Seize the Integration Advantage
Most large enterprises have what we call the integration hairball. The hairball is characterized by unnecessary complexity resulting from duplicate systems, swivel chair integration, high cost to deploy new systems, and unstable operations caused by changes with unknown dependencies.
Integration competency centers (ICCs) enable companies to integrate data and resources in a coherent, scalable and cost-effective way to deliver an enduring competitive advantage. When done well, integration benefits the whole company.
Starting an ICC
Because each type of ICC has its own advantages, organizations considering implementing an ICC should begin by defining the company's integration goals and the processes needed to accomplish them. Setting the goals and processes clarifies which type of ICC would be most appropriate and which roles and technologies it requires.
Starting an ICC that's right for your enterprise requires the development of an integration strategy. The challenge when starting from scratch, however, is similar to the proverbial "chicken and egg" problem: should you develop the strategy first and then bring the resources on board, or should you establish the core leadership team first and let it develop the strategy? The answer is both: the integration strategy should involve an iterative process, with the executive sponsor driving a top-down process and the ICC team (once it is in place) building the bottom-up plan.
It is also possible that the ICC may be developed spontaneously as a grassroots movement and grown organically. Only in hindsight does the organization recognize the ICC for what it is. In this scenario, the ICC team members may, in fact, be the best ones suited to document the strategy and gain formal management agreement.
Our recommended approach starts with a top-down strategy led by an executive sponsor. The executive sponsor starts with the presumption that integration is an enabler of the business strategy and that having a permanent part of the organization focused on integration as a discipline is a critical success factor.
Although the integration strategy has many dimensions, we will focus here on the core issues related to people, process and technology - in that order. But before we tackle any of these dimensions, we need to determine the organizational structure of the ICC. This structure describes the ICC's hierarchy within the organization and sets the foundation for how it relates to other parts of the enterprise. The structure will, to a large degree, drive the kind of people you need, the services they will provide, and the tools and technology they will need to perform them.
In a nutshell, establishing an ICC is a four-step process:
- Select the ICC organizational model that is right for you.
- Assemble the ICC team (people).
- Determine your current and target integration practice maturity (process).
- Develop the enterprise integration architecture (technology).
Of course, it is not this simple. The strategy needs to be reviewed and refreshed on a regular basis, and a number of other elements may be just as critical, including:
- Architecture principles
- Outsourcing strategy
- Financial policies
- Business alignment
- Supplier partnerships
- Standards selection
That said, the ICC organization model, including the people, the processes, and the technology considerations, is the base. Let's get started.
Step 1: Select the Organizational Model
There are five ways to organize an ICC. Each organizational model is defined by a particular profile of people, processes, and technology and results in a particular set of benefits to the organization. This book explains each of the dimensions and provides general advice on establishing an ICC.
An integration competency center (ICC) supplies a number of advantages over traditional project teams working independently in silos. Although independent project teams may drive a great deal of innovation, that same innovation could be detrimental to the overall enterprise, which also needs to operate efficiently. Innovation in specific functional areas might be great, but variation in shared infrastructure adds complexity and cost.
There is not a single answer as to which organizational model is right for a given enterprise. First and foremost, however, clearly define the scope of your enterprise, and then ensure that whatever model you select, the ICC has an enterprise-wide mandate for it.
Select the ICC Model That Meets Your Needs
ICCs are not all alike. They tend to fall into one of several categories: best practices, standard services, shared services, central services, or self-service. A best-practices ICC seeks to leverage knowledge by establishing and documenting effective integration processes. A standard-services ICC builds on the best-practices ICC but goes one step further, providing consistency by specifying the technologies to be used for all integration projects. A shared-services ICC incorporates the features of best-practices and standard-services ICCs and further optimizes use of resources by creating a shared environment for development, quality assurance (QA) and production. A central-services ICC is the most comprehensive type, providing enterprise-wide control over integration activities by specifying best practices, setting technology standards, furnishing integration services and assuming responsibility for some or all aspects of every integration project in the organization. A self-service ICC completes the picture by creating an environment that is sufficiently standardized and automated such that it becomes almost invisible from the perspective of the individual systems.
