SEMESTER 2 SESSION 2019/2020

WIE3009:
ENTERPRISE SYSTEM DESIGN
AND IMPLEMENTATION

ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

NAME : YAASINI A/P ANANTHAN

MATRIC NO. : WIE170056 / 17102736

Introduction

In this era of rapid technological change, organizations are demanding for more functional and
integrated applications that comprise new computing techniques to reuse, repurpose and
manage the legacy data. Additionally, organizational systems can no longer stand alone as Big
Data and Internet of Things emphasize on the integration of enterprise systems (Smith, 2018).
Initially, most of the systems exist in heterogenous environments within an organization as
each system was developed using varying languages, different hardware and available on
numerous operating systems and platforms. Those systems are known as stovepipe systems
(Fenner, n.d.). As a result, these systems only serves for their own departmental needs and
lacks in information and process sharing across the whole organization. Moreover, for an
enterprise, sharing customer information across various departments was extremely crucial to
run the business smoothly. Therefore, allowing all those individual systems to interoperate has
been the most important aspect of a business function (Lin, 2005). For an instance, enterprise
systems for customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP)
and accounting in the workplace have been increasingly interconnected. Other than that, supply
chain has to be interconnected with a manufacturing organization to let their customers track
and identify the location of their products in real time. This is where enterprise systems
integration comes in where it increases the value of each solution to an organization and allows
them to be competitive in the market.

Hence, this essay gives an in-depth look into various aspects of enterprise systems integration
such as its definition, importance, types, methods, steps involved, benefits, limitations and so
on. Besides, a brief introduction on the ERP system role in integrating the enterprise systems
will be given. In short, the three main objectives of this essay is to give an overview of
enterprise systems integration and discover its importance and challenges to an organization,
to discuss and identify the types of integrations along with the steps involved and finally, to
review and analyse the benefits and limitations of integrating enterprise systems.

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Definition

First and foremost, enterprise systems is an applications software package that is designed
mostly to collate all the different operational wings of an organization into a centralized zone
(Essay Sauce, 2019). In other word, enterprise systems is also known as the combination of
hardware and software of an organization that ensures smooth flow of data across all its
operational units. There are three main classifications of enterprise systems. Those are the
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), used to integrate all the core business process of an
organization, allowing them to share and communicate information with each other; Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) that deals with the management of present and future
customers and Supply Chain Management (SCM) that manages the collection of manpower,
scheduled tasks and infrastructure required for production and delivery (Essay Sauce, 2019).

On the other hand, process of connecting existing systems to share and communicate
information within an organization is known as the enterprise system integration (MXOtech,
2019). Similarly, it is also defined as a discipline that combines processes and procedures from
systems engineering, systems management and product development in order to develop large-
scale and complex systems. These complex systems comprise of hardware and software and
might be based on existing legacy systems coupled with new requirements to add significant
functionality ("What is Enterprise Systems Integration", n.d.). Additionally, business
applications being used nowadays are required to work together to meet users’ demands as the
users expect a quick and easy access to all business functions that an organization can provide
(Thayaparan, 2011). This is why organizations started to connect systems into a larger solution
that functions through a common interface. For an example, a CRM system is compulsory for
an accounting system to call the application programming interface (API) that allows access to
a customer’s account information.

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Importance of Enterprise Systems Integration to An Organization

Before moving into the discussion of the methods of enterprise systems integrations and its
steps, it is essential to know why systems integration is required for an organization. It is true
that information from a specific department could be useful to other departments especially
when it comes to large organizations. Without integrated system, the developers need to build
a new module for each departments where it can be time consuming and contributes to the loss
of the company. Besides, enterprise systems integration is also crucial to manage new client’s
requirements, latest production equipment and to fulfil modern development processes.
Additionally, living in digital era requires every business to adapt to the current technologies
which can reduce the cost involved and provides effective business functions that will meet
user demands (Donohoe, 2019). On the other hand, enterprise integration is also necessary to
identify the right information and provide it at the right place. Updating the information in real
time and coordinating business processes also drives to the need of an enterprise integration
("Enterprise integration", 2020). In short, enterprise system integration is important to develop
a whole new system that establishes communication between the connected systems and
standardizes the existing systems along with interoperability (Smith, 2018).

