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Integrating information systems: case studies on current challenges

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Abstract

Integration of information systems is a prerequisite for efficient collaboration within and between organizations. Despite intensive research on integration issues in Information Systems research, companies nowadays still encounter considerable challenges in integration projects. The question for the reasons still engages researchers and practitioners. The paper at hand investigates current integration problems by deriving a framework for integration problems from literature research and applying it for the analysis of concrete cases from business practice. The examples are described in detail in explorative case studies examining three integration projects from different industries and with different objectives. From the comparison of theoretically derived and practically proven integration problems, the paper identifies integration problems that have been insufficiently addressed so far and discusses open challenges of integration in the Information Systems discipline.

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Notes

  1. The name of the case study complies with the name of the corresponding consortial research project.

  2. The integration problems described below apply generally to the processes of different enterprises, irrespective of whether this public process concept is used.

  3. As a rule, enhancers function by using master data held on the inet logistics server, with the aid of which the missing information is derived by calculation algorithms (e.g. weight data calculation via goods receipt) and customer-specific assumptions (e.g. deriving a carrier’s Incoterms from historical data). However, this is not a perfect solution to the problem.

  4. IDoc represents an proprietary SAP format for transferring data in a business transaction.

  5. IFTMIN is an EDIFACT message format for the electronic transfer of transport and forwarding orders.

  6. Case anonymized due to company’s communication policy.

  7. For further information see http://www.ip-super.org/

  8. For further information see http://www.tao-project.eu/index.html

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Acknowledgements

This research was carried within the Competence Center Corporate Data Quality (CC CDQ) at the Institute of Information Management at the University of St. Gallen. The CC CDQ is part of the research program Business Engineering at the University of St. Gallen (BE HSG).

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  1. Institut für Wirtschaftsinformatik, Müller-Friedberg-Strasse 8, 9000, St. Gallen, Switzerland

    Alexander Schmidt, Boris Otto & Hubert Österle

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  1. Alexander Schmidt
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Correspondence to Alexander Schmidt.

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Responsible editor: Hans-Dieter Zimmermann

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Schmidt, A., Otto, B. & Österle, H. Integrating information systems: case studies on current challenges. Electron Markets 20, 161–174 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-010-0037-8

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