Extra tags: Data Governance
Authored by: Honchew Seetoh, General Manager for Asia, Boomi
Building a resilient enterprise is no simple task. Experts agree that the key to success in a post-pandemic world is to gain digital resilience, but traditional approaches add to IT complexity and struggle to break down data silos. For something this important, there is little room for failure in terms of integrating on-premises and cloud applications, as well as data sources and devices. Yet, for senior executives in the region, cutting through the complexity to establish a single, reliable source of truth across teams, functions, and applications quickly remains a consistent pain point.
A common challenge is ensuring electronic data interchange (EDI) environments, which make it possible to manage vendor, supplier, and distributor networks, are integrated seamlessly and can be scaled. This is because legacy EDI systems were not built to integrate with new cloud-based applications or support projects for mobile apps and API connections.
The result is a system that is hard to fix, does not allow visibility across the supply chain, and slows partner onboarding. To adapt to future business disruptions, digital resiliency is a central tenet of future enterprises that, according to IDC, "must be underpinned by an open, integrated, and holistic technology architecture."
While bespoke code, enterprise service bus (ESB) and application programming interfaces (APIs) are conventional methods for integrating applications and data, they are not without their problems. Even with developer-friendly APIs, there can be "lost in translation" issues when bad data enters the environment, undermining integration. That means, if you expose a good API to a bad process or bad data in the back end, you have essentially compromised the business and its assets. The outcomes that were expected will not be met as a result of poor data integration and flow of data within the organisation.
Integration platform as a service solutions, or iPaaS, differ from the monolithic platforms running from an ESB, on-premises, or that are heavily developer-focused. Cloud-native in nature, iPaaS resolves data integration and integrity issues by operating like ready-made, reusable strips of Velcro or snaps holding pieces of fabric together. The connections between legacy and cloud applications are portable and highly reusable, which makes it easy to deploy and maintain for IT professionals of all experience levels.
Instead of needing to solve integration issues in-house, iPaaS provides far more functionality, takes less time to implement, and gives employees time to devote to business-critical responsibilities.
Leveraging the power of the cloud to eliminate massive capital costs, iPaaS solutions connect apps and data with speed and ease, enabling businesses to break down data silos by integrating on-premise and cloud applications, data sources and devices across their distributed environment. As a result, enterprises ensure they can operate more efficiently and enable all customers to automatically benefit from the latest features and functionalities.
For example, iPaaS made it easier and faster for Native Union, a Hong Kong-based technology accessory company, to deploy a new fulfillment warehouse remotely and similarly. It also allowed JERA, Japan's largest power company, to alleviate strain on the IT team and gain visibility into operations to prevent service disruptions across 10 countries.
Employees gain a singular view of the data across business units and functions, eliminating issues with bad data. Additionally, maintenance is simplified because the integration platform (iPaaS) can make updates or conduct re-platforming or refining existing systems, in the background. In addition, it allows system integrators to complete more projects, get involved with more business functions, or company subsidiaries, and generate a lot more value for the enterprise through a more seamless engagement.
Drive innovation with easy deployment
Furthermore, iPaaS overcomes the expertise barrier that hinders regional organisations from consolidating enterprise class data into data lakes. With easy deployment to new or existing big data clusters, iPaaS reduces the number of IT requests and gives teams more time to spend on innovation. At the same time, business analysts are in a position to harness data-driven business use cases and add more value to the underlying operations.
Easily installed and managed, iPaaS facilitates data governance management to empower organisations investing in big data technologies to safely expand the end-user base, provide more value, and improve the returns on investment of any data-driven initiatives.
The mission now, for companies in the region, is to deliver unparalleled quality products and applications for the business and their customers, forge a reliable and sustainable supply chain, and improve financial results.
In this regard, synchronisation of data and cohesive operations are crucial, and businesses in the region must scrutinise their ability to do so, as they look to lay the foundations for their businesses in the digital future to come. Furthermore, with economic headwinds and the new normal impacting how businesses operate, enterprises require even more data accuracy, process agility and product innovation than ever before.
Amid these increasingly complex disruptions, businesses need a robust iPaaS platform to be able to respond to market volatility with a simplified IT strategy that delivers agility, resilience, and innovation. Enabling access to accurate, real-time data, iPaaS enables businesses to overcome daily obstacles and better prepare for disruption to come. As organisations look to systems and processes that enable them to rapidly respond to changing conditions, digital investment that improves data accuracy will directly lead to unlocking new business efficiencies that will reap historic benefits and new business opportunities.
