Intelligent Enterprise Application Integration Technologies for Enabling the Collaborative Supply Chain

In recent years, enterprise resource planning (ERP) project spending at organizations has absorbed the attention, budgets, and energy of information technology professionals worldwide. Enterprise application integration (EAI) is middleware (software that interconnects applications) that can parse, duplicate or transform data from an application to present it in an acceptable format for each application that needs to receive the data. EAI technology deals with data integration, sometimes from legacy systems, that facilitates re-purposing of old systems into new ways of doing business. EAI solutions can manage complex business processes and launch system interactions and data transformations required by such processes. Florida International University (FIU)'s College of Business Administration needed an integrated e-Course Scheduling System that would allow remote access to the State Registrar System without interfering with the legacy system and its many cumbersome screens. Now that this project has been implemented based on innovative EAI technology, CBA staff is able to streamline course scheduling and the time required to perform required administrative procedures from days to minutes. EAI technologies can be instrumental in enabling the collaborative supply chain and " ramping into " ERP implementations, thus minimizing the risk and potential for failure in large-scale ERP projects.