What Alternatives as ItDuzzit Shuts Down?
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ItDuzzit is was an integration platform, similar to Zapier that could be used to connect web apps together. As of March 15th 2016, it’s not an option anymore as Intuit, who acquired it in 2014, is going to shut it down.
As web apps, or SaaS has become more common, a new type of service has emerged, platforms to connect them together. Other examples include Zapier and Tray.io. They all leverage the API of a SaaS to get it to talk to others.
ItDuzzit was a somewhat unique service as it had features that allowed more complex integration, something that was not possible if using its competitors.
In 2014, they were acquired by Intuit for an undisclosed amount. Intuit had been buying up technology at a face pace, and the deal was ostensibly “to bring cloud connectivity to a vastly larger audience, enabling small business apps to connect to the QBO (QuickBooks Online) platform”.
At the same time, Zapier was quietly working on improving its offering with a new multi-step trigger feature. This was something that ItDuzzit offered that was unique and made it the “go to” for use cases that needed it. To what extent this is related, it’s hard to tell.
Today we hear the news that ItDuzzit is shutting down for the non-Quickbooks universe. The technology itself was rebranded as “Intuit AppConnect”, and powers QuickBooks integrations. The standalone technology to connect, say, MailChimp to Wufoo is not going to be available.
From their blog:
“The itDuzzit service is planned for an end-of-life date of July 15, 2016. We are no longer accepting new customer signups.
We recommend that you find another service or consult an integration specialist to get your integration up and running on another platform. Over the last several years, some great new integration platforms have launched. You can visit the Shutdown FAQ for more information and links to itDuzzit alternatives.”
Unfortunate news, but probably not unexpected when smaller startups get acquired by larger companies. There are probably consultants who have focused on ItDuzzit as an area of expertise, and I hope they are able to make a successful transition to move their customers to a new alternative platform without too much headache.