Enterprise software has been hard at work for decades improving how information moves between systems. Maicell is tackling a different problem: what do we want to happen when software can act on that information?
The Dutch company, previously known as ConnectPlaza, has taken its mature integration technology and put a new control model around it. Maicell calls the model Governed Intelligence. The difference matters because software connected to finance, ERP, CRM, logistics, customer service, warehouses or internal databases can now do more than just pulling information. Software can start an operation.
Maicell’s approach is to put business policy in the way between a proposed action and action execution. A system can suggest what ought to happen. Whether it does or not depends on the rules of the organization. That puts the company in a certain place in enterprise computing as businesses deploy software that can make decisions, call tools and interact with operational systems.
Maicell (ex ConnectPlaza) (2026)
ConnectPlaza re-launched March 2026, with its new name Maicell was officially born. The company didn’t have to start from zero. Founded in the Netherlands in 2008, ConnectPlaza spent years on enterprise integration. Maicell says more than 1,500 customers and partners use the business technology. Published customer references include Wibra, Prénatal, Proponent, HVC and Revolution Software, a division of Toyota.
That history makes the Maicell story a strange beginning. Instead of starting with an AI model and working out to enterprise systems, the company begins with applications, databases, infrastructure and operational processes that businesses already run. ConnectPlaza is still in the technical foundations. Maicell adds an execution and governance structure where integration, automation or artificial intelligence may take action through those connections.
Maicell architecture has couple of different layers
The Maicell architecture currently comprises Governed Intelligence, Living Intelligence, The Fabric and ConnectPlaza. The architecture is driven by Governed Intelligence. Maicell defines governed decisions by four properties: visible, explainable, policy bound and controlled. The architecture is designed to enforce rules during the review of the action, rather than treating governance as a report that is produced once an automated process is complete.
The Fabric is over Living Intelligence. Maicell describes it as the part of the architecture that senses operational conditions, makes decisions within defined boundaries and coordinates activity across enterprise processes. Business rules and risk thresholds can be managed separately from individual data sources, while human authority is part of the model. The Fabric is the control and execution plane. It is the framework that controls policy enforcement, integration, data movement, automation, auditability and system actions. Maicell says this layer can be deployed by itself or alongside existing iPaaS environments.
That architecture uses the established integration technology from ConnectPlaza. It manages interfaces, message flows, transformations, protocols, APIs and connections between applications running in cloud, hybrid and on-premises environments. The parts work together to create an architecture where data can flow in from enterprise applications, business rules are applied, an action is evaluated and an authorized transaction is sent to the destination system.
The crucial moment is before something is done
Many enterprise systems can track what happened. Maicell wonders what will happen. Consider software that detects a need to change an order or modify a customer record, or to start an action related to a payment or to send information to another application. To record the event afterward is to give it a history. Another control level is to check the action against company rules before execution.
Maicell puts policy on that execution path. Before it gets to the operational system an action can be allowed, denied, redirected, or escalated. The record of decision may contain information about the inputs involved, the relevant policy, and the outcome. This is especially the case when automation is being used to call APIs and applications without a human approving every single transaction manually.
Sense, Select & Orchestrate
Maicell describes the operating pattern in three stages: Sense, Decide and Orchestrate. The same model is used in the company material for this article. Sense processes operational events and information from connected systems. Decide It applies institutional policy and business rules to a proposed action. Orchestrate moves an approved action into the applications and processes that need to do it.
The model can handle anything from a simple everyday incoming order to more complex multi-system decisions that involve ERP data, stock availability, customer data, transportation systems and financial records. The principle is the same. The software decides what it wants to do, but the enterprise decides what it is allowed to do.
The Fabric provides an execution point for governance
The Fabric is one of the key components of Maicell’s current proposition. Maicell explains that it’s a governed control plane and execution layer that lives in the path of data, automation and software decisions. Therefore governance does not have to be confined to discrete dashboards or policy documents.
The Fabric covers internal integrations, API management, B2B and EDI exchanges and interactions with AI. It also supports centralized policy with distributed execution, so that processing can stay close to operational systems, where appropriate. Maicell says that for companies that already have another integration platform in place, The Fabric doesn’t necessarily require a replacement of the existing iPaaS. It can fit into an existing estate of integrations where you need more visibility, policy enforcement, observability or execution control.
