New technologies, legislation, security, and factors such as user/customer experience are sometimes making ΙΤ infrastructure projects overly complex. Only proper IT governance can guarantee the success of system integration projects. Let’s have a look at an effective approach for accomplishing system integration projects.  

Plan beforehand – Curate positiveness 

Successful implementation of a system integration project requires – of course – a clear and effective strategy. Here are 4 important actions your organization should take to avoid complexity and making things more efficient.  

1. “Recruit” change advocates  

All types of projects need a strong opinion leader to keep things in place. This is someone who will advocate for the project, who is able to communicate its benefits effectively and who shares the vision accordingly.  So before starting such a project, pick the right person from the organization and ask him/her to be your advocate and the “go to person” for everyone else.  

Why is this person important?  It is important because as a project leader you will have to deal with change-weary managers and employees who will question almost everything.  At the same time, as a project leader, you will also be extremely busy to answer every possible question and to clear everyone else’s doubts.  

2. Plan for a “snowball” of successful moments 

We have seen many projects getting canceled midstream, mainly because key people in the organization are not in the position to identify actual results and benefits in each stage.  

To overcome this, prepare your team and everyone involved to recognise and value every single successful moment, on the way to completing the project. Make sure that every success and the results achieved are presented at all interested parties.  

It is certainly not easy to identify and communicate results half-way. However, modern integration monitoring tools provide IT governance with the ability to report on the actual performance during the integration processes. This “component” is crucial for such a project, along with key factors such as resilience, scalability, and flexibility.  

3. Follow a strict security plan 

Another tricky issue is to always maintain high levels of security while running an integration project, as the decisions taken during the process can often mislead you.  

To avoid this risk, prior to working on your project, you have to put a separate security plan in place, and continuously adjust it as needed. Parameters such as firewalls, data management, and encryption have to remain uncompromised.  

4. Beware of the cost – Provide analysis 

As we all know, integration projects often have increased maintenance costs. It is therefore important to provide all involved parties with a cost-benefit analysis from the beginning. Based on this, during and after the implementation process IT managers will be able to validate assumptions and justify decisions and processes.  

Last but not least, value created by integration can occur where you may least expect it. Business processes are often subject to change, due the results from integration. The most advanced system integrators often find ways to re-adjust business flow and operations quickly, while at the same time they find ways to explain and share the added-value coming out of this process.  

At Lamda Hellix, we hold vast experience in running complex and demanding system integration projects and that is something we are proud of. Discover more about our services here. 

 

Article by Sakis Amaxopoulos, Business Development Manager Commercial Operations at Lamda Hellix.