Should SAP be worried about a Mulesoft 'SAP Customer OnDemand Connector'?

[richard_hirsch]

I was recently doing research on another Customer OnDemand-related blog and I came across a new offering from Mulesoft entitled “SAP Customer OnDemand Connector” which is based on Mulesoft’s CloudHub, an integrated platform as a service (iPaaS).

Moreover, with MuleSoft Anypoint™ Connectors, Customer OnDemand can establish instant API connectivity to any popular applications or services. Leveraging repeatable integration solutions permits users to have connectivity on-premise or in the cloud. Moreover, because MuleSoft takes advantage of the entire Customer OnDemand API, CloudHub utilizes the full set of CRUD (create, read, update, delete) operations.  [SOURCE]

Besides this one page of details, I’ve been unable to find any additional information or other references to the product

Yet, the presence of this offer from Mulesoft should be worrying SAP inasmuch as this offer is direct competition with SAP’s own efforts in this area.  As illustrated by two videos by ginger.gatling demonstrating Customer OnDemand integration with ECC and OnPremise CRM, SAP also has similar plans. 

Note: Besides these two videos, I haven’t seen any other recent material on such LoB integrations. Currently, SAP is focusing primarily on the integration between SuccessFactors and OnPremise HCM systems and other integrations receive less public – and perhaps, internal – attention. 

POV

• The Mulesoft SAP Customer OnDemand Connector appears to be available today.   Release dates for competitive integration products for SAP’s Integration as a Service offering are still vague and might come as late as later this year.  Maybe, we will hear some news regarding such dates at the upcoming Sapphire.
• Mulesoft’s CloudHub is definitely a competition for SAP’s Integration as a Service offering. It already has an impressive variety of connectors – including an offering for SuccessFactors. It will be difficult for SAP to compete on the quantity of connectors. In my opinion, SAP should focus on quality especially regarding the integration between SAP OnDemand and OnPremise offerings.  Mulesoft can’t compete with SAP’s internal knowledge of its own applications – this advantage must be exploited and be presented as the major selling point of the upcoming IntaaS offering.
• I have no idea how SAP’s IntaaS offer will be priced but the CloudHub Plans & Pricing page is instructional in determining possible plans for SAP’s equivalent offering.  One important distinction between SAP and Mulesoft in this area is that SAP also offers the OnDemand applications involved in the various integrations. Thus, flexibility in IntaaS pricing might be an important selling advantage for such applications.  Prospects might even be offered discounted integration costs when purchasing such applications.  This tight association between IntaaS and the  different SaaS applications would also hopefully benefit customers who are able to simplify the administration of their cloud subscriptions by using a single vendor instead of multiple suppliers.