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From ground to interstellar – how to

expand EAI to multiple organizations?

Sami Tähtinen

https://twitter.com/SamiTahtinen

http://fi.linkedin.com/pub/sami-t%C3%A4htinen/0/47a/5b/en

From ground to interstellarHow to expand EAI to multiple organizations?

Sami Tähtinen, CTO, Youredi Ltd

A quick introduction

Youredi Ltd

• Finnish software company providing Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solutions

• Operations in Europe, expanding to US and APAC during 2015

• www.youredi.com

• Focus on creating business-to-business connectivity

• Provides also integration capabilities for end customer either directly or through our system integration partners

EAI vs. B2B/EDI integrationWhat are the differences?

Or are there any?

What is EAI?

- In this presentation, EAI means integration within an organization

- Integrating internal applications, with possibility to communicate with external applications

- However, integration is carried out from internal point of view; the focus is on internal processes and systems

A ”typical” EAI case

- Integrating ERP’s, CRM’s, finance,...

- Development is almost always started from a single organization viewpoint

- Thus, information is regarded as confidential; no need to think about publicity rules

A ”typical” EAI case

CRM FINA ...ERP ...

We

Others

What is B2B or EDI ?

- In this presentation, B2B/EDI means information exchange between different companies

- To be more exact, this information exchange is considered to be managed by an external value-added network (VAN) / EDI operator

- Development is carried out from public point of view; information that is exchanged is considered confidential in the network context

A ”typical” B2B case (EDI operator perspective)

- Integrating financial transactions, order-to-cash processes etc. across multiple organizations

- Development is almost always started from a multi-organization perspective

- Thus, information can be treated as shared from the beginning; no need to touch strictly confidential information of a single organization

A ”typical” B2B case (EDI operator)

Org2 Org3 ...Org1 ...

Private

PublicFTP(S), SFTP, AS2, WS...

These two combined...

These two combined...

Org2 Org3 ...Org1 ...

ERPCRMFINAERPCRMFINA

ERPCRMFINAERPCRMFINA

ERPCRMFINA ... ... ... ......

Difference?

- Both approaches are built up from similar building blocks:

- Integration endpoints; protocols, adapters, connectors

- Transformations

- Processes/orchestrations taking care of transfer logic

- Business rules, monitoring, alerting,...

- On a technical level, there are not many differences.

Who owns the integration……and information?

Why are EAI and B2B/EDI traditionally separated?

- As outlined before, the major difference in EAI and B2B integration may be the way information is understood

- In EAI, information can be considered confidential

- In B2B, information can be considered shared

- It is easy to consider the world in a context of confidential and shared information and have different tools for both.

- Do you have a separate phone for your company’s internal and external calls?

Who owns the integration in a networked world?

- Business processes tend to start from outside of your organization – e.g. an order.

- In today’s networked world, more and more business processes (or parts of them) are outsourced.

- You have two options:

- Try to cope with a strict separation of private and public information by separating the execution, or

- Accept additional complexity of thinking who owns the information.

Hybrids……and ways to implement them?

Or should everything be held in a single solution?

Expanding EAI outside the firewall

Business processes always reach outside my organization.

- When creating EAI solutions, there is a danger that a business process is seen only from one organization’s context

- Things like receiving an order or sending an invoice is easy to understand as an external function, not belonging to the core business.

- However, a business process is typically started from outside my organization, and last steps are executed outside my organization.

A ”traditional” hybrid

Org2 Org3 ...Org1 ...

ERPCRMFINAERPCRMFINA

ERPCRMFINAERPCRMFINA

ERPCRMFINA ... ... ... ......

From B2B/EDI into your own data center

Boundary has been clear.

- However, not all are happy with a batch-based information exchange between organizations.

- If a B2B/EDI vendor can bring the information to your FTP server, why couldn’t they deliver it all the way to your ERP?

- Why do I need to create the ”last mile” integration with my EAI software? What if I don’t have one?

Could you consider this?

CRM FINA ...ERP ...

Us

Cloud

Or this?

Us & Them

Cloud

ERPCRMFINA...

ERPCRMFINA...

Enter iPaaS.

- Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is basically a paradigm that combines all the good from both EAI and B2B worlds.

- By definition, iPaaS is cloud-based. In most of the implementations, this means that you don’t need to invest to your own software licenses, or hardware.

- In a typical implementation, iPaaS platforms provide centralized processing of information transfers, with on-premise adapters (when required) taking care of EAI connectivity.

Enter iPaaS.

- iPaaS can be considered as an alternative for on-premise EAI installations.

- However, the largest benefit of iPaaS comes when you realize that they are a combination of EAI and B2B connectivity, and can handle both.

- iPaaS platforms understand the difference between private and public data.

- Combination of EAI and B2B functionalities in a single platform may result in serious cost benefits.

Considerations.

- Performance.

- Can I afford a round-trip when I need to integrate two applications within my data center?

- Trust.

- Can I be sure that my information is safe?

- Legislation.

- Can I have e.g. my customers’ personal data processed in an external data center?

Summary

EAI approach to B2B

Public network

EDI/VAN approach to B2B

Public network

Public network

iPaaS approach to EAI and B2B

iPaaS is a new generation of EDI.

- EDI operators have been traditionally building multi-tenant integration software that can manage information exchange between potentially huge number of companies.

- iPaaS platforms are using the same approach, with a twist; making it possible to integrate information from end to end – not just batch transfers between FTP servers

Youredi Ltd Westendintie 1 A +358 207 3520 80 www.youredi.com02160 Espoo, Finland talktous@youredi.com ID: 2339135-8

Sami Tähtinen www.youredi.comsami@youredi.com talktous@youredi.com@SamiTahtinen+358 40 554 9059