Jitterbit, a provider of fast, agile integration solutions for the modern enterprise, today announced the results of its "State of Salesforce Connectivity Report," a comprehensive study of the Salesforce ecosystem. Findings of the study are intended to help business analysts understand and anticipate integration trends, compare strategies with peers and better prepare businesses for digital transformation.

The survey of 300 Salesforce users from companies of varying sizes across 33 different industries examined: 1) which Salesforce products customers have deployed today, 2) how Salesforce customers procure new technologies, 3) which new technologies Salesforce customers plan to deploy in the next 12 months, 4) who is responsible for connecting Salesforce with other apps, and 5) which complementary systems of record and engagement are most popular. Survey findings suggest that integrating information from other business applications with Salesforce is crucial to gaining a 360-degree view of the customer, yet users often don't have a clear integration strategy in place.

Key highlights of the report include:

• 90 percent of respondents said that connecting and consolidating information from other apps and data sources is the biggest obstacle to gaining a 360-degree view of the customer, while only 10 percent reported a lack of effective analytics tools or employee skills and resources.

• More than 70 percent said new software and technology purchases are made or influenced by the department using the solution (e.g. marketing, sales, accounting, etc.), but at the same time, 43 percent said the IT department is expected to own the responsibility for integrating these solutions.

• Almost two thirds of companies that responded are running three or more applications. This trend looks to increase as every company surveyed planned to add new applications in the next 12 months, with almost a third planning to add three or more new digital endpoints.

•  44 percent of respondents said that integration projects were the responsibility of non-IT users.

"Speed is the new currency for digital enterprises, and companies of all shapes and sizes are seeking faster, easier ways to integrate multiple applications and endpoints with Salesforce to improve business processes and share data across differentiated employee, partner and customer experiences," said Jitterbit Vice President of Marketing and Alliances Andrew Leigh. "Findings of this survey underscore the need to take an agile integration approach as companies adopt new technologies to gain a competitive edge in today's digital economy."

You can find the original article here