What is Enterprise Application Integration and Why is it Important?

Digital transformation is significant for modern businesses. Enterprise application services have become a natural step in this process. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is a new paradigm for utilizing technologies and services. EAI shares data and business processes between the various applications in an organization. It involves integrating business systems and processes so that they can collaborate smoothly. Small, medium-sized, and large businesses use enterprise application development to streamline operations since it can integrate anything from software applications to hardware systems.

Enterprises can easily add or remove various business processes from their environment due to the implementation of enterprise application integration services, which enables a flexible architecture. Technology for data-level and business model-level integration is included in EAI solutions. Furthermore, the EAI integration solutions connect the elements of the IT framework, including people, applications, platforms, and databases, to allow secure intra- and inter-enterprise collaboration.

In this article, you will get detailed insights into the importance of enterprise application integration, the benefits of enterprise applications for business, and the challenges of enterprise application development & how to overcome them.

The Principle of Enterprise Application Integration

Enterprise application software bridge the gap between various computer systems. It also assists employees in data management through simple interfaces. The primary goal of EAI integration is to make better use of data generated by various departments.

Several businesses recognize that utilizing enterprise application architecture allows them to become more productive and effective.

The following are the most common types of enterprise applications:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
• Enterprise Messaging System
• Human Capital Management (HCM)
• Payment Processing
• Platform for email marketing
• Applications for service desks
• Supply Chain Management
• Content management system
• Planning for Business Continuity
• Platform for business analytics and intelligence
• Accounting software
• Automated billing system

There are numerous essential factors that empower businesses to migrate to advanced enterprise applications. First, let's look at the enterprise application trends that will shape the future of enterprise application development.

• 5G - a faster and more reliable technology than 4G, makes it easier to develop complex enterprise applications.
• Progressive Web Applications (PWA) - also known as hybrid applications, PWAs integrate web & mobile applications that we can use on multiple platforms, such as iOS & Android.
• AI - machine learning and deep learning components combine to create enticing tools for enterprise software such as chatbots.
• Smart assistants - managing data in enterprise applications becomes even easier with a built-in assistant.

Why is Enterprise Application Integration Important for a Business?

We understand that companies use a variety of apps. For instance, one app manages the supply chain, while another manages human resources. However, different businesses have other applications.

It is beneficial to divide the considerable responsibility into small modules. It also benefits the organization and allows those in charge of the individual modules to focus on expansion and stability. However, there is no connection between these applications. As a result, essential information will not be shared across the organization.

Enterprise application integration assists in resolving this problem by integrating applications and sharing information across the organization. When you develop an integrated application network, you can optimize all of your business processes so that they run smoothly.

When your applications are integrated, and data synchronization is complete, you can begin working on your digital transformation strategy and seek ways to enhance data quality and speed up business growth. Enterprise application development enables businesses to utilize the full potential of their software and surpass their competitors. Innoraft, as an enterprise application development company, will improve your business operations and help you overcome delays within the organization.

Benefits of Enterprise Application Integration

Based on the preceding paragraphs, it is clear that enterprise application integration services provide numerous benefits. You can make your own decision by analyzing the list below:

• Better Information Sharing

  Enterprise application integration is a gateway for information to flow between software applications within and outside the IT infrastructure. EAI can help combine data-gathering initiatives, removing the redundancy of each application collecting and storing data for its purposes. EAI serves as a single entry point for data access across various departments, lowering time spent searching for information and ensuring that data is up-to-date.

• Automation of Processes

  EAI can automate operations that involve information or activity from several software applications. For instance, CRM data can be integrated with the marketing platform to send customer emails based on their demographics and past behavior. The email campaign's success might then be analyzed using that effort in combination with an analytics program. Finally, you can connect all that data with an ERP system to decide which areas are best suited for investment.

• IT Infrastructure Flexibility

  Integrating various software applications enables a company to respond quickly to rising customer expectations. Many businesses face the problem of staying in touch with their employees and collecting data from them. It also eliminates the need for employees to go through the lengthy learning curve associated with utilizing a new application. The EAI enterprise application integration eliminates barriers and leads to simplified business processes by combining the functionality and information of multiple applications into a user-friendly interface.

• Producing New Opportunities

  In today's world, any business organization must recognize the various opportunities that can propel them to the next level. Enterprise application services will assist the organization's staff in quickly identifying and responding to upcoming opportunities. In addition, the owners of any business organization can control all data access and strategies from a single interface, which is a significant feature on its own.

• Improve the Company's Efficiency

  EAI enables companies by making communication easier, reducing time and effort, improving functionality, and increasing control, all of which enhance organizational efficiency. It can assist businesses in dealing with changes in market trends, reputation management issues, supply chain disruptions, and other issues through a single interface. Furthermore, it provides a big-picture perspective that assists business owners in improving the management of various business aspects, such as employees, operations, and costs.

• Enhanced Functionality and Greater Control

  The better the workability of employees, the faster any organization's work process will be. Employees will enjoy working with such enterprise applications, which will promote the organization's smooth operation. Best practices for enterprise application integration include various mechanisms for better-controlling information flow. The organization's leader can gain an overview of each employee's performance, the actual status of their IT processing, and various marketing policies.

