B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

286 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
information across part or all of the extended enterprise. Integration
brokers perform the tasks of interfacing (extract the data in and out of
applications), transforming (convert the semantic information of the
data before passing it on other applications), distributing (move the data
between applications), routing (send the data to the appropriate receiver),
managing (create the workflows for business processes) and storing
(store the data/messages in a message warehouse).
Integration brokers substantially reduce the time and effort required
to implement and maintain new application interfaces. They allow
enterprises to leverage a single platform and reusable components across
multiple applications.
Several vendors offer integration broker platforms. Although there
are similarities in their products, there also some significant differences.
Companies have to carefully choose which product best suits their
current IT infrastructure and internal and external integration goals,
both short-term and long-term.