Digibee — an enterprise integration platform as a service (eiPaaS) company that helps organizations build scalable integration architecture, — has unveiled its inaugural Digibee 2022 State of Enterprise Integration Report.
The report reveals insights from enterprise technology leaders and executives on the critical role of system and data integration for businesses competing in a digital-first world. Digibee’s research was developed in partnership with research firm CensusWide and is based on a survey of more than 1,000 U.S.-based CIOs, developers and enterprise architects conducted April 27 to May 5, 2022.
Organizations around the world are rapidly evolving to a digital-first technology model to support business-critical initiatives such as cloud migration and omnichannel customer experiences. However, the Digibee 2022 State of Enterprise Integration Report reveals that, while most business leaders understand the urgency in modernizing existing infrastructure, most respondents face significant challenges integrating their existing operations with this future state.
Enterprise integration strategy is a top priority, but few strategies are in place
One of the most interesting aspects of the report is the disparity between thought and action regarding enterprise integration strategy. While most organizations recognize the value of enterprise integration and the criticality of creating and implementing an enterprise integration strategy, few have implemented a strategy, reflecting the early stage of these initiatives across most organizations.
Most business leaders (57%) believe an enterprise integration strategy is critical to their organization, while 61% of CIOs and more than half of system architects and developers said a standardized, enterprise integration strategy is a top priority. However, businesses are at different stages in their enterprise integration initiatives. Only 7% of respondents have succeeded in implementing an enterprise integration strategy, while 93% of decision-makers admit they have no formal integration strategy in place. Most are still in the planning stage (53%), intending to activate their strategy within the next 12 months, while over a third (36%) of respondents said that nothing is planned.
“While business demand for enterprise integration is high, managing the enterprise integration ecosystem is challenging and defining a strategy takes time. However, with modern eiPaaS systems and agile methodology, much can be accomplished while developing a formal strategy,” said Digibee CEO and co-founder Rodrigo Bernardinelli. “It is encouraging that the majority of respondents view enterprise integration as an important initiative to drive their organizations forward toward achieving their objectives for agility and digital transformation.”
Existing integration tools fall short and rebuilding integrations is common
When they do use integration tools, IT decision makers often find that existing integration tools fall short of where they need to be in terms of usability, adaptability and speed to market. Rebuilding integrations also is a common task. More than half of CIOs and 45% of system architects and developers said in the past 12 months they had to rebuild integrations for existing key business applications six to 10 times, while 98% of respondents have rebuilt integrations for existing key business applications in the past 12 months. A lack of strategy has driven many organizations to rely on stopgap solutions that frequently need to be rebuilt or replaced.
“With a properly designed integration strategy, enterprises gain the flexibility needed to accelerate their business, reduce time to market and support their goals for innovation and digital transformation,” said Tam Ayers, field CTO, North America, Digibee. “Enterprises can replace parts of their current application stack as needed, and easily and quickly create or modify integrations to support those changes. Enterprises can cost-effectively and transparently integrate on-premises systems, cloud services, customers’ and partners’ systems. Integration strategy is central to the flow of information and an organization’s agility to move with customers and focus on business goals.”
For more information, the Digibee 2022 State of Enterprise Integration Report is available for download, and a blog about the report is here.
