Software Integration for SMEs

Software Integration for SMEs The problem is the integration of software to solve a problem that started when big companies to automate processes that were previously manual, such as the funding or personnel. This in itself was a very successful idea, and sent tumbling cost. However, finance is a question of developing to their needs, human resources has developed a different (non) application, and so on? Unfortunately, this has led to inconsistent data. For example, if the human and financial resources required, an employee database was repeated in each application. Without a central source, which was to say that the database correctly? This not only led to duplication of efforts, but for a problem of consistency. The previous solutions have been many approaches to solve this problem, and which fall into three broad categories: User Interface integration, data integration and integration of business processes. User interface integration was the most economical to implement and requires less to change jobs. The technique has been to all applications and shoe-ho in a user interface. Unfortunately, this was nothing more than a revision cosmetic and did nothing to the fundamental problem. Data Integration has come in several flavors, especially the push-data-warehouse of the 80's e'90. The idea was to make an ad hoc analysis of the totality of the information provided by a company, the design of a central database and re-deployment of applications that surrounds him. Unfortunately, very few companies have managed to pass the planning stage. The lack of decent change management tools, and too ambitious, short-sighted IT administrators, the majority of the blame for this. The current solution, the solution of the day is the integration of business processes. Unlike data integration, where the idea was to centralize data and applications on the new, the integration of business processes with a view to integration at the top of the applications. A critical point for the implementation of this on current applications, the important "business logic"? Information about the processes that ran the business. Instead of ditching those who do not understand why a layer in-between, which is the integration? This led to the birth of a new category of software, since the so-called "middleware." Example of integration of the supply chain is a special type of integration of business processes that can benefit greatly (for example, major challenges and technical and management). The basic idea is to provide some of the unknown variables in your business planning and forecasting, to obtain as much information as possible from the supply chain in both directions. With access to your suppliers? Shares, delivery times, order status and other information, as if it were his own, you can better manage inventories and production plans and, therefore, a reliable service for your customers. In a position to make contracts and to further improve your response to your online market. Let your customers access to information and other services of your organization's most realistic and timely orders that customers already know that you may encounter. Integration of your clients also allow a much more intelligent analysis of your product line: the place of products before they affect your bottom line, increasing the budget for marketing a product that has the potential to go through the roof or the execution of an on-demand (or as close as possible) the production to minimize exposure through stocks. This is not only a task that is easy, because the technical problems associated with the integration of various systems that have been implemented by companies in the supply chain are less than trivial. On the other hand, seek to cover the same companies to switch from their existing systems into a common platform is planned near impossible. This is the middleware that is good to your rescue. Why all this is for SMEs? S? The SME sector is rapidly becoming increasingly dependent on technology, and the problem of integration has begun to filter through them. Many SMEs? S incompatible with some applications to automate the process and have no idea of what might benefit them. So, what should I do? If you just started, or still relatively low confidence in your systems, a data warehouse-style approach may be for the most part. This can also be downloaded from a clean slate, but there are some restrictions: it must be boe in mind that cost-effectiveness, it must remain in a software vendor or your integration costs far outweigh the potential profits. This leads to a certain level of risk associated with the supplier or bust support. For most SMEs? Saturday, the center-of-the-road is preferable to continue with standard off-the-shelf "software such as Microsoft Excel, Access, ACT, Sage, etc to store and process information, but tailor middleware on top. This is not just to save effort and consistency, which can also be used for reporting, or the new, demanding applications such as automatic software.