The Power of Business Integration

by Ashish Deshpande

While substantial progress has been made in integration, scores of companies have discovered that there is no integration silver bullet and that they have little to show for their efforts over the past two years. Companies and vendors alike underestimated the complexity and far-reaching changes that have been brought about by the way businesses use the Internet.

No longer is it sufficient to focus exclusively on integrating systems inside a firewall. Companies must make critical functionality and services available via the Internet. A company that can do business with suppliers and partners across the Internet quickly separates itself from the pack of companies that cannot.

In addition to extending critical business processes outside the firewall, business process integration (BPI) systems can provide management a timely snapshot of the state of the enterprise. This allows companies to respond quickly and effectively to rapidly changing business conditions without time-consuming and expensive programming. BPI solutions also help organizations reach the market earlier, implement partnerships sooner, and obtain customer feedback immediately.

Business Processes as Core Assets: A BPI Example

To understand BPI, let's examine the typical process of completing an order. Steps might include entering the order, checking the customer's credit, assembling the package, shipping it, billing, and following up to make sure payment is received. The business process, while not extraordinary, can be complex and span multiple functional areas.

The complexity can be compounded by the systems used in the various steps. The systems often will be incompatible because different areas made independent technology decisions at various stages during the company's growth. The technologies might range from AS/400-based manufacturing, order entry, and payment systems to ERP systems such as SAP, to modern component-based systems running on IBM WebSphere and Microsoft application servers.

The Internet adds another dimension of complexity. Consider the case of an organization that has outsourced shipping to a trading partner, say UPS or FedEx. Or perhaps the credit verification system, which formerly used a dedicated modem to the bank, is now available as a Web service.

Clearly defining and reliably executing business processes such as this are core to the fundamental operations of every major organization. Inside the firewall, the business process must span the heterogeneous "stovepipe" applications, originally conceived as stand-alone systems. Outside the firewall, the business process must interact with systems operated by customers, suppliers, and trading partners. Even if the systems are outsourced, the organization needs to stay tightly connected to them to function cohesively.

Analysts and Developers Share the Same Tools

Nearly everyone has seen a developer coding from a workflow diagram scribbled on a crumpled piece of paper or even a napkin rescued from a lunchtime design session. Before the advent of BPI products and vendors, business users would draw a flowchart and hand it over to developers, who would write code based on the flowchart. There was no connection between the model and the underlying code, and, not surprisingly, multiple iterations were required to get in sync.

Now, for the first time, business analysts and developers can use the same tools. Projects can be rolled out more quickly and efficiently. Productivity is increased all around because business analysts can focus on business issues without being forced to make technical concessions up front, and developers can concentrate on connecting to existing systems without learning every nuance of the business.

Risk Control and Incremental Benefits

Perhaps the most compelling aspect of BPI in today's climate is that it is not an all-or-nothing proposition. It is noninvasive technology; the graphical modeling environment and BPI framework sit on top of the company's existing technology stack. BPI makes no demands on corporations to rewrite existing code or standardize on one particular technology. Moreover, BPI recognizes that many packaged applications, databases, and legacy mainframe systems are good at what they do. These systems can be used as is; organizations simply connect to them and take advantage of their existing functionality--without writing custom code. This includes application servers, which can be used for their existing components.

In addition to helping companies automate business processes with a minimum of risk, BPI solutions allow companies to demonstrate incremental progress. A company with 10 or 15 business systems can model a process that connects two or three systems, and implement the process. By making minor modifications to the business process model they can then hook in a fourth system, and so on. It is not necessary to connect to every system before reaping the benefits of BPI.

What to Look for in a BPI Solution

Ideally, the architecture of a BPI system should enable it to support end-to-end integration requirements. Companies should take into account the following capabilities when deciding upon a BPI solution:

The Future of BPI

The business process integration market has emerged as the critical component of the business integration market, which also includes EAI and B2Bi. EAI focuses on synchronizing data from disparate systems within an organization's firewall, including those spread across separate business units and locations. B2Bi also addresses the problem of integrating multi-vendor IT infrastructures, but its primary focus is exchanging data across the Internet. In addition, vendors are investigating Web services such as XML; Simple Object Access Protocol; Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration; and Web Services Description Language as a means to provide B2Bi connectivity.

However, despite these integration options, many IT departments still would describe themselves as being in the business of building applications or designing systems. But BPI is a new, different arena. BPI solutions allow companies to take advantage of systems that are already in place by automating and managing the business processes that span these systems. With BPI, companies can preserve major investments in legacy systems and avoid the expense of having to write new code to replicate existing functionality.

Many BPI vendors are participating in standardization efforts by organizations such as Business Process Management Initiative. This coalition of business process integration vendors is attempting to create a standard description of business processes using an XML-based language called Business Process Management Language. Similar efforts include Web Services Flow Language and the Interoperability Specification from the Workflow Management Coalition. These standardization efforts are crucial in enabling companies to implement and share business process definitions. A BPI system will help corporations model, deploy, execute, and manage increasingly complex yet mission-critical business processes. This technology provides organizations a tremendous opportunity to streamline operations; to enhance relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners; to enable new, more efficient business models; and to achieve sustainable ROI--all while keeping risk to a minimum and allowing companies to demonstrate clear progress in the short term.

Ashish S. Deshpande, Ph.D., is founder and chief technology officer for Metaserver, and is responsible for the company's technology vision and for directing its product development plans. Deshpande can be reached by e-mail at ashish.deshpande@metaserver.com.