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Types of Integration

There are four main types of integrated components that comprise the integration of whole
enterprise systems for an organization to achieve a realistic solution. Those are the data
integration, application integration, business process integration and platform integration
(Fenner, n.d.). First and foremost, data integration relates to the drawing of data from few
databases and tables where information can be extracted from one database, processed and
updated in another database. Additionally, its location can be identified and recorded. Hence,
data integrations allows data to be shared and distributed across database systems while
providing it in a standard format such as XML. Besides, application integration allows data or
functions from one application connects with another application that provides real-time
integration such as business-to-business integration, CRM systems, web integration and
creating websites that interconnected with multiple business systems. Moreover, business
process integration allows organizations to reduce cost by streamlining operations and at the
same time, improves responsiveness to customer demands. This type of integration usually
involves process management, workflow and process modelling.

Last but not the least, separate requirements of heterogeneous network must be integrated, and
this is where platform integration comes in. It deals with the tools and process required to
enable communication of different applications without difficulty by passing data in a secured
manner (Fenner, n.d.).

Methods of Enterprise Systems Integration

Besides types of enterprise integration, an organization should also consider the method that
will be used to integrate enterprise systems. According to the article written by Blair, there are
two latest and most popular enterprise system integration methods known as Tightly Coupled
System Integration (TCSI) and Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) (MXOtech, 2019). TCSI
approach was implemented when an application is created to allow the requesting system to
directly call the API of the responding system. In detail, a request from the data in the
requesting system will be created by an application. This application will then transport the
request, response and finally translate the response received from the responding system so that
it can be used by the requesting system. TCSI is being used frequently in an organization as it
is easier to set up and cheaper compared to other methods.

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However, the bad side of this approach is that it will cost more time, money and peace of mind
when an organization need to replace or upgrade the core system. For an instance, upgrading
or replacing an accounting system changes the API and requires to re-develop and test each
integration point which is not a small task and increases the level of complexity. Hence, SOA
is a better enterprise system integration approach compared to TCSI. SOA enables a request
from one particular system to be translated into an intermediate format known as canonical
message. Then, this canonical message will be routed to the respective system and processes
the response message. This response message is then again translated into a canonical message
that represents the response and finally translated into a response that can be understood by the
requesting system. In short, SOA is one of the widely used integration methods in software
development and integration frameworks as it offers loose coupling, flexibility and reusability
which cannot be provided by the TCIS approach (MXOtech, 2019).

However, there are also two traditional types of logical integration approaches that enterprise
systems apply. Those are the Point-to-point Integration and Middleware-Based Integration.
Point-to-point integration is suitable when there are only few applications to deal with. This
method usually implemented due to ease and speed of implementation. However, this method
promotes poor efficiency when it comes to larger scale of systems integration. For an instance,
the number of integration points is more compared to number of systems due to tight coupling
between systems which is closely related to the TCIS. To overcome this issue, middleware has
been introduced where it equals the number of integration points and the number of systems
while supporting larger amount of applications. This method allows the implementation of an
intermediate layer that provides generic interfaces where the integrated systems are able to
communicate. Middleware also routes and passes data. Moreover, each interfaces defines a
business process that comes from an application and replacing and adding applications will not
impact other applications (Lin, 2005). This is why middleware approach is more preferred.

