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TaskServer and Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is emerging as a new, hot area of corporate computing. Corporations are now confronting the islands of automation that have evolved over the last decade. Sales force automation, accounting systems and order entry systems are three common examples.

Standing apart, isolated systems may make their respective departments more productive. On the other hand, isolated systems often force multiple entries of the same information, causing errors and delays when information has to be manually rekeyed. For good reason, many enterprises are searching for a cost-effective and easily implemented solution that can seamlessly integrate standalone systems into one cohesive unit.

For example, when a sale is closed, the customer's address, already available in the sales representative’s sales automation software, usually has to be reentered in an order entry system before the product can be shipped. Then the customer address must be entered again in the accounting system before invoices can be sent. It’s easy to see how the company would gain substantially if those applications could be integrated.

Now there is a technically feasible solution that will support EAI in a wide variety of scenarios. Component Object Model (COM) architecture and other open architectures of modern software have opened the door for applications to communicate with one another. These architectures provide the fundamental building blocks for EAI.

EAI Requisite One: To integrate two applications, they must be based on an open architecture such as COM and support an appropriate Application Programming Interface (API).

It turns out that the architectural prerequisite is a necessary but not completely sufficient condition for EAI. The correct timing of the movement of information from one system to the other is another essential condition. Just because COM architecture makes it possible to automatically add an order to an order entry system from sales automation software when a deal is closed, for example, does not assure that the task is accomplished at the appropriate time. The business rule may require that a contract is signed first. Then the order is entered, only on that condition. In other words, a new order must be inserted somewhere downstream of other contingencies in the business process.

That scenario shows why you may think of the islands of automation as being interconnected through a set of business processes (tasks) that are manually performed. Sales automation software is used to gather data about the deal, the contract is signed manually, and the order entry system is finally keyed with the information about the client and the deal. This sequence also brings to light another important criterion for integrating two applications:

EAI Requisite Two: Business processes that connect integrated applications must be automated.  

That is why Business Process Automation software will play a crucial part in the  success of any EAI effort. And that is also why TaskServer™ offers very high value to the organization that is embarking on EAI. From the ground up, TaskServer™ was engineered as an extremely powerful application integration tool. These are some of the features that distinguish TaskServer™ as best-of-breed:

• Architecture. TaskServer’s COM and Web architecture mean that it can easily communicate with a large class of applications.

• Task Groups. TaskServer’s powerful but simple means of defining business processes into automated Task Groups can be initiated through COM calls or from Web pages. This means a sales representative could, after closing a sale, start the post-sales business process with the click of a button in a sales automation software screen. Through TaskServer™ the button script would automatically invoke a Task Group that contains tasks to write a contract, notify pertinent company personnel, generate follow-up correspondence and automatically enter a new order in the order entry system, for example.

• Software Fulfillers. Given typical EAI requirements, it is not enough that business processes can be called from an automation application. It is also usually necessary to call applications from within the business process. Through TaskServer,™ software fulfillers can enable this easily. In our previous example of a Task Group, the “write contract” task is served by a human fulfiller and the “insert order” task is directed to a software fulfiller. (Note that the insert order task is executed by the software fulfiller only if the first task is successfully completed.) The software fulfillers that will insert an order in the order entry system or complete other such functions can be developed in Visual Basic or other languages.

Enterprise Application Integration requires the business organization to apply best-of-breed applications not only to automate departments and autonomous functions but also make possible total business process automation. TaskServer™ is a new type of multi-purpose software glue that can join standalone applications into a single coherent system. Best of all, in virtually all cases, TaskServer™ requires no elaborate reengineering or dismantling of legacy systems.

Enterprise Application Integration can dramatically increase total organizational efficiency, reduce errors, cut costs and have a significant impact on the bottom line. Additionally, EAI can result in improved workgroup motivation and help boost customer service. For additional information, please e-mail us at info@taskserver.com or call our U.S. office at 603 881-9191.