B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

26 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
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Portal Oriented Integration
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Application Oriented Integration
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Data Oriented Integration
Business Process Oriented Integration
Figure 2.1. — B2B integration patterns
2.2.2. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
The initial part of a B2Bi solution includes linking diverse applications
installed within the enterprise. This is known as enterprise application
integration (EAI) and it involves all the legacy systems running the
business, ERP packages, CRM systems and internal applications (see
Figure 2.2). From a technological point of view, it involves a complex
mix of databases, multiple operating systems and several protocols.
According to recent research, 65% of the organizations that are
deploying B2B e-business systems are not tackling the internal integration
issues. It is really unfortunate that the B2Bi strategy in most of these
companies will fail drastically, as they will have the train but would
not have laid the track, so to speak. For these companies, the internal
applications would largely remain fragmented.
To evolve from the brick and mortar format, companies will have to
first go through the painful process of integrating existing disparate
systems.