That gives the architecture two routes into a firm. It can be part of a larger Maicell and ConnectPlaza deployment or it can provide governance around integration infrastructure that a business already owns.
Enterprise data needs to run locally
The architecture of the company is also based on local agents and on controlled runtime options. These enable processing to take place close to the systems and data being governed including on premises. Maicell is pitching this as a way to keep sensitive business information in controlled infrastructure, but still allow automation and software decisions to work with that information.
The ConnectPlaza foundation follows a similar model. Connect Agent runs interfaces and connectors while deployment and management can be driven through ConnectPlaza Studio. Documentation notes support for Windows and Linux environments and cloud hosting. This is useful for companies with applications that cannot move to a public cloud, or policies that require certain data to remain within a geographic or infrastructure boundary.
Solutions of Maicell’s core areas
Today, Maicell’s enterprise work is organized around five published solution domains: Operational Continuity, Real-time Supply Chain Orchestration, Scalable Integration, Regulated Environments and Governed Intelligence for AI and data.
Operational Continuance
Operational Continuity is for organizations that need to change core applications without disrupting daily business. Maicell’s approach is to move the processes and data in controlled steps, while preserving existing business logic. The company also stresses auditability throughout that transition. This is the case when an organization is replacing legacy software, moving some workloads to cloud systems, installing a new ERP or WMS, or connecting an old application to newer services without immediately replacing it.
Supply Chain Design
The supply chain work is already in the ConnectPlaza customer history of the company. Common processes include inventory synchronization, order processing, replenishment, warehouse activity, procurement, transportation, trading-partner exchanges, B2B messaging, stock updates and links between ERP, WMS, e-commerce and logistics systems.<br/><br/> These are processes where one business event can affect many different applications before the transaction is finalized.
Scalable Integration
The scalable-integration offering is for companies that want to add applications, business channels, partners or transaction volume without creating large numbers of unmanaged point-to-point connections. Maicell separates the design, implementation and operation of the integrations, so different teams can work on the connections while having a common control structure. The model also allows documentation and central ownership of integration processes.
Controlled Environments
The regulated-environments offering is focused on data location, transaction history and automated processes control. Maicell talks about the support for data sovereignty, audit logs and governed workflows, when an organization needs to be able to document the location information as it moved and the process that was applied to it.
AI and Data Governed Intelligence
The AI and data offering is about the preparation of operational information for analytics and AI, with traceability. Maicell describes processes to clean, structure and validate operational data, to apply policy as information moves between applications and to maintain records linking system decisions with the information used to make them. This piece of the architecture connects Maicell’s past integration efforts to its current AI efforts.
Where AI fits in Maicell
Maicell does not believe an AI model is the end all be all of the enterprise. Its architecture decouples model reasoning from institutional policy. The AI or automated system may provide a recommendation or suggest an action. Maicell’s Institutional Authority idea trumps that proposal with the business rules of the company itself. Those rules determine what the software can run.
This distinction is useful when the software has access to ERP, CRM, WMS, finance, customer information or other operational systems. Maybe an automated system could tell you there is an inventory issue and suggest you reorder. It might propose changing an order. It could start an exception workflow. It could get information from several applications and prepare a transaction.
In Maicell’s model, the decision can go through organizational rules before reaching the application that executes the action. Thus, AI is another subject in the enterprise architecture and not an external authority.
AI governance and compliance processes
It’s the same structure that has uses in compliance. The current material of Maicell is about visible decisions, reconstructable reasoning, policy enforcement and human control. Its EU AI Act material connects those technical properties to regulatory requirements affecting enterprise AI.
A practical workflow might begin with an automated system prompting for an action. The request brings the relevant operational context into The Fabric. The relevant policies are examined. The system either permits or denies the request or forwards it for review. The applicable policy and outcome are still available in the decision history along with the inputs. The important thing is when the check is written. The goal is to control an action before it is operational – not to find policy violation in a log after the fact.
Enterprise integration is still a big part of the business
The foundation of AI governance is much broader integration. ConnectPlaza supports the development of interfaces and APIs with message flows. Each flow has a consumer, one or more services, and a producer. The consumer receives information, services perform operations such as validation, transformation, routing or enrichment and the producer delivers the resulting information to a different endpoint.
