Enterprise Application
Integration
An architecture for integration
Structure of enterprise applications
• Enterprise Applications “should” keep track of (data) information
related to the operations of the enterprise
– e.g. Inventory, sales ledger
• And execute the core business processes that create and
manipulate this information
– Process from ordering of products to cash received
• Enterprise may also have supply chain management systems or
customer relations managements systems which also requires
keeping track of information from outside the organisation
• Data in the organisation is captured in a number of data models:
relational data model; star scheme….
Example of the steps in a business process:
“The purchase order process …”
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Purchase and payment process
• 1: Presales activity
– Determine requirements and complete purchase
requisition.
– Based on:
• quantity on-hand,
• quantity-on-order, a
• expected demand.
– What applications may be used to generate this
data
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Purchase and payment process
• 2: Prepare and record purchase order.
– Receive the purchase order requisition then
– Assist in identifying sources of supply for the
requested item, analyzing vendor quotes,
• comparing vendor prices, terms, and past performance
• 3. Receive and record goods.
– Compare quantity ordered to quantity received.
– Routes goods to the function that requested them
or directs them the warehouse for immediate sale.
It also records vendor performance data.
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Purchase and payment process
• 4: Receive vendor invoice, match with purchase
order and receiving report; record payable.
– If the three-way match fails, the enterprise system
notifies the proper personnel to ensure timely
reconciliation of differences.
• 5. Prepare and record cash payment and update
accounts.
– Uses vendor and account payment data to schedule
payments in accordance with terms of sales agreement.
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Enterprise process models
• Each business process model “must” capture the series of
steps and interactions required to complete a specific
business process:
– The execution of the process will impact on the enterprise data across
one or more applications
– A process may be executed within a single application or more often
through collaboration between several applications
• In the semi-automated (Islands of computing) system:
– Originally, the process and data models were implemented in a wide
variety of functional system (related to organisational departments)
– Each system consisting of its own database, application logic and user
interface
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IT reality – Islands of Computing
Purchased Application
Package(s) – etc.
Program
Legacy
Application
System(s)
Program
Program
New Webbased
application(s)
Program
Program

Program
Program
Program
Program
Enterprise IT reflects the structure and history of each
enterprise not the business processes required.


Departments have their own IT systems
Legacy systems are left in place and new systems built
separately.
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Two architectural solutions
Solution 1:
Integration
• Leave existing applications in place
– Minimises risk of disruption and change in data models/process models
• Link existing applications, integration of systems, which map between
existing data and process models and add ‘missing’ process models
where required
• Effective when most of the functionality is already implemented in
systems and the integration is primarily creating linkages and processes
between these applications
• When significant additional functionality is required beyond what is
already in the applications,: may need to replace existing systems or
redesign the data (inconsistencies) and business process models
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Tactical approach to integrating the
Business information systems
Application
System B
Extract
Program
Program
Down
load
File
Load
Program
Program
Program
Screen
Application Scrape
System A
Program
Trans
action
File
Extract
Program
Message
Queue
Database Replicator
Extract
Program
Down
load
File
Program
Trans
action
File
Program
Load
Program
Down
load
File
Load
Program
Application
System C
Program
Program
Program
Message
Queue


Each requirement is addressed with a point to point solution
Typically consisting of a data transfer mechanism and a data
format converter.
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Strengths and weaknesses of “islands of
Computing” tactical approach

Strengths



Focused on getting the job done
Each individual solution can be created quickly
Technical Weaknesses
•
Numerous Point-to-Point Interfaces
• Sharing of data between systems
• Data duplication
• Data inconsistency
•
Inconsistent Qualities of Service
• Limited or lack of integrated information

Inconsistent Business Processes solutions as they are
not integrated
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Strengths and weaknesses of “islands
of Computing” tactical approach

Business Weaknesses
–
Cost of maintenance
– Isolated decisions lead to overall inefficiencies
• Increased expenses
–
–
Requirement to retain knowledge of the solution in-house.
Potential security or loss of service/process failure due to
inconsistencies.
• Therefore, there is a general requirement for integration to
support organisational system capabilities
– For instance Customer Relationship Management – tracking all
information about a customer across the enterprise
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Solution 2: Enterprise “information systems”
integration

EAI can help resolve the following issues:

Unrestricted sharing of data and business processes
(information) across an organization and can be extend
to customers, suppliers and regulators

The linking of data, business processes and
applications to automate business processes


While ensuring that there are consistent qualities of
service (security, reliability etc)
Reduce the on-going cost of maintenance and reduce the
cost of rolling out new systems.
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The ideal integration of enterprises applications

Unrestricted sharing of data and business processes
throughout the networked applications or data sources in
an organization

The Linking of Data, Business Processes and Applications
to automate business processes
•
ensuring that there are consistent qualities of service
(security, reliability etc)

Reduce the on-going cost of maintenance and reduce the
cost of rolling out new systems.

