Integration Appliances: Finally an Integration Solution for Midsized Companies

Integration Appliances: Finally an Integration Solution for Midsized Companies
Integration Appliances: Finally
an Integration Solution for
Midsized Companies
A Quick, Simple and Low-Cost Approach for Fast-Growing Companies By David Meader, Ph.D. May 2007
Executive Summary
Technology leaders of fast growing companies face a really complex problem - how to integrate their key applications in a way that keeps risks low, costs down, and schedules short. Companies on a growth path don't have the IT resources they need, nor do they have the financial slack to invest in expensive and complicated software-based integration tools. Nevertheless they must integrate their core applications in order to gain the most value for their business.
Already $1 out of every $3 that companies spend on IT goes toward integration projects, and Gartner Group predicts that in the next few years application integration projects will increase in both scope and number. This trend is especially challenging for midsized companies.
This paper examines the application integration trends for midsized businesses, companies with less than $3B in revenue. Technology leaders in these companies have only a few integration approaches to choose from: create custom code, wrestle with sophisticated EAI tools, or use an appliance dedicated to integration.
These three integration choices are analyzed - so that managers can more knowledgeably select the best approach. Appliances stand out as the best alternative for the bulk of integration projects - they simply cost less, are easy to use, and involve less risk than the other approaches. IT managers can typically save 40-80% in TCO over the other options, and delivery is measured in days, rather than months.
Since the integration challenges faced by large companies differs somewhat from those of midsized businesses, a separate paper entitled "Integration Appliances: Deliver Application Integration Projects in Days" explores some of these additional issues. Larger companies may use appliances for their many point-to-point integration projects or to quickly and easily integrate applications with existing EAI platforms. However, technology managers of Fortune 500 companies will still find value in the lessons learned here because integration appliances work well in any sized business.
Growing Need for Integration
In the past few years, enterprise software providers have turned their sights to midsized companies. Companies like SAP, Oracle, salesforce.com, and RightNow have created versions for midsized businesses and are currently seeing strong growth in the adoption of these systems. AMI-Partners, an industry research group, explains that driving this growth will be the continued demand for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions as midsized businesses aim to get the same operational and analytical benefits as the larger companies have enjoyed. In addition, "On-demand" or "Software as a-Service" solutions, such as those offered by salesforce.com, are gaining traction among midsized businesses.
Copyright ©2007 Cast Iron Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 Integration Appliances: Finally an Integration Solution for Midsized Companies
This trend will likely help midsized businesses gain important abilities, but there remains one huge problem - the benefits of enterprise applications can only be realized when those applications are fully integrated. Two (or more) applications must be able to share data and business rules seamlessly, in real time, with reliable performance and scalability. For example, a field sales representative can learn that the customer he's been spending time selling to has not paid his bills and is on "credit-hold" in the billing system. Or, manufacturing and materials management groups can gain early visibility of a coming, downstream surge in orders and use this information to adjust production schedules.
Integration is a top priority for companies. A survey by Baseline magazine conducted in 2007 showed that business process improvement is the number one priority among CIOs and other technology business leaders. Companies that can integrate their applications are going a long way toward improving their business processes, because most processes cross functional lines naturally. In an earlier Baseline survey,... [download for more]