In today’s digitally transforming era, businesses are adopting advanced tools to charge up their workflow efficiency. From accounting, performance tracking, and human resources to productivity management, an abundance of ingenious solutions is available to address every aspect of business operations.
Yes, these tools are super convenient for handling operations, but sometimes it can become a nightmare to manage them side by side. Moreover, when the business scales up, the complexity of data management in these tools rises. In light of this, the demand for classic middleware originates.
An enterprise application integration (EAI) is an innovative process that seamlessly resolves the issue of multiple tools and data management. Let’s dive in and learn more about it.
Decoding the Meaning of EAI!
EAI expanded as enterprise application integration is a process where multiple disparate software, tools, and applications are connected and unified.
The core purpose that an enterprise application integration process solves is the sharing of resources, data, and processes across all the software and applications.
The enterprise application integration approach is carried out on a single platform. The only requirement for the EAI approach is data integration in the backend to allow applications to seamlessly share data with each other. The revolutionary idea serves several applications, such as
- Marketing
- Accounting
- Customer relationship management
- Supply Change management
- Human Capital Management
- Enterprise resource planning
- Billing and invoicing
- Productivity management
And many more. An add-on benefit of EAI is that you can integrate both on-premise and cloud-based apps.
Why Do Businesses Need Enterprise Application Integration?
Here is a quick example of the need for enterprise application integration for businesses.
For example, I have a web development company where I use tools for hiring, productivity management, accounting, finding work, etc. All these tools have their dedicated data and accessibility features.
Now, if I have to credit the salaries of the employees, I have to manually check the hiring tool for their CTC, the productivity management tool to analyze the performance, and the accounting to credit the salary.
The constant juggling between tools will extend the process and may turn out to be frustrating in the end. This is where enterprise application integration comes into the picture.
As per stats, the enterprise application integration market stands at $15.28 billion in 2024. Further, it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.65% till 2029. The billion-dollar valuation is backed by faster adoption of EAI, thanks to its benefits.
Here are the core benefits that make the use of EAI necessary for businesses.
Reduced Data Silos
If a data analyst requires data from multiple apps, it can be a hassle to open and switch apps to collect data. It may also lead to data variance, inaccurate data, and data redundancy. With enterprise application integration, all the social data can be centralized in one place.
This improves data optimization and makes it easily accessible to everyone. With EAI, real-time data changes are instantly visible.
Better Data Quality
The use of EAI Is not just limited to combining all the software and application data in one place. It also helps in improving data quality while transferring between applications and processes.
For example, an enterprise application integration undertakes validation, standardization, and cleaning of data to reduce errors and ensure consistency.
It also handles data transformation across various formats.
Cost Savings
A well-designed and automated enterprise application integration significantly reduces the time taken for data collection and analysis. It directly improves employee productivity, leading to time for better and more important initiatives.
Moreover, integrating your legacy systems with modern ones can reduce IT expenditure.
Streamlined Operations
The availability of clean and accurate data on a single user interface allows for faster and streamlined operations. Besides, the automated processes of EAI enable no human intervention, leading to increased efficiency and enhanced customer satisfaction.
Challenges To Implementing Enterprise Application Integration
While the concept of enterprise application integration may seem lucrative, it comes with some challenges that may hinder the integration process.
Complexity of Integration
Data from different software and tools can be in different formats and follow different protocols and architectures. Therefore, while integrating this data, you might face several challenges in creating a unified view.
The integration complexity arises if the data software is made using different programming languages or developed by different vendors.
Expertise Issue
Using enterprise application integration is not as easy as it seems. Due to different formats and types, the integration of data from ERP, CRM, and other software can cause issues. These issues can be data duplication, data mismatch, data redundancy, etc.
The presence of these issues can lead to incorrect reporting and decision-making. To ensure that this does not happen, you have to hire a professional software developer, which can be challenging as the expertise required for this is short.
Data Security
When user data is involved in a process, there is always a concern of unauthorized access or theft. Therefore, when multiple systems are integrated into one, heaps of sensitive data are collected in one place. For a person with the right strategy, that can be a goldmine.
It thus serves as a drawback of EAI. To ensure that the user data like payroll details, SSN number, etc. remain safe and secure, necessary compliance and regulations policies need to be followed.
Benefits and Use Cases of Enterprise Application Integration
We all know that data serves as a primary element for every business today. Whether it is telecom, manufacturing, automotive, or whatnot, data analysis plays a crucial role in demand forecasting, customer satisfaction, inventory management, and whatnot.
When data comes into the picture, enterprise application integration has a role to play. Here is how EAI can be used by several businesses.
- Manufacturing
The manufacturing sector can leverage the power of enterprise application integration to a great extent. Integrating systems like inventory management, connected workers, supply chain management, etc., in one place can lead to enhanced efficiency and reduced operational costs.
- Healthcare
In the healthcare sector, the data related to electronic health records and billing information of patients can be in heaps. An EAI can easily and reliably integrate this data into one place, allowing healthcare providers to swiftly analyze the data and treat the patients accordingly.
- Telecom
The Telecom sector serves as the backbone of a country’s economy. Therefore, it is imperative to keep it running at all costs. An enterprise application integration strategy can help businesses monitor and manage network health along with keeping customer experience in check.
- Finance
Just like other sectors, finance businesses can also integrate their tools and processes like accounting, CRM, and ERP into one platform. Integrating EAI can improve transactional efficiency and better risk management.
INTECH Capabilities
For businesses who are looking forward to scaling their operations, EAI can be a game-changer. With its remarkable integration capabilities, you can streamline the data analysis and sharing process. Hence, this enables your workforce to be more efficient.
However, keeping the challenges in mind, you need the best people for EAI consultation, development, and integration for the best results. If you are looking forward to leveraging the capabilities of EAI, INTECH is the perfect pick for you. Get In Touch Today!