Now that Software as a Service (SaaS) continues to gain traction and more SaaS solutions are available in the marketplace, it is natural that words of caution such as this are appearing regarding the need to integrate these solutions to avoid silo’ed applications and data. This is a positive sign of the growing importance and adoption of SaaS as an appropriate model to support many different business processes and functions, and the concern can be addressed in a couple of ways:
- Buying into a SaaS eco-system where multiple SaaS vendors have come together and integrated their offerings; or
- Combining SaaS and/or on-premise applications where each supports a particular process or functional area with an operational intelligence solution that can integrate across them to provide holistic operational performance management.
A good example of the first case is NetSuite and the eco-system it is building with its SuiteApps to enhance its core offerings and provide additional functionality. myDIALS is one of these where we bring operational BI capabilities to enhance NetSuite with a tightly integrated (at data, security and user interface layers) solution that enables decision makers to leverage the transactional data of NetSuite with the ability to visualize andanalysis operational performance. NetSuite and myDIALS extend these capabilities beyond the core ERP/CRM/eCommerce with other integrated offerings for example supporting manufacturing, logistics and shipping.
The second case is a little more complex because of the multiple disparate systems within most organizations and the need to integrate to both SaaS and on-premise applications. This requires a very flexible integration platform. In the case of myDIALS we integrate directly to other SaaS solutions using web services interfaces within the cloud. For on-premise applications we provide a hybrid solution with a connector layer that resides on the customer’s premise, behind their firewall and integrates to the various systems, databases, spreadsheets etc that reside there. While not a pure cloud-based SaaS approach, this has the distinct advantage of providing a large number of standard connectors and a flexible platform that can be easily extended to span more systems to ensure that operational performance can be viewed and optimized holistically across the complete business process or value stream.
It is good practice to regularly review business requirements and the applications to support these. Utilizing cost-effective SaaS solutiuons and ensuring the combination of various SaaS applications and on-premise offerings work well together will reduce problems that might otherwise occur. The SaaS eco-system is building and leading vendors are actively seeking out and working together to ensure the smooth operation of combined solutions. In parallel, myDIALS is also integrating with on-premise and legacy systems in addition to other SaaS solutions to optimize operational performance across multiple application silos.
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