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"Boomi, a leading provider of
business integration software for small and mid-sized business (SMBs), has chosen OpSource On-Demand™ to deliver the Boomi On Demand integration offering."
Source : Boomi Software
Improving Business Integration for a Competitive Advantage in the Mid-market
Mid Market is also known as :
Mid Level Market,
Mid Market Accounting Software,
Mid Market Advisory,
Mid Market Appointment,
Mid Market Business,
Mid Market Capital,
Mid Market Consulting,
Mid Market Customers,
Mid Market Data,
Mid Market Definition,
Mid Market Development,
Mid Market Division,
Mid Market Edition,
Mid Market Enterprise Resource Planning,
Mid Market Finance,
Mid Market Firms,
Mid Market Group,
Mid Market Investment,
Mid Market Office,
Mid Market Outsourcing,
Mid Market Revenue,
Mid Market Review,
Mid Market Server,
Mid Market Share,
Mid Market Size,
Mid Market Software,
Mid Market Solution,
Mid Market Strategy,
Mid Market Technology.
INTRODUCTION
This whitepaper provides an introduction into the next generation of business integration software that is
developer free and easily configured to meet the integration needs of mid-market businesses.
Many mid-market companies are suffering through the use of disconnected applications and systems
within their enterprise and with their trading partners due to the prohibitive cost of installing and
maintaining enterprise integration software. Without integration, customer data is replicated in multiple
locations, creating unavoidable errors and omissions. Inventory status is often several days (or more)
behind actual stock levels, leading to missed sales opportunities and delivery commitments that can’t be
met. Productivity is reduced because employees must spend more and more of their valuable time
manually keying in redundant data.
Large, well-established integration software providers and systems integrators overcome these
challenges by using enterprise integration software and architectures combined with highly-skilled
development and implementation teams. Business processes run more efficiently; data is more reliable;
customers are happier…
…Except for one small issue: the cost, time and complexity of applying large-enterprise technology to
midsized businesses.
Mid-market companies could gain great competitive advantage from the capabilities afforded by these
“high-end” solutions, but they can ill afford the time, money and disruption necessary to implement and
maintain them.
There is now a viable option for the mid market.
BUSINESS INTEGRATION EXPLAINED
Business integration is a requirement that has existed for decades. It is based on the foundation that
enterprise applications are built by different technology providers, each using different programming
languages; each using different interpretations of business objects (e.g. a “purchase order”), built for
different operating systems. These applications cannot connect to one another natively, so an additional
application must be used to facilitate the connections. The applications may be running inside the four
walls of a business, or across many different businesses to automate the exchange of information with
trading partners. These are the core problems that business integration is meant to solve
When properly implemented business integration provides significant cost-savings to organizations by:
- Reducing data-entry errors across multiple disparate applications
- Improving supply chain responsiveness by connecting to business partners electronically
- Increasing inventory accuracy thanks to a real-time view into order levels and forecasting
To illustrate the important role business integration can play in an organization, consider a warehouse
that needs to handle the electronic data exchange (EDI) of shipment orders and acknowledgments with
its customer. In many cases, this is mandated by a large trading partner. The sooner the warehouse can
support EDI transactions, the sooner they can proceed with their business relationship. As the warehouse
grows and changes, they will likely be forced to accept and generate ANSI X12 EDI documents with
Customer A, RosettaNet PIP’s with Customer B, and EDIFACT documents with Customer C. Without a
business integration solution, the IT infrastructure of the warehouse fails to be scalable and becomes
increasingly complex as the various standards are implemented.
Business integration benefits go far beyond exchanging electronic transactions with trading partners. In
the example above, information on products that the warehouse handles (product attributes, style, color,
weight, etc.) must be synchronized between specialized applications like the warehouse management
system (WMS) and general purpose financial systems (or even an ERP system) to avoid having to
manually update those systems.
Likewise, in a manufacturing environment, as products pass through various production processes,
information from shop floor systems should automatically be integrated back into the financial/ERP
systems to provide a real-time view of production.
These are just a few examples of how business integration adds value to an organization.
