Before talking about tools and solutions, what is data integration?
Data integration is the approach, strategy or process of transforming and centralising data from multiple sources to make it usable within a single view. This approach not only rationalises IT architectures, but also reduces operational costs and improves the user experience. All business processes and decision-making depend on access to unified, high-quality, accessible data. It is also, quite simply, the foundation for ensuring that information is consistent and rapidly accessible throughout the organisation!
Of course, the importance of this subject is only growing. It is affecting more and more organisations, driven by the development of hybrid information systems, Cloud infrastructures and, more recently, the increasing exploitation of data by AI (Artificial Intelligence) solutions.
What tools and technologies are involved in data integration?
There are a large number of tools in the field of data integration, either directly involved in the integration process, or upstream or downstream of the process.
The areas impacted are therefore varied: data mapping, identification of data sources, analysis, extraction, cleansing, transformation, manipulation, ingestion, synchronisation… right through to governance, migration of Information Systems (external growth, Move To Cloud…), management of reference data or its exposure to the ecosystem!
Here is a non-exhaustive list of data integration tools:
- ETL (Extract, Transform, Load), which automates the process of extracting data from multiple sources, transforming it and loading it into a target destination such as a data warehouse.
- ELT (Extract, Load, Transform), similar to ETL (you can tell by looking at the two acronyms!) except that the data is transformed after being loaded into the database.
- Change data capture (CDC) is used to automatically capture data changes in a source, and transmit these changes in real time to a target system.
- Middleware, integration platform and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) to facilitate application integration and communication between application systems.
- API Management to govern the exposure of data and services to the ecosystem (customers, partners, suppliers, etc.) as well as to internal applications.
- Master Data Management (MDM) to ensure the uniqueness of data (reference data) within the Information System.
- Cleansing tool to detect and correct corrupt or inaccurate data in a dataset
- Storage and warehousing solutions (Data Lake, Data Warehousing…) to consolidate large quantities of data from a wide range of sources. They differ according to use (Big Data, Business Intelligence, etc.)
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How process (BPM) and data (ESB) integration can create value for IT and business departments ?
Data Foundation, the Phoenix data platform module dedicated to data integration
The Data Foundation module in our Phoenix platform enables users to easily generate complete data exchange, processing and integration scenarios.
- The solution’s EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and Data Integration functions manage standardised exchanges such as Edifact, Edipharm, Inovert, Gallia, HL7, etc.
- Scenarios are created from a set of instructions that users design by simply dragging and dropping them into a tree structure describing all the processes and their sequence.
- The integrated WebEDI portal lets you supervise the receipt and integration of data exchange requests, with all the essential functions: security, validation, tickets, input into the WebEDI portal, updates, etc.
Simplify interactions and associated business rules with Phoenix and its low-code integration tool
The data presentation module of Blueway’s Phoenix platform lets you define screens with the mouse, without having to code a single line: forms, tables and graphs are assembled and used in a totally web-based environment (from any browser), on PCs, tablets or smartphones. This means you can simply insert user interaction screens into your data integration processes to quickly resolve conflicts, errors or deduplications that are not resolved by automated processes. Of course, these screens can also be localised according to the user’s language.
BPM (Business Process Management) then takes over to process business sequences and logic, enabling the synchronisation and orchestration of flows (EAI/ETL), WebServices (internal or external to the platform) and screens.
Finally, the Phoenix platform natively integrates an application bus to ensure secure exchanges.
All these modules and functions included in the Phoenix Data Platform make it much easier to set up a service-oriented architecture (SOA)!
One of the benefits of the Phoenix data platform is that it helps IT Departments to accelerate the evolution of their organisation into a high-quality IT service provider that meets business needs.
Edouard Cante, Deputy Managing Director of Products at Blueway
ESB vs ETL ? The distinction between is no longer relevant relative to today’s business requirements.
Take advantage of pre-configured data integration processes
With its Phoenix platform, Blueway also enables you to speed up your data integration projects thanks to pre-configured processes. These ‘mini-applications’ are pre-configured process models that can be customised according to your data sources and, of course, the different applications that make up your information system:
Example 1: Data Platform
- All the tools you need to implement EDI electronic data interchange within your information system or with partners.
- Pre-configured processes: triggered by events based on your business rules (creation of an order, receipt of an email, file update, etc.), pivot format for customising the process, data control and validation functions, monitoring and supervision portal.
Example 2: Application – E-Commerce integration
- All the tools to facilitate data integration between the e-commerce site and the rest of the information system.
- Pre-configured Web Services: triggered by events (listing of a new item, validation of an order on the site, etc.), customisable inter-application processes, monitoring and supervision portal.
Example 3: Application: ERP integration
- All the tools you need to interface your ERP with other information system software: CRM, WMS, SCM, TMS, etc.
- Pre-configured data flow processes based around our many standard connectors with the ERP and CRM systems on the market.
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