Running an effective business of any size is a challenging matter. Even small companies use tens of thousands of marketing, business and operational applications.
These applications must work seamlessly together to help achieve the results most important to the company. Business integration aims to achieve this by connecting and enabling the participants in an eco-system to function as one whole.
The proper design is vital to a successful business integration. All too often integrations are designed in an approach that makes it difficult to alter the design. The wrong design choices could lead to a system which is difficult to maintain and operate as well as being expensive.
In the past, business integrations mostly focused on integrating IT software and systems like ERP and CRM solutions. This type of integration is called application integration and is usually performed through APIs or other tools that enable connectivity between systems. These types of integrations are generally limited in their capabilities and often require a team of dedicated technical managers on the ground to maintain and oversee the integrations.
The key to successful modern business integration is an integrated approach that focuses on business service-level integration. This is accomplished by mapping the necessary business services to the appropriate technology. It also involves the development of the necessary components for integration, including connectors as well as data mappings and an efficient testing and deployment process in an environment that is controlled. Then, a process of monitoring and optimization is used to ensure that the business integration is in line with its goals.