We’re better together – the Seamless partner programme

PartnersOver the past few months, we’ve hinted at some of the tooling we’ve been working on for partners. In the last post, we shared some details of our integration workbench. This work has been part of a broader approach to build a partner community around Seamless so that we can help more people connect more applications more quickly.We’re delighted that to formally launch our partner programme for software delivery partners and distribution partners.

What is a software delivery partner?

Software delivery partners are companies who are delivering applications into their client base. They’ll be using Seamless to include integrations on a low risk, low cost basis within their projects. These applications could be using an off-the-shelf application – e.g. a Microsoft Dynamics partner – or they could be wholly bespoke applications which need to connect into existing infrastructure.

Our launch partners are Preact, a well known and long-standing Microsoft Dynamics 365 partner and Trillium, a market leader in digital transformation for membership and charity organisations. Over the past few months we’ve gotten to know the leadership teams at both companies and we’re delighted to be working with them.

Preact
Trillium
What is a distribution partner?

Distribution partners are companies who specialise in software reselling. They provide insight to purchasers on software selection and maximising the value on license spend. We’ll be looking to support software distributors and resellers provide a low risk, lost cost integration option into their distribution networks.

Our launch partner is Grey Matter. Grey Matter have a 35 year history of providing independent and trusted software advice. We’re delighted to be working with Grey Matter in the UK and Ireland markets.

Grey Matter

How will Recursyv support our partner network?

Recursyv will provide a host of services to partners to make rolling out Seamless integrations quick, easy and efficient.

Commercially… 

  • Revenue share – Subscription revenue is shared with partners over the life of the subscription.
  • Additional revenue opportunities – Delivery of integrations may require development of bespoke connectors or configuration of complex integrations using the Seamless workbench. This creates potential for professional services revenue which can be delivered by those partners who have the technical capacity and choose to do so.
  • Marketing – Recursyv will develop various joint marketing activities.

Technically…

  • Tooling – The Seamless integration workbench and connector plugin SDK.
  • Training – Recursyv will deliver technical training on the integration workbench and on connector plugin development. There will probably be chocolate chip cookies involved.
  • Connectors –  Partners will have access to all connector plugins in the Seamless plugin library. This includes foundation connectors, application connectors and platform connectors.

And operationally …

  • Support – Recursyv will provide second or third line support to partners (as appropriate) to troubleshoot any integration issues

And – of course – Recursyv will operate the live instances of Seamless and provide the proactive monitoring that comes with operating Seamless as a managed service.

What’s next?

Our Sales team, led by Andy, is working to grow our partner community – both software delivery partners and distribution partners. If your organisation wants to deliver low risk, low cost integrations, please reach out to us.

Our Engineering team, led by Jon, is working to extend the partner tooling. The tooling will grow to give partners more technical flexibility in deploying and managing larger numbers of integrations. There’s some more exciting news in this space to come.

Our Marketing team, led by David, is delighted to have written another blog post and is going to have a cup of tea. And probably a biscuit.

[icon name=”users” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]  Click here to read more about our partner programme.

[icon name=”users” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]  Click here to enjoy Recursyv Seamless: Make data islands a think of the past, a lovely online presentation which gives a brief overview of partnering to deliver integrations.

Being dynamic with Dynamics 365 Integrations

Easily integrate with Microsoft Dynamics 365 using Recursyv’s Seamless connector plugin.

Recursyv’s Dynamics 365 Seamless connector plugin is now available for use.

The Dynamics 365 connector allows users to quickly setup Microsoft Dynamics 365 integrations to other applications. Seamless is Recursyv’s application integration service. Seamless connects different applications using connector plugins to accelerate deployment of new integrations. The Dynamics 365 connector allows users to retrieve/update all data within Dynamics including bespoke entities, data fields and lookup values.

