How to Simplify Integration with Your SAP Solutions

How to Simplify SAP Integration
Integration Appliances: How to
Simplify Integration with Your ®SAP Solutions
A Fast, Low-Cost Solution That Works
By Dr. David K. Meader June 2007
Introduction
Corporate technology leaders 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 risky, complicated software-based integration tools. Nevertheless they must have integration to accelerate the ROI of new applications.
Already one out of every three dollars spent on IT goes toward integration projects. Gartner Group predicts that in the next few years Software-as-a -Service (SaaS) application adoption will increase the number of integration projects therefore driving up the overall cost of integration even further.
If you're in charge of application integration for SAP solutions, the challenge is how to exploit new applications by simplifying their integration.
Will you assign a team of skilled programmers to create and maintain custom code with each new application or partner?
Will you invest in expensive and complex software-based integration platforms?
Will you look for another approach?
The answer depends upon the kind of integration project you're dealing with.
According to Gartner, more than 90% of application integration needs in fast growing companies are straightforward: move data from one application to another, in real time, according to set business rules. Some especially messy integration problems will always exist, but most integration projects are relatively simple. Does it make sense, then, to invest in a Cadillac when a Camry will do? Probably not. More likely is that you want a technology that takes care of the vast number of straightforward integration projects in a quick, simple, cost-effective manner.
For SAP customers, application integration has proven even more difficult because SAP solutions are connected with such a wide variety of existing applications that businesses already have in production. What SAP customers need is the ability to integrate existing apps, such as salesforce.com, Siebel, home-grown applications, and others, with SAP solutions in just days to get the full benefit of an integrated enterprise.
Doing SAP Application Integration - Three Choices
There are three ways to integrate SAP solutions with other applications. First, through Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) tools. Second, through custom coding. The third is through integration appliances, which are relatively new to the market, and have overcome the challenges and barriers of the first two approaches for many companies. Let's look at each.
Copyright ©2007 Cast Iron Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 How to Simplify SAP Integration
EAI and ETL Tools - Like Using a Chainsaw to Open a Letter
EAI tools were designed to create elaborate frameworks for integrating dozens to hundreds of applications. Companies have found they are a good approach for addressing complex, business process initiatives such as BPM (business process management), BAM (business activity monitoring) and an enterprise backbone. ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) tools support massive volume transactions and very complex data manipulations, such as you might find in big data warehousing solutions. Both of these approaches require heavy lifting by many skilled programmers, long delivery times, and high budgets.
Interestingly, most integration projects do NOT have the characteristics described above. Most integration projects do not involve huge data warehouses, nor do they need to integrate the hundreds of stand-alone applications for which EAI was designed. Most companies find that they have many projects where they need to integrate fewer than 10 applications with SAP solutions. Using EAI tools for these kinds of integrations is like using a chainsaw to open a letter - too much overhead and time required for the task, which prevents positive payback.
Custom Coding - Like Having to Build Your Car before Driving It
The default for any company facing an integration project between SAP solutions and salesforce.com, or any other application, is to write the data ... [download for more]