Carol Murphy

Demand for business integration continues to intensify across a broad range of industries. Yet disappointing returns from enterprise application integration (EAI) projects and increased competition are conspiring to squeeze pure-play integration vendors from all directions. In this article, we'll explore some of the current challenges faced by enterprise integration vendors. The Integration Imperative For most industries - manufacturing, retail, financial services, healthcare, government, aerospace and defense, natural resources - visibility and access to information flowing through integrated business processes has never been more important. Integrated business processes include activities involving multiple systems and/or people, often crossing organizational boundaries such as departments, divisions or enterprises. Examples include order-to-cash, trade-to-settle... (more)

Will Web Services Mean the End for EAI?

Increasing visibility throughout the supply chain, improving efficiency across the enterprise, responding to regulatory or competitive pressures to reduce cycle times, eliminating errors due to inaccurate or out-of-date information, collaborating with your business partners. The common thread across each of these is the need for dissimilar business applications to interoperate effectively in support of business goals. In any large organization, managing and maintaining the often spaghetti-like maze of connections between applications - your own and those of your business partner... (more)