Assign a real owner
An integration needs an operational owner, not only a technical contact. The owner should understand the workflow, approve meaningful changes and know when the system must be paused. Responsibility should remain clear when several suppliers or departments contribute to the service.
Separate ownership from every approval. A person who manages the workflow may not be the person who assesses privacy, security or procurement concerns.
Describe the system plainly
Document the purpose, inputs, outputs, users, connected services and points where a person reviews the result. Plain descriptions support better decisions than vague statements that a system is “intelligent”.
State the limits. A system that drafts text may not verify facts. A retrieval service may return a document without deciding whether it is suitable for the customer. Users need to know the difference between finding information and validating it.
Protect information and access
Use role-based access so people and systems receive only what their work requires. Review service accounts, shared credentials and exported results. Consider whether prompts, uploaded documents and generated outputs contain personal, confidential or commercially sensitive information.
Supplier terms matter, but they are not a substitute for internal control. Understand where information is sent, how it is retained, who can administer the service and how access is removed.
Make review proportionate
Not every use requires the same level of oversight. A writing aid for internal notes presents a different risk from a system that influences eligibility, customer communications or financial records. Increase review where the impact of an error increases.
Review should cover both ordinary operation and unusual cases. Ask how a user challenges an output, how an incident is recorded and how the business learns from repeated errors.
Keep evidence of change
Record significant changes to prompts, retrieval sources, permissions, connected systems and approval steps. The record need not be elaborate, but it should allow someone to understand why behaviour changed.
Keep examples of accepted and rejected outputs where appropriate and lawful. They can help identify drift in the workflow, but they should not become an uncontrolled store of personal information.
Plan for withdrawal
A governed integration has a stop route. Define who can disable it, what happens to work already in progress and how staff continue manually. Test that route before it is needed.
Governance is strongest when it is part of implementation rather than a final sign-off exercise. Read the implementation guide for the transition into daily use.