Application Integration

Application Integration is a framework composed of a collection of technologies and services which form a middleware to enable integration of systems and applications across the enterprise. In other words, it is the method by which applications communicate with each other.

Typically, applications are designed around a single principle, for example, Human Resource systems are designed to manage personnel, payroll and benefits systems, whereas supply chain systems manage inventory and shipping and manufacturing systems are designed to support manufacturing operations. Application integration provides the capability of sharing information from disparate systems in order to simplify and automate business processes to the greatest extent possible, while at the same time avoiding having to make significant and, sometimes, ongoing changes to the existing applications or data structures. In the above environment, application integration could provide the toolset to create the analytics to determine accurate cost of goods sold for both the manufacturing and distribution processes. In the words of the Gartner Group, EAI is the “unrestricted sharing of data and business processes among any connected application or data sources in the enterprise.”

Application Integration is not without its challenges. Many times, systems that reside in different environments use different database and operating systems and are developed using different computer languages need to share data. A major challenge is how to join the systems and information together in a way that will provide accurate and timely information yet limiting integration complexity.

DSI can assist you in analyzing, developing and implementing application integration methods and software within your organization