|
|
|
Enterprise Application Integration Services |
|
|
Speedy access to accurate, real time information - which provides a basis for critical
decisions - is becoming absolutely necessary to execute any business strategy. The
significance of these issues is that they all involve establishing a tight working
relationship between different business units. Thus, business integration is becoming very
important. Business integration encompasses the whole value chain - it involves customers,
business partners and suppliers. |
|
|
Practice
Our EAI practice helps clients deal with the challenges of business integration. Today's
IT systems are made up of diverse elements- hardware, operating systems and software
applications. For example, applications run on different platforms and are written in
different languages. Data files are of different types, held in different sites and
accessed in different ways. Thus, the major challenge for IT in addressing business
integration is managing this diversity. Our experience in various business areas give us
an edge in effectively handling the various integration challenges like: |
|
|
- ERP Integration:
ERP applications are often seen as an effective route to business integration. However, a
lot of ERP implementations have been inward focused - that is emphasising cost reductions,
technology and process improvements versus customers and suppliers. Hence, there is a
shift away from reliance on a single enterprise application toward the integration of best
of breed applications provided by different vendors. The challenge is in how to do it most
effectively.
- CRM Integration:
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions help to consolidate all customer data so
that a unified view of customers is obtained. Customer information, which exists in
various systems, can be captured through different business processes, touch points and
channels. It is imperative that all these systems are integrated and EAI plays a very key
role is achieving this objective.
- Supply Chain Integration:
The key to an effective supply chain is tight integration of the different businesses that
make it up. Distributors, retailers, producers, shippers etc all need accurate
information. The IT systems that they use are not uniform and are not designed to work
together. Integrating these systems is vital to reducing costs and improving turnaround.
- Legacy Systems Integration:
A lot of businesses have to cope with having to ensure that legacy systems are not left
isolated. Scrapping all legacy systems and building a new total structure may be beyond
the resources of most organisations. The challenge is to integrate legacy systems with new
enterprise applications.
|
|
|
Services
- Middle-ware designs, re-design of intra and inter
enterprise business.
- Implementation of EAI solution using best-of-breed
applications servers and middle-ware tools.
|
|
|
Approach There are two
contrasting approaches on how to integrate enterprise applications.
- The first is a quick time to market approach - we call it
an "inside-out" approach. In this approach, we web enable various systems and
expose them to employees, partners, customers and suppliers.
- The second approach involves more effort but it is more
flexible and robust. We call it the "outside-in" approach - here business logic
resides in an application server.
|
|
|
Inside-Out Approach
To integrate enterprise applications, this approach uses Web interfaces. Web extensions to
back-office systems etc. generally involve a web server for passing HTML-based screens to
users through a web browser. When the e-business solution requires a simple mapping of
back-office functionality to a Web interface, this inside-out architecture can be highly
effective. Outside-In Approach
An outside-in architecture is an entirely different approach to building e-business
solutions. Rather than extend the reach of ERP and legacy based business processes through
a web server, the outside-in approach uses a robust application server that has the
ability to integrate multiple solutions. When an e-business solution requires complex
integration of multiple back-end systems and front-end applications, the power of the
application server as an integration platform becomes available. The outside-in
architecture is better suited for complex e-business because it includes a robust
application server, whereas the inside-out approach does not. Although several other
integration approaches are in vogue, we believe that these two will become the prominent
options in the near future. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10,Khatiza Manzil,
Senapati Bapat Marg,
Mumabi- 400028, India
Tel : +91(22)437 6304
Fax : +91(22) 431 0568
e-mail : sales@texcomp.com |
|
|
|
|