Devised ways to efficiently reuse legacy and existing apps and
add new ones
A solution is referred to as: Enterprise Application
Integration

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Layers of an EAI Stack
Provides real-time and historical data on performance
of processes and assists in making decisions.
EAI
Business Activity
Monitoring
Business Process
Orchestration
Data Transformation
Message Storage &
Routing
Manages and tracks business transactions that might
span multiple systems and last minutes to days.
Ensures the data is the correct format for delivery to
The next system.
Ensures the reliability of data delivery between systems.
Adapter
Adapter
Provides “open” connectivity between data sources:
programs that interact with the underlying business
application
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Adapters
Business Activity
Monitoring
Business Process
Orchestration


Data Transformation

Message Storage &
Routing
Adapter
Also known as “Connectors”, “Translators”,
“Wrappers” or “Bridges”
Provide seamless connectivity to the
underlying application or data
Converts data into “information and
events” (a form) that can be utilized by the
“enterprise’s” I.T. infrastructure
Adapter
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Message storage and routing

EAI

Business Activity
Monitoring
Reliable messaging
Connect applications running on different
systems by sending and receiving application
data as messages
Business Process
Orchestration

1 Message storage
 Central repository for temporary storage of
transactions until they can be delivered
 Also called “Message Warehousing”

2 Message queuing and routing
 Asynchronous communications
 Set of tools that route messages between
sources and destination (consumers) based on
pre-defined “business” rules
Data Transformation
Message Storage &
Routing
Adapter
Adapter
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Data Transformation

EAI
Business Activity
Monitoring
Data Transformation

Transformation to and from formats used by
Different Systems

Handling simple or complex data structures

GUI Configuration tools to help define the
transformations
Business Process
Orchestration
Data Transformation
Message Storage &
Routing
Adapter
Adapter
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Data Transformation
Source
F. name: denis
L. name: manley
Affiliation: DIT, Dublin,
Ireland

Target
Intermediate
(canonical)
common format
Name: Denis Manley
Company: DIT
City: Dublin
Country: Ireland
EAI typically converts the source data into an intermediate
format and then convert its into the target format

.
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EAI: Building a data model
• Create a common data model including a set of terms for the
concepts in the domain of the data sources being integrated
– e.g., Employee, Customer, Patient, weight, height, body Temperature,
…
• Mappings relate data items in data sources to terms in data model
• Background knowledge about terms essential for transformations
– e.g., Employee subClass Of Person,
– 2 people with the same last name, first name and street address are
likely to be the same,
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Some Issues in data transformation
• Challenge 1: Coping with software from different vendors
– Oracle vs. SQL Server
• Challenge 2: Coping with different “data” formats
– Relational vs. XML
• Challenge 3: Coping with data from new sources such as new
systems, suppliers, customers
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Business Process Orchestration

EAI
Process Modeling
Business Activity
Monitoring

Business Process
Orchestration

Data Transformation
Message Storage &
Routing

Process Brokering


Adapter
Describing the flow of information in the
context of business processes
Using the input/output of processes as the
Integration points between diverse business
processes
Execution of discrete steps within a
business process
Ability to recover from failed steps
Adapter

Process Management


Monitor business processes
Correlate metrics to specific business
process steps
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Business Activity Monitoring

Business Activity Monitoring: Using
your data assets (sales figures) to make
better decisions

BAM is used to gather information about
what is occurring in the EAI deployment
EAI
Business Activity
Monitoring
Business Process
Orchestration
Data Transformation

