Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the process of syncing or aligning the various systems and databases used within a company, network, or industry. It allows organizations or networks to share information, exchange data, and coordinate resources across diverse IT environments. This, in turn, results in more efficient collaboration and saves a lot of time and effort by all personnel involved. 

Nowadays, there are several enterprise app development companies that can help with enterprise integration and take your business to the next level.

Specifically, enterprise application integration enables you to do the following:

• Promotes efficient collaboration between departments

• Connect multiple enterprise services

• Monitor application lifecycles and governance

If we talk about the latest stats by Mordor Intelligence, the EAI market is predicted to reach $22.69 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 15.42% during the forecast period, 2021 – 2026. These stats prove that organizations are moving towards integrated solutions to streamline their operations and improve collaboration between various departments. 

In the past, enterprise integration used to be a much more tedious and time-consuming process performed manually by programmers. However, as of today, this is usually done with specialized programs. This type of program generally employs the internet as the avenue for interface using a cloud computing approach.

Why is enterprise application integration important?

Enterprise application integration is key to enhancing internal processes and business activities and implementing and distributing critical applications. Using enterprise integration, companies can improve their operational scalability and increase their reach and revenue. 

Here are a few significant advantages of enterprise integration for the company’s operations: 

1. Information sharing: Enterprise integration enables the flow of information between different software programs within a company. It can consolidate data collection efforts, thereby eliminating the need for each application to collect and store data for its own purpose. 

Integration also enables a single point of access to data for the people who need it. This means employees spend less time searching for information. Also, the data they get is often more complete and up to date. EAI also enables more effective collaboration between individual people and departments.

2. Simplified IT processes: Enterprise integration enables seamless collaboration and information exchange across multiple applications. This helps to streamline IT processes and make it easier for both users and organizations. 

Specifically, it helps organizations to efficiently streamline data integration and services. For users, on the other hand, it enables them to access data faster. This simplified process modernizes the use and creation of enterprise integration patterns like file transfer, gateway services, and more. 

3. Process automation: Enterprise application integration can automate processes that include data or activity from multiple software applications. For instance, CRM customer data can be integrated with an email marketing platform to deliver targeted messages to customers based on their prior preferences or demographics. Thus, the EAI platform helps the company invest resources where they’re most effective.

4. Maximizing opportunities: Enterprise integration also helps the team proactively to take advantage of new business opportunities. By having control over all data access points, teams can quickly respond and adjust to time-sensitive events like supply chain disruptions or new application management procedures. Teams become empowered to implement multiple integration solutions by leveraging a common approach for information sharing and collaboration.

5. Improved response time: In a properly integrated system, the response time for any desired information is reduced to its minimum level. There are real-time alerts and routine messages, which could be sent via the network to the desired person.

6. Informed decision making: Data collected from an integrated environment is always beneficial for the managers to make better and accurate decisions in favor of their businesses. Enterprise integration increases the real-time visibility of information. When information is accessible in no time, the managers are better prepared to make better decisions, and employees can take proactive decisions to improve their performances.

7. Product building: Opting for enterprise integration makes it easy to communicate on products and services. You can get instant updates and feedback and lead product negotiations within the system.

Key elements of enterprise application integration

1. Application programming interfaces (APIs): APIs allow data transfers between different applications or systems. These are situated between an application and web server and enable companies to share the data with business partners, third-party developers, and internal departments.

2. Application integration: This is another key element of EAI that allows individual applications to work collaboratively. By making data sharing easy and combining workflows and processes, organizations receive immense benefits from integrations that modernize infrastructures without rework. Furthermore, application integration helps cloud-based and on-premise systems like CRMs and ERPs to interact successfully without major changes to existing applications.

3. Events: They are records of change or new actions. When one application or service undergoes a change or performs an action with respect to the functions of another application or service, the first one records an event. Other applications or services can detect the published event. And then process the event, perform one or more reciprocal actions or simply ignore the event.
 

4. Messaging: Messaging helps to provide reliable communication delivery while preserving network-wide message integrity, data protection, and regulatory compliance via security-rich functions.
 

5. Data: Data enables continuous improvement of enterprise architecture and helps assess the usage of integrations. Data also reveals recommended target integration patterns like service-oriented architecture (SOA) message-driven, etc.) and other inputs that help define the target integration state.
 

Best practices in enterprise integration

When planning to opt for enterprise integration, it’s important to understand the best practices for the proper integration of applications and solutions. On that note, below are a few best practices that you must take into account when going for enterprise integration:

1. Use API as a foundational block: APIs work as interchangeable integration components within a platform framework. They support the integration of processes, people, and systems. This helps the business to easily transform digital assets into new business models through a variety of monetization plans.
 

2. Make integration accessible to everyone: By using enterprise integration, businesses can empower users with intuitive experiences. Business users, irrespective of their technical backgrounds, can update and build integrations to help maximize business value and increase efficiency.

4. Drive continual improvements: Use enterprise integration to draw insights from the flow of data across the business, lines of business, and endpoints. With the increase in user-led integration, predictive intelligence can recognize integration patterns on usage across the organization.

EndNote

Enterprise application integration creates opportunities for significant growth for businesses. By automating API-based ecosystems, you can significantly enhance team productivity and increase your reach to scale your revenue. On the other hand, customer experiences are also enriched with faster, more satisfying interactions.

So, if you plan to invest in enterprise integration, it’s advisable to contact an enterprise app development company. The experts will guide you through the process and help you to scale your business.