B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

36 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
Each of these sub-domains is supported by multiple applications. The
core of the problem is that even applications supporting a sub-domain,
for example catalog management within the supply chain, are not
designed in such a way that they can exchange data with one another.
They do not have a common data architecture, nor do they have a
common messaging format. It is like a cartesian product of problems.
A word of advice: do not let these challenges deter you from moving
towards an integrated enterprise. In this book, we will discuss not only
the challenges but also the remedial solutions and how to work around
them.
Let's review in detail all the major challenges that the enterprises
face in achieving the goals of B2Bi.
2.4.1. Internal application integration
One of the biggest challenges companies face in B2Bi is integrating
information among existing internal business applications. According to
EAI Journal, an average Fortune 500 company may have 50 or more
internal business applications. Very few of these applications are truly
integrated with each other.
A typical business process involved in B2B e-commerce is completed
by multiple application systems. So, when a company buys a new
application, it has to build an interface between the new software and
many, if not all, of its existing applications. It is an extremely resource
intensive, time consuming, expensive and a complex process to design,
develop and maintain so many diverse interfaces.
Thus, the first challenge that the companies face in their
implementation plan of B2Bi is the fact that the internal applications
must be integrated. In fact, in a B2Bi project, most integration dollars
are spent on internal integration projects.
According to Forrester Research, which conducted a survey on EAI
at several companies, the following factors (in order of their importance)
make integration difficult (see Figure 2.5):
• Internal personnel issues;
• The diversity of the applications in the legacy systems that must be
linked;