prominent delivery system for applications. If the Internet of Things actually happens, there is a huge opportunity for the channel to play a vital role on the adoption front. Here is how:

1. Find products that both solve a problem and integrate well together. Adopt them and deliver them. Figure out how to make them even better and create a little intellectual property in the process. (Shout out here to Larry Walsh, who opened my eyes to the need for this over a year ago.)
2. Find products that would work well if integrated and make a compelling case to integrate and drive this trend.
3. If ever a company whose stated goal is to act as a platform to simplify integration across the application spectrum by creating a central hub that everyone can plug into easily, please support them.

For channel partners, when you provide solutions that integrate well together and drive productivity on top of the already hugely viable network you maintain for them, customers get happy in a hurry. As my old mentor used to say, “When the customer ain’t happy, then ain’t nobody happy.”

Sage words from a smart guy.