Multiple flows can be combined to form larger interface . Interfaces can then be deployed as a single unit, rather than forcing the company to deploy an entire integration estate each time a single process changes. ConnectPlaza Studio is the browser-based environment used to configure these flows.
150+ Building Blocks For Integration
The ConnectPlaza documentation states that the platform offers more than 150 standard building blocks to connect applications, databases, cloud services, legacy software and communication protocols. What makes the building-block model important? Because Maicell is not limited to a closed catalog of SaaS applications. If there is no branded connector for a software, it can be connected through standard protocols and data formats.
Publicly documented connectivity includes File, FTP, SFTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, REST, web services, TCP, AMQP, JMS, email, IoT-oriented connections and database connectivity through JDBC. The platform also provides message queuing with publish/subscribe and point-to-point patterns.
Application adapters Commercial adapters
The Public ConnectPlaza material specifically mentions commercial adapters for Salesforce, SAP, Magento and Kafka. Salesforce has listed specific elements that can create records through Salesforce objects, enabling the creation of multiple records in one transaction.
Progress OpenEdge is another strong area for the platform. ConnectPlaza comes with an integration with Progress OpenEdge and OpenEdge AppServer. There are a number of customer implementations where the native connection is used to integrate existing ERP business logic. Published customer projects also mention integrations with Infor SX.e Distribution, AMCS ERP, WMS systems, transportation-management systems, PIM software, finance applications, e-commerce platforms, SAP, Magento, TradePlace and Salesforce.
Maicell’s public website does not currently publish one definitive page that lists all its 150+ building blocks. Hence, this article does not invent an exhaustive connector catalog. The products and protocols listed here are those which can be verified in Maicell or ConnectPlaza material.
Data formats, standards and conversions
Just having connections is part of only an integration workflow. ConnectPlaza also supports transformation and manipulation of messages as they travel through a flow. Its documentation talks about XML, JSON and flat-text formats, along with conversion, aggregation, validation, routing and data transformation. The company also documents international message standards such as EDIFACT, TRADACOM and HL7.
The platform also includes AS2 for secure B2B exchanges. Support for certificate-based encryption, electronic signatures, and verification for structured business transactions sent over HTTP or HTTPS. AS2 components. The Proponent implementation also documents support for SPEC2000, an aerospace messaging standard used for supply-chain communications. These standards provide a common foundation for integration that can be used by industries with very different transaction needs.
Web services and API management
ConnectPlaza flows can expose or consume application interfaces through REST and HTTP components. A REST listener can receive an HTTP REST request and transform the payload into a ConnectMessage and return a response from the integration flow.
HTTP listeners support request-response communication and web-service components and REST services allow existing enterprise applications to participate in API-based architectures even if the original system was not built as a modern SaaS application. That’s especially true in Maicell’s legacy-modernization work, where older systems can still be systems of record, while APIs can provide access to selected functions and data.
B2B and EDI processes
B2B integration is also an established part of the ConnectPlaza foundation. The platform supports EDI transactions and international formats like EDIFACT and TRADACOM. AS2 can provide secure transmission between trading partners. Customer deployments show these components being used for purchasing, supplier exchanges, inventory updates, price catalogs, logistics and e-commerce transactions.
For companies that interface with manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, distributors and logistics partners, it is important to be able to connect to both APIs and traditional EDI as not every trading partner is on the same generation of technology.
Management of file and message transfer
File movement remains a major concern for many enterprise integration projects. The platform supports standard files, FTP, SFTP and FTPS. File pickers can poll remote servers for matching files. Producer components can push processed data to remote locations. SFTP authentication options are passwords and private keys.
The AMQP and JMS components support queue and topic messaging. The JMS implementation supports request-response patterns, and AMQP components are able to send messages into queue or topic environments. The TCP components also support direct communication at the socket level.
Workflow Logic and Transformation
Services in a ConnectPlaza flow may change data from input endpoints to output endpoints. The documented operations are conversion, validation, enrichment, routing, splitting, aggregation and format transformation. Data can be converted from XML to JSON or other text formats, multiple messages can be combined, one message can be split into multiple messages, databases can be queried and another system can be called during processing.
ConnectPlaza also describes routers, filters and gateways for integration patterns, and support for scripting where more logic is needed. This provides the foundation for workflows that need more than a simple connection between two applications.
