Alexander Schwinn and Joachim Schelp
The application landscapes of major companies all have their own complex structure. Data have to be exchanged between or distributed to the various applications. Systemizing…
Abstract
Purpose
The application landscapes of major companies all have their own complex structure. Data have to be exchanged between or distributed to the various applications. Systemizing different data integration patterns on a conceptual level can help to avoid uncontrolled redundancy and support the design process of data integration solutions. Each pattern provides a solution for certain data integration requirements and makes the design process more effective by reusing approved solutions. Proposes identifying these patterns.
Design/methodology/approach
After a broad literature review data were obtained from interviews and documentary sources. Ten semi‐structured interviews were conducted within four different companies operating in the financial service industry. EAI‐ and IT‐architects as well as project managers and CTOs were involved in these interviews.
Findings
Five different data integration patterns were identified. Solutions for upcoming data integration requirements can be designed using these patterns. Advantages and disadvantages as well as typical usage scenarios are discussed for each identified data integration pattern.
Research limitations/implications
In order to identify data dependencies, to detect redundancies and to conduct further investigations, a consistent methodology for the description of application landscapes has to be developed. The presented design patterns are one part of this methodology only. The approach in this paper only considers data integration while in reality there are also other integration requirements like functional or process‐oriented integration.
Practical implications
The identified design patterns help practitioners (e.g. IT‐architects) to design solutions for data integration requirements. They can map the conceptual patterns to company specific technologies or products to realize the solution physically.
Originality/value
The design patterns are indifferent from any technology or products which ensure a broad application. Business requirements (e.g. requirement for autonomous processing) are considered first when designing a data integration solution.
Details
Keywords
Carl Simon Heckmann and Alexander Maedche
In highly dynamic industries, business processes require exploitation, i.e. activities that are associated with an increase in productivity through automation, standardization…
Abstract
Purpose
In highly dynamic industries, business processes require exploitation, i.e. activities that are associated with an increase in productivity through automation, standardization, integrated architectures, and the usage of existing IT resources. As a complementary capability, exploration is needed, i.e. the ability to flexibly implement new and innovative IT resources (Lee et al., 2015). The purpose of this paper is to use the concept of ambidexterity, which is researched intensively outside the domain of business processes (e.g. Gibson and Birkinshaw, 2004; Tang and Rai, 2014), to address this paradoxical trade-off within business processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows a qualitative approach. A multiple case study comprising 11 interviews and additional document analysis in six organizations is conducted in the German energy sector to examine the proposed framework.
Findings
This paper shows the importance of balancing exploitative and explorative business process IT (BPIT) capabilities. The process-theoretical outcome of this study is the BPIT Capability Framework that provides explanation for the interaction between exploitation and exploration.
Research limitations/implications
This study contributes to the understanding of how to build ambidextrous BPIT capabilities by explaining the underlying mechanisms for feedback loops that occur in cases of imbalance. The scope of the conducted study presents a limitation and thus future research is encouraged to further validate the findings of this paper.
Originality/value
By drilling down to the process level, this paper addresses the gaps that limited empirical studies have in business process management research (Recker and Mendling, 2015) and the focus on business processes that is lacking from the literature on organizational IT management (Gregory et al., 2015).