WHAT IS APPLICATIONS INTEGRATION?UNDERSTANDING THE PERSPECTIVES OFMANAGERS, IT PROFESSIONALS, AND END USERS

摘要

While organizations, collectively, spend billions of dollars to achieve “integration,” little is known aboutrnpractitioners’ perceptions of integration that influence these decisions and actions. This paper describes arnqualitative research study to surface practitioner interpretations (assumptions, knowledge and expectations)rnof applications integration. Evidence from interviews of 51 practitioners representing three stakeholder groupsrn– managers, IT professionals, and end users – revealed 15 major themes related to practitioner perspectivesrnof the characteristics, benefits and downsides of applications integration. The findings indicate that there isrnno generally accepted definition of what applications integration is or ought to be, and that there arernsignificant differences among the stakeholder groups regarding the potential benefits and downsides ofrnapplications integration.