Horizontal business processes enabled by platforms
Published customer material shows the technology being used across a lot of horizontal business functions.
Order Administration
Orders can flow into ERP systems from e-commerce platforms, or trading partners, and acknowledgments, fulfillment information and status changes can flow back through the integration layer. One published example in which ConnectPlaza has been used around e-commerce ordering and stock processes is Prénatal.
Inventory & Replenishment
ERP, warehouse, e-commerce and partner system inventory availability synchronization. Wibra applies the technology in processes such as goods receipt, storage, replenishment, picking, shortage management, packaging and returns.
Warehouse Management
The integration layer translates formats and coordinates transactions between the warehouse-management system and the legacy ERP software it connects to. Wibra’s written implementation consists of integrating a newer WMS with its existing ERP.
E commerce
Webshops can be integrated with ERP, inventory, CRM, payments and order-management systems. Infomat illustrates a use case linking its wholesale ERP environment to e-commerce processes around inventory, orders, financial information, CRM and payments. Reflecta uses ConnectPlaza around Magento, EDI, WMS and sales applications for its fashion customers.
Purchasing
Procurement systems can be fed stock, supplier and purchasing data from ERP and trading-partner systems, with EDI or APIs managing communication with outside organizations. The procurement process is part of the application environment for inventory, finance, order management and other operational functions at Wibra.
Money
Financial applications can be part of workflows with ERP, e-commerce, customer information, invoices and operational transactions. HVC documents the incorporation of finance as part of a broader architecture linking ERP and operational systems.
CRM (customer relationship management)
Sales systems, ERP applications, and other operational software can exchange CRM data. Public ConnectPlaza material documents SAP and Salesforce integration as existing integration category.
HR.
Intergamma is a customer that leverages integration in human-resources processes and customer-data workflows, ConnectPlaza said.
Logistics & Transportation
Coordinate transport planning, warehouse operations, fleet systems, container movements, and delivery-related transactions with ERP and partner applications. HVC combines weighing systems, traffic management, planning and operational applications. Zuidnatie uses the platform for container announcements, container releases and lot planning in the Port of Antwerp.
Product Details
PIM systems can synchronize product information with ERP, e-commerce and sales channels. Wibra mentions PIM as one of the systems that are included in its integration environment.
Customer Data
Integration can keep customer information together in commerce, CRM, ERP and operational systems instead of having isolated copies in each application.
APIs and Partner Onboarding
Companies can build interfaces for customers, suppliers, distributors and other trading partners without having to build every connection from scratch. The proponent reports that partners that have an existing message specification can connect much faster than they did in its previous ESB environment.
Vertical Markets & Industries
The company has a history of deployments across a wider array of industries than a typical SaaS-only integration provider.
Retailing
“ConnectPlaza has a well established vertical in retail.
Wibra uses the integration foundation in ERP, WMS, transport management, PIM, e-commerce, EDI and finance. Prénatal uses the platform for e-commerce, order and stock processes. These workflows entail activities like goods reception, quality control, storage, replenishment, order picking, packaging, and returns.
Style
Reflecta provides ERP software for fashion and ConnectPlaza for e-commerce and omnichannel integrations such as Magento, EDI, AS2, warehouse systems and sales applications.
Wholesale & Distribution
Wholesale was also another popular market on ConnectPlaza. Infomat utilizes the platform around wholesale ERP connectivity, e-commerce, inventory, orders, financials, CRM and payments. Korver Holland provides SAP, Magento, TradePlace, EDI and trading partners.
Car.’
Revolution Software is deploying a ConnectPlaza solution in an automotive dealer-management ERP environment. Its customer material includes documentation on Progress OpenEdge, AWS deployments, remote deployments, Toyota integration and over 500 individual end users.
Aerospace & Aviation
Aerospace parts distributor turns to ConnectPlaza. The implementation supports SPEC2000 exchanges, and supply-chain links with manufacturers including Boeing, Airbus and GE, as well as airlines including Air France-KLM, Emirates and American Airlines.
Vendor Managed Inventory and Vendor Owned Inventory processes provide for the sharing of consumption and replenishment information between customer locations and the Proponent’s ERP environment.
