Virtual ScaffoldingSimultaneously building on and replacing legacy systems requires temporary supportby Ram Reddy Continued from Page 1 Scaffolding Technologies That WorkDespite their less than favorable track record, the premise of EAI technologies — to provide integration across heterogeneous data, application, workflow, and technology environments — is sound. After the recent technology shakeout, a few EAI-type technologies have narrowed their focus to one specific domain — be it data, application, or workflow. These focused technology companies deliver limited integration functionality that works and scales well. The integration technologies that work well are limited in scope, but serve as excellent virtual scaffolding at an agreeable price. They cost less than EAI suites that promise integration across multiple levels and are easier to implement, maintain, and support. The virtual scaffolding technology that's appropriate for your organization may have its origins in an application server, EAI, or extract, transform, load type of technology. The technology's origin doesn't matter as much as its ability to solve your data, application, workflow, or technology integration problem quickly and efficiently. A Call For A Different IT MindsetEnterprises rarely if ever discard information technologies that work. The corporate IT community is highly skeptical of interim solutions such as virtual scaffolding technologies. If an interim solution works as promised, it gets a life of its own and becomes impossible to shelve later. A typical enterprise's portfolio consists of a number of so-called interim solutions that have become institutionalized over the years. Moreover, given the recent record number of technology-vendor bankruptcies, IT managers are wary of being stuck with orphan technologies that are no longer supported. Even if someone makes a case for virtual scaffolding and obtains funding from senior management, corporate IT departments won't be so easy to convince. Consider utility technologies that support mainframe environments. They were developed by different companies and over time were acquired by companies such as Computer Associates. These mainframe utilities, once installed, work in narrow fields (such as scheduling) and require no manual intervention for many years. Scaffolding technologies aimed at integrating narrow domains, such as data or applications, have similar characteristics. The focus in selecting scaffolding technologies should be on whether the technology can solve the integration problem the company faces today, efficiently and cost-effectively. Long-term viability of the technology vendor firm and its future product offerings shouldn't be a major factor in the decision. Verifiable client accounts where the technology is installed and running to solve integration problems similar to the ones your firm faces are more important than the long-term viability of the technology vendor. If the technology is orphaned by the vendor going out of business later, it may make it easier to shelve the technology once all the SCM or ERP modules are in place. All the SCM and ERP implementation efforts that I've participated in have started well. The project leaders developed an excellent depiction of the as-is and to-be states of the enterprise, with assistance from management consultants and systems integrators. Once the SCM implementation got underway, an increasing number of legacy systems needed to be partially replaced and interfaced with. The number and complexity of data, application, technology, and workflow interfaces to create grew as the project progressed. Having virtual scaffolding technology as a central point for integration with legacy systems that are simultaneously being replaced would have minimized complexity and increased the chances of these projects' success. Virtual scaffolding is a modest investment compared to the cost of proceeding without it. Ram Reddy [ramreddy@tacticagroup.com] is the author of Supply Chains to Virtual Integration (McGraw-Hill, 2001). He is the president of Tactica Consulting Group (www.tacticagroup.com), a technology and business strategy consulting company. RESOURCESRelated Articles on Application Integration at IntelligentEnterprise.com: "The Web Services Placebo," Sept. 17, 2002 "Points of the Triangle," Sept. 3, 2002 "Hidden Agenda," Aug. 12, 2002
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