Enterprise Application Integration Essay Sample

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

This study is carried out with the aim of understanding the importance of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) while defining its various components and its applicability in various forms. The study is chosen on the pretext of developing an understanding of the topic with an intent to analyse various aspects of EAI.
In current business environment application and system integration in enterprise infrastructure is becoming more and more prevalent and of great concern. The wide array of ideologies, concepts and approaches have been designed and adopted to achieve this goal. It is very complicate to understand the fact that if research is carried out on application and solutions to data integration, the researcher ends up in an enormous sea of opinions, acronyms and perplexing marketing language .
The term EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) has been used as an official term in the early years of 2000 but the solutions it attempts to provide are older than this. Conclusively, EAI is classified as a set of approaches to provide interoperability among multiple disparate systems and they together make a distinctive enterprise structure .
Enterprise architectures comprised of several applications and systems, which deliver several services that are used by the company to carry out day to day business activities. An independent organization usually uses a separate system, it can be done by installing in –house or licensing from vendor. It helps the organization to effectively manage customer relationship, supply chain, business strategies and employee database. Theoretically, it is more feasible to break down a complicate task into several small functionalities. This break down allows an easy implementation of new and advanced technologies in each department and also facilitate the process of adaptation to new changes .
However, to reap many layers of benefits from this type of modular system, the organization needs to incorporate technologies that can handle this architectural problems . The numerous constituents of the structure may practice diverse operating systems, statistics layouts, and languages, stopping connection via a typical interface. The flow of information / data is critically to be handled in a standard manner in order to make the distributed system functional in the modular. They serve as adhesive elements that hold together an integrated structure, integration solutions needs to be highly stable, scalable and robust.
Swift advancements in EAI technology are taking place in order to fulfil the growing demand for incorporation in the enterprise frequently results in opinions and arguments on the extensive usage of EAI, and how the very trivial alterations between one proprietary methodology or another makes it merely practicable solution .
E-businesses upsurge follows two eras in which corporations have executed a wide range of information methods. A characteristic Worldwide 2000 corporations have 30-50 applications and devotes 25-40 percent of their overall IT expenditures on application incorporation. The propagation of unions and Internet associated applications strengthens the requirement for connectivity among front- and back-office methods and through the supply chain as well. (EAI) generates a lucrative incorporation architecture and substructure to encourage interoperability between applications and support the enterprise retort swiftly to fluctuating business surroundings, without the cost of convention point-to-point elucidations. EAI empowers interoperability among ERP systems, legacy systems, bundled software applications, and web-based requests. In manufacturing, the EAI server performs these models, assuring dependable information stream among applications in retort to business proceedings. All collaborations are recorded for recuperate and appraisal purpose. Pre- made or custom -established application connecters offer occasion announcement and retort, data recovery and stowage, and mistake handling. Business procedure models can be improved vigorously as situations alter, and applications can be further added or substituted without altering business procedure models .
EAI allows quick application integration by nominal custom improvement, significantly dropping continuing IT expansion and preservation costs. Connecting dissimilar applications all over the enterprise advances communication and eradicates blunders due to imprecise info, increases customer gratification by making info from numerous sources certainly available, and quickens time required to market through extra effective collaboration across functional assemblies .
The best feature of EAI is that the data is stored in real-time without having to wait for hours of updates on the system. EAI works on similar lines to an ERP solution with better applications and an all-encompassing system through integrating various applications that are all user friendly. This situation results in good support offered by EAI for tactical decision making. The problem with EAI is regarding lack of complete information pertaining to historical data which results in lack of information for strategic decision making .
EAI involves a considerable investment in practical infrastructure, with primary execution expenditures from $500K-$2M. The ROI rises with the amount or number of ventures that use infrastructure, with exceptional output and lower maintenance and expansion costs .
The performance of cross-functional business process enhances with deployment of EAI through delivering of great value to the clients. This implies that cross-functional processes are important and need to be developed before deployment of EAI system in an enterprise. Cross-functional design require the enterprise to rationalize the notifications and events that flow among various functional areas of the organization. Any functional areas of an enterprise that need to be cooperating with each other are required to align their functions with the business data models and if this is not possible with sufficient efforts than they must understand various entities of the organization that are related to those areas such as customer, product or order etc. .
People is the most important resource in development of EAI because the efficiency and effectiveness of the EAI system is highly dependent on the inputs received from stake holders and the understanding of the IT developers. People already part of the organization provide valuable information for successful development of the EAI system. IT developers create custom applications and mapping rules. They also code business rules in the applications in order to facilitate the overall organizational processes in an efficient manner. In case of cooperating organizations, EAI may change the responsibilities and roles. In some cases the EAI may also eliminate various time consuming tasks making the organization to be more effective .
In general, database of the integration server as well as the server itself including the available applications, network infrastructure and hardware is considered to be the technology part of the EAI system. In case of creations of legacy applications, custom coding is used in order to make user friendly and efficient applications .
Customers commonly believe that there are various department or product line of business within an enterprise. Customer have high anticipations to be treated well by the enterprise with which they are doing business. Customers don’t feel comfortable in providing the information to a certain department when they have already provided to another one. In order to overcome such problems, enterprises tend to seek assistance of EAI expertise so as to facilitate the customer and to make them feel better and different overnight. Occasionally the enterprise needs to take benefit of everything that it recognizes about a client. Knowing the fact that the products a client formerly has bought can generate prospects for marketing other products or supplementary services associated to earlier transactions . It is of little significance that what mode of interaction customer choses to contact the enterprise, it may be via a phone call, web or in person. Therefore it is highly imperative to keep all the information and database integrated. Accomplishing enriched customer relationships stresses application integration. The data pertinent for a client should be obtainable in an integrated system, however that information may be distributed in several stove-pipe uses established to upkeep numerous lines of business .
