Running a modern-day business of any size is a challenging matter. Even small companies use tens of thousands of business, marketing and operational software.
The two applications must work seamlessly to facilitate the outcomes which are most important to the business. Business integration seeks to achieve this by connecting and enabling the participants in an eco-system to work as a whole.
The most crucial element in successful business integration is proper design right from the beginning. In many cases, an integration is developed using a coding style that makes it difficult for users to alter the design. These poor design decisions can result in a system that is difficult to maintain and run, and also costly.
In the past, business integrations predominantly focused on the integration of IT software and systems such as ERP and CRM solutions. This kind of integration, referred to as application integration, is typically done by using APIs or other tools to facilitate the connection between systems. These types of integrations tend digital business analyst roles and responsibilities to be limited in their scope and often require a team of dedicated technical personnel on the ground to maintain and oversee them.
The key to success in modern business integration is an approach that is more holistic and focuses on business service-level integration. This is accomplished by identifying what business services are needed and mapping them to the appropriate technology. This also includes the creation of the required components for integration, such as connectors and data mappings. A thorough testing and deployment procedure is also required in a controlled environment. Afterward, a monitoring and optimization process is put into place to ensure that the business integration is meeting its goals.