Enterprise Integration

Most CIO’s now recognise that Integration is one of the core enablers of IT. History shows however that integration investments often fail to realise their true value potential. The Marlo Group’s proven Planning and Implementation Processes have assisted numerous corporations to realise their Integration Business Objectives.

Situation Analysis
Whether your ultimate objective is to define an initial Enterprise Integration Strategy, revisit your current integration practises, define an architecture and standards for solution delivery or select a platform on which to build, it is critical that a baseline Situation Analysis be established. Only with this baseline firmly established can strategy, planing and architecture be pursued with confidence that the outcomes are right for your organisation.

The Marlo Group will perform an independent assessment of your organisation’s current state capability and preparedness to meet the integration which will include solution and technology inventories, historical pointers, skills, processes, maturity, architecture, standards, compliance and alignment to IT and business strategy.

Strategy & Planning
No two organisations are alike and the strategic integration needs of corporations vary dramatically based upon requirements, strategic goals, organisational scale and current state analysis. An integration strategy can not be found in a “cook book” and neither should it be a technology led strategy for the adoption of a vendor’s integration tool set.

The Marlo Group will deliver a strategy right for your enterprise; one that is fully cognisant of the baseline situation, is relevant to the enterprise’s size, scope and needs, presents options and considerations where appropriate, articulates the target state and associated business value and provides a clear roadmap for the implementation of the strategy.

Integration Architecture
The business value and objectives of your integration strategy is dependent upon the consistent application of design and delivery of integration solutions across the enterprise. This in turn is dependent upon your ability to effectively communicate the expected integration approach and enterprise wide conformance to design and implementation practises.

The Marlo Group will deliver an Integration Architecture that provides a strategic context for your enterprise integration initiatives. A tool for communicating internally to business and technical stakeholders and externally to suppliers and integrators the expected integration practises in your corporation. Again, no two organisations are alike and your architecture will blend accepted best practise and industry convention with principles, guidelines, rules and methods suitable to the maturity, needs and goals of your corporation.

Technology Assessment
Choosing the right tools for the job can be a complex process. Often there are multiple technology choices available inside the corporation to achieve the goals of the architecture. Often technology must be acquired to support the architectural needs. Which tools are right in your organisation will depend upon many influences – not the least of which are the capabilities critical to your integration needs as expressed in the Integration Architecture.

Through our processes for technology assessment, evaluation or full RFP, The Marlo Group can assist you to select the right tools to address the requirements of your integration architecture; resolving functional overlaps and providing guidelines for utilisation in the context of your business.

Enterprise SOA Enablement
The SOA buzz dictates the necessity for many CIO’s to establish a position with respect to SOA adoption. The reality is that SOA conceptually has a variety of contexts and it is often not obvious what business value these will offer in practise and whether SOA is really different to the service or contract based integration models that they may have already invested in.

The Marlo Group will help you understand SOA in practical terms, identify the core facets that have relevance to your corporation, quantify the value potential; establish the extent to which this is already enabled by existing architectures and identify the roadmap to extend integration principles to embrace SOA.