The need for application integration is greater than ever as companies seek to link legacy applications with newer applications to improve internal processes and work more effectively with partners, customers, and vendors. Traditionally, companies had just two choices for their integration needs: use complex platforms such as Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) or write custom code. The platform approach evolved to meet the needs of large enterprises and is very expensive to procure, install, deploy, and maintain. Therefore, most companies chose to develop custom code for integrating their applications and, as a result, custom code has become the most widely used integration solution.

For projects such as simple point-to-point integrations with little or no business rules, custom code has made sense. It is a quick solution that has served IT well, but it's hard to leverage code written for one project to another project. Fortunately, there's no need to reinvent the wheel or even to re-engineer the inherited wheel, so to speak. As a company grows and the complexity of integration projects as well as the need for change orders increase, integration appliances can complement custom code to alleviate the burden on developers. By taking advantage of an integration appliance that provides a graphical "no coding" approach to configure basic integrations, IT professionals and programmers can focus on more sophisticated development projects, increasing productivity and adding strategic value to the organization. These plug-and-play appliances are gaining popularity by bringing significant benefits - higher efficiency at lower cost - to the most common integration challenges.

Application Integration is Critical

The IT systems and applications at large and mid-sized companies are much more complex than they were even five years ago. Millions of dollars have been invested in applications such as customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), sales force automation (SFA), and supply chain management (SCM). Successful integration of these applications can result in greater efficiencies, cost savings, increased sales, and more satisfied customers. As companies - both large and small - work more closely with their partners, customers, and vendors, effective application integration is vital to their success.