System integration brings together processes and tools to make them work effectively as one connected system, and is often a massive effort. But why would a company need such a transformation? A business doesn't evolve in a straight line. The environment and the market change constantly, and so do client requirements; companies need to tailor their processes to meet these new challenges. Whenever a technology-driven business faces the need to change any process, it looks technology and service providers who can support its digital transformation while ensuring the solution's viability and maintainability for at least 5 to 10 years.
Such changes can be stressful, especially for big-league players, incumbents, and enterprise-grade companies, simply because their entire systems landscape incorporates decades' worth of effort from numerous companies and individuals, all creating and changing various software platforms and modules over time. Sometimes, the original knowledge of these systems is lost to history, and it's not easy to simply replicate the underlying business logic in new software. To keep up with the fast pace of digital transformation, it's often necessary in such cases to keep old systems alive – if only for the time being – while, at the same time, making them compatible with modern technology. The bigger the business, the more varied the processes it needs to manage. Transformation means uniting or replacing existing solutions supporting these processes with new ones that address these new challenges. This is where business meets system integration.
What is system integration
So, what is system integration and what does a system integrator do? System integration unites systems, software, tools and all components into one coordinated system. It links all business processes together and ensures one place for communication and interaction with internal and external partners. SI is the abbreviation for the term system integration.
A system integrator's task is to physically or functionally connect disparate components into a single technical solution running required business functions. System integrators use different methods and techniques to integrate multiple separated units. Some common approaches include:
- business and system analysis
- computer networking
- standards development
- enterprise application integration
- business processes management
- middleware engineering
- design of application programming interfaces and service buses
- custom software development
When companies may require system integration
As system integration is about establishing connections between diverse processes and software, it serves mid-sized and large companies, enterprises and industry giants.
System integration is applicable for businesses that are big and complex enough:
- to have separated processes for different business activities
- to use extended communication cycles to connect internal teams and departments with external partners
- to use a lot of software to automate business processes
- to solve industry-specific tasks
- to require processing data from multiple sources
Many sectors, verticals and fields may require system integration: Telecom, Finance and Banking, Real Estate and Construction, Commerce, Media, Education, Health, Transport, Manufacturing and others. Consumers of system integration services are companies that:
- do not run IT as their core business
- use IT solutions to solve their core business tasks
- require a solution that doesn't exist in a ready-to-implement form
- or such ready-to-implement solutions imply huge upfront costs which are hard to justify in terms of ROI
Deciding on system integration strategy
By its nature, system integration is a massive-scale initiative with prolonged effects. That is why it is essential to develop a business strategy from a long-term perspective first before starting the digital transformation. A tool or software solution itself won’t bring drastic changes. Transformation comes from management and strategy, from understanding business goals, transferring goals to tasks and defining ways of fulfilling these tasks.
So, strategic decisions on how to transform a business come first and result in technology. It is not the system integration’s role to change a company. Tools usually do not produce problems; leadership more often does. To avoid common mistakes and make system integration efforts painless, keep in mind the following points when planning digital transformation for your business:
- Apply system integration in your core business silos. Do not isolate the new technology from your main tasks – integrate your existing systems and applications instead.
- Treat system integration as a core business activity. Do not separate transformation from the main processes – it is no less vital to the business.
- Understand what you do, even if you rely on your system integrator. Do not trust transformation blindly, make sure all the offered solutions correspond to your business tasks and processes.
- Keep in mind that system integration is a tool, not a goal. Business needs and goals are the driving forces of any transformation.
- Plan system integration and implement digital transformation as a long-term project in your business development strategy.
- Grow in-house talent during the process; relying solely on a system integrator would be too dangerous for the long run.
- Foresee new risks that system integration may bring your business, research them and be ready to handle risks properly.
The system integration process: phases and practices
Since system integration is the result of the need to tailor business processes and solve new business tasks or to boost performance, it requires well-thought preparations, precise implementation and assistance with the operation and further updates.
Analysis – the vital phase of system integration
Digital transformation is an answer to calls and changes in a business landscape, so a system integrator starts with complete business and system analysis. This phase requires the most effort and attention, as it includes:
- business requirements analysis
- business processes analysis
- business goals analysis
- existing systems analysis
- pain-point identification
- business tasks analysis
- best practices research
- negotiations with all stakeholders
- consultations on existing solutions
- recommendations on tools, software, techniques and methods
- making a system integration plan
- specifying vendors of solutions
To make a long story short, at this stage, a system integrator puts together an offer and an integration plan aligned with the business strategy and company goals, and negotiates all aspects of the collaboration with owners and stakeholders.
System integration in action: methods and techniques
After the analysis and consultation stage, a system integrator starts implementing transformation according to the established plan and business processes. System integration may follow a single pattern cleanly, or use a hybrid mix of approaches and techniques. Business tasks and goals, as well as an existing softare landscape, define the choice of system integration methods. The main methods are as follows:
Horizontal integration
Horizontal integration, often implemented by creating or expanding an organization-wide Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), is used when there is a need to reduce the number of connections between system components, when a business requires extra security and when one system’s unit or software should be replaced by another one with similar features. This method of system integration also calls for a data unification so that more systems can utilize the same information communicated over ESB.