Investigating success factors in enterprise application integration: a case-driven analysis

This paper investigates Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). An initial set of CSFs for EAI projects was created based on a review and synthesis of the literature in the general area of integration, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects. A case analysis, involving a large financial services provider integrating its consumer banking systems, was used to validate the CSFs. The findings resulted in a more structured and holistic CSF model which identifies three broad groups of CSFs, namely (1) top management support, (2) overall integration strategy, and (3) EAI project planning and execution. Although EAI projects share many of the same CSFs as ERP projects and other information systems projects, issues related to the selection of the right EAI tool and emphasis on technology planning and enterprise architecture are distinguishing features of EAI projects. Some of practical implications of the research are that EAI projects require personnel with specific skills and expertise, business integration should precede technology integration, that availability of adapters is an important criteria in EAI tool selection and that some custom adapter development may be unavoidable if custom applications need to be integrated.