Systems Integration

Motivation

Prof. Dr. Christian Drumm

2026-10-02

Motivation

Exercise 1

Scenario

A small to medium-sized company sells bike parts online, catering to both individual consumers and small, independent bike shops.

  • Products are shipped from a company-owned warehouse
  • In addition to the online store, the company operates a flagship store in the city center

Your Task

Form small groups of 3–4 students and discuss:

  • Identify Key Processes
    • Essential business processes, manual and automated
  • Determine Supporting Systems
    • Which information systems support these processes?
  • Analyze Integration Needs
    • How should the systems interact?
    • Is integration with external partners’ systems necessary?

Prepare one slide summarizing your key findings.

Exercise 2

Scenario

Two systems connected by an arrow:

  • System X — could be a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
  • System Y — might be an invoicing or billing system

Abstract integration scenario

Exercise 2

You Task

Form small groups of 3–4 students and discuss what the arrow might represent:

  • What kind of interaction does the arrow symbolize? Data flow, process flow, something else?
  • What challenges might arise?
    • Data consistency
    • Performance
    • Scalability
  • What are the implications for reliability, security, efficiency?
  • How could different integration patterns influence this interaction? For example, what would be the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communication.

Prepare one slide summarizing your key findings.

Prior Knowledge

  1. Overview and processes in ERP systems (cf. SAP in der Praxis & Business Information Systems)
  2. At least one programming language (Python MOOC)
  3. Basic knowledge of HTML and HTTP (W3C HTML Tutorial, W3C What is HTTP)
  4. Data Modelling, Databases and SQL (W3C SQL Tutorial, Datenmodellierung)
  5. Process Modelling (BPMN)
  6. Basic usage of a Unix shell like Bash or ZSH (W3C Bash Tutorial)

Wrap-Up

  • Every business process relies on multiple systems
  • Systems that don’t talk to each other create silos
  • Integration is about making systems work together, reliably, securely, and efficiently