In the world of software, the repurposing of John Donne’s metaphor has been used to describe the interconnected nature of software programs. It is just as true of business systems: “No Business System is an island”.

The Business Imperative

We need to connect business systems. The advent of cloud computing and AI, while making it easier to enable, has not changed this basic necessity. Our systems need to interoperate with others for the greater good of our business. And not just ours. We also need to integrate to the systems of business partners, clients, and government entities for the jurisdictions we operate in.

Many of us intuitively get the value in improving our system integrations. Repetitive and manual tasks like data entry can be painfully obvious but often they are just the tip of the ice berg. If you’re seeking further evidence to justify your investments you can model your own scenario ROI or look to others that have publicly shared theirs. A Forrester economic impact study on the business use of Azure Integration Services, showed impressive 295% ROI over 3 years.

Enabling System Integration

Historically organizations enabled integration through use of either custom code, integration server technologies (e.g. BizTalk), or a combination of both. Using these to implement a myriad of integration patterns (see our recent post on Hohpe & Woolfe book on Enterprise Integration for more on patterns topic). These days cloud vendors, like Microsoft, offer Platform Services that you can roll out far more quickly while maintaining focus on the business end of the solution problem. Azure Integration Services started with just a few vanilla services like Service Bus but today has  significantly expanded its capabilities to meet the evolving demands of modern enterprise integration. By combining services like Logic Apps, API Management, Service Bus, and Event Grid, Azure now offers a comprehensive, scalable, and cloud-native integration platform enabling seamless connectivity across on-premises systems, SaaS applications, and cloud environments. 

Getting help

Azure Integration Services empowers organizations to build agile, resilient, and future-ready integration solutions. However, any tool is only as good as the people that wield it. To succeed you will need to invest in your people and/or partner expertise. That is where DMS Group can fit in. Solving for this is core to our DNA and we love nothing more than helping our clients take their business to the next level. While many of the broad themes, patterns and concepts repeat, the details and intricacies for every organization are different. This keeps the work interesting and fresh for us while ensuring clients can reap benefit from our acquired expertise.

If Integration solutions are on your radar and you are curious about the value that assistance can bring to help your integration projects to reduce risk and expedite results, then reach out. We’d welcome the chance to discuss. DMS Group help clients with Azure Integration consulting, predominantly in Canada but also across the North America timezones and beyond.