ABSTRACT
It is diffi cult to overrate the importance of system integration in modern enterprises as instruments of rationalization and reduction of transactional costs and informational asymmetries. The ability of a system or a product to work with other systems or products without extensive modifi cations is a key issue in manufacturing and service industries. For example, large automotive and aircraft manufacturers were the driving force behind the STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data) standard to facilitate the exchange and interpretation of product among different systems for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) and CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing). Thus, the aim of enterprise system integration is to overcome the fragmentation of knowledge in functional silos, to avoid the duplication of data processing activities in various departments, and to share the information across the value chain linking suppliers with customers. The integration agenda is driven by the
twin goals of effi ciency and agility; redundant operations waste time and resources, increase the likelihood of errors, and impede the response to sudden shifts in business conditions. This is why system integration is implicit when people talk about Decision Support Systems, Executive Information Systems, or more recently, Business Intelligence.
