Enterprise application integration systems and architecture - the case of the Robert Bosch Group

Today, most organisations are using packaged software for their key business processes. Enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) and electronic commerce (EC) systems enable organisations to improve their focus of using information systems (IS) to support their operational and financial goals. This article argues that the need to integrate these packaged software applications with each other as well as with existing or legacy business applications drives the need for a standardised integration architecture to more flexibly implement new business processes across different organisations and applications. To illustrate the components of such an architecture, a case study undertaken at the Robert Bosch Group provided necessary empirical evidence. The Robert Bosch Group has evaluated different enterprise application integration (EAI) systems to achieve a standardised integration architecture. The article describes a reference architecture and criteria for the classification of EAI systems which are derived from different integration approaches.