Introduction of IPaaS: effect on organizational structure of company.

The shift from enterprise software to SaaS solutions requires flexible integration of different systems in order to implement efficient processes. Integration platforms offer the solution for this, but who is responsible for the implementation, who is the admin or power user, and who configures the automations? A dedicated organizational structure, including role and rights management, is crucial for efficient implementation with maximum flexibility and minimum dependency on the individual systems.

The shift to SaaS solutions away from enterprise software and more specialist solutions has made the system landscape of companies much more heterogeneous. So today I use the most suitable system for each line-of-business. However, integration of these systems is essential for efficient implementation of business processes. Integration platforms offer a solution here to support flexibility and independence from individual systems and to be able to use systems as needed and expand them flexibly.

This responsibility for designing the system landscape and defining the need for IPaaS lies with different strategic roles depending on the size of the company. For larger companies, it is the CTO or Head of IT, and for smaller companies, it is the management. The overall corporate strategy and development intentions must be taken into account. Once the decision to deploy an integration platform has been made, the following questions immediately arise:

To answer these questions, it is first necessary to create a role for overarching and strategic process responsibility. In small companies, this role can often lie with the IT manager or even the executive management, as they are most likely to know the "big picture". In larger companies, there are usually dedicated staff positions for this purpose, such as the Business Process Manager, Transformation Manager or Business Development, which has the overall corporate efficiency increase as its guiding goal.

In close cooperation with IT, the prerequisites are thus created for all systems to be accessible and for overarching processes to be represented. The role of the Business Process Manager also assumes the position of admin or power user for the cross-departmental processes. The department-specific processes, on the other hand, are set up and integrated in the departments themselves, with either a department head or a dedicated selected person bearing responsibility and implementing the automations.

By taking the IT landscape into account and integrating the systems into the organizational structure, efficient implementation including best-of-breed selection of enterprise software can be ensured. The different roles must be available in the system through responsibility hierarchies and release processes in order to be able to set up governance optimally and sustainably in addition to the initial setup of an integration.

State-of-the-art system landscapes with maximum flexibility and minimum dependency on the individual systems can only be guaranteed for companies if the processes are adequately taken into account by the organizational structure and process organization. A clear distribution of roles and an adequate governance structure are therefore essential in order to make optimal use of the advantages of integrating enterprise software solutions via integration platforms.