What is Enterprise Application Integration?

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is a software design pattern that integrates applications and systems in a way that facilitates the synchronization of data across them. There are many benefits of using EAI, and maybe that’s why businesses aim to understand Enterprise application integration and leverage EAI to increase business agility, improve operational efficiency and reduce costs by removing duplication and reducing the overhead required to accomplish common tasks.     A variety of technologies can be contained with enterprise application integration, some of them are as mentioned below:  

• Business Process Management (BPM) - This includes the data exchange between systems, as well as the orchestration of processes through the workflow. May it be an EAI system or any other enterprise application, BPM plays a crucial role.

 

• Business Rules Management - The management of rules to automate business processes. These rules can be created manually, or by using application logic. They can also be stored in an enterprise repository for easy access by other systems within an organization.

 

• Enterprise Content Management (ECM) - ECM refers to any system that allows organizations to store and manage their content more efficiently, whether it's documents or images, videos, or audio files. It also will enable organizations to publish this content across multiple platforms such as websites, intranets, and mobile devices.

 

• Enterprise application integration - The process of bringing business applications together to create a unified experience for consumers and employees.

 

• Business process management - It empowers the organization to manage the flow of data among users, apps, and devices.

 

• Service-oriented architecture (SOA) - It is a method to create apps that are capable of automatic adaptation as needed based on changing business requirements.

  There are two types of integration namely synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous integration refers to a direct connection between two systems without any time lag or delays. Asynchronous integration refers to a connection that is initiated by one system and completed by another one (i.e., when two systems send messages to each other).

Benefits of EAI

The benefits of enterprise application integration are:  

Reduced integration costs

  You can reduce the time and effort required to integrate different systems by integrating them into a single platform, which can be accessed by any kind of employee or process. Integration is easier and faster when you use an integrated system that has been designed for this purpose, rather than trying to build separate systems from scratch.  

More efficient business processes

  When you have a better understanding of your data and its usage patterns, you can create more efficient business processes. This means that there is less manual intervention in your system and fewer errors and downtime due to human error.  

Faster response times for customers and vendors

  If your company depends on vendors for products or services, they will need to get their information quickly so that they can produce the product or service requested by your company's customers (or vice versa). By integrating all your systems, you will be able to share information between them quickly and easily so that you can respond quickly to customer requests or vendor demands for products or services.  

Five Models for Enterprise Application Integration

 

Point-to-Point Integration

  In this type of integration, two systems are connected only by a point in time or a single event. This is the most common type of integration because it provides a high degree of flexibility and control over data movement.   The advantage of using point-to-point integration is that it allows for the fast introduction of new data types without the need for additional code. However, because the process is highly controlled and defined, it can be challenging to update the application when changes occur in one system.   The disadvantage to using point-to-point integration is that there is no support for multiple users or access rights. Also, because each connection must be manually set up, it becomes difficult if not impossible to quickly add new connections as needed.