Just quickly circling back to see if you or a colleague can participate in BWG

Strategy's Ansys Focused Q&A on July 22nd at 3:00PM Eastern Time. Looking for 5-10
minutes of participation, please let me know! 

When acquiring software, many companies decide to buy only the components that they
actually need in that moment. This way may be cheaper and thus seem more profitable
at the beginning, but can very quickly become counterproductive. As your organisation
evolves, you start using more and more independent tools, this results in productivity
drop and inaccurate data analysis. Luckily, systems integration is here to save your
business.

What comes as a surprise to many entrepreneurs is how time-consuming and

complicated the process of integrating various systems may be. They often prefer to
acquire new off-the-shelf packages instead of putting their already existing subsystems
together. However, this decision not only takes time which employees need to spend on
understanding the new solution, but also valuable data.

What is systems integration?

To put it simply, the procedure connects multiple separate components which often
come from different vendors to work as one. Here you can find what putting the
subsystems together has to offer, including improving employee productivity and
ensuring seamless data connectivity which enables you to better analyse business
processes.

Systems integration is a great solution for companies who struggle with working on
multiple independent subsystems and are experiencing a lot of time being wasted due
to re-entering data to each of the tools manually. If you are wondering whether your
company may need systems integration, you can read more here.

1. Requirements gathering

In general, the first step consists of one or more meetings when you share your ideas
and requirements with a systems integrator. It is crucial that you know exactly what you
and your team expect the future system and its components to do. In order to provide
you with an efficient solution, an IT company has to make sure your employees and
customers will find the software comfortable and easy to use.

Why it’s important:

There is no such thing as a standard systems integration. Every company uses different
subsystems in order to achieve different goals. It is extremely important for a systems
integrator to know your requirements very well.
2. Analysis

After your expectations and specifications for your future software are listed down,
business analysts conduct a thorough analysis in order to determine operational
feasibility. They are experienced in translating your requirements into needs and
improving the communication between you and the development team. It allows an IT
company to connect their vision of the system with yours.

Why it’s important:

What you want is not always what you actually need. Listen carefully to the company
performing the systems integration and their advice. A successful collaboration will help
them to provide you with the best solution suited to meet all of your needs.

3. Architecture design

Thanks to the analysis, a systems integrator is ready to perform the process of putting
your subsystems together. However, before they start, they need to build a strong
foundation in order to eliminate all of the risks. That is why the next phase is dedicated
to writing a plan of how multiple components should be integrated so that they can
function as a whole. Usually, blueprints of the integration are created to help both sides
to visualise the process.

Why it’s important:

A systems integrator aims to provide you with a solution which will boost your
productivity and improve your workflow, but their main objective is to ensure seamless
data connectivity between all of the components. A proper architecture design allows
them to perform an efficient integration.

4. Systems integration design

This is the longest and the most challenging phase of the process where the actual
integration is performed. Based on the architecture design, which is a logical design, its
physical equivalent is developed. If all of the previous steps have been followed with a
close attention to detail, a systems integrator should perform systems integration
successfully and easily, without losing valuable data.

Why it’s important:

Depending on their number and size, connecting various independent systems into one
while ensuring regular data flow may take some time. This phase requires great
precision.  A successful integration can help your company to grow by automating many
business processes and providing you with accurate data.