Why You Should Plan Integrations Before Implementing New Technology

As IT spending shoots up by 3%, organizations that plan integrations ahead of time can more easily future-proof their technology stack.

Organizations that plan on investing in new technologies, should also carefully plan integrations for said technologies. In particular, business critical solutions that process large data volumes should have integrations planned at the onset of the project.

Gartner predicts that global IT spending will shoot up by 3% (from 2021) to reach USD 4.5 trillion in 2022. Though the current market trends are volatile, partly owing to inflation, Gartner does not believe this will deter IT investment.

In fact, John-David Lovelock, Research VP at Gartner, painted a grim picture for organizations that are reluctant to invest, stating “organizations that do not invest in the short term will likely fall behind in the medium term, and risk not being around in the long term.” 

IT Investment and Technical Debt

Naturally, CIOs are eager to facilitate digital transformation by adopting and implementing new technologies in their IT infrastructure. This has been made easier by the shift away from ownership, to service solutions. 

However, while service solutions have made things like scalability and implementation easier, the implementation must be done right. Poor implementation of new technology can lead to the project’s total cost of ownership spiraling as organizations sink considerable resources into making the solution work. This dynamic is called technical debt.

Avoiding this dynamic is particularly important for business-critical solutions like ITSM tools (like ServiceNow and others). The more critical the technology to an organization, the more costly the technical debt incurred should the technology not work as desired.

And so the implementation of new technology and the integrations it requires should be carefully planned. Not simply in terms of getting the technology to work in the “now”, but ensuring the technology continues to work in future as the enterprise’s technology stack evolves and data volumes scale. 

To avoid the pitfalls of technical debt, it is critical that organizations plan integrations carefully. Organizations that don’t carefully plan integrations risk incurring costly technical debt.

Considering Integration Options Before Implementing New Technologies

When enterprises readily adopt new tech solutions to cater to their goals, they must first understand and map out how a specific technology ‘fits’ or integrates into the organization’s IT framework. 

For example, before implementation the organization should have an understanding of the following: 

• How do we get data into the solution? 
• How do we get data out of the solution?
• Which systems does data need to be extracted to and does it need to be transformed? 
• Are data volumes large enough that manual processes are ill-advised? 
• Will the distribution of data around a number of systems affect system performance? 
• Do you have the resources to maintain the solution and meet its requirements in terms of data, regulatory compliance and security?
• Can you maintain the solution through staff-turnover?

When business critical technologies like ITSM solutions are involved, all of these considerations and more must be carefully evaluated. Understanding the above helps organizations in choosing the right method of integration for their requirements – a key factor when organizations plan integrations.  

It’s typically better to speak to integration experts about your project’s requirements before starting. 

Many organizations make the mistake of rushing integrations before thoroughly assessing their requirements. Because of this many organizations begin building integrations in-house under the assumption that it’ll be more cost effective. 

However, they soon realize that they don’t have the resources to maintain, or even finish the integration, and so the integration (and even the integrated systems) become technical debt.

• Blog: The Hidden Costs of DIY Integrations

Introducing integrations that only the developer responsible for implementation understands is another common issue. In this case, the organization can lose the ability to benefit from the integration once that developer leaves, leading to integration debt.

And now with data regulations becoming more common, organizations must also carefully plan integrations to ensure their chosen method of integration is compliant. Having to rework or rebuild an integration from scratch in order to make it compliant is a costly technical debt that organizations should be keen to avoid. 

• Whitepaper: GDPR and ITSM – How to Support Compliance with Automated Integration Solutions

How Can Data Integration and Synchronization Benefit ITSM?

Perspectium is an integration-as-a-service solution (IaaS) for integrating ITSM tools such as ServiceNow, with other ITSM tools, as well as analytics, reporting, business intelligence tools and more.

While data integration in general, has many benefits, Perspectium’s expertise and approach to data integration takes these benefits further, offering a performance impact-free approach to integrations.

As a partner of ServiceNow, and an integration provider to the ITSM provider, Perspectium is an integration provider with a clear pedigree.

Perspectium’s intelligent data integration and synchronization tools are designed to help ServiceNow clients optimally use their business data. 

• Integrations promote seamless collaboration

Perspectium is the industry authority in ITSM integration. Integrating ServiceNow data and organizational workflows, it promotes collaboration between global teams across different locations. 

Perspectium integrates multiple ITSM tools to facilitate the smooth flow of data and knowledge between different systems and teams. For example, you can integrate ITSM to the wider enterprise to eliminate data silos – the data and processes between integrated systems remain synchronized. Thus, the ITSM teams and other departments can function on the same page. 

Perspectium lets organization’s connect to service providers and vice versa. This allows the service provider and customer organization to connect workflows via eBonding.

This means the creating, assigning, monitoring, and sharing of tickets can be bi-directionally synchronized to keep all integrated systems consistent and give the organization(s) a more comprehensive view of their data and enterprise.

• Integrations allow for enhanced data reporting

By integrating various business functions, systems, and tools, organizations can gain deeper insights into their business processes and produce accurate reports. 

The Perspectium DataSync solution makes ServiceNow data extraction quick and hassle-free. You can extract ServiceNow data into pre-configured BI views for every business requirement. From creating Tableau dashboards, to manipulating analytics for BI, Perspectium’s integration solutions replicate ServiceNow data to your end-point without impacting ServiceNow’s performance. 

And you can manage and monitor your integrations natively, from within the ServiceNow app you’re already familiar with.

• Integrations let you use data optimally 

Perspectium lets you replicate/migrate your ServiceNow data without incurring data loss during transition. You can bidirectionally connect ServiceNow workflows to ITSM tools, incident fulfillers, and even external teams without worrying about building and maintaining the integrations yourself – the integration service fully managed and supported by Perspectium. 

Using the ServiceBond solution, you can extend your ITSM workflows into other apps, teams, or third-party systems to create and automate inter-application workflows. Also, you can streamline DevOps workflows by integrating your development tools with ServiceNow (OOTB). 

Perspectium’s technology uses a message queue to facilitate integrations. So if your data endpoints suffer an outage, the data is not lost. It is simply queued, ready to be replicated to the end-point whenever it is back online. 

Choose Perspectium for ServiceNow Integrations 

In the face of rapid technological adoption and digital disruption, companies are gearing up for growth and innovation in an increasingly complex IT environment. 

This is true for ServiceNow clients as well. If you’re looking to streamline ServiceNow integrations and simplify organizational processes, Perspectium is the right choice. With vast expertise in service management and cloud delivery, Perspectium delivers complete security & privacy, inbuilt best practices for deployment, easy access to data in real-time, high throughput and availability, and more.

With Perspectium, data integration experts manage the entire integration process, so your data flows where it needs to be … and without impacting ServiceNow performance.