Page 136 - DCOM102_DMGT101_PRINCIPLES_AND_PRACTICES_OF_MANAGEMENT

Principles and Practices of Management

Notes 7.6 Integration

Integration strategy embodies a connected organisation. For organisations and government,
integration is totally consistent with financial information strategies and modern comptrollership
practices.
The formulation of an integration strategy requires less structured and shorter strategy
formulation attempts. This implies that the traditional strategy formulation process needs to
give way to continuous experimentation and solutions prototyping. The result is a "connected
organisation".

Enterprise Knowledge Online
Systems Management Presence
Business integration is not a final endpoint accomplished with a single project. It is about
integrated performance information management and connectedness. For a successful integration
strategy, organisations need persistent access and leverage to knowledge and information. It
focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes that run the business. It
includes improving the quality and timeliness of information, and providing information on
demand and where it is needed, regardless of the source system. This level of business agility
cannot be achieved simply by implementing integration technology on a project-by-project
basis without an overall strategy of how it all fits together. Rapid implementation of the business
strategy requires an enterprise-level integration strategy. The business integration strategy
ultimately reduces the time and cost of managing information as well as resources.
Organisations who take a 'knowledge perspective' to integrate processes and controls across the
service delivery chain, end up learning and leveraging knowledge from interactions with clients,
suppliers and stakeholders. Integration strategy is about connecting horizontal processes and
controls across the organisation through the deployment of your processes, systems, people,
finances, geography, and delivery mechanisms to improve service delivery.
Another problem is that business integration is inherently complex. Different types of projects
will require different integration technologies. It is not possible to solve all integration needs
with a single product or technology. Nor is it possible to solve all present and future integration
requirements with a single project. However, using a purely tactical approach will result in the
need to integrate the integration technologies at some point.
The purpose of a business integration strategy is to enable the company to work smarter. It
provides a coherent and consistent approach to integration that will guide implementation
decisions and reduce costs on tactical projects, while laying the groundwork for business agility
and future projects. A successful business integration strategy will provide a higher ROI and
decrease the total cost of ownership over time.

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