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Steps Involved In Enterprise Systems Integration

This section will discuss on the high-level steps involved in most of the systems integration.
First and foremost, a vendor should define what is integration as each vendor have their own
definition of an integrated solution. For instance, some mean it as having standard Application
Program Interfaces (APIs) to perform specific functions within their applications while some
taught that integration allow to create or receive file interfaces to exchange data with other
applications (Rao, 2020). Secondly, an organization should understand their enterprise and
problem domain before performing system integration. In other words, it means that
requirements gathering should be done by discussing with the managers to gain a better
understanding on what is important (Lin, 2005). For an example, a system integrator can
identify which parts are available and hard to work with when they have the list and the current
software interfaces. Thirdly, an organization should outline the system integration architecture
such as documentation of requirements to integrate two or more systems that involves software
version requirements, data flow diagrams, hardware requirements, data type inputs and so on
(Graham, n.d.). Thence, system integration development should take place that involves
purchasing new hardware, coding data flows and updating versions (Graham, n.d.). After this,
testing will be done before going live to ensure that the final solution is able to handle the rigors
of day to day usage (Lin, 2005). Once all the bugs are fixed during the testing and trialled
those systems on a smaller scale, an organization can finally go-live with their entire integrated
system (Graham, n.d.). Finally, it is crucial to have ongoing maintenance and support soon
after the go live. In addition, creating maintenance procedures is necessary to solve
maintenance issues that have been addressed (Lin, 2005).

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ERP and Systems Integration

There are lot of classifications for enterprise systems, but Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
is closely related to enterprise system integration. For an example, educational institution has
number of departments where the flow of information is large and requires different teams to
work on it. A centralized unit is needed as it is not efficient for each team to upgrade new
infrastructure, implement new strategies and ensure smooth flow of current processes
independently. This is where an ERP system has been used. It allows integration of all business
process within an organization to share and communicate information with each other as it
have several built modules to support and perform various processes for each type (Essay
Sauce, 2019). An example of an ERP system is the application suite of SAP, Oracle, and other
vendors ("Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)", n.d.). Moreover, ERP tools used for
individual departments eliminates the difficulty in maintenance and handles other problems
encountered easily at the same time offers enhanced security due to its centralized access that
ease the application of different security protocols. Other than that, ERP software such as e-
commerce makes advanced integration into web services much easier. Although purchasing
ERP tool demands higher cost, it is still a great choice to boost a large organization’s business
(Essay Sauce, 2019).

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Benefits

A company’s productivity and its business efficiency will decrease and will not be able to
compete in the business anymore if they are having many systems that only serves a certain
department and are not integrated together. Thus, enterprise systems integration is the best
solution that offers several benefits which allow organizations to be responsive to market
demands. Firstly, it offers automation as connecting most of the systems together will ease flow
of work, provides complete transparency and lesser wasted time. Hence, an organization
doesn’t have to spend on manpower to look after the various systems when all the systems are
interconnected (Smith, 2018). Besides, integrating enterprise systems also increases the
productivity by providing quick response to change and improves the planning of supply chain
management ("What Is Enterprise Application Integration Information Technology Essay",
n.d.). For an instance, many enterprise integration will have their own mobile app so that
employees could receive the information immediately which eventually improves response
time. Additionally, status updates and activity reports can be shared among all departments in
real time when there’s a centralized unit. On the other hand, it also improves the interoperability
where the whole organization, from departments that are located in-house to remote
departments works in unison as one single department with the management having complete
control over the business functions (Smith, 2018). Moreover, technical benefits can be obtained
as integrating enterprise systems decreases the redundancy of tasks and data while increasing
flexibility and reduces development risks which will allow companies to conduct business
more efficiently ("What Is Enterprise Application Integration Information Technology Essay",
n.d.). Last but not the least, having integrated enterprise systems improves decision making of
an organization. This is because information and data collected from an integrated environment
helps managers to take better and accurate decisions aligning with their business favours. They
can also keep track the progress of the units in a single platform (Essay Sauce, 2019).

