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Systems integration platform to improve business performance

Integration platform for business efficiency

Information technology is developing rapidly. Many experts call IT the fastest-growing sphere of human activity. Systems and applications integration plays an important role in the IT space, and has a significant impact on company performance as well as on all industrial and commercial sectors. That’s why we’ve seen a surge in corporate interest when it comes to integration…

What is “systems integration”?

According to Wikipedia: system integration is defined in engineering as the process of bringing together subsystem components within a single system (an aggregation of cooperating subsystems so that the system can provide overall functionality).

But it would be a mistake to think of “systems integration” as simply the assembly of hardware and software tools; the essence of the concept is much broader than that.

“Systems integration” is an activity aimed at improving a company’s efficiency, decision-making and information quality through an automated process, where “heterogeneous” systems can communicate and integrate with each other in real time.

Most companies in today’s business environment run many “heterogeneous” systems and software, yet there is no established communication between them. This type of environment creates a lot of inefficiencies and poor quality information, which in most cases leads to reduced profits and delays in management decisions.

Automated system integration acts as a bridge where data flows between heterogeneous systems, software applications and databases in multiple directions, based on predefined business rules, as if the systems were totally “homogeneous”.

Why do companies need “systems integration”?

Increasingly, companies are arming themselves with software and hardware to solve specific business needs. All this while adding new modules and “stand-alone” systems to their IT management system. Most of the time, these solutions don’t communicate natively with each other.

While the adoption of a specific software application (cloud or on-premise) may meet a company’s business requirements and solve a business problem, it will create a series of new challenges in its own right:

  • Redundant data entry; most of the data already exists in another system.
  • Need to hire more staff to manage more systems
  • Open the door to more human error when managing new systems.

The above challenges are relevant to companies of all sizes, whether small, medium or large.

How to solve integration problems?

To solve the integration problems identified in the previous point, companies should not hesitate to adopt integration projects to synchronize and orchestrate IT software, databases, processes and equipment.

To achieve this, companies will need to adopt an “integration platform” capable of exhibiting the following properties:

  • Easy to use (drag and drop)
  • No coding required
  • Quick to learn, develop and deploy
  • Easy debugging and simple error handling
  • Several options for triggering and launching processes and flows
  • Able to connect to most of the databases commonly used in today’s market
  • Able to connect to brand-name software systems (e.g. SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, SugarCRM …) with connectors certified by the manufacturer.
  • Generic API-based connectors for IoT projects
  • Extensible to go beyond “out-of-the-box” where you can build your own connectors for specific solutions.

Benefits of systems integration

The benefits of implementing a robust API-based integration that can connect to a wide range of enterprise ecosystems are invaluable. Here are the 5 advantages:

  • Real-time data synchronization

Having a robust integration platform responsible for orchestrating and synchronizing data and processes, eliminates delays in data publication. Data is synchronized between different systems in real time, without the need for human intervention.

  • Faster data processing

With an automated integration platform, which is able to synchronize data and trigger flows and processes efficiently based on rules and conditions, data processing also becomes real-time, eliminating the need for data extraction, transformation and loading (ETL). No need for a separate ETL tool.

  • Improved employee productivity

Data synchronization and orchestration obviously eliminate a lot of time and effort for employees to manage and enter/extract data from one system to another. Employees can focus on business-related problems business-related issues, where they can generate more revenue, rather than entering and manipulating data in “heterogeneous” systems.

  • Faster decision-making

Having a robust integration platform, with all the benefits identified above, business leaders will be able to make quick decisions and avoid the time-consuming process of extracting data from different systems and merging the sets to obtain a unified data sheet.

  • Increased profitability

Taken together, the above benefits will significantly increase the profitability of any company with heterogeneous IT systems and applications.

magic-xpi-scheme-iotWhat are the signs that a company needs an integration platform?

Here are the main signs in any company that an integration platform is needed to improve business processes.

