Focus on the ROI of EII

Ever get the feeling that some people would rather throw stones than do anything constructive? It happens quite a bit in high tech. People do it because it’s easier to bash an older technology than truly justify a new one.

So I was saddened today when I saw that Dan Linstedt of Business Intelligence Network   was still having to deal with those that claim EII will kill the data warehouse. In Dan’s entry “Is an EDW Legacy Technology because of EII?” he has to (yet again) debunk the claims some are making about how EII will replace the data warehouse.

I dealt with this myself a few months ago in my entry “An EII/ETL Détente: Can’t We All Just Get Along?” So I won’t rehash the whole thing again. Suffice it to say that ETL and EII both have a place, and EDWs aren’t going away. In fact, many of our customers tap their DW as a data source in an EII deployment. That’s part of the reason we were pleased to become official Teradata partners, which we announced this spring. It not only helps to demonstrate that EII + DW can be a powerful combination, but it also allows us to work closely with Teradata and their customers to develop integration best practices.

The real focus for those considering EII (as with any new technology) should be how it saves time and money. At Ipedo, we’re working with our clients to show how EII can generate cost savings and productivity improvements in the following areas:

· Increased flexibility to respond to changes in IT requirements

· Better analyst utilization (see "Turning 60/40 into 40/60")

· Higher developer productivity

· Lower data consolidation costs

· Less expensive application maintenance

So focus on the ROI. Spend your time reading our new “Determining Financial Returns on Enterprise Information Integration” instead of the waning screeds from the misinformed.