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Wr estling with an e-business plan seems to occupy every
organisation today. However, akey component in implementing
a successful plan is how to integrate the e-business with
existing applications and legacy systems.
As a result ‘web to back office’ integration is
a critical initiative for IT departments. Companies that
don’t adapt to the rules of e-business risk extinction,
so to ensure long term internet survival it is vital to
use valuable legacy information and integrate it with new
applications and data.
With analysts predicting the Enterprise Application Integration
(EAI) solutions market to be $1billion in 2000 and $5.7
billion in 2002, EAI is now recognised as the essential
e-glue to enabling companies to share data and processes
between systems without requiring sweeping changes to applications,
database structures or architectures.
the opportunity
E-business
should now be considered as one of the major channels to
market for all types of rganisations, a channel which will
encompass every traditional business function as well as
new electronic ways to market. For example, by 2002, Business-to-Business
(B2B) e-marketplaces will emerge in all major industries.
On 24th February 2000, General Motors (GM), Ford Motor Company
& Daimler Chrysler announced a plan to form an integrated
B2B supplier exchange. Ford estimates this will save the
company between $4billion & $14billion annually. So,
major enterprises should plan to begin marketplace participation
by 2002.
the reality
According
to Meta Group large companies typically have around 50 independent
enterprise applications, many deployed on incompatible platforms,
communicating via incompatible protocols. As the majority
of businesses suffer from not being fully integrated, it
is vital to ensure back and front office systems - in particular
new web based systems - can be automated to provide end-to-end
business processes.
the future
EAI
provides a way of sharing data and processes between systems
without requiring changes to applications, database structures
or architectures. Understanding how you can correctly and
profitably apply such technology to materially improve your
business advantage in e-trade, e-procurement and e-customer
strategies within your market is now fundamental to your
organisation's business future.
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