Eric D. Schabell: Integrating with SaaS Applications - An Introduction

Monday, January 20, 2020

Integrating with SaaS Applications - An Introduction

integrating with SaaS applications
Part 1 - An introduction
Since introducing the first architecture focused on omnichannel integration, we've been looking at integrating with Software as a Service (SaaS) applications.

It's an interesting challenge in that we've been given the mission of creating of architectural content based on common customer adoption patterns. That's very different from most of the traditional marketing activities usually associated with generating content for the sole purpose of positioning products for solutions. When you're basing the content on actual execution in solution delivery, you're cutting out the chuff. 

What's that mean?

It means that it's going to provide you with a way to implement a solution using open source technologies by focusing on the integrations, structures and interactions that actually have been proven to work. What's not included are any vendor promises that you'll find in normal marketing content. Those promised that when it gets down to implementation crunch time, might not fully deliver on their promises.

Enter the term Portfolio Architecture. 

Let's look at these architectures, how they're created and what value they provide for your solution designs.

integrating with SaaS applications The process

The first step is to define what we are focusing on when we talk about integrating SaaS applications.

We've settled on the following to guide our architecture: 

'Integrating with SaaS applications means providing your organization with consistent, responsive, and secure access to services, applications, and platforms.'

This is the launching principle that guides our research into how customers are looking at integrating with their SaaS application landscapes. 

The approach taken is to research our existing customers that have implemented solutions in this space, collect their public facing content, research the internal implementation documentation collections from their successful engagements, and where necessary reach out to the field resources involved. 

What's next

An overview of the series on integrating SaaS applications portfolio architecture can be found here:
  1. An introduction
  2. Common architectural elements
  3. Example CRM integration
  4. Example CRM connector integration
  5. Example 3rd-party platform integration
  6. Example processes and 3rd-party platform integration
Catch up on any articles you missed by following one of the links above.

Next in this series, taking a look at the generic common architectural elements needed for integrating SaaS applications.