Section: BS in Information Technology - 4A

Day: Thursday
Time: 5:00-8:00
 As an organization grows in size, it adopts an
increasing number of enterprise applications that
streamline the management of front office and back-
office functions. Businesses depend on their accounting
software, customer relationship management tools,
analytics platform, and other applications to provide
critical business functionalities and services, but there is
a significant issue with the typical deployment model
for enterprise applications: information silos.
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
INTEGRATION
WHAT IS ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION?
• Enterprise application integration is the translation of data and other
commands from one application format into another.
• With EAI, you can connect your applications and let data move between
them—effectively removing existing data silos and preventing any from
forming in the future.
• It refers to the process of using all the technologies and services available
within an enterprise to integrate most of its business applications.
• EAI works like a middleware framework that ensures data moves freely b/w
enterprise applications ensuring easy data sharing and accessing by users of
different applications, including CRM, inventory management software, and
more.
WHAT IS ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION?
• Application integration helps you maintain, manage, and keep all your
applications updated while reducing data repetition and redundancy. When
you create an integrated application network, all your business and work
procedures can be automated and performed proficiently.
• Application integration is a process that enables the consolidation and sharing
of data, resources, and processes among an organization’s applications. In
other words, it is the combination and improvement of workflows and data
across software applications.
• The end goal of this process is to enhance business efficiency. However,
enterprise application integration particularly focuses on communicating
between various enterprise systems.
WHY ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION IS
IMPORTANT?
1. It enables your team to get more out of their business applications
• As your organization adopts more applications over time—as most
businesses continue to do—, you might find that many offer data that’s
valuable for several teams.
• If you integrate the platform with the apps your customer-facing teams
use—allowing these teams to access the product usage data in their
apps—, each team is likely to use the insights in ways that support their
goals.
• For example, support teams can leverage the data to better identify the
clients who are at risk of churning, while account managers can spot clients
who are ripe for up-selling or cross-selling.
WHY ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION IS
IMPORTANT?
2. It allows your team to make more informed and timely decisions
• Your team’s decision-making abilities are heavily influenced by the quality
of data at their disposal.
• By embracing enterprise application integration, you allow your team to
have up-to-date, reliable information available in the apps they rely on.
• For instance, if you integrate your marketing automation platform with your
CRM, your sales reps—who may only have access to the latter—can access
data (e.g. lead scores) that allows them to better identify prospects who
are sales-ready.
WHY ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION IS
IMPORTANT?
3. It improves the employee experience
• Once data is integrated across your apps, your employees don’t have to
hop between them to find the information they need. They can, instead,
stay on the apps they’re already comfortable using.
• This should go a long way towards lifting employee satisfaction, as
employees can use the time they save and apply it to more thoughtful,
critical tasks.
• Your organization, meanwhile, is also set to gain, as more satisfied
employees tend to be more productive and stay with your company longer.
CATEGORIES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
INTEGRATION
• Database linking: databases share information and duplicate information as
needed.
• Application linking: the enterprise shares business processes and data
between two or more applications.
• Data warehousing: data is extracted from a variety of data sources and
channeled into a specific database for analysis.
• Common virtual system: the pinnacle of EAI; all aspects of enterprise
computing are tied together so that they appear as a unified application.
TYPES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
TYPES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
Data-level EAI:
• is the process — and the techniques and technology — of moving data
between data stores. This can be described as extracting information from
one database, perhaps processing that information as needed, and
updating it in another database.
• It may also include the transformation and application of business logic to
the data that is being extracted and loaded. The advantage of data-level
EAI is the cost of using this approach.
• The approach and enabling technology you leverage depends on the
requirements of the problem domain.
TYPES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
Application interface-level EAI:
• refers to the leveraging of interfaces exposed by custom or packaged
applications. Developers leverage these interfaces to access both business
processes and simple information.
• Using these interfaces, developers are able to bundle many applications
together, allowing them to share business logic and information.
• The only limitations that developers face are the specific features and
functions of the application interfaces.
TYPES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
Method-level EAI:
• is the sharing of the business logic that may exist within the enterprise. For
example, the method for updating a customer record may be accessed
from any number of applications, and applications may access each other's
methods without having to rewrite each method within the respective
application.
• The mechanisms to share methods among applications are numerous,
including distributed objects, application servers, TP (transaction processing)
monitors, frameworks, and simply creating a new application that's the
combination of two or more applications.
TYPES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
User interface-level EAI:
• is a more primitive, but nonetheless necessary, approach. Using this
scenario, architects and developers are able to bundle applications by
using their user interfaces as a common point of integration (also known as
screen scraping).
• For example, mainframe applications that do not provide database- or
business process-level access may be accessed through the user interface of
the application.
• Although many consider leveraging the user interface as a point of
integration to be an unstable and archaic approach, the fact is that we've
been doing this for years and have worked out many of the issues, such as
performance, reliability, and scalability.
HOW ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION HAS
EVOLVED
1. Point-to-point integration (p2p integration)
• This model uses a script to remove data from an application. It then edits
the data’s structure and formatting to meet the requirements of the app it’s
moving to. Once this is completed, the data is moved over.
• This process might work okay for 2 applications, but as you start to connect
more of your cloud applications and legacy systems, p2p
integrations become too time consuming to program and maintain. It can
also take a while for the data to move between your apps, which, in many
cases, adversely affects your business processes and, in turn, the
experiences of your employees, customers, and prospects.
HOW ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION HAS
EVOLVED
2. Hub and spoke integration
• With hub and spoke, you can use a centralized repository to integrate your
applications, reformat your data, and decide where it goes. This system
can move data between applications faster than point-to-point, but it still
requires support from your developers—as they’re the ones who ultimately
have to move the data by using runtime components.
