5 Best Practices to Maximize the Capabilities of MuleSoft

Organizations spent an average of $3.65 million on custom integration labor in 2022, compared with $3.5 million a year earlier. ^[1]

And the best way to mitigate such costs is by leveraging API-based connectivity.

API-led connectivity offers these major advantages^[2]:

• Enhance efficiency by an average of 64%
• Lower operational costs by an average of 74%
• Revenue growth by 40%^[3]

Due to these advantages, API-led connectivity is gaining traction in virtually every industry, replacing point-to-point connectivity.

With regard to API-led connectivity, MuleSoft has been a pioneer in the field.

Acquired by Salesforce in 2018, MuleSoft uses a modern API-led approach to solve complex and cost-intensive integration challenges.

How Does MuleSoft Work?

MuleSoft offers a number of pre-built APIs for applications and systems of all types.

Putting an API in front of your old legacy systems eliminates the need to understand how the system operates, giving you a modern way to interact with it without knowing anything about it.

The MuleSoft APIs are organized in a network with different roles assigned to them. In addition to managing and orchestrating API-led integrations, the Anypoint platform can also develop and execute APIs.

Best Practices to Improve ROI With MuleSoft

No matter where you are in the integration journey with MuleSoft, at some point, you’ll need to demonstrate a return on investment to key stakeholders.

Here are five best practices you should implement to achieve long-term success with MuleSoft and accelerate ROI.

1. Save Time With Reusable Use Cases

It is advisable to select a few key strategic use cases for your first project, keeping in mind the possible reuse opportunities, which will pave the way for future deliverables.

You can reduce developer hours and unnecessary project costs by reusing APIs developed for your initial use case(s).

By encouraging this model within your business divisions, you will eventually have your team focused on areas where one API can be applied to multiple applications over time.

Implementing reusable assets into your architecture reduces future project expenses and optimizes time-to-market.

2.Eliminate IT Delivery Gap With Application Reuse

In the era of the industrial revolution, the traditional delivery model, where each new application is built from scratch, has become a bottleneck to the agility enterprise aims to achieve. However, you can eliminate the IT delivery gap by building reusable APIs.

The reusable APIs allow frictionless connectivity to other systems and increase the development speed.

The reusability of assets reduces the time and resources required to deliver IT projects and allows for fast, easy connectivity to anything, anywhere.

3.Drive Innovation With MuleSoft Center for Enablement

In the changing digital landscape, technology projects and digital transformation initiatives continue to expand, resulting in more complex and fragmented processes.

For companies to navigate this challenging landscape, MuleSoft supports the creation of a Center for Enablement (C4E) team to ensure that business divisions can build and drive asset consumption, promoting speed and agility.

C4Es Provide the Following Benefits:

• On-time delivery of integration projects with reduced project risk
• Reduced defects and error rates, resulting in higher-quality deliverables

Creating a C4E has enabled companies like Unilever and Coca-Cola[4] to become more agile and productive, making it an essential practice for maximizing MuleSoft investments.

4. Choose the Right Deployment Environment

Choosing the right deployment model is essential to ensuring the best results and meeting project objectives. Therefore, consider a variety of factors when choosing a deployment model, like:

• Cost Involved
• Existing Network/It Infrastructure
• Willingness to Move to Cloud
• Security and Regulations Associated With Data/Metadata
• Current Architecture
• Number of APIs/API Network

With the right deployment environment, you can expect to come away with high availability, downtime elimination, and rapid application deployment to save money and deliver value efficiently.

5.Train Your Workforce to Reduce Errors

MuleSoft users have reported a 235% ROI^[5] with MuleSoft training and certification.

According to a study conducted by Forrester, companies that invested in training and certification have reported:

• 75% reduction in time spent on remediation by trained and certified technical teams
• 25% faster project completion

The Bottom Line

MuleSoft offers a diverse set of tools that make a developer’s life easier, with these best practices you can further enhance its capabilities to drive positive ROI.

Looking For More Ways to Maximize ROI With Mulesoft? Get in Touch With Us!

Statistics References:

^[1] MuleSoft Library
^[2] MuleSoft Resources
^[3] MuleSoft News
^[4] What is C4E
^[5] MuleSoft Report