“Using the Dynamics 365 connector allowed us to quickly integrate our Dynamics deployment with existing software. Without an option to quickly integrate to Autotask, we would’ve struggled to rollout the Dynamics solution as easily as we did.” – Craig Fisher, Director, Technica Solutions

Is there a need for a new Dynamics integration option?

There is already an established market of existing integration tools which work with Dynamics 365. These have a long heritage in the Dynamics community. In some cases, these tools have some inherent limitations which have been baked in as they’ve evolved. Often, extending the use of these tools beyond their current feature set is hard to achieve.

Seamless allows developers to extend connector plugins, including the Dynamics 365 plugin, using .NET. This allows developers to take advantage of Seamless core features while also providing the flexibility to disable unwanted features and develop bespoke features to meet specific business requirements.

In some cases, existing tools require additional infrastructure and cannot be operated as cloud-only services.

Seamless is delivered entirely in the cloud and requires no additional infrastructure. It is able to connect cloud and on-premises systems to enable true hybrid architectures.

What about tools provided alongside Dynamics 365?
Dynamics 365 enables users to write Azure aware custom plug-ins enabling data to be written to/from an Azure Service Bus. This approach has some structural limitations in that it is based on a trigger driven activity (i.e. when x happens, do y). This approach imposes some limitations on error handling (when a post to Azure fails) and underlying implications on system load within Dynamics.

Seamless is architected as a polling service, this allows it to be more robust in guaranteeing message delivery as well as in configuring its impact on Dynamics system load.

Azure aware Dynamics plugins are predicated on using an Azure Service Bus, requiring additional development to read/write data at the other end of the integration. It also requires the user to establish and manage their own Azure environment requiring them to learn a new technical stack.

Seamless is provided as a managed service connecting two more applications. Plugins already exist for a number of other applications and new plugins for bespoke use can be quickly developed using Seamless plugin framework.

The most recent Dynamics 365 version introduces a feature called Virtual Entities. Although Virtual Entities are great for displaying external data within the Dynamics UI, that data cannot be worked on, updated or analysed within Dynamics.

Seamless places the data into Dynamics 365 as data which can then be used for business processes, updated and synchronised back to the original data source.

Using the Seamless integration solution

The Dynamics 365 plugin is already live in a number of implementations connecting Dynamics to, among others, Autotask, Hoopla and Freshdesk.

Using the connector plugin requires subscribing to a Seamless integration and choosing to integrate to Dynamics 365. Integrations can be configured by Recursyv or your own development team (using tooling provided by Recursyv).

Recursyv Seamless

Recursyv is focused on making application integration easy to setup and easy to operate. Recursyv’s first integration went live in early 2017 and, since then, a growing number of companies are relying on Recursyv’s Seamless integration solution to keep applications in sync.

Seamless is an application integration service that makes it easy to connect different software applications. New integrations can be quickly setup using Recursyv’s growing library of application connectors. Foundation connectors (SOAP, RESTful) are available to integrate with bespoke applications, either in the cloud or on-premise.

Seamless is provided as a managed service operated by Recursyv. The subscription fee covers access to all Recursyv connectors, initial configuration, pro-active monitoring, the ability to make reasonable configuration changes and support.

Automate your Autotask integration

Seamless has been listed in the Autotask integration library

Recursyv listing

Recursyv’s Autotask <-> Dynamics 365 Seamless integration template is now listed in Autotask’s integration library. The integration template integrates Autotask and Dynamics 365 based on pre-configured data mappings. The integration template includes (1) bi-directional sync of Accounts and Contacts and, optionally, (2) Autotask –> Dynamics sync of tickets.

For more complex requirements, the Autotask connector plugin is able to connect Autotask to Seamless and, from there, to integrate it to any system using Seamless.

“Using the Autotask connector meant we were able to accelerate delivery of additional applications into our business. We used our Autotask data as our initial data set and, after populating the new system, we now keep both systems in sync with each other using Recursyv’s Seamless. It’s great that we’re able to ensure our staff work on the most up-to-date information no matter which system they need to work on.” – Craig Fisher, Director, Technica Solutions

Templated or bespoke?