3. Bus integration
• Unlike point-to-point or hub and spoke, the bus integration model doesn’t
require manual work from your team. The model only requires that your
apps (and any that you add in the future) follow its standards.
COMMON APPLICATIONS TARGETED FOR EAI
4. Middleware
• This software falls between your applications and your operating systems,
and it allows you to move data across applications without any manual
effort. It can be used in a variety of forms, such as database middleware,
message-oriented middleware, or application-server middleware (the form
an organization chooses can depend on its requirements).
5. Microservices
• Using microservices, organizations can capture their data in the cloud and
then share it with the appropriate applications through their APIs.
Microservices can also move data through on-premises software.
COMMON APPLICATIONS TARGETED FOR EAI
Most large companies use at least several kinds of software and types of data
that are candidates for integration:
• Supply chain management (SCM)
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Business intelligence and analytics
• Human resources data
• Internal and marketing communications
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
• E-commerce optimization
ADVANTAGES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
INTEGRATION
Eliminate Data Silos
• Applications designed by different vendors cannot communicate with each
other without using additional technology. Integration middleware acts as a
glue between various enterprise applications, whether they are on-
premise or cloud.
• Data silos slow down business operations and prevent effective sharing of
data; as a result, it remains isolated within every system.
• Using an enterprise application integration solution eliminates data silos
and enables productive use of data.
ADVANTAGES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
INTEGRATION
Faster Time-to-Market
• Businesses often fail to generate a higher ROI because of delays in
technology deployment. By integrating various applications, companies can
fast-track their business processes, reduce time-to-market, and boost their
ROI.
• By utilizing application integration tools companies can incorporate
and convert data of any format to the appropriate format without any
manual effort.
ADVANTAGES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION
INTEGRATION
Process Automation
• Depending on the industry, business procedures can diverge significantly.
Enterprise application integration helps facilitate smooth data transfer
among all kinds of systems and workflows to support productivity and
automation.
Data Visibility
• Application integration facilitates point-to-point integration and enhances
data visibility which in turn enables businesses to observe, measure, and
embrace data. Moreover, you can utilize data to effortlessly address
customer expectations and acquire a broad view of business activities.
BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
SERVICES
Workflow Automation
• You can integrate multiple applications to automate your business
processes, thereby reducing labor costs and the time required for strategic
maintenance tasks.
• For instance, with enterprise application integration in place, a marketing
firm can fetch data from CRM software to run an email campaign easily.
BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
SERVICES
Improved Organization Communication and Data Sharing
• By availing EAI services, you can improve interoperability and
communication b/w different organizational departments.
• For example, the siloed operations in the automotive industry cost them
billions of dollars every year.
• An agile enterprise application software solution can solve its challenges
significantly by eradicating siloed processes and operations.
BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
SERVICES
Improvement in Customer Service Levels
• With better IT integration capabilities, enterprise software systems can
connect more seamlessly to exchange vital custom information.
• This helps service teams fulfill customer needs and deliver a timely
resolution.
BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
SERVICES
Higher Operational Efficiency
• By availing EAI services from an experienced enterprise software
development company, you can eliminate communication gaps, optimize
critical processes, and impart better control in your organization.
• EAI allows you to realized holistic benefits against your investment in IT
infrastructure. Managing disruptions or breakdowns across departmental
processes becomes much easier.
• For instance, a logistics firm can ensure better coordination b/w its
inventory, accounting, and transportation software with proper application
integration infrastructure in place.
BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
SERVICES
New Business Opportunities
• Proper EAI also lets you identify and respond to new business opportunities
during volatile market conditions. You can anticipate, analyze, and predict the
impact of external market conditions on your industry and shift your business
strategy accordingly to stay risk-averse and operational amid uncertainty.
• Take the example of the e-learning solutions industry, the businesses with
proper EAI in place have built integrated online learning systems to stay
operational amid COVID-19 uncertainty.
• They are using EAI services to streamline processes and create connected
systems that seamlessly exchange information across their enterprise IT systems.
BENEFITS OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
SERVICES
Cost Optimization
• The implementation of EAI technologies can also help you minimize costs
associated with the maintenance of IT infrastructure in your firm.
• When you have old and new systems interconnected, you don’t need to
make additional investments.
• Also, the seamless integration of existing business applications cut down the
cost related to the new system or app development.
• Thus, EAI ensures cost saving across the product lifecycle.
CHALLENGES TO APPLICATION INTEGRATION
• Application integration is often a challenging process, especially if it involves
integrating old applications with new ones which often causes connectivity
challenges.
• It’s very common for enterprises to have a dozen different applications (such as
CRM, ERP’s and SCM’s), and trying to integrate each application with custom-
coded integrations becomes a very tedious task.
• Manually it’s unscalable, but an automated integration platform with built-in
connectors simplifies the entire application integration process.
HOW TO INTEGRATE APPLICATIONS
• Application integration is not possible without the use of an application
programming interface or API.
• API is the set of rules or protocols for building application software. Its a
method of communication that facilitates the interaction between applications
and system software. Furthermore, it allows access to data trapped in cloud
sources.
• API allows flexibility and control for end-users whilst ensuring that the original
creators maintain their application without any external interference. Whereas,
data integration involves consolidation, migration of data into a single
repository or data warehouse.
REFERENCES:
• https://www.sumologic.com/glossary/enterprise-application-integration/
• https://cio-wiki.org/wiki/Enterprise_Application_Integration_(EAI)
• https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/enterprise-application-integration.asp
• https://www.workato.com/the-connector/enterprise-application-integration/
• https://www.a3logics.com/blog/enterprise-application-integration
• https://www.astera.com/type/blog/application-integration/