Six Easy Steps to Identify Data Integration Needs
Choosing the best integration solution for your company has never been tougher.
Which is surprising, right?
After all, with the plethora of integration tools available today, in some ways it has never been easier to move data around. The sheer range of options, however, is overwhelming, especially as huge differences between systems can make direct comparisons difficult, and what works for one integration project may not work for another.
Yet today, more than ever, being abreast of the digital curve is imperative, and integration is key to this. As Massimo Pezzini, Gartner, recently noted:
“Through 2020, integration work will account for 50% of the time and cost of building a digital platform.”
Given the importance of integration, selecting the wrong solution is expensive in all respects: cost, lost time, and missed opportunities. Clearly, it’s important to make a good choice, especially for critical business opportunities.
Following is a summary of six key areas that impact data transfer today.
With so much to consider, data integration is no longer the realm of simply shuffling data around. Rather, it needs to be viewed as a means of supporting the delivery of highly competitive applications in the context of business processes and data flow. The following table presents ways of managing the complexity associated with today’s business and market demands.
Choosing an integration approach, whether for a specific project or a companywide standard, will be most successful when the entire data requirement – from client need to delivery mechanism to environments – is understood and agreed. Only then should the selection process begin.
Next week’s post will look at three categories of integration solutions and will suggest ways to match them to the identified business need.
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