
Perfect Integration 7 – information exchange: transportation
After creating and or choosing a common or generic format to exchange the information, there is one other field to explore: the facilitation of various communication protocols through which this information can be transported. What applies to messages, also applies to transport: a common language is to be advised as “main artery” for all the […]

Perfect Integration 6 – Common language: syntaxes
In the previous posts I explained semantics, syntax, and the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to get from diverse IT applications to one uniform business language. This post will take a deep dive into message formats such as Flat file, EDIFACT, XML and JSON. Ever wondered about the pros and cons of XML? JSON? What […]

Perfect Integration 5 – Common language: indirect translation
Number 5 in the series, this post is about indirect translation, in contrast with the direct translation shown in the previous post, which came with costly, exponential dependencies. When looking towards large-scale use of translators, e.g. the European Committee in Brussels, it is easily observed how these dependencies can be greatly reduced: all languages are […]

Perfect Integration 3 – Common language: semantics first
This post will elaborate on messaging and transformation (part I), and explain how information exchange works in the daily world, considering simple or complex information exchanges. That will then be related to IT, and the basic ways of “writing down” information in IT will be explained. If you want to have a chat with someone […]

Perfect Integration 2 – Common subset and transformation
Number two in the series, this post deals with the common subset found on all levels in the previous post: what is the shared interest (Business) which information do you want to share (Information) which definitions are mutually exchangeable (Information Systems) how do you want to exchange ideas (Infrastructure) Information exchange form: messaging After having […]

Perfect Integration 1 – Architectural Approach
First post in a series of 5-10, I will release all my views and opinions on the Art of Integration. I challenge you to disagree, and bash me with arguments and reasoning. Feel free to shoot from the hip and aim at the heart, anything goes really. I am absolutely convinced that I am right […]

Tibbr – the revolution starts right here
Today I attended the launch of Tibco’s tibbr in London. A perfectly short and great event of a few hours with excellent food, drinks, very interesting speakers and some great panel remarks – not in that order. Ram Menon, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Marketing presented a very clear overview emphasizing the punch-line: when information […]

Finally a great E20 tool – and people play the social card!
(I’m only kidding about “great E20 tool” there of course.) A double post by Dennis Howlett on Tibco’s Tibbr and a few others by a few others led me to write this one – not many people get it, it seems. Enterprise 2.0 is raised from its grave on the one side, Social Business is […]

The False Promise of "Adopt now, and all will adapt"
It’s the most widespread lie across IT. Translated from seller to buyer, it says: just buy our stuff, it’s great, pretty soon everyone will have it and then you’ll have the advantage over all the others. It’s how hypes made it in, trends, useful stuff too, but also ERP and CRM trying to take the […]

Integration: your place or mine? Adopt vs adapt
Adopt versus adapt is the central theme in Integration. For the last 15 years, it’s been the central question in my working life: who will adopt, and who will have to adapt? It is the most important question, as doing business is not only about mutual understanding and partnerships, but also about flattering “kings, princes […]

2010-2020: The Great Divide
A Great Divide is what I see for the coming decade. Not a hydrological divide of the Americas, but an IT-divide of the business. Pretty much a follow-up from my one year-old Cloud and Social: the tectonic plates of IT 2.0, this post will show the great challenge Business and IT need to face together […]

Standards – The Opposing View
Eric posted yesterday looking at why the adoption of standards can be a bad thing. Rather than discussing his post in the context of the recent Cloud Computing Interoperability Forum debacle (I’m sure calling it a debacle will get people from both sides of the divide fired up – but you have to admit it […]