A Marketer’s Guide to Enterprise Application Integration

As your business scales, you’re going to encounter new challenges that you might not have expected starting out. One of these is how you manage your internal apps and company-wide data.

一般，公司使用大约88个不同的应用程序运行, which prompts the questions: Will every employee be able to get the data they need in the apps they use? Can you keep this data accurate and up-to-date at all times? Is there a way to sync up all your applications, even if they don’t integrate out-of-the-box?

The answers to these questions are yes, yes, and yes — if you pursue enterprise application integration.

Enterprise application integration connects the many different internal applications a business uses to function in an efficient, flexible architecture. It ensures employees can leverage data as easily as possible and prevents data from being closed off to only one department.

And that’s just one benefit of several. In this guide, we’ll introduce you to the concept of enterprise application integration, including its advantages and different types, so you can let your data move uninhibited, improve transparency, and ultimately increase your bottom line.

What is enterprise application integration (EAI)?

企业应用程序集成（EAI）是配置单独的内部业务应用程序和软件系统以共同运行的过程，使它们能够自动和无缝共享数据和命令。bob电竞官方下载企业的EAI可能涉及cloud software，内部软件或这些组合。bob电竞官方下载

To better understand what EAI is and why it’s important, imagine a new business. In the early stages, this small business may only need a few internal software tools — say, an accounting program, aCRM, and an email automation tool.

Each of these tools comes from a different vendor and they don’t all integrate with each other. No worries though, since it’s not too much work for the team to move data between these apps manually. Perhaps the CRM and email automation softwaredointegrate after all, making things a little easier.

As this business scales, it will have to take on more software to run smoothly, such as HR software, a content management system, billing and payment processing systems, marketing automation software, data analytics tools, supply and inventory management software, and internal messaging software.

At this point, manually sharing data across all of these is impractical, if not impossible. Also, what if the business wants to replace one tool with another? Sounds like even more work for employees. Eventually, this business will end up withdata silos，只有公司的一部分才能访问数据簇。bob全站app更多的数据筒仓意味着较小的透明度，较少的协作和较慢的增长。

任何经历大量扩展的业务都需要一种将应用程序连接和重新排列应用程序与最少的人类努力联系起来的方法。这是企业应用程序集成开始的地方。EAI通过在不同的软件之间启用简单的数据传输来帮助企业。bob电竞官方下载EAI分解了数据孤岛，节省了员工的时间和精力，并可以通过为员工提供更容易访问更多数据的方式来提供更好的业务决策。

How does an enterprise application integration work?

早期的企业application integration, developers would create in-house integrations between applications. These integrations required a lot of manual effort to set up and maintain.

Luckily, times have changed. Today, most businesses with an EAI enlist one or more system integrator applications to integrate their tools. You might think that solving application compatibility issues with another application is counterproductive — indeed, it can be if done poorly. If done right, however, EAI software makes the process far more achievable, maintainable, and scalable.

Depending on the number and types of applications a business wants to integrate, an EAI may be straightforward, or it may be complex and require several technologies to achieve. EAI systems may also be hosted on remote servers, on-site servers, or cloud servers.

但是，实现了EAI，目标是相同的：将多个不兼容的系统加入一个集成系统。

同样重要的是要注意，EAI不是一个完成的过程。随着您的组织扩展，您将根据公司当前的需求添加，删除和定期交换申请。bob全站app因此，您的EAI将需要定期更新。

企业应用程序集成的好处

We’ve learned that EAI makes businesses more efficient — let’s now discuss exactly how in more detail.

Less Busy Work

While setting up an EAI infrastructure initially requires time and effort, it’s more than made up for by the amount of work saved across the business. EAI systems automate data transfers, meaning no more copy-pasting between applications and a lot less mind-numbing data entry. EAI lets employees focus their time and energy on more valuable, impactful work.

Additionally, automated data entry reduces the chances of human error that results in inaccurate data, which leads us to the next benefit.

Better Data Integrity

EAI确保整个公司的所有相关应用程序中的数据都是准确和最新的。bob全站appEAI系统在后台同步数据，因此您可以确信您对一个应用程序中的数据进行的任何更改都会反映在其他应用程序中。

With more accurate and reliable data, companies can make more informed decisions concerning any aspect of the business, from marketing strategies to sales plays to customer support.

Easier Access to Data

Not only is data better maintained in an EAI system — it’s also easier to locate and leverage by employees. EAI works to eliminate data silos, opening up data across departments and increasing transparency. Instead of bouncing between apps in search of a data point, employees can stay in their usual apps or view reports from a centralized dashboard.

Again, this saves time that can be spent doing more valuable work, and also means employees don’t need to get access to and learn how to use dozens of different applications just to locate the data they need. With easily available data, you can spend your energy on finding insights instead of finding the data itself.

