Skip to Main Content

Integration Strategy

Help to define and deliver the integration strategy for your organisation.

Get in touch

Integration Strategy

A well defined integration strategy is essential for any organisation tackling digital transformation. Even if we don’t see it as digital transformation, it is still the essence of valuing connected data, processes and systems in the organisation. It is much more than a strategic choice of a vendor technology, and for many organisations is increasingly becoming part of their competitive edge in their market. 

An integration strategy is a framework for making decisions about integration and for selecting the right capabilities to address the organisation’s needs. Success in integration is about developing a capability, which for some organisations may legitimately mean procuring the capability as part of their integration strategy.

Benefits of an Integration Strategy

Gives the organisation a prioritised roadmap for development of capability and delivery of automation

Enables the organisation to make sound decisions about integration

Elevates the discipline and capability in the organisation

Allows the organisation to better plan other application/systems investments in the organisation

Enables the organisation to get to a point where it can leverage it competitively

How to develop an integration strategy

The work to develop an integration strategy starts with assessing your current capability, tooling and understanding what you need to align with the organisation’s strategy. We need to value the business processes and prioritise the needs for automation, connected systems and data across the organisation. 

With data and integration so intrinsically entwined, it is difficult to be successful in integration without a strong data foundation. This means solid data models. Canonical data models or business object models are key to abstracting the physical data models of systems deployed from the way the organisation understands and refers to data or entities. That doesn’t necessarily mean embarking on a full blown data analysis and modelling exercise across an entire organisation. You can build and model data in an agile or iterative manner as long as you capture the data pertinent to the entire process being automated/integrated. 

In order to understand the capability that needs to be established, it is common to break down the prioritised integration needs into one of three broad types of integration pattern:

  • Data consistency – e.g. ensuring customer data in 3 different systems is the same
  • Multistep process – e.g. implementing a business process like Quote-to-Cash across systems
  • Composite services – e.g. a new application or services using data from multiple systems

This approach will help to categorise your functional needs in terms of technology capability. 

Most larger organisations need more than one tool in their integration toolkit. Some technologies in the market lend themselves to rapid delivery of integration outcomes. Those same technologies often don’t look good at scale as a singular choice for an enterprise customer. 

A diverse set of integration capabilities allows the organisation to effectively service a broader set of integration roles from integration specialist to citizen integrator and self-service integration. However, without a solid strategy and governance framework that same diverse set of capabilities can generate issues for an organisation. 

Not sure where to start on your Integration Strategy journey?

Complete our Integration Maturity Assessment and find out!

  • Learn your strengths and weaknesses
  • Prioritise and plan your steps to achieve a successful strategy
  • Discover your Integration Maturity score
Start the Survey

How can we help you and what we do for Integration Strategy implementation

Assess your current integration capabilities, architecture, processes and governance.

Define the vision and roadmap to achieve maximum integration benefits and business objectives.

Establish your integration architecture and platform, along with the skills to leverage, manage and scale them over time.

Get in touch

More about our services

  • Audit & Value Assessment
  • Technology Evaluation & Selection
  • API Strategy & Governance
  • Data Architecture & Governance
  • Security, Access and Identity Strategy
  • Programme Management
  • Platform Design & Delivery
  • Integration Design & Development
  • API Design and Development
  • Automation & DevOps
  • IAM / CIAM Implementation
  • Managed Services
  • Support
  • API Management
  • Training & Enablement
  • Healthcheck & Troubleshooting
  • Team Augmentation

Need help with your integration strategy?

At Chakray we help organizations of all sizes establish effective integration strategies.

Get in touch

What Integration technologies do we use at Chakray?

At Chakray you can choose from leading Integration technology providers: Workato, Azure, Boomi, Red Hat, Gravitee, WSO2 and more. Find the right one for your business.

see all technologies

WSO2 provides best of breed open source Integration, API and Identity Management technology. Their technologies power outcomes for brands such as Travis Perkins and Ebay.

Find out more

Boomi provides IPaaS technology built around a connector based pricing model. Recognised by Gartner as a leader in this space, Boomi is trusted by brands such as Sky and 23andMe.

Find out more

Azure provides a pay-as-you-go cloud computing platform encompassing a wide range of capabilities, including SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. Their services empower organisations such as the NHS, Siemens, and Coca-Cola.

Find out more

Gravitee is the first event-native API Management platform that enables you to manage, secure, and govern synchronous and asynchronous APIs. Clients such as the Danish Data Supply Agency, the University of Helsinki, and the Imperial War Museum in London trust Gravitee with the implementation of their APIfication strategies.

Find out more

Workato is an automation platform, consistently recognised as a market leading solution in iPaaS, and trusted by brands such as Slack and Box to improve efficiency and experiences.

Find out more

Confluent Kafka is a data streaming platform based on Apache Kafka. Confluent is trusted to improve business intelligence and manage real-time events by Disney, Expedia and AO.

Find out more

Need help deciding which TECHNOLOGY is right for your business?

At Chakray we can help you, contact us!

Get in touch

Considerations and common Integration Strategy Mistakes 

The most common mistake organisations make is the absence of an integration strategy. That doesn’t necessarily mean that a given integration initiative will not succeed, but it does mean that you are less likely to realise all the potential benefits, and over time your initiatives will become more costly and ineffective.

  • Failing to understand the value to the business of the capability
  • Thinking of product choice as strategy or that one tool fits the jobs
  • Failing to enable more integrators in the organisation.
  • Treating it as part of your application strategy
  • Failing to establish a basis for valuing integration projects
  • Not addressing the foundations for success
  • Viewing integration as a point problem rather than a strategic opportunity
  • Failing to apply governance to it or understanding what can be done by whom and when

Read how some of our clients handled Integration

Case Study

CarFinance 247

CarFinance 247 adapts a digitally forward self-serve model for its platform, boosting customer experience significantly

Pamplona
Case Study

The Pamplona Community of Municipalities

Improves its citizens’ quality of life through its Smart City transformation.

Case Study

Miranza Group

Miranza Group improves customer experience with an integrated healthcare strategy thanks to Chakray.

Case Study

Esteve Teijin

Esteve Teijin integrate their internal IT systems to reduce overheads and improve the quality and timeliness of data.

Case Study

Research and Development organisation

Impact Management Framework with Chakray

Why Chakray

In a connected world, where our customers and partners expect and rate organisations based on the connected experience they receive, an organisation’s integration capability is its core enabler to ‘connected’. 

At Chakray, we help organisations of all sizes establish effective integration strategies. There are tech giants in the market today that can enter any market they choose to focus on. For them, ‘connected’ is table stakes. We believe our role in the market is to make it table stakes for everyone else.

Get in touch

You May Be Interested In…

Further information and reading on subjects related to this page.

Shwetha Mahendran
Technical Researcher
Digital Transformation

2023 data integration trends

Chakray
Boomi Retail
Shwetha Mahendran
Technical Researcher

Talk to our experts

Contact our team to discuss your initiatives and find out how Chakray can help deliver your successful outcomes.

Get in touch