# Integration Points

Integration Points provide a reusable configuration and governance layer for Integrations.

At first glance, it may seem simpler to configure each Integration individually. However, as the
number of Accounts and Integrations grows, managing configuration on a per-Integration basis
becomes difficult to maintain and govern consistently.

Integration Points solve this problem by allowing common integration requirements and policies
to be defined once and reused across an Organization.

## Why Integration Points Exist

Governance without repetition
Integration Points separate integration governance from individual Integrations.

Rather than embedding configuration rules into every Integration, Organizations can define those
rules centrally and apply them wherever needed. This promotes consistency while reducing
duplication and administrative overhead.

Because Integration Points belong to the Organization rather than individual Accounts, the same
configuration can be reused across multiple customers, tenants, or business units.

## Integration Points as Governance Controls

An Integration Point can define the requirements that an Integration must satisfy before it can
be created or used.

For example, an Organization may decide that only Jira and ServiceNow are approved ticketing
providers. Instead of enforcing that rule separately for every Account, an Integration Point can
define the approved provider list once and apply it consistently across all Accounts that
reference it.


```mermaid
flowchart TD
    ip["Approved Ticketing Providers (Integration Point)"]
    jira(Jira ✓)
    snow(ServiceNow ✓)
    zen(Zendesk ✗)

    ip --> jira & snow & zen
```

Rules inherit automatically
Any Integration associated with that Integration Point automatically inherits those requirements
— no per-Account configuration needed.

## Integration Points and Integrations

A useful way to think about the relationship: an Integration Point defines the rules, while an
Integration represents the actual connection to a Provider.

| Concept | Role |
|  --- | --- |
| **Integration Point** | Defines the rules and requirements centrally |
| **Integration** | The live connection that must satisfy those rules |
| **Provider** | The external system the Integration connects to |


This separation allows Organizations to manage integration standards centrally while still
giving individual Accounts the flexibility to create and operate their own Integrations.

Scaling with consistency
As Organizations scale, Integration Points become an important mechanism for maintaining
consistency, reducing configuration drift, and ensuring that integrations adhere to
organizational requirements without requiring manual oversight.