MID-MARKET CHALLENGES
Despite the fact that integration is consistently a top priority of CEOs, few businesses have taken full
advantage of business integration capabilities. A 2006 Aberdeen survey showed that over 60% of
respondents described their current supply chain processes as manual, spreadsheet-intensive and only
partially automated. In a 2006 IDC survey when asked “How do you collaborate with your trading partners
today?” participants responded as follows:
- 88% through e-mail
- 73% through fax
- 62% through telephone conversations
- 59% through direct mail
So if the benefits of business integration are so great, why aren’t more mid-market businesses employing
this technology? An understanding of the unique challenges and characteristics of mid-market businesses
provides insight as to why business integration has not been more widely adopted.
1. Internal IT capability
Typically, mid-market companies have limited (and in some cases no) programming staff. Projects that
require programming force mid-market businesses to hire external consultants – driving integration costs
even higher.
2. Type of processing
Mid-market businesses are often required to comply with the integration standards and requirements of
their larger trading partners. Therefore, there is less emphasis on managing large numbers of processes
and more emphasis on managing a variety of different types of processes. The former focuses on
economy of scale and calls for a high-volume “black-box” solution, whereas the latter focuses on
economy of scope and calls for a highly flexible solution.
3. Time pressures
Mid-market businesses have demanding schedules and deadlines. Their needs are immediate, tactical
and project focused. Mid-market businesses do not have the time (months and in some cases years) to
build sophisticated architecture-based solutions for their integration needs. Because they do not have the
extensive application portfolio of larger enterprises, this type of solution would, in many cases, be overkill
in any event.
4. Competitive pressure
Mid-market businesses, particularly supply-chain intensive companies that are among the most prolific
users of business integration software, have severe competitive pressures and are very focused on cost
efficiencies. In addition to the time and expense described above, mid-market businesses cannot afford to
purchase multiple software packages to handle their many business integration requirements.
LIMITED OPTIONS FOR THE MID-MARKET
Despite a crowd of competitors in the business integration space, the mid-market tier remains largely
underserved. Mid-market businesses looking to procure business integration software are faced with a
market that is shaped like a “dumbbell.” On one side, there are a host of sophisticated, high-end solutions
that deliver significant capability but can cost millions of dollars and take months or even years to
implement. On the other side are numerous inexpensive solutions that can be installed quickly but lack
the functionality that many mid-market businesses require.
With a clearer understanding of the characteristics of mid-market companies, it becomes easier to see
why the following business integration options have not been more widely adopted:
B2B integration options:
- Buy enterprise software and infrastructure. These solutions are cost prohibitive for mid-market
businesses and require programmers to implement them
- Buy “Desktop EDI” software. These solutions address only the most basic integration needs,
have low performance capabilities and use outdated technology
- Outsource the integration to a third-party. With outsourcing, mid-market businesses have no
control over their configurations. Setup and maintenance is expensive and the “pay-perdocument”
pricing structure penalizes the business as it grows
Application integration options:
- Buy and maintain enterprise software and infrastructure. These solutions are cost prohibitive for
mid-market businesses and require programmers to implement them
- Develop custom code to connect applications. Custom code is “brittle” as it is difficult to maintain
and can lead to a “spaghetti code” effect. In addition, this approach lacks any centralized
management and reuse capabilities
SOA enablement options:
1. Buy capabilities as part of ESB and BPM product suites. These solutions can be cost prohibitive
and require developers to create Web services
Clearly mid-market businesses need the capabilities of “high-end” integration software but cannot afford
the time and expense associated with implementing complex integration solutions typically employed by
larger enterprises.
The good news is that powerful, next-generation integration capabilities exist today that are within the
reach of mid-market businesses – at a price and maintenance / complexity level that is easily managed
within the budgets and skill set of existing IT staff. More importantly, these capabilities provide an
immediate source of competitive advantage in a world where instantaneous information exchange is
quickly becoming the norm – not the exception.
A 2005 Aberdeen survey revealed that 60% of the respondents stated that complete internal integration
would give them a competitive advantage. Using next generation integration solutions, mid-sized
businesses can gain competitive advantage with their peers as well as legitimately compete with their
large enterprise counterparts.
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD: NEXT-GENERATION INTEGRATION
There is a new breed of business integration software that brings the power and capabilities of enterprise
integration solutions to the mid-market – making business integration accessible and affordable to midmarket
businesses.
This new breed of software is built with a deep understanding of the challenges and characteristics of
mid-market businesses and caters to those specific needs.
