A framework to review the information integration of the enterprise

Abstract

Organizations face the challenging task of integrating their distributed organizational units, information systems, and business processes for improved operation and attainment of organizational goals. There is the difficulty of dealing with heterogeneous applications that use different formats (syntax) and apply different meanings (semantics) to the data. There is the difficulty of coordinating the work-flow so as the disparate organizational units act as a harmonious whole. The broad scope of the enterprise integration problem precludes approaches that tackle the entire problem but rather requires approaches that address a limited but useful integration type. The various information integration types and how they are related to each other is poorly defined. This article presents an enterprise information integration framework that aims to coalesce parallel approaches towards integration so that the information integration problem can be better understood as a whole. The enterprise information integration framework defines four levels of the enterprise system to identify the obstacles and to define the information integration types encountered at each level. The framework is used to analyse the currently used technologies and promising technologies toward enterprise information integration. The analysis identifies general trends and gaps for further research.