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Limitations

Although there are several benefits of integrating enterprise systems, some challenges and
limitations are still being identified and requires the organization to look into it. One of the
challenges is organizations are lacking in employees that have skills and expertise in integrating
the enterprise systems via parallel processing and combining the data that deals with different
technical aspects such as various computing languages and operating systems. As a result,
additional cost and time are required to train their selected personnel if there’s no experts in
this field ("What Is Enterprise Application Integration Information Technology Essay", n.d.).
Moreover, the complexity of developing integrated enterprise systems where linking various
systems requires different operating systems and database solutions with different computing
languages. It becomes even worse when there are legacy systems that are often outdated and
no longer supported by current technologies and vendors ("What Is Enterprise Application
Integration Information Technology Essay", n.d.). Furthermore, cost of investment is one of
the biggest concern and limitation to the integration of enterprise systems. As we know, initial
development of integrated enterprise systems costs a lot where many managers are not willing
to invest in. this cost of investment usually depends on the number of users, license type,
desired application modules and level of customization as all this contributes to the changes in
the way an organization conduct their businesses (Donohoe, 2019). For an example,
development costs increases when the organization choose to pay yearly subscription fees,
buying new hardware and perform maintenance. Last but not the least, most of the
organizations are also afraid of data loss and downtime risk when it comes to enterprise systems
integration. There is a downside when all the systems are interconnected into single system
that performs most of the important business processes. For an example, someone inside or
outside company might hack those systems to access confidential data. Consequently, failure
in the centralized and integrated systems will lead to downtime where users are not able to
perform their jobs and can even lose the key information if there’s no regular backup performed
(Donohoe, 2019).

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Discussion & Conclusion

In short, the essay above concludes that systems must communicate with each other to ensure
efficient business operations. In other words, enterprise system integration is an important for
any company or organization in order to be competitive in the current digitalized market world.
We have looked at its roots and why it has been practiced which defines the criteria of a
successful business operation. Then, from the essay, we also able to understand and examine
the integration methods and steps involved. Consequently, a clearer view of what future it holds
can be obtained by discovering the use of integrating enterprise systems in the industry from
the discussion above. It seems that the necessity to integrate systems increases day by day.
However, enterprise systems integration demands for highly skilled expertise where only few
companies have as integrating systems is challenging due to technical differences between the
systems. Despite its techniques and abilities, lacking support from key players in the industry
has made the realization of enterprise systems integration is not possible. Thus, a strong support
especially from the IT industry is required and I believe that the importance of enterprise
system integration will continue to grow, and its impact and necessity will be realized by all
the business sectors that operates in highly digital and dynamic business environment. Besides,
organizations should own a high-level strategy to assure that the integration of enterprise
systems aligns with the organizational goals. In conclusion, enterprise system integration has
advantages that go a long way for the company’s future. With interconnectivity bearing the
torch of transformation for technology, it’s high time before every organization move towards
system integration (Smith, 2018).

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References

Donohoe, A. (2019, August 8). What Are Some Benefits and Challenges of Enterprise
Systems? Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/facts-7584818-benefits-challenges-
enterprise-systems.html

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.myperfectwords.com/sample/essays/detail?id=185739

Enterprise integration. (2020, February 6). Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_integration

Essay Sauce. (2019, July 5). Enterprise Systems: Information technology essays: Essay Sauce
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https://www.essaysauce.com/information-technology-essays/enterprise-systems/

Graham. (n.d.). An Overview Of The Steps Required For A Successful System Integration.
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the-steps-required-for-a-successful-system

Fenner, J. (n.d.). Enterprise Application Integration Techniques. Retrieved from http://www-

icm.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/W.Emmerich/lectures/3C05-02-03/aswe21-essay.pdf

Lin, F. (2005, March). Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) Techniques. Retrieved from
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MXOtech. (2019, June 21). Top Enterprise System Integration Methods and Tools. Retrieved
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Smith, A. (2018, October 16). The Importance Of Enterprise Systems Integration For Your
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Thayaparan, A. (2011). Enterprise Integration with Messaging.

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