Software Integration – Making New Projects Work Without Destroying Old Projects

Software Integration – Making New Projects Work Without Destroying Old Projects

Not sure what to do with aging software systems? 

The 1930’s was a controversial time in pre-war Moscow. The city was booming, but immensely overcrowded. Like many cities of the time,  managing utilities, garbage, transportation, and the city’s image, all while promoting growth and commerce, seemed like impossibly conflicting tasks. But new technologies and systems were emerging that promised to provide some short-term and long-term solutions.

Legacy systems are an integral part of many businesses, but they may also be prohibiting growth and agility. But deploying a new solution does not mean that older systems must be scrapped.

Unfortunately, for Moscow to successfully deploy its plan the city either had to destroy almost a hundred large residential, historic and industry-type buildings, or figure out a way to move them.

This process required the removal and relocation of many large structures, including large brick apartment blocks that were up to ten stories tall. Each had to be carefully lifted onto giant sleds and carefully moved into its new position, sometimes requiring careful turning and maneuvering.

At the time, and even now, it was a major achievement, and was one of the first uses of hydraulic jacks in Russia.

In fact, many of these buildings were reportedly moved without even needing to disconnect power, water or sewer lines.

As a result, many of Moscow’s major streets were widened, public transportation systems were put in place, and improved flood prevention systems were built.

Almost 80 years later, we are often faced with similar troubles in the technology industry. We have giant legacy systems, but they are now hindering our long term growth or are too inadaptable to manage modern and future needs.

As businesses, we need a technology redevelopment plan that can integrate new system software without totally destroying legacy systems, or requiring expensive reconstruction.

In the same way that Moscow once managed to move giant buildings without disabling them, new technology infrastructure can also be built so that it integrates properly with existing systems. This includes updating enterprise level software, such as banking software, or medical records tracking, so that no data is lost and aging systems can benefit from new technologies.

Software Integration

Software integration describes the process of bringing multiple separate systems, or components, into one main system. This can be done through manual programming, or through networking, enterprise application integration, or business process management.

Software integration helps bring old and new software systems together. Professional software developers can help rebuild and repurpose aging systems so that they give your company the agility and information intelligence required for the 21st century.

A simple example of software integration is in ecommerce. An ecommerce system involves a few major elements: a website, a product management system, a payment system, and a distribution system.

If each of these function as isolated elements, then management must monitor each of these separately which is time consuming and inefficient. Also, there needs to be a manual communication channel between each element. If a product is purchased on the site, then you must wait until payment is verified, and then notify the warehouse which then sends the product to shipping.

Integrated systems can manage each of these elements automatically. As soon as a purchase is entered, it would gain purchase confirmation, notify the warehouse, automatically update your inventory data, print a shipping label and have the item ready for shipping. It could then easily provide tracking, and better data and information management on the entire workflow.

Integrated software systems are built to work with your current internal software, as well as with outside or 3^rd party vendors whenever possible, and they streamline your entire operation.

Benefits of Integrated Systems

In many businesses, the IT department is in charge of making sure that these systems are all functioning as they should. Without diminishing the role that IT professionals play, they rarely have the time or resources necessary to build integrated systems. In most organizations, the IT department spends most of its time troubleshooting issues, or working with compatibility problems between incompatible applications.

Changing any system can be a daunting, but worthwhile task. Software professionals can help you plan for the future, and build custom and scalable solutions that grow with your business

In having an integrated system built, not only do you benefit, but it makes your IT department’s job easier. The added capability of integrated systems increases up-time and increases your ability to accomplish your goals. Also, the added efficiency increases the value of the product over a longer period of time. Properly integrated systems have a huge return on investment, both in measureable and less tangible results.

As in Moscow’s redevelopment, old systems do not need to be thrown away. Instead, they can be moved to a place that creates more functionality for the organization as a whole. Software integration can bridge the gap between old and new, or it can help build entirely new systems that require interaction with third-party systems.

Potential Dangers and Pitfalls

One of the dangers in developing software that integrates with third-party applications is that designers generally assume that the third party system is always going to work as intended. Instead, designers and programmers need to plan for what will happen should a required system be temporarily unavailable.

For example, payment card systems, which help process online credit card payments, do not always work as intended. On occasion, they will be down, reject valid entries, or in some other way be unable to process an entry. Properly designed software will be able to manage such downtimes, but it is surprising how frequently systems are built that fail to take into account likely problems.

Second, it is not always a good idea to put this on your current IT department.  Jumping back to the Moscow redevelopment analogy:  Moscow, I assume, had a department of housing. This department probably managed construction permits, zoning, and related issues. Similarly, your IT department manages existing systems and ensures that they are functioning as they should. However, you would never ask the department of housing to suddenly change their role and start moving ten story buildings. You would call in a construction crew that specialized in that kind of work. In the same manner you should think about calling in a specialized crew to handle your expanding IT and integration needs.

Of course, the specialized crew would work along with, or under, the local authority, so that everyone understood what was happening and what needed to happen. Specialists are able to get things done quickly and properly, and save your entire organization time and money integrating systems quickly and properly.

Often times it seems tempting to keep a project entirely in house. However, doing so generally requires expanding the IT department in order to give them the time and resources needed to complete the project. While it may seem right to expand your IT department, what many companies don’t consider in their return on investment calculation is all the additional investment that must be made in areas of skills training, software and experience that goes into successfully navigating the actions to take when integrating new systems with old. You have to understand both systems and as technically challenging as it is to keep abreast of new technologies, it is even more complex to understand how to get new technologies to work with old.

Software integration specialists can manage the intricacies in the workings between various programs. Almost every piece of software needs to integrate – communicate – with something else. Whether it is an external database, an operating system, a payment system, pieces of hardware, or even the Apple® app store, integration needs to be done properly to ensure that you get the most value possible out of your software investment.