As operations look to optimize and automate their business and production processes, the oft-mentioned topic of "integration" is something that is bound to come up. With so many different systems, repositories, and technologies that often exist within print businesses, defining what exactly integration entails can be challenging. Integration requirements need to be aligned with the goals of optimization and automation to successfully create a logical, efficient flow of information. In approaching integration, businesses need to consider the scope and scale, choice of internal versus external execution, and the associated technical issues that need to follow to ensure an effective end-result.

The story is familiar: over the past few decades, businesses acquired various types of systems and technologies to accomplish different sets of tasks within the operation. We're now at a point where systems are present at each step of business and production processes, but perhaps to move information from one process to the next, significant amounts of job information need to be manually re-entered. Tremendous opportunity to exists to integrate these systems to ensure that information is being passed from one process to another in a quick and accurate manner. In fact, close to half of print businesses that place a high priority on workflow automation priorities indicated system integration as an initiative to increase efficiency.  

The term "integration" is often used quite liberally, no matter the industry. It should be clarified that what is typically being talked about in the context of automation and optimization is system integration. System integration encompasses connecting disparate systems together to work in concert with each other, ensuring continuity between systems and business or production processes across the entire organization.

Close to half of print businesses that place a high priority on workflow automation priorities indicated system integration as an initiative to increase efficiency.

Goals when pursuing system integration vary but, in a broad sense, are designed to invoke and enforce required processes across the company, as well as reduce manual rekeying of information (reducing redundancy and human error potential). That ultimately results in increasing value and reducing costs, as employees can focus on core tasks that are required for a job instead of worrying about underlying processes and data entry errors.

Scope and Scale
I've spoken with many service providers on the topic of system integration for the purpose of automation and optimization over the past few years. The most successful tell me that up-front planning is paramount to accomplishing your goals, including defining a clear scope and scale of the project. Is one system being integrated into an existing infrastructure, or is the entire infrastructure in need of an overhaul? What systems are going to be affected, and more importantly, what people are going to be affected? Will any systems need to be added or discontinued throughout the process? What is the timeline going to be? What awareness needs to be spread to employees and clients? These are all important questions that need to be addressed when planning a system integration project.

The timeline component is especially important. Rome wasn't built in a day and integrations don't happen overnight. Again, looking back at those integration success stories, a phased approach that includes a great deal of testing or "dogfooding" along the way often yields favorable results. Dogfooding is how companies like Google and Facebook rapidly develop and perfect their systems. An integration will most likely change the way employees interact with the systems you have in place; they need to have a great deal of input to ensure that an integration is successful. After all, they're the ones that will be interacting with those systems on a day-to-day basis.

Internal vs. External Execution
Performing a system integration project with an internal team versus using some type of external provider is a choice that many companies have to make. Making that determination often depends on the scope and scale, internal IT capabilities, and costs. Software vendors themselves typically have a team of technical consultants that can perform integrations of their products with existing systems for a fee. There are system integrators that specialize in integrating specific types of systems or particular products; a common one is integrating print eCommerce with Digital Asset Management. General systems specialists can also be utilized.