更灵活的基础架构

Scaling organizations don’t usually keep the same set of internal apps for very long. As business needs change, so will the systems which support them. For this reason, it’s crucial that applications can be replaced in a modular fashion, without much impact on internal functions.

EAI系统允许这完全允许 ​​- 只要Core EAI软件工作，公司就可以在不冒险丢失的情况下交换应用程序。bob电竞官方下载确保新应用程序有效，需要一些最小的配置，但是与手动将数据移入新应用程序相比，资源密集得多。

Ultimately, EAI provides businesses the flexibility to use the tools they want and facilitates upgrades when the time is right to switch them.

Enterprise Application Integration Models

EAI更像是一个概念，而不是一个特定的模型 - 实际上，有几种方法可以为您的组织实现EAI。在本节中，我们将介绍EAI的四种方法，以及您应该考虑（或避免）的方法。

Point-to-Point Model

The first attempts at EAI used a point-to-point model. In this model, developers create unique connector programs for each app-to-app integration. Each connection requires its own separate script to take the data, translate it, then send it to the receiving app.

点对点方法可以作为仅利用少数应用程序的小型企业的快速解决方案。但是，随着企业采用更多工具，该模型很快就变得无效。虽然三个应用程序的系统仅需最大三个连接，但六个应用程序的系统需要15个单独的连接。编写和维护的连接数量已经很困难 - 想象一下应用程序计数双重或三倍。

Hub-and-Spoke Model

The next evolution of EAI came in the form of a hub-and-spoke model. This model consists of a central software hub and applications that connect to it like spokes on a wheel. The hub is responsible for receiving data from connected applications, reformatting the data, and sending it to the specified destinations.

While the hub-and-spoke model solves the scalability problems of the point-to-point model, it’s not without its own faults. First, the model still requires developer intervention to send data where it needs to go from the hub, so it's not a hands-off solution.

此外，通过一个枢纽运行所有通信，在该组件上承受沉重的负载，使性能放缓并可能破坏集线器。而且，如果集线器失败，整个网络将失败。结果，今天很少使用该模型。

企业服务巴士模型

企业服务总线（ESB）模型通过将集中式数据处理组件与其他分布式数据传输方式相结合，从而改善了轮毂和辐条模型。数据传输由开发人员设定的业务规则控制，这些规则可能被配置为处理大量的应用集成。此外，ESB模型不需要开发人员不断出席。

在我们讨论过的所有模型中，ESB是最轻巧的大型复杂系统，避免了单个集线器的瓶颈问题。它也是最可扩展的，允许添加和删除新的应用程序（或“服务”），并对EAI软件进行最小的更改。bob电竞官方下载

中间件

中间件broadly refers to any software that works in between an application interface and a computer’s operating system. In the case of EAI, middleware enables data transfer and translation across applications. A company may pick middleware to move data between databases, application servers, or other systems based on need. An example is low-code iPaaS software, which works well for SMBs —请参阅我们完整的IPAA指南以了解更多信息.

EAI与SOA vs. ESB

In your research, you may have come across other concepts related to EAI, namely service-oriented architecture (SOA) and the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) model. In this section, we’ll briefly clarify the difference between these three similar concepts.

EAI is a process of integrating software applications and software systems across enterprises, making for better data synchronization and easier access to data. EAI handles how data is shared between apps, including how the system formats the data and where the data goes between the sending app and the receiving app. EAI is often accomplished with a set of specialized software integration tools.

SOA是一种方法来构建软件,不bob电竞官方下载ves incorporating functions (called “services”) from other pieces of software, which limits a developer's need to build these software components from scratch. For example, if a developer wants to put an interactive map in their app, they could use Google’s Map service instead of creating a map service themselves inside their app.

SOA也是实现EAI的一种手段。与我们讨论过的EAI方法不同，SOA不涉及第三方集成解决方案。相反，应用程序公开其服务，这些服务是其他应用程序直接访问的。这创建了一个松散耦合的应用程序共享数据的网络。

最后，正如我们上面谈论的那样，ESB是EAI的模型。ESB面向更复杂的集成，SOA通常利用ESB使企业范围的应用程序集成成为可能。没有ESB，试图实施基于SOAbob全站app的EAI的公司只会拥有一系列服务，没有简单的方法来链接它们。

Better Data, Better Decisions

如果您不熟悉空间，那么很容易陷入EAI和相关技术的技术性质。但是，记住，归根结底，EAI的目标是帮助您和您的公司通过更高质量的数据做出更好的决策。bob全站app

可以在自己喜欢的应用程序中访问数据的人越多，您的公司就会越有效，可以节省您的时间，并让您更多地关注对您的扩展业务至关重要的问题。bob全站app