Overview: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration > Integration with Siebel EAI > Overview of Integration with Siebel EAI >

Design for an Application Integration Project

The questions you must answer as part of the planning phase for an application integration project include:

• How is the data that is used in my organization shared?
• Which access mechanism makes the most sense for my situation?
• Which preexisting connector best applies to my situation?

It is important to identify your requirements before you design the integration. Categories on which your design choice can be based include:

• Data Transformation. Data transformation between two systems is an important part of an integration project. You might be required to implement this data transformation by using the data transformation functions that are provided by Oracle. If your organization is already standardized on a data transformation tool, then you might choose to model the integration flow so that it uses this tool for data transformation.
• Data Sharing. If you must view data from an external source within your Siebel application, and if you do not need to replicate the data, then you can use a specific set of objects and tools that are designed specifically for this purpose. For example, you might need to view credit card transaction details from within a Siebel application while the credit card transaction details are stored on a mainframe system.
• Real-Time or Batch. You must consider whether you require real-time or batch mode integration. For example, you might need to publish to an external system a new opportunity that is created in a Siebel application as soon as the opportunity occurs. Or you might need to exchange information in batch mode when you must aggregate product catalog information from your suppliers.

Siebel Business Interfaces

After you design your integration requirements for each business process flow, you can apply the different components of Siebel EAI to implement a solution. Figure 8 illustrates the different types of applications with which Siebel Business Applications can integrate.

Figure 8. Siebel Business Interfaces