The integration template listed by Autotask’s includes (1) bi-directional sync of Accounts and Contacts and, optionally, (2) Autotask –> Dynamics sync of tickets. This approach enables businesses using Dynamics for CRM to ensure that customer data is kept in-sync across both systems as well as providing Autotask ticket information as reference data within Dynamics.

Recursyv recognise that different helpdesk operations have different approaches to incident resolution, workflows and queuing. Building an implied operational structure into the template seemed like we’d be making the template harder to use rather than easier to use.

As the integration template uses the Recursyv connector plugins for Autotask and Dynamics 365, all the flexibility of these plugins remains. Users of the integration template can easily extend their use of Seamless to include additional data types (e.g. Autotask Projects), additional list values and/or bi-directional syncing of ticket information.

If you need to sync ticket information bi-directionally, or want to introduce other data types, please reach out to us and we can discuss how to set these up as part of implementing your integration.

Using the Seamless integration solution

The Autotask connector plugin is already live in implementations connecting Dynamics to Autotask. The integration template listed in the Autotask library specifically focuses on connecting Autotask to Dynamics 365. The Seamless Autotask plugin can also be used to connect Autotask to any system using the Seamless platform.

Using the connector plugin requires subscribing to a Seamless integration and choosing to integrate to Autotask. Integrations can be configured by Recursyv or your own development team (using tooling provided by Recursyv).

Recursyv Seamless

Recursyv focuses on making application integration easy to setup and easy to operate. Recursyv’s first integration went live in early 2017 and, since then, a growing number of companies are relying on Recursyv’s Seamless integration solution to keep applications in sync.

Seamless is an application integration service that makes it easy to connect different software applications. New integrations can be quickly setup using Recursyv’s growing library of application connectors. Foundation connectors (SOAP, RESTful) are available to integrate with bespoke applications, either in the cloud or on-premise.

Seamless is provided as a managed service operated by Recursyv. The subscription fee covers access to all Recursyv connectors, pro-active monitoring, the ability to make reasonable configuration changes and support.

[icon name=”phone” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]  If you’re looking to integrate Autotask with Dynamics, or any other application, please reach out and discuss with us how we can address this, quickly and affordably.

Jon is shaking his head in disbelief

We recently attended Future Decoded, Microsoft’s “what’s coming in the tech world” trade show (always interesting, worth a visit if you have the chance). Last year we attended with a head full of ideas but very little to say about Recursyv and what we were doing. This year, we arrived having brought a software service to market and proved its initial commercial viability. It was quite exciting to arrive with something more to say.

However, this story is not about software at all. Last year David managed to win a Surface Book, a lovely Microsoft laptop that has all the bells and whistles one might want. So, tongue in cheek, Jon tells David to not come home without either some winnings or a Purchase Order for new work. (Apparently trade shows are not all about the swag, although we can conclusively report that not a single fidget spinner was on offer).

Around 16h30 David is headed home, on the phone to Jon talking through the news of the day and he is interrupted by a call from the guys at K2 … “You’ve won a Star Wars toy, please come down to the stand for a photo and presentation”. Sadly, he’d already left Excel and wasn’t able to head to the stand to pick up the prize. Needless to say, we had a good laugh about that, what are the odds that you’d win prizes two years in a row?

A few hours later, an email comes in … “It’s the marketing team from Citrix here, you’ve won a Bluetooth speaker, please could we get an address to send it to.”  The speaker is sitting on the desk and Jon has his head in his hands.

 

This story recently appeared in Recursyv’s Winter Newsletter. If you’d like to sign-up to receive our quarterly newsletter, please let us know.  The newsletter is a general update on things going on at Recursyv. We want to share our story as it develops, so the focus is on Recursyv news rather than marketing products from Recursyv. We’d be delighted to send it to you. 

