Johannesburg, 02 Feb 2000
Despite business integration currently receiving top priority from CIOs, businesses are discovering that the implementation of business integration is a challenging exercise. Increasingly, businesses are becoming aware that there is no "quick fix" solution for achieving true enterprise-wide business integration. However, process-driven business integration can yield substantial return on investment if correctly executed.
In the current cost conscious economic environment, building value propositions for integration is becoming an increasing necessity. The ICT landscape is littered with the burnt out wrecks of failed integration projects, a result of misdirected implementation rather than technology failure.
According to Michael Barnard, executive business developer for business integration at leading ICT integrator Comparex Africa, business integration is a complex undertaking, requiring close co-operation between ICT and business.
"Understanding a company`s key business processes is a prerequisite to delivering real business returns through integration. The problem in the past has been the inability of ICT personnel to align their value propositions with organisational objectives.
Application integration driven purely by technology without understanding the current business drivers can be a recipe for disaster. Funding for integration is now driven by direct business benefits and return on investment within projects."
He emphasises that business underestimates the benefits that ICT offers due to bad experiences in the past. Careful management of an iterative integration process where business priorities are underpinned by technology realises the true potential of information being unlocked, flexible and accessible across the entire organisation.
Process-driven integration ensures that the benefits of technology are maximised, while business buy-in is ensured, avoiding divergent business and ICT interests. Business integration can make a vital competitive difference, ensuring a business rapid time to market for its products and providing flexibility to cope with changing environments or rapid expansion. Connecting a company`s disparate business systems, saves time, boosts efficiency and optimises use of expensive resources.
A prevalent issue in the South African integration market is the existence of legacy systems, which lock away valuable data into inaccessible silos, failing to release data optimally for business use across the organisation. Integration enables business to fully exploit these historic investments.
Mergers and acquisitions typically result in vastly disparate systems preventing the business from expanding optimally. Effective business integration ensures the maximising of resources from acquired businesses quickly so all silos are aligned with the overall business goals of the company. In the absence of a clearly defined integration strategy, this often takes years to fulfil.
At Comparex Africa, experience has shown that a key success factor is to establish an internal integration competency that comprises both business and ICT personnel. The combined technical expertise and business knowledge drives a coordinated integration initiative, ensuring maximum return on resources, and real integration benefits.
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