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...it would significantly change the world for many, many people.
That would work, right?
"Nah, it would never happen," says John Bellegarde. "Think of it this way. Back in the old days, everyone wrote their own accountspayable system. Now they don't--they buy off the shelf. And IT costs haven't gone down. They just spend their money elsewhere. So data integration tools can reduce some particular costs. But other demands will crop up to take their place."
So much for my fantasy.
But John, who is Vice President of Product Management for Hummingbird, definitely has a point: There has always and will always be the unending dynamic for organizations to create greater and greater value, because competition constantly drives them that way.
So data integration, also called enterprise application integration (EAI), which I have always thought of as a cost-avoidance technology now has street cred as a value-creating tool? When did that happen?
"The fact is, it's both," says John, accurately. "We have customers who have bought for either one of the reasons, but have gained both benefits. They buy for a tactical reason, but are pleased to find out they can gain a strategic advantage.
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"The business users want technology to help them," John continues. "But they don't want to know all the details. That's one of the great things that data integration technologies can offer: they let IT people integrate systems, and make everything work together, while the businesspeople can do their thing without worrying about the details."
"It's hard to separate the process from the tool," adds Mathias Evin, Hummingbird's product manager for Data Integration Solutions. "Here's a typical example. A business user will tell you 'I'm typing this invoice on one system....
NOTE: All illustrations and photos
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Evolution of data integration., April 01, 2004
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