Sketchnote from Microsoft Decoded sourced from https://www.futuredecoded.com/ 

The hardest word to type is the first

It is almost unimaginable that it is a whole year since we sat down to launch Recursyv. At the time we had an idea – make enterprise software more readily accessible – and a name. We knew we wanted to build a software business and we were lucky enough to have a pair of (prospective) customers willing to be patient while we built product.

In our first few months we canvassed our prospective customers and focused on building software to address their specific needs. In truth, this was also a significant learning curve as we spread our technology stack into areas which required learning for the both of us.

We also had the intimidating privilege of a blank page. We needed to set everything up from scratch. Here are a few highlights…

Our first tweet was posted on the day of our first meeting, 30/08

Over the following weeks we put our website live, launched on LinkedIn, ordered business cards, published our first blog post, worked our way up the Google rankings, and – after much unnecessary rigmarole – managed to get a bank account open. We also learnt about working with each other and how to play to our respective strengths and weaknesses.

We worked to refine our software and we even stumbled upon our chocolate chip cookie tradition. By September our Seamless service was sync’ing messages and a few weeks later we had demos scheduled for both Seamless (at the time, still imaginatively called the Azure Service Bus Integration tool) and Sales In-a-Box.

Then this happened.

And we were in business! By the end of 2016 we had another order on the books and in January we began rolling software out.

Over the year I’ve tried to engage with as many entrepreneurs as possible and one key theme that often comes up is “the first few customers are easy, it’s the next 20 that are difficult – but they are the ones who will make or break your business.” This is proving to be true, exciting and intimidating. We’re working on it.

 

 

While preparing this post, we created a Twitter moment to share a more extended highlights package of our first year. We hope you enjoy it.

Splashing the big bucks, our Microsoft Inspire story (part 1 … part 2 when we’re back)

In about a month we’ll be headed off to Washington, D.C. to join the Microsoft partner community at Microsoft’s global partner conference, Inspire. Attending Inspire with something to say was always a goal for us when we set out. We knew we were working in the Microsoft world and the partner conference is the place to build a network around any Microsoft enabled business.

As you can imagine, a conference of this nature is a significant expense. There are conference tickets to be purchased, flights, accommodation, food and Hard Rock souvenir pin badges. (If Jon doesn’t read this post carefully, I’ll try expense the pins … watch this space!) Returning home with a just handful of business cards would be a significant failure. We consulted with former attendees and built out our plan. With about a month to go, we’re doing okay and I thought it might be interesting if we shared some of our thinking.

 

Continue reading

Swaying our way to Microsoft Inspire

We’re getting ready for Microsoft’s global partner conference, Inspire, in Washington, D.C. later this year. It is a meeting of the good and the great in the Microsoft partner community with a view to connecting with Microsoft employees, other partners and industry experts. You’ll not be surprised to learn that it is a significant investment – time away from our day-to-day jobs, conference tickets, flights, accommodation and maybe even some souvenir key rings. Needless to say, we’re working hard to ensure we have the right supporting material to hand.

One of our conference objectives is to continue building the partner network around our Seamless integration service. With this in mind, and maybe also just a little bit because we like to play with interesting apps, we’ve built a Sway presentation which we’d like to share.

 

Make data islands a thing of the past

 

Hat-tip to our friend Sean K for the suggestions. First round is on us.

How are customers using Recursyv products to make work easier?

We’ve spent the past few months working feverishly to create software tools that we’re proud of and that are true to our vision of making work easier. With the support of our first clients, we’ve got our product suite – Seamless and Sales In-a-Box – built, tested, deployed, updated (ahem, no-one’s perfect on day 1!) and into various production environments. We’re delighted that we’ve now taken a few minutes to write-up the work we’ve been doing as case studies and publish them onto the website.

 

Recursyv customer stories

 

Customer stories

 

We owe a huge “thank you” to the teams at Technica and Feefo for supporting us from day one, having patience while the products were refined and faith that they would work from the get-go. We hope that the chocolate chip cookies eased the journey.