Connecting to services Accessing and connecting to different applications is a fundamental building block of General Automation Platforms. This is a critical aspect of vendor selection because if you can’t connect to it, you can’t automate it. There is broad variance in connector coverage and depth of integration across vendors. It’s also critical to consider the responsiveness of vendors to customer requests for new connectors or enhancements to current ones. Standard Occasional Unique Pre-built connectors Full API access Connector builder These are the services logos that Not all vendors can access all portions of an API such a custom fields. Make The building of pre-built connectors you’ll see on many vendors websites. sure you verify that a vendor can not only connect to the services you need is historically a manual and labor- The vendor has already done the work but are also able to access all fields within the services. intensive process for most vendors. to build a connection tailored to a Because of the highly technical particular cloud application. Universal Connector nature of building connectors, Universal connectors allow a vendor to connect to any standard API even if typically only engineers working for REST API support they do not offer a pre-built connector to it. This capability is an important a vendor has the skills to do so. This Rest APIs are the standard modern reason not to rule out a general automation platform because they do not limitation means that requests for way to build API connections. They are have a particular pre-built connector on their website. new connectors or enhancements somewhat easier to work with than to current ones can take weeks to older methods. Automated retries This feature is vital in ensuring that your workflows run smoothly. APIs can turn-around. Now, there are only often have hiccups and produce a failed call request. Automated retries a few vendors that have made the continue trying the API until it succeeds in accessing the requested data. building of connectors easy enough for customers and third parties to Connector versioning build themselves. Connector builder Software vendors frequently update their APIs and when they do integration software speeds-up the turnaround and automation platforms are forced to upgrade their connectors. Some time to hours and democratized the vendors are more adept at versioning their connectors in a way that ability to do so. minimized interruption. SOAP API support SOAP is an older and more complicated method for building APIs. If you happen to use one or more SaaS applications that only offer SOAP API support verify that your general automation vendor can connect to it. 26