Every organization depends on an increasingly complex mix of hardware, software and services but getting all of the components to play nicely together is more often an art, not a science. Believe it or not, components from the same manufacturer do not always fit together without a lot of effort and I must mention that all of this can be very expensive – or maybe even unaffordable?
Making iT simpler:
There’s no such thing as a free integration so it’s time to start asking some serious questions when anybody tells you that a product will integrate with your other business components.Questions to ask:
- who will do the integration?
- how long will it take?
- who will pay for the cost of integration?
- does integration depend on additional/ third-party products/services/ middleware?
Tips from the Devil:
- Websearch is a powerful early-warning tool for discovering integration problems – just put the product name into your favourite search engine and add these two vital key words: “problems” and “integration.”
- Watch out for any integration that depends on hard-coded changes – these will have to be re-applied any number of times in the future. Often a significant, hidden cost legacy – or inbuilt obsolescence that blocks your future roadmap.
- Integration may depend on upgrading your installed versions of hardware/ software – this often escalates business case risk, over and above the purchase and integration costs, by creating a domino effect of enforced changes (which also bring further considerations).
- If integration is business-critical, make sure that effective integration is a contractual obligation and clearly stated as such in your requirements (even if it is a completely in-house transaction).