Energy and Waste Management
HVC uses ConnectPlaza over a hybrid application estate for its waste-management operations. It has a published implementation which includes AMCS ERP, accounting systems, weighers, planning, traffic management and operational systems to manage its waste-truck fleet.
Logistics & Ports
In port logistics in Antwerp, Zuidnatie uses ConnectPlaza for container announcements, container release and lot planning.
Pharmaceuticals & Medical
Menarini and Beckelmann are mentioned in the published customer material of ConnectPlaza. Menarini uses the platform for order fulfillment, while pharmaceutical wholesaler Beckelmann has been using AS2 and EDI for automated business data exchange. HL7 is also one of the supported international data standards noted in the technical documentation of ConnectPlaza.
Collections & Payments
Alektum is featured in ConnectPlaza’s customer stories about a debt collection process with real-time messaging. Maicell separately points to regulated environments and finance as appropriate contexts for its governance architecture.
Production
ConnectPlaza lists manufacturing as one of its vertical solution areas. The blend of ERP, EDI, API, database, file, message-queue and legacy-system connectivity fits manufacturing environments where production software and trading partners often span multiple generations of technology.
Wibra: Linking retail operations with a small IT team
Wibra is one of the strongest examples of the platform’s ability to span processes from front-office to back-office. But the retailer had limited internal IT resources and needed connectivity between ERP, warehouse management, transportation management, PIM, e-commerce and other SaaS applications.
It integrates inventory, order management, procurement, accounting systems, EDI and logistics. The published use case comprises goods reception, quality controls, storage, replenishment, picking, shortage management, packing and returns. The example shows why Maicell’s heritage in ConnectPlaza is still relevant. Enterprise integration is rarely about a single connection between two popular SaaS products. A retail transaction may pass through commerce, stock, warehouse, transport, procurement and finance applications before it is complete.
Advocate: aerospace integration, 600% improvement
Proponent is one of the more detailed published customer stories of ConnectPlaza. The aerospace parts distributor migrated from a legacy Enterprise Service Bus to ConnectPlaza and rebuilt its integration channels in the new environment.
Its supply-chain network talks to aerospace manufacturers like Boeing, Airbus and GE, and airlines such as Air France-KLM, Emirates and American Airlines. Proponent uses SPEC2000 and proprietary message formats for Vendor Managed Inventory and Vendor Owned Inventory. The ERP backend is Infor SX.e Distribution and Progress OpenEdge AppServer is used to invoke existing ERP logic.
The company said it has seen a 600 percent improvement in the creation of new connections to messaging partners using an existing schema compared to its previous ESB environment.
Reflecta: reusable ERP integrations for fashion
Reflecta combines ConnectPlaza with its fashion ERP software XL-ENZ. Applications include Magento webshop integrations, EDI, AS2, warehouse management and sales applications
Integrations that were previously built for a specific customer can now be reused via existing interfaces and connections, Reflecta said. The company said it cut the time it takes to get new interfaces to customers by at least 80%. The use case reveals another dimension of Maicell’s business, which is that software vendors and implementation partners can use the integration platform as part of the software they provide to their own customers.
Infomat: wholesale ERP and e-commerce
Infomat leverages ConnectPlaza to offer API and integration capabilities for its wholesale ERP software. Published environment includes EDI/XML, REST, Magento and Progress OpenEdge.
Workflows are inventory, orders, finance, CRM, payments and e-commerce. Infomat said it now takes dramatically less time to develop and roll out an integration than it did to create separate interfaces for each customer.
HVC: integrated hybrid waste and energy operation
HVC is a good example of hybrid infrastructure. It can interact with on-premises and cloud applications. ConnectPlaza connects ERP, finance, operational applications, weighing systems, traffic management, planning systems and public-facing services.
And the company has the platform around systems that are responsible for its fleet of waste vehicles. This kind of deployment helps explain Maicell’s current emphasis on keeping execution close to operational systems. Companies operating physical infrastructure are not always able to replace a core system just because there is newer software available.
Revolution Software: automotive ERP and Toyota integration
Revolution Software provides dealer-management ERP technology for the automotive environment in Australia. Its published ConnectPlaza implementation includes AWS, remote deployments, Toyota integration and Progress OpenEdge ERP.
Before adopting ConnectPlaza, Revolution had developed its own integration technology and looked at other integration products. The company says that business analysts can now do integration work that would have previously required senior developers. Maicell’s technology is being used by organizations including Toyota division Revolution Software.
