Everything you need to
know about integrations
Software integration means combining different applications and systems. For example, integration allows a company's ERP system to retrieve address information from a customer account management application or a company's product planning software to retrieve parts availability information from an inventory management system.
We've put together the right information package on integration for you, answering the questions: what does it mean, how should it be implemented, and what can it achieve?
Integrations ensure
data integrity
Integrations are a normal part of almost any modern data system project. Even relatively small organisations tend to have several information systems in use, hence the need to develop and maintain integrations to ensure the integrity (e.g. accuracy and timeliness) of the data held by the company. In large organisations, this need is even more acute. It's therefore important to take possible integration development needs into account already at an early stage of a project.
Examples of projects
Case 1
An international customer wanted to automate its production in order to reduce the workload for its operators. We planned and implemented backend services that could be used from the production equipment. The automation was started from one machine, and now most of the production machinery has been automated.
Feedback from the production operators and from customers has been positive.
Case 2
A customer established a new factory and installed IT systems and integration processes. We were responsible for installing and commissioning the integration system, and were involved in the development and testing of the integration processes. As part of the project, we updated the integration system version and tested the existing processes.
Mutual understanding internally guarantees successful integrations
The view of a developer about working with integrations highlights interactive skills and initiative. The technical solution itself can be challenging to implement. Still, typically the most time-consuming problem in integration development is figuring out from different stakeholders (business, owners, and maintainers of other information systems, etc.) what data they want to transfer, in what format, and where. The process inevitably entails many people from many different areas of specialisation, which means that finding mutual understanding takes time.
IBM App Connect Enterprise
Oracle SOA Suite
ServiceMix / Camel
BizTalk
Mule ESB
IBM MQ
Jboss + XML / XSL
REST/SOAP-services
JMS
Cloud integrations
becoming increasingly common
Many large companies and organisations currently have a situation in which there is a functional solution for integrations between so-called internal systems, such as an integration platform, microservices, or point-to-point integrations. Cloud solutions are increasingly being adopted, but there is no optimal single solution for integration between cloud applications and integration between cloud and internal systems.
How to proceed?
Usually, integration projects begin with the customer having two or more systems between which data should automatically move. There are two alternatives for implementation: either so-called point-to-point integrations, whereby the systems discuss directly with each other, or the centralised model, which uses an integration platform through which all integrations pass.
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