Every organization wants to
integrate all its applications so they talk to each other, and one
unified body of data becomes the river that runs through it all. How
realistic is this?
Integration feasibility depends on what
your legacy stack is composed of, how extensible the proprietary code
is, and how well new functions can manage both legacy and new data and
still interoperate with the rest of the environment.
CRM Buyer has a review of integration over the years, and a look at the state of play in software development now.
“The lesson learned was that while it’s true that
database integration is the tightest way to integrate data, it’s
definitely not a job for end customers.” – Speeding the Arrival of the Integrated Enterprise
Integration has typically been a task for
systems integrators who specialize, first in integration itself, and
second in the particular legacy systems involved. The costs of
integration are significant.
“A good rule of thumb, however, is that for every dollar you spend on CRM,
you should plan to spend two to five dollars on consulting and
implementation services, says Kinikin. Integration accounts for
one-third to one-half of those fees.” – CRM Integration is Integral
That rule of thumb applies to integrating a new CRM deployment. In the past this often came as a shock to executives who misconceived CRM
as a magic bullet, one that would not only solve all problems, but
would also bolt right up to the existing IT system. Perhaps as
executives have learned from their errors, in today’s business world
companies want to integrate additional functionality into legacy CRM systems, rather than buying brand new CRM systems.
CRM Buyer’s
article cites the two principal approaches taken by software developers
to present unification out of the box. One is the on-demand “Core
Module Integration” system, while the other is the on-premise
“Super-Suite”. Both have their drawbacks as well as their advantages,
and neither account for the sheer mass of legacy systems that need to
be integrated with new applications.
Enterprise
architecture is changing to allow for greater flexibility: loosely
coupled services within a service-oriented architecture (SOA) allow for
greater integration, but again executive planners need to avoid
thinking in terms of magic bullets.
“Service-oriented architecture (SOA) will be used in
more than 50 percent of new mission-critical operational applications
and business processes designed in 2007 and in more than 80 percent by
2010, according to a new study by Gartner. SOA
has dramatically grown in popularity, and adoption has expanded across
vertical industries, geographies, and organization sizes. However, the
number of failed projects has also grown, and organizations have
discovered that SOA benefits come at a cost as the challenges associated with its adoption become more apparent.” – SOA Comes at a Cost
The CRM industry
contains its fair share of vendor hype, and even as attention turns to
on-demand services, it won’t be as simple as it may seem to order in
some online functionality, and have it match the in-house system.
Integration will still be required.
“In the long interim, there is real money to be made
hooking up modern on-demand solutions with increasingly archaic
solutions that originate from enterprise software vendors and internal
IT shops. Someone has to manage all that spaghetti, and the logical
choice is the systems integrator.” – Systems Integrators and the New Garage
The major CRM vendors are increasing their own offerings of both integration middleware and consulting services.
Dovetail Software has long performed in a consulting capacity. Dovetail integrates well of course. Built on open standards,
and offering the .NET development platform, with its integration tools,
Dovetail typically deploys seamlessly, especially with the Amdocs
Clarify system, which it is built to enhance.
One little known secret of Dovetail CRM
is that it works with more than just the Amdocs Clarify install.
Dovetail integrates well with a number of legacy systems, which offers
a very cost-effective way to enlarge capacity with an easy thin-client
deployment.
