Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS): The Next Big Thing in IT Service Management (ITSM)

In today’s fast-paced business environment, streamlining and automating your IT Service Management (ITSM) processes is crucial to staying competitive. Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is an emerging solution that is changing the way organizations manage their diverse IT applications and systems.

iPaaS is a cloud-based integration and automation solution that provides a single interface to connect and automate disparate business systems, applications and data sources. Unlike traditional integration software that requires significant investment in hardware, software licenses and maintenance, iPaaS requires minimal infrastructure. Users can easily configure and automate data integration across various applications and systems without the need for specialist IT knowledge.

TeamDynamix iPaaS, for example, is a codeless integration and automation tool that uses a drag-and-drop flow builder to facilitate integrations and automated workflows. In addition, the tool has a library of connectors to popular systems including Office365, Workday, DocuSign, AWS, Azure and Salesforce. In addition, TeamDynamix offers sector-specific connections such as Banner, Anthology and Splunk for higher education or EPIC for healthcare. You can also use iPaaS to connect ticketing systems such as TeamDynamix ITSM or other popular platforms. 

The benefits of using iPaaS for integration and automation are numerous. These include:

1. Cost-Effective: With minimal infrastructure required, iPaaS offers a cost-effective approach to ITSM. Moreover, depending on the iPaaS tool you select, pricing can make it accessible for businesses of all sizes, empowering you to leverage advanced automation features at an affordable price.
2. Scalability: iPaaS is highly scalable and can accommodate the growth and expansion of a business. As your organization grows and your needs evolve, iPaaS can adapt to changing requirements without disruption to your existing operations.
3. Easy Integration: iPaaS provides a simplified approach to integration, enabling easy connectivity between different applications, data sources and systems. The no-code nature of the platform eliminates the need for complex coding and enables users to quickly create custom integrations and workflows.
4. Reduced Time to Market: With iPaaS, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to bring your products and services to market. By automating time-consuming manual tasks, you can focus on core business processes and drive innovation, ultimately increasing your organization’s agility and competitiveness.
5. Enhanced Collaboration: With iPaaS, cross-functional teams can collaborate seamlessly, share data and work on shared initiatives. This leads to improved communication, enhanced team productivity and overall better results.
6. Real-time Visibility: iPaaS enables real-time monitoring and analysis of data across different systems and applications. This leads to accurate insights that can drive informed decisions and optimize your ITSM strategy.

At NaphCare, an Alabama-based company providing healthcare services and software to correctional facilities, they use TeamDynamix ITSM along with iPaaS and are seeing success in reducing the strain on IT with automation.

“With iPaaS, we’re looking at automating tasks to take some of the things we do manually out of the hands of IT staff, so they can be more efficient,” Barry Bowden, NaphCare’s IT Service Desk manager, said.

For instance, setting up and provisioning IT accounts for NaphCare employees is currently a multi-step process. NaphCare uses a software program called Adaxes to automate the provisioning of accounts within Active Directory, but IT staff still have to coordinate with both HR staff and the managers of various departments to confirm what IT privileges employees should have—such as whether they should get a free or paid Zoom account. Bowden’s staff includes one full-time employee whose sole responsibility is to perform this work.

With TeamDynamix, NaphCare has created automated workflows for contacting HR and department heads to collect the necessary information. Using iPaaS, Bowden plans to connect TeamDynamix with Adaxes and build a customized workflow to create new user accounts from this information.

Automating this process will enable it to be completed in under five minutes, he says, with very little human intervention needed—freeing up the IT employee responsible for this task to do more strategic work, “That employee can be reallocated to other areas to work on more complex projects,” Bowden said.

There are also plans to automate software provisioning for programs like Microsoft Office.

“It will take me a week, right now, to go in and install Microsoft Office on all the accounts that request it. With automation in place, I won’t need to touch those requests unless there’s a problem. People will be able to go to our portal, put in the request and automatically get the software,” Bowden said. “That’s a full week of time I can get back to work on other things. That will be a huge benefit for us.”