Investing in Integration-Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) is a risk for any institution, but ensuring a right-fit decision in a complicated marketplace will help IT organizations make the most of their acquisition. In this practice, responsibility for researching and evaluating iPaaS options for the institution is assigned to a specific employee, ideally a frontline developer. This employee is expected to think innovatively, dedicate time to complete the analysis, and present an executive-level overview of findings and recommendations at the project’s conclusion.
Download the Practice Implementation Intensive and the iPaaS Evaluation Matrix, or explore the steps below to select the appropriate candidate, support their evaluation of the iPaaS market, and help them make recommendations for your institution.
Formal R&D drives integration maturity progress
Integration tooling is usually selected to meet particular project requirements, with CIOs having limited ability to give strategic input or guidance in this area. This lack of thoughtful analysis of domain-specific tools and technological advancements is insufficient to serve an increasingly digitized institution. Now, progressive CIOs are investing in integration research and development, empowering their own staff to undertake campus-specific strategic research into the best tools to help transform their particular IT organization into one that is integrating strategically, and at scale.
Implementation timeline: Evaluate early, start small
Overhauling the institution’s integration architecture requires successful implementations of large-scale projects around important nodes in the campus IT ecosystem. Despite the potential for transformation, charging into big projects with new, unfamiliar tooling and processes increases the risk of project setbacks. CIOs must therefore conduct evaluations and tool onboarding efforts far in advance to give developers and project managers ample opportunity to scale the iPaaS learning curve.
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98%
time saved during proof-of-concept integrations for bookstore system change at Vassar College
Researcher selection rubric
Many top-down tool adoption efforts have limited success in developer communities, therefore engaging a frontline staff member to lead the institution’s iPaaS evaluations is a powerful option. Alongside institutional knowledge and respect among integration staff, selected individuals must be possessed of passion and project management capacity to drive the evaluation forward alongside their regular activities. While analysis is a stretch role for developers, CIOs report the ancillary benefit of engaging some of their most valuable employees, positioning them to take on more senior leadership and strategic roles.
Institutional need review guidelines
As with many forms of technology implementation, institutional readiness is a key factor in the adoption of iPaaS technologies. Without a proper understanding of staff skills, capacity, and current practices, institutions can end up selecting “best-of-breed” tools that don’t meet their specific needs, are too sophisticated to operate, or too costly to scale. Evaluating current-state integration across the institution empowers researchers to enter into detailed conversations with potential vendors, with a good understanding of likely initial need and growth projections.
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People
Who is doing our integration work?
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Tools
What technologies do we currently use, and how are they managed?
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Process
What is our integration current state?
iPaaS Evaluation Matrix
Comparing the relative merits and limits of different vendors’ plethora of integration tool options can grow complex quickly, given the lack of common terminology across distinct platforms. Keeping sight of the institution’s maturity and aspirations, as well as imposing structure on relative value assessments are crucial for supporting robust conclusions and institutional recommendations. Download our evaluation template to assess multiple iPaaS vendors and compile which best fits your institution’s needs.
Presentation tips to secure campus buy in
Tailoring which results of the research are highlighted to each audience can help win support from varied stakeholders. For campus leadership, a clear articulation of the business case for adoption will help to smooth any authorization processes and secure appropriate financial backing.
Distributed and central IT staff will likely be more compelled by a discussion of how an iPaaS solution can dramatically decrease the time to implement new solutions and increase the long-term value of technology investments.
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