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Strategy - Business Integration |
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Business Integration - What is it ? |
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WHAT IS BUSINESS INTEGRATION?
It is the big buzz word that's been going round for some time now
and it shows that sanity is returning to Enterprise Computing.
They said mainframes would die, they said COBOL would die but
they were wrong.
There are many core legacy applications, developed over many
years in large businesses and most of the established big players
around the world could not begin to consider re-engineering these
core applications. It is widely accepted now that it would not provide
a cost benefit. The philosophy behind Business Integration accepts
this and instead focuses on flexible, scaleable and secure access
to this base functionality, within an overall framework that
integrates systems, data, applications, processes and people
inside and outside the organisation.
SOA
To build this new universe you need a Service Orientated Architecture
(SOA) - this architecture puts Business process at its heart
and allows Business software services to be used as reusable
building blocks. SOA is in fact the new form of distributed
computing required to make Business Integration a reality. Everyone
is at it - Examples are IBM's Websphere, Microsofts BIZTALK, BEA's
WebLogic and SAP's NetWeaver. As usual some are better than others
at applying open standards such as the SUN initiated JSR 208 (Java
Business Integration) which extends J2EETM and J2SETM with business
integration SPIs.
Legacy maintenance
Typically an enterprise spends between 70 - 80% of their IT budget
maintaining their core legacy systems but the IT departments are being
pressed to deliver a huge variety of new front end and cross
application/data projects with the 20 - 30% left over and without
disrupting their core systems.
Examples of these new enterprise projects include -
Supply Chain Integration - e.g. Standardised messaging between
Suppliers and Manufacturer covering the complete
relationship - invoicing, quoting, order tracking etc.
Customer self service portals - e.g. Web Insurance quotes
Internal Information Portals - e.g Call Centre Customer Enquiry
Given the financial constraints and the non-disruptive approach,
you will probably have to find a way to do Business Integration
incrementally - start small and then accelerate. This must be a
prime consideration when deciding on which vendor to use.
Continue: What are the first steps towards Business Integration? >>>
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