PACE.FOUNDATION

Whether it is implementing industry best practice or understanding more about an emerging technology trend and what it could mean for your business our foundation service packages could help you on the next step in your integration journey.

INTEGRATION - THE DIGITAL ENABLER

This foundations package is designed to give you and your team an introduction into emerging integration trends and how they are enabling disruptive innovation in the connected enterprise. If you need to understand where integration fits into your overall digital strategy and how an API platform can enable new disruptive markets alongside your existing investments, then this package could be a good place to get started.

It can be run with very few inputs if time is a constraint, however our preference is always to work with you to complete some high-level data-collection and analysis of business drivers ahead of the session to provide tangible examples aligned to business objectives for your own organisation.

Topics include:

Digital disruption and the challenge to existing IT
Technology trends in cloud and big data unlocked by integration platforms as a service
Hybrid integration and the continued role of traditional integration landscapes
People – the continued role of the competency centre alongside activation of the line of business platforms
Balancing agility with security – a shift in integration delivery
Enabling Innovation aligned to business objectives and demand

This will leave you with a taste of the importance of a strong integration backbone to meeting your digital agenda and an understanding of the steps required to take forward your integration strategy and roadmap. This package is perfect for those wishing to understand opportunities for unlocking business value and objectives through seamless integration.

INTEGRATION BLUEPRINT

At an early engagement, our integration blueprint provides a critical foundation to understanding overall landscape or programme complexity and scale. It can be applied accross an enterprise or within a line of business area. It considers not only technology, but implications of process change and mobilising the right team for success.

In this wide ranging service we evaluate strategy, roadmap, process, patterns, platforms, methodologies, security, data, operations and organisational implications; producing structured summaries for both leadership and subject matter experts. Differentiated by providing an experienced, independent perspective from software vendors or systems integration providers - avoiding potential conflict of interests.

Our PACE service is tailorable to your needs, but typically includes:

Discovery:

Stakeholder engagement sessions to agree expectations. Agreeing drivers and success criteria.
Understand relevant existing processes and user stories including any workarounds.
Discovery workshops to analyse existing scope of systems and interfaces.
Baseline of your existing integration capabilities and maturity.

Architecture:

Identify simplification and cost saving opportunities.
Identify technology capabilities and gaps aligned to business drivers.
Alignment with business and data teams to deliver comprehensive overview.
Map capabilities to a complete integration framework including technology, patterns and process groupings.

Strategy:

Recommendations and prioritisation, gaining leadership buy-in for outcomes.
Raise key open points and any programme gaps.
Highlight end-to-end implications on vendors, customers, and internal teams.
Plan of action with SMART targets for measuring the success of integration.

This service is perfect for those looking to understand their existing capabilities as part of a strategic review of their landscape, a digital strategy or driven from a large programme of work. In all cases, PACE will ensure you have the right blueprint in place to ensure overall success.

UNLOCK YOUR DATA THROUGH INTEGRATION

This package often starts with a particular business challenge such as how can I track an item through my supply chain from sourcing through to fulfilment, or where can I see my employee and contingent worker costs broken down geographically and by department.

The answers to such insightful questions are often reliant on data locked in separate application silos spread across departments, sitting both on-premise and in the cloud; but through integration this data can be made available as consumable data in a secure and performant manner. This façade can then be used by consumers, applications, analytics platforms, whoever or whatever needs the data to provide real business insight.

So if you’ve been set a challenge, PACE can provide innovative ways to get value from your existing business investments through integration. Working in collaboration with you we can not only find a solution, but complete the diligence ahead of engaging delivery teams. This includes:

Conceptual architecture and feasibility assessment
Business case development
Stakeholder engagement plan

Our size and flexibility allows us to work with you on opportunities earlier in the pipeline to help quickly identify opportunities worth taking forward or sideline ideas that would spiral in complexity and cost.

THE VALUE OF INTEGRATION

There was a time when integration was seen as a pure techie function sitting alongside an infrastructure team, most likely in a darkened basement somewhere; for many outside the world of integration this can still be the perception.

But just as the traditional boundaries between IT and the business are being broken down to enable line of business platforms, integration is no different. It needs to be relatable not only to the development teams and architects but also to the business operations and stakeholders.

Often when people ask for someone to explain their integration capabilities they fall back on talking about integration technologies, patterns and even protocols. However, whilst these are all great enablers, the marketing of integration should be focused on the benefits to the consumer whoever that might be. It’s not only about leading technology, best people, and clear processes, but making it clear how engaging with your Integration competency centre makes it easier to achieve your stakeholders goals.

If you’re struggling to articulate the value of integration, whether that’s inside your organisation or with partners or vendors, then let PACE help you market integration as a brand at the heart of companies continued digital success.

API ACCELERATE

Whether you have a mature existing integration estate, or are on the start of your integration journey it’s an exciting time for the world of integration. Just like in the traditional space where there are different requirements between transactional and data integration, API integration is the backbone for a light-weight type of integration enabling the growth of new digital channels like mobility.

Even for established integration competency centres this presents new challenges, new patterns, new operational models that need to work alongside existing platforms in a hybrid model. With this foundation package we can run an introduction course to the world of APIs, explaining the key concepts, and what impact it will have for integration and line of business teams. This can be tailored for the level of audience - from delivery teams through to executives.