  • Your company has several stand-alone software systems, with no direct links between them.
  • Your company has a combination of on-premise and cloud-based software solutions that are not connected.
  • Employees spend a lot of time on their daily work, feeding several systems
  • Your company has an e-commerce site managed separately from the internal ERP system
  • The company’s IT department is unable to provide reports and analyses on time.
  • Unable to meet your customers’ business requirements, deliver within 48 hours
  • There are major data mismatches between systems and solutions, due to redundancy.
  • Many employees work on report writing and data entry work
  • No visibility of company equipment data and performance (production machines, cameras, field service data, etc.).

Are you looking for an integration platform solution for your company?

For over 18 years, our company has been an official partner of Magic Software Enterprises, a global provider of software solutions, supplying Magic xpi, an integration platform based on a fully reliable SOA, and API-driven for all necessary connections.

The Magic xpi business integration platform provides enterprise-level integration, business process automation and data synchronization, with complete security and proven reliability.

Implementing a wide range of certified and optimized connectors and adapters, Magic xpi integrates leading ERP, CRM, financial and other enterprise systems, such as SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and many more.

Are you looking for integration solutions? Contact us today

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How to solve EDI integration challenges with Oracle’s JD Edwards

JD Edwards, or JDE, is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system by Oracle. There are currently two editions, JDE Enterprise One or JD Edwards World. In many ways, this ERP solution is great for corporate-level enterprises, as it offers many tools and connectors for data integration. One key challenge, however, that companies using a JDE system, no matter its edition, are faced with is the lack of ease for EDI integration within the system. Currently, there is no out-of-the-box integrated EDI solution or connector that would make this process easy, quick and seamless.

JDE EDI integration

Our team has encountered many companies struggling with this inefficiency. As we are not JDE experts, but instead EDI integration experts, we’ve teamed up with our partners at Magic Software Enterprises, who have worked in the JDE world for many years. By leveraging our combined expertise, teamwork and solutions (which will be mentioned below), JDE users can have an EDI integration project that is efficient, successful and within budget.

Therefore, how do we help companies overcome common EDI challenges with their JD Edwards system? By using our popular EDI2XML services, along with Magic Software’s powerful business integration platform called Magic xpi & certified JDE adaptor.

EDI2XML

Our team of EDI experts handle the entire EDI portion of the project, where we convert all EDI X12 or EDIFACT documents into the desired format that is requested by the client, such as flat file, XML, CSV, etc. For outgoing files, EDI2XML works by converting the XML / CSV file into the EDI format, requested by the Trading Partner. We take care of all EDI mapping, Trading Partner configuration, XML/CSV/flat file translations, and back and forth transactions with Trading Partners. Visit us at http://www.edi2xml.com

Read: The Definitive Checklist For Oracle JDE and EDI Integration Projects

Magic xpi for JDE

Magic Software’s xpi platform is an ‘Oracle Validated Integration’ solution that can be used to orchestrate the entire business process, no matter if you are using JD Edwards Enterprise One or JD Edwards World. It comes with a ton of built-in components to build workflows and streamline an entire business flow;

  • Database Gateways to connect with common databases, such as SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, Pervasive, MySQL, ODBC, etc.
  • Connectors that allow users to directly connect to JDE, SAP, Dynamics, Salesforce, etc.
  • Triggers & Data Mappers to monitor folders and to map from one file format to another.
  • Connectivity & Messaging through FTP, SOAP, MSMQ, etc.

Therefore, if an incoming EDI document is received by a company, our EDI2XML service will convert this file into the client’s desired format (let’s say XML), then using Magic xpi, will be mapped to JDE by;

  • Creating a step with a Data Mapper
  • Source: XML based on the EDI2XML .xsd (schema file)
  • Destination: the JDE table to feed from the XML format

Once the source and destination are defined, the user can use his or her mouse to drag and drop to map fields from the source to the destination (JDE table).

why-we-love-edi2xml-for-edi-integration-with-jde-and-you-should-too2

In this day and age, EDI integration within management systems should be seamless but for many it is not. This is can cause major headaches for managers. Companies no longer want to hire in-house EDI experts when they already have a full team of in-house JDE developers. It’s about time JDE users can rely on an outsourced EDI Integration Partner that will ensure their daily EDI transactions are processed and streamlined, without difficulties.

Call us today  +1 450-681-3009  to learn more about our EDI2XML Service and JDE Integration capabilities with our Magic Software partner.

 

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