Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) solutions were able to fill the gap between various computer programs implemented by the organization and help the employees in managing the data via a simple interface. The major goal of this software integration is to effectively use the data which is generated by various departments in the organizations. Some of these major EAI apps are: CRM (Customer Relationship management) SCM (Supply chain management) Human resources Business intelligence E-commerce systems All these programs fall into the category of Software as a Service (SAAS) and according to the latest report companies which provide IT related services, 75% of them use 6 different types of applications.
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One of the most successful examples of business software integration comes from Aeroflot. When Russia’s leading carrier experienced rapid growth in their daily flights they approached a promising IT company for the development of comprehensive crew notification system. The software program was responsible for monitoring and distribution of the tasks as per the schedules of the flights. The software was then incorporated to the Aeroflot’s call center portal.
• In this approach business apps are connected with one another with one link. Such EAI systems are easy to build but this ease comes at the cost of scalability. Scalability of such systems is limited.
• Databases and applications are connected with the separate engine and these engines are responsible for the managing the notifications coming from various channels.
• ESB’s are multilayer solution for the IT companies and they use several complex business apps. The system distributes the task of processing the data between various parts of the network.
The choice of Enterprise Integration Application entirely depends upon the goals and complexity of the infrastructure which varies from company to company.
EAI solutions improve the interoperability of various departments of the company. Alone in US the interoperability flaws cause the loss of $1 billion. These are agile software solutions which allow the access to all information which is collected by the business apps. They also eliminate various tasks such as data processing and retrieval tasks.
These software such as CRM can be used to launch the email marketing campaign and then can be used to automatically build the reports and measure the effectiveness of the campaign.
Integration of these software allows easy expansion of the IT facilities and also enable the companies to respond timely to the growing expectations of the customers.
There are multiple benefits of using the EAI and these benefits include the financial benefits as well for the various companies such as transportation, banks, retail organizations etc. But developing EAI requires great expertise in coding and security protocol implementation. Given the fact that companies only store one-fifth of their data in such EAIs show great lack of trust in cloud and EAI solutions and it is the job of the vendor to battle this prejudice.
