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The proliferation of software—often called software sprawl—is not just an administrative burden; it's the number one inhibitor to realizing true enterprise value from Agentic AI. Autonomous AI agents, capable of complex, cross-system action, are the future of efficiency, but they can't work effectively when core business functions are locked in fragmented, siloed platforms.
The answer is not a costly, multi-year "rip and replace" project. The pragmatic strategy for the coming Agentic Era lies in adopting a flexible Orchestration Layer that acts as the intelligent bridge between your legacy systems and your new AI workforce.
The New Mandate: Orchestrate, Don't Overhaul
The era of the monolithic, single-function enterprise suite is giving way to a new architectural paradigm. Leading platforms are evolving beyond serving as a single, static System of Record (SoR)—whether for Sales, Finance, or, for instance, Human Capital Management (HCM).
Instead, they are architecting themselves to be the connective tissue of the entire organization. This next-generation architecture requires a new type of platform—one that provides the blueprint for this orchestration-first approach. This solution allows organizations to "weave in" components, establishing the Agentic Orchestration Layer—the central brain that orchestrates action across departments.
This aligns precisely with the three-layer stack Bain & Company predicts will define the new software architecture:
Systems of Record (The Foundation): Your core business data and legacy platforms (e.g., HRIS, ERP).
Agent Operating Systems (The Brain): AI orchestration platforms that plan and execute tasks. Your Agentic Orchestration Layer is this "Brain"—the central platform that manages the AI workforce and abstracts away the complexity of the underlying SoRs.
Outcome Interfaces (The Communication Layer): Where you tell the AI what you want in plain English.
An Orchestration Layer centralizes identity, automates cross-functional workflows, and provides a single audit trail. This strategy protects your existing technology investment while giving you immediate access to the exponential efficiency gains of Agentic AI.
The Agentic Readiness (A-R) Framework: Prioritized Action
To move from theory to action, the Agentic Readiness (A-R) Framework recommended below incorporates Bain & Company’s "Four Strategic Scenarios for AI’s Impact on SaaS” to strategically prioritize which workflows to automate first.
For context, Bain & Company’s four strategic scenarios are: AI Enhances SaaS, AI Outshines SaaS, AI Cannibalizes SaaS and Spending Compresses.
Phase | Strategic Question | Pragmatic Action Item | Success Metric (Shift to Outcome-Based Value) |
1. Identify Friction | Where are the costliest cross-functional handoffs in my business, and which of Bain & Company’s "Four Strategic Scenarios" do they align with? | Map a single, high-pain workflow (e.g., Offboarding: HR IT Finance). Prioritize workflows in the "AI Cannibalizes SaaS" (Battlegrounds) and "AI Outshines SaaS" (Gold Mines) quadrants for maximum impact. | Mean Time to Complete (MTC) & Financial Outcome: Baseline the MTC. Quantify the workflow cost savings, explicitly aiming to "pay for results, not access" to validate the outcome-based model. |
2. Assess Agility | Can the new platform integrate and take action in my existing SoRs without a full replacement? | Pilot the Orchestration Layer. Use Bain & Company’s Indicators of Penetration (e.g., External Observability, Agent Protocol Maturity) to select systems that are easiest to orchestrate. Test its ability to autonomously Write (not just Read) data across three critical, siloed systems. | Integration Depth & Data Moat: Percentage of auto-provisioning/deprovisioning actions successfully executed. Confirm the Orchestration Layer acts as the secure, central hub to control your unique, proprietary data, which Bain & Company identifies as the ultimate competitive moat. |
3. Empower the Agent | Where can I inject true AI reasoning and autonomy, with clear human oversight? | Launch a single, low-risk Agent. For workflows in the "AI Enhances SaaS" (Core Strongholds) quadrant, establish clear Human-in-the-Loop (HITL)checkpoints to ensure deep expertise and strict oversight is maintained. | Value Realization & Redirected Capacity: Beyond productivity (e.g., 30% reduction in time spent) , define how the time saved will be redirected to higher-value work—the crucial step for translating productivity into business value. |
Your Roadmap for Adoption: Scale by Impact
A pragmatic adoption roadmap ensures trust, controls risk, and delivers value fast:
Phase 1: Stop the Sprawl (90 Days): Implement the Orchestration Layer's IT/Access management module first. Use it to centralize all identity provisioning across your existing apps. This delivers immediate security and control gains.
Phase 2: Core Consolidation (6-12 Months): Migrate only the most archaic or unsupported core functions (e.g., time-off tracking or expense reporting) into the new platform. Keep complex, core financial systems integrated but external, aligning with the strategy of maintaining the Systems of Record (The Foundation) layer.
Phase 3: Agentic Execution (12+ Months): Once the platform is the trusted controller for identity and cross-functional actions, you can confidently activate autonomous AI agents. The robust audit and security foundation you built in Phase 1 now protects the autonomy of the AI.
By focusing on Agentic Orchestration over disruptive replacement, organizations can transform their back-office into a competitive advantage, turning software sprawl into a coherent, automated engine for the future of work.
Don’t get SaaD. Get Rippling.
Remember when software made business simpler?
Today, the average company runs 100+ apps—each with its own logins, data, and headaches. HR can’t find employee info. IT fights security blind spots. Finance reconciles numbers instead of planning growth.
Our State of Software Sprawl report reveals the true cost of “Software as a Disservice” (SaaD)—and how much time, money, and sanity it’s draining from your teams.
The future of work is unified. Don’t get SaaD. Get Rippling.