A smart integration strategy for a future-proof organization

a smart integration strategy: the right information anytime, anywhere.

Companies collect all kinds of data that they use to provide their services. About customers, products, employees, orders, invoices, etc... This information is recorded in different places and at different times. Implementing an integration strategy will make sure that data flows are completely aligned, so that employees always have the right information to do their jobs optimally.

You can do this by creating interfaces between different systems, but you have to do that in a smart way. If you link all those applications directly with each other, you create a huge spider web in which everything is connected. Before you know it, you create an unmanageable tangle of information flows and interfaces. This increases the impact and the risk of software changes, and that is disastrous for the flexibility of your company.

greater flexibility through loose coupling.

The more complex your ICT environment becomes, the more difficult it becomes to implement changes. So the trick is to reduce the interdependencies between systems as much as possible. At Referit, we do this by not linking applications directly with each other, but through a separate layer, the Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (EIPaaS).

Linking software through a centralized EIPaaS is a form of "loose coupling." The advantage of this is that the applications and interfaces do not interfere with each other. Each application stands alone so that a change in one system has no impact on the other. This makes it easier to implement changes. Read more about our approach.

how does an enterprise integration platform as a service work?

One system sends data to the EIPaaS and other applications can subscribe to it. The EIPaaS ensures that the message reaches the subscribers in the correct format. This way, each system only has to create one message that can be used by any application that needs the data. It also makes it much easier to make changes in your applications. If you change something in one system, you don't risk something falling over in another. And if a new application is added, you don't have to build new links. You connect the newcomer to the EIPaaS and it takes care of the rest.

flexibility in practice.

A while back we did a project for a marketing agency that wanted to expand its service offerings and therefore switched to a new application. The implementation was an exciting operation on which a lot depended. To avoid taking any risks, the project team decided to put the new system into production while the old one was still running. Through the EIPaaS, both systems received the same data, so the users could easily compare the environments. Any discrepancies could be quickly detected and resolved, which works perfectly. The implementation went smoothly. Soon the company had enough confidence in the new system to turn off the old one completely.

for big and small.

Setting up an EIPaaS initially costs extra time and money, but in the long run the investment pays off quicky. Still, companies are often tempted to link applications directly. This is unfortunate because by doing so they lose the flexibility to respond quickly and adequately to new developments in the market. Moreover, there are more and more excellent and affordable solutions to set up a good integration strategy. Both for large and small companies. At Referit, we have experience with on-premise, hybrid and cloud EIPaaSs. Often we can get a first result in just a few weeks and show that it works.