Today’s enterprises are inherently complex. History, budget constraints, and other factors have played their role in putting whole groups of business processes in silos. All of this replicates into or even stems from the enterprise systems. Often, the ERP system is not connected to the CRM, or the email marketing software is done on its own, without any input of the results to the CRM, or key supplier service conditions are available only on external sources. Sometimes, even the same business function, like for example billing, is performed in two different software solutions for different aspects of the business. If there is any data import, it is done manually and fractionally.
This hinders proper analysis capabilities, keeps the company’s management in the dark, lowers employees’ job satisfaction, and takes valuable resources from more productive activities and opportunities. These are the reasons why, in a recent survey, 83% of organizations consider enterprise integration as one of their top 5 priorities for the next two years.
Integration and its benefits
Enterprise integration uses technologies and methodologies to integrate business applications, data, private and public clouds, processes, and devices across the entire IT landscape. Leaving aside the benefits for the technology and data analytics teams, some of the business benefits of integration are:
- Optimization and automation of business processes – Customer experience is driving revenue and having a smooth and well-thought-out buyer journey is crucial for the success of organizations. Integration is the difference between a customer giving excellent references and having him wonder if different departments in the same company have any connection between them. Optimization and automation save time, spare people the drudgery of performing mundane tasks, and lower the possibility of mistakes.
- Knowledge about the customer – A big part of customer experience is personalization. Customers are expecting special offers, timely consultations, and a personal attitude. With the increase of business, it is hard to keep up with excellent support. Acquisitions and mergers are putting an additional spoke in the wheel, and without a proper integration strategy, newly acquired clients are left unsatisfied and churning.
- Sustainable and more secure enterprise architecture – The modern enterprise security landscape is looking scary with threats from malware, malicious external and internal agents, conflicting regulations, and public expectations for open access. Isolated systems are often less secure and are a desired target for hackers. Integration strategy must take into account secure connectivity and role-based access to information. The value of legacy systems can be unlocked through a careful and consistent approach to integration.
- Agility in embracing new business models – The unintegrated mix of manifold software solutions is a risk, but with functional integration, it could be turned into a competitive advantage. Unique services and lucrative business models can be built over a technology structure, which provides an open flow of information and resources where they are needed.
The challenge
At the same time, integration is not an easy task. Today’s enterprise architecture is a mixture of legacy systems, heavily customized applications, and SAAS from different vendors. These are often incompatible systems with their own formats for data, security issues, and peculiarities. Taking over such a problem needs a lot of technical understanding, resources, and compromises. In the same survey mentioned above, 9 out of 10 organizations admit that they struggle with integration.
The general solution
Employing a general formal approach to the problem takes into account best practices and uses them to tackle the particular case. SAP proposes such an approach in its guide to enterprise integration. It describes methodologies, types, and technologies involved in the integration process. A list of six best practices is provided, one of which is assigning a C-level executive with the responsibility of advocating and supervising the integration strategy.
This approach is most appropriate for companies that want to keep using their current technologies as a basis for more gradual future transformations. On the other side of the spectrum, it is also suitable for enterprises that want to escape the limitations of particular vendors, arranging for their needs a selection of the best solutions on the market.
To help enterprises in this endeavor SAP also offers a Platform-As-A-Service solution – its , which has many predefined connectivity options for SAP and non-SAP systems. BTP is managed by SAP service, so companies don’t need to worry about infrastructure and availability.
The out-of-the-box solution
Another approach to integration is to move the different parts of the enterprise landscape into one all-encompassing platform. Such a solution is . It is a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that can be the core pillar of the enterprise integration strategy. Business ByDesign provides a comprehensive set of integrated business management functionality, including accounting, finance, procurement, inventory management, manufacturing, project management, and sales. By consolidating these business processes into a single, unified system, Business ByDesign can help companies break down silos and successfully integrate different areas of the business. It is especially suitable for relatively new companies with few or no legacy systems to migrate, so businesses can have a clean start with fully aligned business processes.
Business ByDesign can also help with enterprise integration by providing a centralized data repository. Consolidation of data from various systems and applications into a single source makes it easier for organizations to obtain the so-called single source of truth – a single system in which data is edited and to which one turns when discrepancies happen. Having such consistency in data management leads to swift decision-making, improved efficiency, and better customer experience.
The takeout
Which way the enterprise should take its integration strategy depends on its current systems landscape. Embracing the diversity of software or streamlining systems into one are two possible approaches to the problem. The well-thought-out and implemented integration strategy can be used as a competitive advantage. The many benefits of implementing a comprehensive integration strategy will be visible in the long run, because they will enable the way to agility and success.
