Integration Time

Adam Rogers
Chief Technology Officer
Ultimate Software


The arrival of SaaS and Cloud computing has brought one of the most challenging issues in business software – integration – back to the forefront. For on-premise software deployments, the connection between systems has always been a gigantic hassle for IT. An upgrade to any part of the software stack could take out a major system, like payroll, and send technicians on a frantic chase to track down the cause and the solution.

Ultimate started SaaS delivery of payroll and human capital management (HCM) in 2002. We had a lot of experience in integration and applied it to the new delivery model. It wasn’t easy, and there wasn’t a blueprint for how to deliver integrations as a service.

Fast forward to 2012, and we now support more than 8000 unique connections to Ultimate products for our more than 2300 customers. These include everything from health insurance carriers to on-premise systems in our customers’ datacenters. 

And at this year’s Connections, Ultimate’s user conference, we talked about some important next steps in that effort.  Working in partnership with Informatica, the world leader in technology for systems connectivity, we’re building a next-generation carrier network. Our goal is to make it easier for organizations to connect with their service providers, manage and monitor those connections, and change them whenever they need to. Integration should be a business decision, not a technology decision.

Another great example of seamless connectivity is our new integration with Yammer. We’ve made it almost as simple as signing into a game on Facebook, but with appropriate controls for a business system. No IT work, no calls to a consultant, just a few clicks to authenticate and configure. Because connecting your work systems to your people systems should be just that simple, right? 

I think so! Much more on tap too.