To date many companies have fragmented their integration efforts across applications and groups. The classic split is between the group developing data warehouse and business intelligence applications versus the ERP (enterprise resource application) applications. Typically with this fragmentation different integration approaches are taken with ETL being what is used with data warehousing /business intelligence and either EAI or EII used with the ERP applications. In addition to these integration silos, many companies today have, or are launching SOA (service oriented architecture) initiatives generally independent of either the data warehousing/business intelligence or ERP applications.
If achieving consistent numbers across reporting is a goal maybe the investments should be in data integration. When people look at inconsistent reports or analysis that use different BI tools it is easy to understand why they assume the problem is using different tools. Using different BI tools, however, is a symptom rather than the reason for the inconsistent numbers. The symptom is silos using different BI tools but the underlying reason are data silos created using different data integration tools, processes, standards and people. The best practice is to establish an ICC (Integration Competency Center.)
ICCs also need to take into account the BI practice. There has been a good deal of attention paid to BI tools over the years. Many companies have instituted a BI-CC (business intelligence competency center), a concept promoted by Gartner research.
Recently, I was talking to a large manufacturing customer. They made a key organizational change around ICC. Originally, they had data integration practice within BI-CC. EAI and EII are part of the application integration competency center. When this company decided to move to a real-time data integration architecture that involves EAI and EII, it was considered imperative to change their organizational design. Having the separate solution and deployment ownerships in BI-CC and application integration competency center just made the whole effort very difficult – indeed not feasible. So, they created the virtual organization where BI and application integration practices are merged to manage data across the enterprise.
Furthermore, they have the strategy to use multiple, best-of-breed BI vendors so it is crucial for them to standardize on data integration solutions so that they can support BI from a complete data foundation. Finally they feel that they are now organized around the true “integration competency” where they have the people, processes and technologies. They told me it was a game changer!
If you wish to deliver consistent, comprehensive, current and correct data in your enterprise, don’t treat the symptoms. Establish an ICC and go after the causes. The business return on investment (ROI) from ICC efforts is often very substantial.
