Self-service integration may be the answer to synchronizing enterprise information to address the growth opportunities available in the “B2B Long Tail”

First coined in Chris Anderson’s book of the same name, the “Long Tail” refers to the niche strategies of retail businesses, such as Amazon.com or iTunes. The secret “sauce” to the success of these companies lies in how they structure their distribution and inventory costs. By selling small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers over time, these companies realize significant profit as opposed to selling only large quantities of a reduced number of popular items. These are referred to as “hits” in Anderson’s book. The group of customers that buy the hard-to-find items, or the “non-hits,” is the demographic located inside the Long Tail.

The Long Tail strategy can be applied to integration challenges just as it applies to retail products.

Anderson explains how traditional retailers focus on “a relatively small number of hits,“ but that over time, the demand for items outside of the head is likely as large as that inside the head. This means that in order to successfully capitalize and maximize the value for product demand, a vendor must market large, commonly known “hits” in the head as well as the more niche, less known “non-hits” in the tail over a longer period of time.

For the vendor to successfully unlock the potential of any Long Tail, this comes down to calculating how to cost-effectively market the niche to generate two things - demand over time and awareness. Good examples of vendors that have successfully resolved this include Apple with its iTunes and Amazon with books. Both retailers have been able to scale their business models to profitably lead customers to their website for best seller “hits” of the moment, as well as niche products to generate continuous revenue over time and a competitive edge over other industry players.

The Head of the Long Tail

In the case of the B2B Long Tail, what is populating the head? Just as in the retail world, the inside of the B2B Long Tail head contains commodity services that compete on price - similar to goods such as CDs and books. Most IT departments are aware of major initiatives, such as EDI/data exchanges or dedicated networks. These types of commodity services are the “hits” in the B2B Long Tail. This market has already been defined and well-served by a variety of products and services.

In order to differentiate themselves and capitalize on niche demand, vendors are moving beyond data exchange integration capabilities to rise above the fray and find new revenue opportunities. As a result, these vendors are marketing into the tail of the B2B Long Tail, or otherwise known as the niche of integration services. The integration vendor’s challenge is the same as the retailer’s challenge - how to effectively market into this niche integration services market and profitably secure new customer relationships.

Unlike the Apples and Amazons of the world that have correctly identified the niche market and led these customers to its websites, most IT departments lack the awareness that an on-demand approach to the long tail of integration exists, and therefore have turned to on-premise software or internal manual processes, or chosen not to address the problem due to cost considerations.

As most readers know, IT departments are faced with tight budgets where “good enough” has been the ongoing mantra. Yet few realize a more cost-effective solution that deals with synchronizing data, replacing manual workarounds and removing data inaccuracies is available today. To tap this unmet demand for on-demand enterprise integration, vendors need to find and

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