The primary characteristic of this new software is that it is configuration-based as opposed to code-based.
Configuration-based solutions require no programmers and can be implemented quickly and
inexpensively. They also can incorporate all business integration aspects (B2B, application and data) in
one solution. They are ideal for mid-market companies with few or no programmers, tight deadlines and
competitive cost pressures. When evaluating configuration-based solutions, mid-market companies
should look for the following characteristics:
Complete solution:
The solution must consist of all components required to connect internal
applications together and provide all components required to connect applications between a
company and its business partners.
Minimal software development:
To the extent possible, the solution must eliminate the
requirement for and minimize the tendency to develop custom application coding for integration.
Instead, common integration patterns are implemented through a configurable process designer
to expedite setup and maintenance of integration points.
Data transformation is the core of integration:
Application A’s definition of the data fields that
make up a “product,” “purchase order,” “inventory report” or countless others items, are always
different than Application B’s definition. Likewise, Company A’s “invoice” or “advance shipment
notice” is represented differently than Company B’s. Integration software can transform one
document format to another. Data transformation is typically the most complex and time
consuming part of the integration project.
Applications support:
A true end-to-end integration solution must provide access to data and
server layers of the related applications. Connectivity to a business application must be simple to
setup and maintain. This connectivity should be non-invasive, requiring no changes to existing
applications.
Standards support.
Many standards exist today to describe the exchange of business
documents electronically. These standards must be simple to define and implement, thereby
minimizing the time required to complete the integration project.
Platform durability:
Proper data persistence and retry capabilities must exist. Without the
redundant logic of a persistent infrastructure in place, data can be lost when issues occur. The
assumption that connectivity will always be successful or available creates many problems and is
alleviated with proper data persistence.
Using a next-generation business integration solution, mid-market businesses gain the same competitive
advantages that have historically been the domain of larger enterprises. Examples follow:
- Because these solutions are built for the systems analyst to use, Mid-market businesses can use
their internal staff to complete and maintain all of their integration projects
- New applications can be installed whenever needed by the business – either replacing legacy
systems or IT-enabling business processes for the first time – without the need to employ
expensive systems integration team
- Data from legacy systems can be translated, reformatted and exported to new applications
bought to replace them
- The same integration engine that links a business’ IT applications can also connect the business
to their trading partners thereby delivering the proven quality and cost-saving benefits of
electronic transactions.
BOOMI’S APPROACH TO BUSINESS INTEGRATION
Boomi has taken the concept of configuration-based integration a step further by creating a solution that
is completely visual.
In addition to the capabilities described above, Boomi has developed a visual designer to simplify the
development of integration processes. Using the point-and-click, drag-and-drop Visual Process Designer (see
Figure 1), users can build very simple to very sophisticated integration configurations by selecting components from a
palette and connecting them to one another on a “canvas.” Common integration tasks such as data transformation,
complex decision logic, content-based routing, user-defined error handling and real-time application connectivity are
built by dragging and connecting the required integration components to each other to create the overall integration
process.
Boomi’s Visual Integration Platform is a complete solution for intra- and inter-company integration – in a
single product. All major standards are supported, and adaptors for most popular applications are
available off the shelf. To learn more about Boomi’s Visual Integration Platform, visit
www.boomi.com/visual.
CONCLUSION
Mid-market companies can gain competitive advantage with their peers and level the playing field with
their large enterprise counterparts by employing business integration technology. Integrated processes
provide significant cost-savings by reducing data-entry errors, improving supply chain responsiveness,
increasing inventory accuracy, decreasing order fulfillment times and reducing or eliminating document
processing fees and customer charge-backs, among other reasons. Configuration-based solutions such
as Boomi’s Visual Integration Platform bring the power and capabilities of “high-end” integration solutions
to the mid-market.
About Boomi Software
Boomi Software improves the efficiency and effectiveness of mid-size businesses by enabling B2B,
application and data integration in one easy-to-deploy, simple-to-use product. Boomi’s unique visual
integration approach allows users to design and build powerful configurations to handle a broad range of
integration needs with point-and-click, drag-and-drop ease. Boomi’s integration projects are up and
running in weeks, not months, and do not require any programming resources. Backed by its
extraordinary support services, customers quickly see the benefit of their investment in Boomi.
For more
information about Boomi Software, visit www.boomi.com.