Celigo
The world of business applications is constantly evolving. Gone are the days of siloed systems and manual data entry. Today, companies rely on a complex ecosystem of cloud-based tools to streamline operations and gain valuable insights. This, however, presents a new challenge: how to seamlessly integrate all these disparate applications for a smooth flow of information.
This is where Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) providers like Celigo step in. Celigo India Pvt. Ltd., founded in 2011 by Jan Arendtsz, has become a leader in the iPaaS space, offering a next-generation automation platform that simplifies and revolutionizes business processes.
But Celigo’s story is more than just about innovative technology. It’s about a company that prioritizes customer needs, embraces continuous improvement, and fosters a culture of social responsibility.
In the coming sections, we’ll delve deeper into Celigo’s journey, exploring its core values, unique value proposition, and commitment to excellence. We’ll get insights from Manisha Dash, Head of HR, APAC, for our most prestigious “India’s Most Acclaimed Brand To Watchout 2024” edition. She will share her experiences and valuable lessons as an entrepreneur and business leader within the company. Stay tuned for an inspiring story of innovation, dedication, and a vision to create a better future through technology.
Prime Insights: Can you share the story behind the inception of your brand?
Manisha Dash: Jan started as an engineer, and it became clear that it wasn’t his long-term calling. But he stuck it out to build a technical foundation. Then he moved to Cambridge Technology Partners, where he learned business and how technology can be used to solve business problems. Then he had an itch that is hard to describe but felt he needed to start something himself. He then went on to work at one of the first true SaaS companies in the early 2000s, and that shaped how he thought about the world and knew that SaaS would be the future. In that company, he was responsible for managing some of the more technical integrations the company needed. In the back of his mind, he started thinking about a cloud-based platform that could be used to connect these ideas. He filed the idea away, started a consulting company, and did that for several years. By starting a service business, he got to understand the challenges customers were facing, and that informed how Celigo was built. Finally, he brought back the idea and started Celigo in 2011.
Prime Insights: What is the core mission and vision of your brand?
Manisha Dash: Celigo was founded on the idea that today’s dynamic integration challenges require innovative solutions.
As a pioneer of integration in the SaaS age, Celigo never set out to fit the mold. From the outset, we have innovated while simplifying how companies integrate their tech stack. We’re not stopping there—our vision is to deliver an automation platform that forever redefines process integration, automation, and optimization. Jan Arendtsz, founder & CEO.
Prime Insights: What unique value proposition does your brand offer to its customers?
Manisha Dash: Today’s environment requires that subject matter experts, process designers, and functional users actively participate in the integration process. Unlike other iPaaS platforms, Celigo is the only iPaaS designed to effectively address these modern business challenges.
Celigo’s next-gen integration platform combines the power and features tech users need with the intuitive accessibility business users love. Now your entire team can participate in your automation strategy.
Prime Insights: How does your brand maintain its competitive edge in the market?
Manisha Dash: We maintain our edge by always asking ourselves 3 questions:
- What is the market telling us?
We watch competitors and take heed of industry analysts. - What are customers telling us?
We are committed to quantitative and qualitative research. - What is product usage telling us?
Sometimes, actual usage of our product highlights challenges (e.g., friction in usability) or opportunities (e.g., use cases and patterns that we weren’t otherwise aware of).
Prime Insights: What are the key milestones your brand has achieved in the past year?
Manisha Dash: We were honored by Gartner, one of the leading research and advisory companies in the tech industry, as a visionary in the 2024 Magic Quadrant. for iPaaS. This is a significant milestone and recognition of the progress we have made in both vision and execution.
We were ranked #1 out of 239 listed vendors in our category on the G2.com Summer Report for 2024.
Prime Insights: How does your brand ensure high-quality standards in its products and services?
Manisha Dash: Celigo subscribes to a “built-in quality” mindset that spans the entire customer journey, from inception to deployment. Our commitment to quality is unwavering. We conduct thorough research, including user interviews and expert reviews, to refine our product development process. Rigorous testing and post-deployment monitoring ensure that our solutions meet the highest standards.
Prime Insights: Can you describe your brand’s approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR)?
