Integration is the key to unlocking information and making it available to any user, anywhere, anytime.

Why is integration hard?

1. Most Companies separate their business applications, creating functional specialists: accounting, finance, manufacturing and customer service.

2. This is divide and conquer: If the job could be defined specifically enough, a specialized application could optimize functions in a particular area.

3. The assumption was that if all functional links in a company were optimized, the company itself would function at an optimum level.

4. However, modern business theorists recognize that if a chain of processes is to run at a high-performance level, the individual applications must be tightly linked with other processes around them.

5. This thinking gives birth to the notion of a connected corporation built on a foundation of well-integrated enterprise application software. Enterprise applications help companies connect disparate systems, provide greater access to information, and more closely link employees, partners and customers.

6. The future techno-enterprise will be built on a well-integrated set of enterprise software applications. For example, enterprise applications such as SAP, PeopleSoft and Baan, represent the backbone of the modern corporation.