Companies turn to EAI for consistency
May 03, 2000
by David Orenstein
Competing with Cisco Systems (CSCO) in the market for Internet protocol-based networking equipment,
software and services is a tall order for Juniper Networks (JNPR). Going toe-to-toe with a juggernaut
such as Cisco means Juniper's customer service has to be speedy and very nearly flawless.
The challenge would be tough enough if the company were simply selling widgets over
the Web in shrink-wrapped, easily shipped boxes. But a customer order from Juniper
involves more steps than a typical e-commerce transaction.
Juniper orders the products from external contract manufacturers, ships the order to the
customer and schedules consulting services to guide the installation of the products, says
Juniper's IT technical lead, Murali Mahalingam.
Until last year, when the company adopted software from enterprise application
integration (EAI) firm Active Software (ASWX), Juniper would reconcile inconsistent
data about customers in its Clarify customer relationship management (CRM) software
and QAD enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Synchronizing the data involved
huge batch-processing jobs between the applications.
The company now avoids potentially problematic and embarrassing inconsistencies in customer data by
linking its applications with a sophisticated EAI messaging system.
Data hunter-gatherers
With EAI, applications send out messages -- thousands every minute in some companies -- that either
provide data to or make requests of other applications that are part of a process, such as taking and fulfilling
a customer order. EAI also allows applications to broadcast the information they have gathered to other
applications, such as CRM systems, enabling other users to access the information.
"All of the applications look at the same set of data," says Mahalingam. "If all the applications are islands,
without any bridge between them, there's a large potential for inconsistent data."
Active Software had adapters (the software that connects applications into the EAI system) for many of the
applications Juniper used, including Clarify and QAD's (QADI) MFG/PRO enterprise resource planning
system.
For those applications lacking an existing adapter, Active's company consultants quickly developed one,
Mahalingam says. The result was an enterprise backbone that took only two months to build.
Now that data warehouses and data marts, advanced business analytics and sales force automation are
requirements for doing business, companies are turning increasingly to EAI to ensure consistent data
throughout an organization and to speed the flow of data. Using internal EAI tools from Active Software and
business-to-business software from WebMethods (WEBM), Juniper will soon be able to provide its
customers and managers with real-time delivery data from its contract manufacturers.
Whereas Juniper staff members now manage such information manually, customers will soon get up-to-date
information whenever they want it on the Web, enabling them to schedule their own operations with greater
precision.
Meanwhile, Juniper will be able to schedule its consultant-service visits faster and more accurately.
More than just middleware
"The use of EAI technology to lash together wide-ranging business processes is inevitable," says analyst
John Mann of the Patricia Seybold Group. Implemented properly, EAI gives a company efficient, flexible
and reliable control of the flow of transactions and information.
International Data Corp. estimates that the overall middleware market -- which includes any software that
acts as an intermediary between applications -- will grow from $2.2 billion in 1998 to $11.6 billion in 2003,
a rate of 40 percent a year. That's a snail's pace compared to IDC's estimate of 76.5 percent annual growth
for EAI, the subset of middleware that links applications to support business processes.
Unlike other middleware, which simply solves tactical problems, such as stitching together incompatible
software components, EAI can have a strategic impact by enabling companies to manage processes that
stretch from suppliers to customers, as orders do at Juniper.
Tools make the job easier
Analysts say raw messaging middleware and data integration are cumbersome because they are so difficult
to use.
But full EAI packages, such as Active Software's The ActiveWorks Integration System 4.0, are more useful
because they include visual tools, allowing users to sketch out processes and define rules that govern where
messages go and when.
Such "business rules" might include instructions such as, "When inventory drops below 500 units, send an
order of 300 more to the procurement system."
EAI packages also include time-saving templates of predefined processes that can automatically generate
code.
The full-integration tool sets created by Active Software and its competitors support business processes by
routing, queuing, confirming, and securing data messages, and by offering queuing adapters and translation
among various data formats.
Although at its core, EAI simply shuttles messages between applications, these added services can be
valuable management, development and administrative tools.
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