Manisha Dash: At Celigo, our approach to CSR is centered on making a positive impact on society, the environment, and our employees. We actively support underprivileged communities through partnerships with organizations like Goonj and the Robin Hood Army, and we contribute to animal welfare by aiding the Petluck Animal Rehabilitation Center.
We prioritize employee well-being by offering wellness sessions that enhance emotional resilience and leadership. Additionally, we promote diversity and inclusion by collaborating with NGOs that empower diverse groups. Our employees are deeply involved in these initiatives, reflecting our commitment to social responsibility and creating a culture of giving back.
Prime Insights: How does your brand make best use of technology to improve its offerings?
Manisha Dash: At Celigo, we make use of the best technology to continuously improve our services and stay competitive in the industry. Our commitment to innovation drives us to integrate cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence into our platform to significantly improve the user experience and the overall reliability of our solutions.
We focus on creating user-centric solutions that not only meet the current demands but also anticipate future needs. We make sure that our customers receive the most efficient and innovative integration and automation solutions by staying updated about technological advancements and continuously redefining our platform.
Prime Insights: What challenges has your brand faced, and how did you overcome them?
Manisha Dash: From 2011-2015, Celigo was a bootstrapped company. They shut down the consulting company and were able to build a product fairly quickly. The initial product was not very good. In the 2014/2015 timeframe, they started discussing deficiencies of the platform, especially in the wake of the way SaaS apps were changing. You didn’t need to go through central IT. You could get an app with a credit card.
That was the problem with the initial product. It did not give business users a way to use the product. Jan felt very strongly that the product should straddle between extremely technical users and tech-savvy business users. They decided to scrap the original product and build from scratch, and it was the best business decision made as a company.
Prime Insights: What are your brand’s plans and goals for the upcoming year?
Manisha Dash: Celigo is redefining integration. Our AI-powered platform simplifies complex processes, boosting efficiency and productivity. With a focus on innovation, we offer unmatched performance and expand connectivity options to meet evolving business needs.
Prime Insights: What role does customer feedback play in your brand’s product development process?
Manisha Dash: We continuously seek customer feedback through various channels.
We use a 3rd party tool that allows customers to upvote/downvote features and make feature requests for others to vote on. Customer feature requests come through our Customer Success team or support tickets.
We run Product Advisory Boards comprising customers and partners with deep knowledge of our product. This group meets with our product team once or twice a quarter to review product strategy and roadmap as well as provide high-level product feedback. They also discuss specific topics, such as improving onboarding programs to accelerate time to productivity.
Prime Insights: How does your brand stay connected with its customers through social media and digital platforms?
Manisha Dash: Connecting with customers is a #1 priority, whether it’s through our brand channels, personal channels, or community forums. We are constantly looking to provide useful tips and content to our customers on social media, and we find out lots of great customer news that way (someone had a baby, got a new degree, or got a new job). Let’s send them a gift! We also monitor community and online platforms to see what our customers are saying “in the wild” so we can address common issues or challenges those customers are having.
Prime Insights: Can you highlight any notable awards or recognitions your brand has received?
Manisha Dash: We were a Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice in 2023 and have been the leading iPaaS on G2 for 2 consecutive quarters. We were also named as visionaries in the 2024 Gartner Magic QuadrantTM. We have also won multiple awards for being the Best Place to Work, including Top 10 Workplaces in 2024 (Economic Times), Top Most Loved Workplace List for LGBTQ+ inclusion (Best Practice Institute), certified as a Most Loved Workplace®and placed in the Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces list for 2024 (Newsweek).
Prime Insights: Does your brand approach innovation and R&D to stay ahead in the industry?
Manisha Dash: At Celigo, innovation is at the core of our strategy to lead the iPaaS market. Innovation is our DNA. We invest heavily in research and development to anticipate industry shifts and create cutting-edge solutions. Our AI-driven error management system is a testament to this, automating complex tasks and enhancing efficiency.
Our AI-driven error management system, for example, automatically categorizes and resolves over 80% of errors, ensuring seamless data integration without requiring customer intervention.
Prime Insights: Can you share any success stories or testimonials from satisfied customers?
We have satisfied customers across the globe. All customer stories can be found here. We also have hundreds of customer reviews on Gartner and G2.