Maicell’s delivery model includes partners
Not all implementations will be directly provided by Maicell. Today its partner model includes system integrators, service providers and technology partners who can deploy and operate the platform on behalf of customers. This partner approach, says the company, allows implementations to keep industry-specific knowledge on a common architectural base.
Published partner materials identify relationships with ERP vendors, SAP partners, Microsoft and Navision specialists, workflow-software vendors, automotive ERP companies, e-commerce vendors and retail ERP, POS and WMS vendors. This structure is especially appropriate for vertical markets where a retail integration, an aerospace supply-chain flow and a regulated financial workflow may use the same integration foundation, but need very different business knowledge.
Existing enterprise systems will stay in the plan
One of Maicell’s more practical decisions is its attitude toward existing technology. The company is not saying that every customer needs to trash their older apps today. The architecture supports deployment patterns such as cloud, private cloud, hybrid, and on-premises.
The older ERP can still be a system of record and APIs can expose selected functions. You can replace a warehouse system without immediately replacing the ERP. A cloud e-commerce system can talk to an on-premises database. An EDI partner can continue to send traditional documents, while a different customer uses REST. This provides continuity with the previous architecture for existing ConnectPlaza customers, while Maicell adds governance and AI related controls around the execution layer.
Control is more valuable when software can act.
Much of the talk around enterprise AI centers on the outputs a model can generate. That is only part of the operational problem. When software can call an API, change a record, trigger another application or start a business process, intelligence is no more important than permission.
The system may decide that an invoice needs to be amended. That recommendation is one thing. Another route is to change the invoice within a financial system. The organization may want the software to prepare the change but has specified rules or a human authorization before the transaction is committed. Much of the current Maicell architecture lives on that boundary between recommendation and execution.
Audit records are based on actions and decisions
When operational work involves automated software, companies could require more than a conventional activity log. They need to know what information was available, what policy was applied, what decision was made and why an action was accepted, blocked or referred for review.
“Governed decisions still have inputs, policy and outcome, so the decision can be reconstructed later,” Maicell said. This can be used by different parts of an organization. A technical team may need to diagnose a workflow sometimes. Operations may want to know what caused a transaction to stop. Risk teams may need to review the implementation of policies. Auditors may need transaction history. Management may require evidence of how an operational system arrived at an automated decision.
The architecture can support federated organizations
Large companies rarely have a single integration team that controls every application. Maicell’s Fabric supports a federated model, where different departments and external partners can build and run integrations while staying within central architectural guardrails.
The components of this model are described by the company as federated development, scoped access and operational transfer. This makes it possible for local teams to create their own processes, while the organization maintains a common control on execution. It also supports scenarios where a systems integrator initially builds a workflow and then passes operational responsibility to the customer’s internal team.
A European company with global ambitions
Maicell is located in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. CEO Joost de Bot took the reins with the 2026 relaunch. Maicell’s leadership material also says that the founders remain involved in the company. The company has been building up staff outside the Netherlands, including an engineering base in Barcelona. This article is based on material provided by the Barcelona team working on product development, customer implementation and support.
Its European roots also inform its focus on data locality, local execution, institutional authority and regulated environments.
Maicell’s role in enterprise architecture
Maicell now solves a bigger problem than traditional application integration. ConnectPlaza foundation moves information between systems, converts formats, handles APIs, manages EDI transactions, connects databases and legacy applications and coordinates operational workflows. The Fabric provides the execution framework for those connections.
Living Intelligence is the software based decision making on operational information. Governed Intelligence provides the parameters in which those decisions are intended to operate. Overall, the architecture can follow an enterprise transaction from the moment an event enters through an application or protocol, through transformation and business logic, through a policy decision, and into the system that finally executes the approved action.
That transaction for a retailer could be an order or a stock movement. For the aerospace distributor it could be inventory consumption and replenishment It could be planning or fleet operations for a waste management organization. It could be an EDI exchange for a pharma-wholesaler. It could be an action generated by software in an AI-enabled process that needs to be checked against company policy, before it can be executed.
That’s the bigger Maicell story. The company no longer worries just whether enterprise systems can talk. It is working on what happens when they are connected and software starts making decisions across them.