Challenges of Enterprise Application Development

Enterprise integration software has the potential to improve productivity, boost connectivity, and more, but there are a few challenges that companies must first be aware of. Below, we will define the enterprise application development challenges you will face.

• Business needs and Environments are Constantly Changing

Since the market moves quickly, the needs of businesses can change frequently and often differ significantly from those at the beginning. In addition, a company may experience greater scalability issues as it grows, which can be challenging to manage without incurring a loss. Therefore, flexibility and adaptability are essential non-functional needs for any enterprise software application.

Solution: Developers can specify the requirements for flexibility and scalability when developing a custom enterprise software application.

• Security and Access Control

People always deal with sensitive data when using enterprise software, and only unauthorized users should have access to this data. Unfortunately, cyberattacks and hackers can target any software application, making security measures one of the most challenging problems for businesses to solve. Therefore, any preventative step that is accessible should be used to secure business data.

Solution: Consider security from the beginning of the development process. It is necessary to test enterprise software products for vulnerabilities regularly, use encryption when storing and transmitting data, and differentiate user access privileges.

• Legacy Software

All software becomes outdated over time. Obsolete products have issues integrating with other systems and stop meeting business requirements. In addition, maintaining outdated enterprise software is expensive; it frequently fails, and adding new functionality to it is challenging, if not impossible.

Solution: A software product should have a well-thought-out initial design that allows for scalability and flexibility. Regular product updates and improvements are also worthwhile.

• Processing and Storing Large Volumes of Data

Enterprise apps frequently generate large amounts of data, which creates the issue of effective administration and storage. In addition, a large portion of this data is unstructured and challenging to use. Furthermore, data storage needs complex infrastructure, which takes time and money. All these factors are quite difficult for businesses of all types, from small startups to major corporations.

Solution: You can store data locally or in the cloud (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud). The needs of your company determine the decision. In most cases, cloud services will be the best solution because they provide mobility, consistency, and high operation speed.

• Third-Party System Integration (Interoperability)

The versions of your enterprise app for different platforms (web, desktop, and mobile) can connect to various third-party services via API and cross-integrate at different levels. Compliance with interoperability standards can be complex, but it is necessary because some things are simpler and much cheaper to realize by connecting a third-party service rather than developing this functionality from scratch.

Solution: When developing enterprise software solutions, it is critical to understand system integration or design the system to enable modular expansion.

• Support and Maintenance

Businesses may suffer if their enterprise apps encounter operational outages due to crashes or unexpected bugs. Detecting and resolving issues is just as important as developing quality. Maintainability should be a manageable task.

Solution: The software developer who creates an enterprise app for your company must provide full implementation assistance and post-release support.

• Time and Money

When the project process has not been thoroughly planned and the developers' experience is insufficient, a low return on investment in enterprise application development can be a significant challenge. It takes months to develop enterprise software. As a result, estimating the exact budget and completion time is challenging if several details are unknown at the beginning. This approach may result in your customer's money running out before the completion of the project or the final product failing to meet all requirements.

Solution: It is essential to plan all product development processes, set appropriate priorities, and regularly assess the outcomes at various stages of project creation.

• Insufficient Developer Expertise

Finding experienced professionals with the necessary expertise for the company has always been difficult. Furthermore, when it comes to technology, the challenge is impacted by high demand and the inability of customers to sufficiently evaluate the expertise of potential performers. Moreover, it is essential to recognize that customer business efficiency depends on the results of the development team's work.

Solution: In this case, the only solution is to be thorough in the remote team selection process. It takes a bit of time, but your efforts will be rewarded.

Objectives

Three enterprise needs are driving the adoption of enterprise application integration:

• Data integration: Organizations that deploy many externally & internally facing applications must integrate data from those applications to ensure database synchronization and simplify data access & availability throughout the organization.
• Vendor independence: By simplifying business policies or rules from the application and into a middleware framework, the EAI integration helps lower an organization's reliance on individual software vendors. Rather than customizing an application with business rules, the organization customizes its enterprise application integration system with business policies, enabling it to swap out enterprise applications and select new vendors as needed.
• Common interfaces: The enterprise application development allows common interfaces to access multiple applications. For example, rather than learning twenty different user interfaces for twenty various applications, EAI integration may enable an organization's employees to learn a single graphical user interface (GUI) that seamlessly connects with existing applications, databases, and other enterprise tools. It simplifies administrative processes and makes enterprise application services more productive for employees.

Conclusion 

Enterprise application development is a crucial component of digital transformation, so one should not interpret it as an alternative option. It is acceptable that not every organization must apply every type of EAI. But eventually, each firm should consider EAI integration and use it, considering the benefits mentioned above.

Enterprise application integration enables businesses to maximize the potential of their software investments. It will accelerate your company to greater heights of success and glory. As an enterprise software development firm, Innoraft has a lot of experience developing software for numerous businesses. We will work with you to develop user-friendly enterprise software solutions to grow your business.