Modern business, regardless of how big it is it is a complicated affair. Even small companies use tens or hundreds of different marketing, business and operational applications to function.
These applications should work in tandem to support the outcomes most important to the company. Business integration attempts to accomplish this by enabling and connecting the participants in an eco-system to work as one cohesive whole.
The proper design is vital to an effective business integration. All too often integrations are constructed in the way that makes it difficult to change the design. The wrong design choices could result in a system which is difficult to manage and maintain and can be costly to run.
In the past, business integrations were primarily focused on integrating IT software and systems, such as CRM and ERP solutions. This kind of integration is known as application integration, and is usually done using APIs or other tools which allow the connection between different systems. These kinds of view website integrations are usually limited in scope and require an entire team of technical managers at the site to maintain and manage.
The most important factor in modern business integration success is an approach that is holistic and focuses primarily on the integration of business services. This is accomplished by mapping the necessary business services to the proper technology. It also involves the creation of the necessary integration components, such as connectors as well as data mappings and a robust testing and deployment process in a controlled environment. Afterward, a monitoring and optimization process is put in place to ensure that the integration continues to meet its goals.