Message Storage &
Routing

Status of current processes
Identification of problem areas

Adapter

Adapter
Monitoring of unusual activity


E.g. Spotting applications that are not
responding
E.g. Unusually large orders
The collected information is displayed for
operators or managers to diagnose and
determine the solution
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Potential EAI benefits
• Lower costs
– Integration is simpler because systems are more loosely coupled.
– Integration is done more quickly
– corresponding cost savings reachieved sooner
• Lower maintenance effort
– adapters extract the interaction with external systems
– significant advantage from the software engineering point of view
• Increased Information sharing:
– reduces data duplication and data inconsistencies; e.g. Only some systems
not need to collect the data which is shared with others in the system
• Streamline of processes including data and software: reducing
inconsistencies in the business process
• Increased integration of business processes
– increase business agility; responding to shifts in the supply chain (maybe
acquire a new supplier)
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Potential EAI Challenges
• Architecture concentrates all of the processing into a single server/cluster.
– Often became hard to maintain and evolve efficiently
– Hard to extend to integrate 3rd parties on other technology platforms
• The data transformation model introduces an intermediary step
– Added complexity and additional processing effort
• EAI products typified by
– Heavy customisation required to implement the solution
– Lock-In: Often built using proprietary technology (specific to a vendor) and
required specialist skills
– Lack of flexibility: Hard to extend or to integrate with other EAI products!
• Requires organisations to be ready or prepared to adapt EAI: EAI
readiness
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What is EAI readiness?




Much of the challenge associated with adopting EAI is not
related to the technology but to how prepared the
organisation is to implementing it.
EAI readiness is a state of business maturity in which the
enterprise’s:
1.
Business processes,
2.
employees,
3.
Technology (systems)
4.
structure,
5.
and culture,
are prepared for the successful introduction of both EAI
technology and the business disciplines that drive its
introduction.
All five of these factors must be properly situated and
aligned before an EAI implementation can succeed.
Business process readiness

Business strategic goals for project (i.e. process efficiency,
customer satisfaction, supply-chain optimization) clearly
defined and agreed upon by company executive
leadership.

Desired business processes designed, documented, and
valuated.

Gap between current and desired business processes well
understood.
Employee readiness

Staff accustomed to using information technology in their
day-to-day work.

Staff accustomed to adaptation of new roles,
responsibilities, processes, and knowledge … ; i.e. to
business change.

Staff have broad understanding of the business and their
contribution to it.

Executives understand the nature of investing time, staff
and budgets into the business infrastructure in order to reap
future returns. (financial v strategic)
Technology readiness

No systems are to be integrated using EAI tools that will be
retired/ decommissioning soon.


Applications portfolio has been evaluated for semantic
compatibility.


There is no point integrating with a system which will soon be
removed
Check it is possible to transform from 1 data model to the other
Implementation of EAI is not defined as the purpose of the effort.

The project should be about the business objective, not about the
technology
“Organisational” Structural readiness

Keep it simple by ensuring that the EAI system involves as
few departments/ organisations as possible.


Stakeholder analysis performed to determine overall
potential for business resistance to the planned change.


Each organisation involved adds to the complexity of the
project as more people have to be engaged with and there are
potentially greater variety of technologies and architectures.
EAI projects change the way that each
department/organisation works. Therefore, EAI projects need
the cooperation of each department/organisations.
Business “steering” committee is established and ready to
provide leadership to the business change.
Cultural readiness

Corporate culture embraces the importance of well-defined
business processes.

Staff accustomed to adaptation of new roles,
responsibilities, processes, and knowledge ….

Individuals and departments willing to change the way the
applications and data is defined.
Questions
• Many technologies involved in business difference business
process can not effectively communicate and share data.
Enterprise application integration is one approach to
ensure limiting this problem:
• Describe the 4 “main” steps in the EAI framework
• (12 marks)
• Explain, using a suitable example, why EAI is preferred to
the to the “islands of computing” and the tactical
approach to developing enterprise I.T. systems.
• (8 marks)
• Discuss why an organisation must be prepared in order to
correctly implement the EAI approach.
• (10 marks)
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Questions
• Explain, using a simple example, the steps
involved in a business process (6 marks).
• Distinguish between the tactical approach and
the enterprise application integration (EAI)
approach to the integration of an organisation’s
information systems. (8 marks)
• Explain how any three of the steps in the E.A.I.
framework help it overcome the limitations of
the tactical approach
(16 marks)
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