Where Does Your Company Stand for Integration Maturity?

Maturity models can help evolving enterprises strive for continuous progress, such as finding the right solution for integrating SaaS applications. In this article, we’ll help you prepare your company for its next stage by defining your current stage in the Integration Maturity Model.

The 5 Stages of the Integration Maturity Model

Integrating apps can alleviate the silos that often break down key business processes. Keep in mind, though, that the specific integration approach can differ significantly throughout an organization’s lifecycle.

According to a recent survey, 70% of IT decision makers have already adopted cloud-based solutions for their employers because of flexibility, utility, productivity, and speed of innovation.

As companies increase their usage of SaaS apps, IT and individual departments are left with figuring out how to better manage their tech stack. Fortunately, common trends have emerged based on a company’s developmental stage. Having helped thousands of customers with their integrations, Celigo translated a decade’s worth of data into the following model.

You can find a more detailed description of the maturity model in our article on the Integration Maturity Model, but here’s a quick overview of the five stages:

Stage 1: Ad-hoc

First, manual processes are abundant at this early stage. Individuals solve any issues that arise on an as-needed basis, including integrating a few SaaS apps.

Stage 2: Developing

Next, a hodgepodge of native integrations, point-to-point integrations, and APIs becomes a logistical nightmare for integrating the growing amount of apps. Any special use cases may require a much higher degree of customization.

Stage 3: Centralized

Eventually, IT and operations build and own enterprise-wide integrations, while collaborating with different teams on their use cases. With well-defined processes, these companies proactively identify issues and even adopt an integration platform (iPaaS).

Stage 4: Optimized

More companies at this stage adopt an iPaaS to automate their processes, driving their business forward. Their platform is federated for both IT and business users to build and maintain the integrations that suit their needs.

Stage 5: Empowered

At last, companies who’ve reached this Holy Grail have a blueprint for automation and integration in place. All employees possess an integration-first mindset to proactively improve business processes.

The Integration Journey Continues

If your company is currently on the left side of this integration spectrum, consider the rewards of shifting toward the right.

For example, our iPaaS enables IT and business users to build, manage, and maintain their own integrations. This standardized platform, paired with customizable pre-built integrations, helps efficiently automate business processes. By reducing manual processes and maintaining real-time data, the connected enterprise can focus more on strategic endeavors.

That’s why automation is such a valuable competitive advantage for companies who are ready to scale.

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