There are many reasons Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is so hot right now. SaaS allows businesses to expand their capabilities while reducing their reliance on IT. There's no need to invest in additional infrastructure, train existing or new personnel, or license new software. Most SaaS offerings are also based on a pay-as-you-go business model that gives businesses the flexibility to pay only for what they use, creating a return on investment much faster than with software licenses.

The benefits of SaaS would be attractive in any environment. Set against the backdrop of today's economic climate, SaaS can seem like the light at the end of the tunnel. As IT budgets wane and resource bandwidth shrinks, performance expectations remain the same. Businesses are asked to "do more with less" -- and for many, SaaS is the answer.

However, without integration the view to the cloud can be nebulous. Without a plan for integration, companies can end up with siloed applications that put their business processes in a vacuum. The grass may be greener on the other side, but you need to tear down the fence if you want to get there.

For years, companies have struggled with integrating their on-premise applications in attempts to streamline their business processes and create time and cost saving efficiencies. These challenges have most often been solved using a team of domain experts and technical specialists who understood the underlying frameworks and processes of the applications in question. Customizations to these applications had been done by the IT department, and as a result, required these same people to help with any integration project.

While this time-consuming and often expensive method produced results, it flies in the face of what SaaS promises. Namely: flexible, easy-to-use applications that provide autonomy from the IT experts. If you apply the same archaic integration solutions to connecting your SaaS and on-premise applications you will marginalize or potentially eliminate the inherent benefits of SaaS.

With that in mind you should consider the following when selecting an integration solution:

1. Native connectivity to the most popular standard enterprise applications, legacy systems and databases, as well as the innate capability to connect with modern Web services APIs.
2. Ease of use is a must. Your integration solution needs to be intuitive and user-friendly. SaaS applications are designed to be managed by business users and the same people who touch this data need to be able to connect it with other enterprise systems. By treating systems in the cloud in the same way you do on-premise systems, mapping integration points can be easy for even the least technical user.
3. Efficiency and manageability are key. SaaS vendors update their systems and APIs more frequently than on-premise systems, which means the cloud is no place for hand-written integration scripts. Your integration solution needs to have re-useable configurations that are easily shared and quickly adapt with SaaS.
4. Avoid upfront costs. One of the reasons you chose your SaaS solution was to mitigate your risk. With a pay-as-you-go model you can simply turn off the system if it's not working for you. Don't jeopardize your return on investment with expensive software licenses -- your integration solution should use a flexible subscription model too.

To put it simply, realizing the true benefits of SaaS requires integration of the business processes you intend to automate. But the solution must complement the upsides of SaaS or you'll end up taking one step forward, two steps back. If you plan ahead for these integration challenges with a focus on flexibility and ease-of-use, you are guaranteed to realize the true benefits of your SaaS investments!

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