Yext, Inc., the leading digital presence platform for multi-location brands, needed a more scalable and efficient approach to managing integrations. Their previous integration platform created operational bottlenecks, requiring specialized developers to manage slow and costly integrations. “We found ourselves spending more time maintaining integrations than innovating,” said Tulasi Donthireddy, Director of IT and Business Applications at Yext. Additionally, the vendors' rigid pricing model forced Yext to pay for bundled features it didn’t need, making it increasingly difficult to justify the platform’s value.

“We were solving enterprise problems with duct tape,” Tulasi added. As demands from the business accelerated and AI adoption became a growing priority, Yext realized their legacy stack couldn’t support the speed, scale, or agility the company needed to move forward. “Innovation was slowing not because we lacked ideas, but because it was too hard to implement them.”

Beyond cost and operational constraints, Yext’s integration strategy was fragmented across multiple platforms, requiring data analysts, developers, and additional IT personnel to fill gaps the legacy vendor couldn’t address. Since their previous vendor lacked built-in monitoring and logging, Yext had to manually store integration logs in a data cloud and ingest them into a separate dashboard for visibility. “We had to piece together solutions from different platforms just to get the functionality we needed,” Tulasi explained. At the same time, their previous vendor's lack of innovation meant Yext saw no clear path forward to support its growing automation needs. “We needed a solution that could evolve with our business, not one that required constant workarounds,” Tulasi added.

After evaluating multiple integration platforms, Yext selected Tray.ai as its unified, AI-ready iPaaS. It consolidated all their integration needs, such as built-in monitoring and real-time dashboards, into a single platform. “With Tray, we can build integrations 3x faster than with our legacy platform, giving us the agility we needed,” said Tulasi. In addition to speed, Tray provided a significantly lower cost structure, reducing integration expenses by 60% compared to their previous setup.

Yext’s decision to switch was driven by more than just cost savings. It was a strategic move to enable hyperautomation. “Our goal was to move from tool-centric to outcome-driven,” Tulasi explained. “Tray gave us the foundation to unify architecture across teams, reduce IT friction, and accelerate innovation.” Tray’s reusable connectors and intuitive interface also made it possible for business users to create workflows without needing dedicated developer support.

“One of our key objectives was to democratize automation, and Tray makes it easy for technical users to create their integrations without relying on a dedicated team,” Tulasi added.

By implementing Tray, Yext has seen immediate and significant improvements in its integration strategy. “We’ve completed 100+ integrations in just three months - a major acceleration compared to our previous vendor.” Tulasi shared. The move to Tray has also freed up IT resources so the team can shift their focus from tedious integration maintenance to more strategic automation initiatives.

Key outcomes include:

• 3x faster integration development, reducing build time from three days to one.

• 60% cost savings, eliminating unnecessary feature bundles and reducing developer overhead.

• Eliminated reliance on multiple platforms for integration tracking, consolidating processes into one unified platform.

• Increased efficiency, allowing more teams to automate workflows without IT bottlenecks.

• Seamless adoption, with developers quickly transitioning to Tray’s intuitive platform.

• Freed-up developer bandwidth redirected toward building internal AI agents and automation frameworks

Looking ahead, Yext plans to expand its use of Tray’s AI automation capabilities, starting with implementing AI-powered IT support agents. “With Tray, we’re now building agents that can troubleshoot access issues, automate provisioning, and reduce manual load on our IT teams,” Tulasi explained. “With a more agile and cost-effective integration strategy, Yext is now well-equipped to drive innovation, improve operations, and scale automation at an enterprise level.”

Dive deeper into the Yext story by watching our webinar, "How Yext cut integration costs by 60% and delivered faster with fewer tools".