Overcoming the challenges of integrating information across the enterprise

Overview Effective information systems ensure informed decision-making by management, production of high-quality products on schedule, and delivery of satisfactory services to the customers. But as this chapter points out, achieving that level of effectiveness means resolving a number of integration issues.

Enterprise integration enables delivery of the right information to the right user in a timely manner. Unfortunately, many existing information systems were developed and deployed using ad hoc approaches, resulting in information silos that make data sharing and integration among business units difficult. Integration practitioners must deal with the issues of:

• Complexity
• Diversity
• Heterogeneity
• Scalability
• Agility

This chapter from CIO Wisdom II: More Best Practices, written in conjunction with the Enterprise Computing Institute, discusses enterprise integration methods and corresponding enabling technologies to help overcome these challenges. It introduces data, object, and application levels of integration and supporting technologies, along with workflow management-based and business process management-based integration computing paradigms. It also offers a look at service-oriented architecture and Web Services.

Title: CIO Wisdom II: More Best Practices
ISBN: 0131855891
Published: November 2005; Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference
Authors: Phil Laplante and Thomas Costello
Chapter: Enterprise Integration: Methods and Technologies (chapter authors: Min-Jung Yoo, Raghvinder S. Sangwan, and Robin G. Qiu, in conjunction with the Enterprise Computing Institute.)

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