According to Gartner, enterprises are considering or adopting iPaaS (integration platform as a service) solutions at record levels. If you’re like many Remedi clients observing the trend, you might be wondering if your organization should embrace iPaaS.
Like so many other existential decisions, when it comes to solutions enterprises use to integrate, access, and leverage critical business and supply chain data, the answer is, “it depends.”
In this article, we’ll explain what iPaaS is, how it works, and the major benefits for businesses that adopt it.
We also look at use cases and offer tips (and a free tool) to help you evaluate iPaaS vendors.
Key Takeaways:
- What IPaaS is and how it works
- IPaaS helps organizations streamline business processes, reduce complexity, and control costs
- Industry use cases for iPaaS
So, What is iPaaS?
Recently we spoke with a metal products fabrication company with 500 trading partners about options for their integration infrastructure. One of those options includes going from their current hybrid set up to an iPaaS solution.
Right now, they host EDI on-premises and, in addition to trading partners, connect with software, systems, and databases in the cloud. They’ve been experiencing rapid growth and want to scale up their integration capabilities.
However, they also want to reduce complexity and spend less time managing their environment.
They had two main questions about the iPaaS option. “How can iPaaS help a company like ours?” and “What else can iPaaS do besides EDI?”
Great questions. You may even be posing similar questions inside your walls. Before we get to them, we need to answer, “what is iPaaS?”
iPaaS is a subscription-based, cloud-delivered integration solution. It allows your organization to connect and integrate with endpoints like trading partners, internal/external applications, and data sources whether they are on-premises or in the cloud.
Customers have control and access, but the vendor manages the environment and infrastructure that underpins integrations most often through common code and multi-tenant architecture.
This lets you create integration maps, processes, data pipelines, workflows, etc. via developer environments and offers integration monitoring, visibility, and support through daily operations dashboards and automated alerting. Some vendors provide more complex integration tooling, but that’s for the next blog.
What can iPaaS do besides EDI?
While EDI is a core integration use case, iPaaS can do so much more than EDI:
- API Development/Management: If newer trading partners prefer API-based data exchange over EDI, an iPaaS can bridge the gap between the two. It can also integrate cloud applications (e.g., Salesforce, NetSuite, or SAP).
- Event-Driven Automation: Trigger workflows based on real-time data (e.g., when an order is shipped, automatically update inventory and notify partners).
- Data Transformation Orchestration: Convert and route data between different formats and protocols, reducing reliance on custom scripts or middleware.
- Hybrid Integration: Connect your on-premises systems (like ERP, WMS, and legacy EDI) to cloud-based applications, keeping everything in sync.
- MFT File-Based Integration: If you exchange large files (e.g., CAD drawings, invoices, or compliance documents), iPaaS can support Managed File Transfer (MFT) alongside EDI and APIs.
- AI-Driven Data Insights: Some platforms offer analytics and anomaly detection, helping you spot inefficiencies or errors in supply chain processes.
What are the benefits of iPaaS?
No matter what industry you compete in, from selling fiber optic cables to aerospace firms to private label ice cream making, IPaaS is a key component of digital transformation.
iPaaS helps organizations:
- Streamline business processes and reduce complexity
- Simplify integration and amplify visibility
- Create a more reliable and resilient integration infrastructure
- Avoid dedicating in-house resources to monitor, update, and patch the infrastructure
- Control costs and increase competitiveness
- More quickly adapt to changing tech landscapes and a loosening regulatory environment
From a strategic growth perspective, iPaaS greases the skids for scaling by enabling end users to:
- Get up and running almost immediately
- Connect and exchange data quickly
- Implement multistep processes
- Create composite services
- Achieve data consistency
In short, iPaaS solutions enable agility and allow organizations to respond faster to the demands of digital commerce.
What Industries Use iPaaS?
With transportation and logistics being a wheelhouse industry at Remedi, we’ve seen the benefits of iPaaS adoption firsthand. We’re currently working with a global manufacturer of aerospace, military, and industrial components on a multi-year project involving a complete migration to Boomi.
Why the shift?
They need more flexibility, agility, and better support for trading partners with complex requirements. These same challenges drive iPaaS adoption in other industries as well:
iPaaS in Healthcare
Hospitals and healthcare providers use iPaaS to connect patient records, billing systems, and scheduling tools. By integrating electronic health records (EHRs) with other medical systems, iPaaS ensures seamless data sharing, improving patient care and streamlining operations.
iPaaS in Retail
Retailers use iPaaS to link e-commerce platforms with inventory and order management systems. This helps keep stock levels, sales orders, and shipments updated in real-time, creating a smoother experience for both customers and suppliers.
iPaaS in Financial Services
Banks and financial institutions rely on iPaaS to connect payment gateways, accounting software, and other financial systems. This simplifies payment processing, strengthens security and compliance, and improves decision-making with better data visibility.
How Do I Choose the Right iPaaS Partner?
Moving your integration architecture to an iPaaS environment takes time to do right. But the ROI can be well worth the effort. And thorough preparation will help you avoid costly mistakes and business disruptions.
Your first challenge is how to cut through the sales pitches and compare each vendor objectively.
Checking off the items on the following list can help you get started:
Integration Needs – Does it support endpoint connections like EDI, APIs, MFT, and ERP?
Reputation/Length of Time in Market– Does the vendor understand the dynamics and requirements of your vertical? Do they have a track record of happy customers to prove it?
Pricing – Is it clear? Reasonable? Flexible?
Scalability – Can it easily handle more trading partners and transaction volume?
Ease of Onboarding – How quickly can new partners and applications be integrated?
Management Monitoring – Does it provide centralized visibility into all integration types?
Hybrid Cloud Compatibility – Can it connect on-premises systems with cloud systems?
Security Compliance – Does it meet industry standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, or specific supply chain regulations?
Total Cost of Ownership – How do subscription fees compare to maintaining on-premises or public/private cloud infrastructure?
When you’re ready to compare potential iPaaS vendors, you’re going to want to do two things:
1. Document your requirements.
2. Develop a short list of vendors to consider and see how well they stack up against each other in each of these categories listed above.
Fortunately, we’ve developed a tool that lets you do both. It covers everything you need to document your requirements and evaluate how well each vendor candidate meets them. What it doesn’t cover, you can fill in in customizable fields.
As mentioned, it won’t be a quick process. Then again, mapping out the regions of the company’s digital brain and the zillions of connection points it will make with internal and external systems and data sources is a detail-rich exercise.
Next week’s installment will profile each of the major players in the iPaaS market. In the meantime, thanks for reading and don’t hesitate to reach out for assistance with iPaaS or other integration needs. It cost nothing to explore your options.