Besides clients, enterprises also need to advance rapport with supply-chain associates and other external organizations through EAI tools. There are adequate number of chances accessible for electronic info exchange. Information sharing, enterprises make ways for new setting for active management. Associates can influence new skills to generate innovative services. By launching electronic contacts with its transport partners, a vendor, for instance, can arrange for improved order status following .
Enhancing relationship with customer and gaining advanced levels of incorporation with supply-chain associates rises new safety apprehensions. If the Internet is used as a messaging network, moderately than dial-up or devoted lines, an enterprise should take essential steps to safeguard the privacy of data flow. Controls should be applied to make sure that a buddy cannot get info pertinent to other buddies .
The requirements of integrating system applications for partners is quite similar to the ones in the case of interaction with customers. In such cases, the new applications are generally required to be integrated with a number of stove-pipe applications that are already existing in present systems of the enterprise. A success factor in providing the ability to support by using information technology to carry out effective and efficient information exchange is the utilization of XML language. Front-end channels also play an important role in providing a large number of roles and levels of functions like the EDI for the automated exchanges including XML for exchanges working on automated systems and other Web interfaces for company’s partners .
Improving Internal Processes - Bringing development in an enterprise's in-house procedures taken to be very significant aspect for EAI. EAI practices can be used to streamline data course among divisions and subdivisions of the enterprise. In few establishments, EAI offers integrated info for assessment and decision making procedure. EAI can be used to settle data warehouses in the direction of examining market fashions, assessing the efficacy of a business creativity, and evaluating the performance of establishments within the enterprise. EAI makes easier the construction of a data warehouse by facilitating the course of info from stove-pipe applications to the shared warehouse and also by assisting the translation of data from numerous applications' layouts to a common layout .
Worker self-service is also a dynamic application in refining business procedures. Web-enabled interfaces could offer workers with improved access to the data they must need to perform their jobs successfully. Worker self-service Web sites for welfares of management and further (HR) roles are also becoming prevalent day by day. Lastly, EAI supports to eradicate labour-intensive stages in business procedures and to circumvent laid off entry of statistics. This type of applications of EAI frequently employs a work-flow-automation instrument to bond among the applications that are incorporated .
Information Technology (IT) establishments are feeling it more and tougher to uphold evolving mission- essential applications timely and in suggested budget. There are numerous hitches in achieving these very significant requirements. EAI technology emanates to recoup by decreasing the time required to market fresh applications. EAI subsidizes to faster roll-out in quite a lot of ways . First, EAI leverages the competences of present applications. For instance, habitually the current encryption does its job very well and it has been serviced. The only obligation is to create the functionality by this encryption reachable to new front-end stations like the Web or to new compound applications. EAI supports enormously in this respect and reduces the time required to market. Therefore, the EAI design in its place can be beneficial for the enterprises to gain profits in the long run .
The main groups of modules that can be acknowledged are connectors, adopters, and various other components. Connectors are in charge for creating an association among systems and attaining data through communication roper to target system. Adaptors are accountable for the transfers of information or protocol among systems. Enterprise Business Objects (EBOs) are level units demonstrating key data units in the organization. Transformation components offer semantically accurate translations among different illustrations of data. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) supplies for a mechanism to carry and dispense data among data makers and data users or subscribers as well. The ESB classically comprises of additional components such as Service Archive and Depository for Communication and Transformation Descriptions, Integration Workflow Performance Engine and Integration Components :
Expansion of incorporation to applications in the external environment of the enterprise has confirmed to be equally multifaceted. Enterprises have classically had double sets for B2B integration. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) facilitates computer-to-computer swapping of corporate information in a classic format, and data is systematized according to a detailed format established by both parties. This permits a "hands-off" computer deal that needs no humanoid intervention .Though, EDI was costly and not have the tractability to upkeep the extensive variety of business developments and data formats that corporations looked-for. With the advent of XML, industry definite trade vocabularies and terms like RosettaNet for electronics industry, have shortened integration among companies and have created a B2B Integration market.
Nevertheless, there was no standardized solution that might remove the extraordinary price and intricacy of application integration. This started to change when Microsoft and IBM put out the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) description in 2000. The Network Services ideal represent a worldwide approval on account of software dealers that integration middleware constructed on open principles is equally promising and valuable. The major industry companies are bonding behind a particular set of essential standards
eXtensible Markup Language (XML) is commonly known as XML which is a universal syntax that aims to describe and structure data that is independent from application logic. XML is a meta-language, which is an indication that it can describe other languages. An unlimited number of languages can be defined through using XML depending on the applications in each industry. Simple Object Access Protocol is commonly known as SOAP. SOAP is a trivial protocol based on XML for exchange of data in a decentralized as well as distributed environment. SOAP functions as the standard envelope that passes messages among different systems. Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is an XML language rules for stating a community crossing point for a Web service. This interface designates the practical and operative requirements for accessing Web Services, like code of behaviour requisite requirements and site info. Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) is the principle that describes the depository in which existing web services are kept, indexed, and systematized.
Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) in an industry syndicate dedicated on confirming interoperability among vendor resolutions through its Web Services Interoperability Basic Profile. The syndicate is also instructed to improve interoperability contours for safety and supplementary products that influence Web Services. The essential principles are being stretched to address serious issues, as dependable messaging, safety, method orchestration, and long term dealings.

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