Application Integration (ESB)

Transformative Application Integration

Simplify and accelerate data integration to drive productivity and business value.

Application Integration (ESB)

Adeptia Connect is a comprehensive Application Integration and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) software product designed to integrate any application with any data at any location. Adeptia Connect is a proven product that has been recognized by leading analysts and experts, used by hundreds of companies in mission-critical initiatives. Adeptia’s solution combines a services-oriented architecture (SOA) with process orchestration to offer a powerful ESB application that quickly and easily automates data flows and connects applications, both in the cloud and on-premises.

Overview

Rapidly Complete Application-Specific Integrations

Adeptia’s ESB application integration software enables customers to rapidly complete application-specific integrations with a “configure, not code” approach. By using a wizard-driven approach and pre-configured templates, rather than starting from scratch with complex software tools and writing many lines of code, businesses complete business-critical projects in days rather than months. With the support of our ESB software, you can easily decrease the onboarding time by 80 percent.

Adeptia provides a compelling new approach to application integration that focuses not just on the moving of data about. Instead,  Adeptia goes beyond that in seeking to automate the business processes around that integration step. This approach, called “business process integration,” helps enterprises gain never-before-seen efficiencies by automating key processes and removing manual or redundant steps. This approach is possible only because of the rich Business Process Management (BPM)-centric process orchestration and human workflow capabilities in the Adeptia’s solution, making Adeptia Connect truly unique in the integration market.

App Integration – Components

App Integration – Components

Adeptia’s ESB software solution has the following key components:

  • Design Studio: A web browser-based collaborative environment for IT staff and business analysts to use in designing, configuring, and managing data flows.
  • Services Repository: A Services Oriented Architecture (SOA)-based library of reusable objects such as data flows, schemas, mapping rules, workflow tasks, and web service components that have been created using the Design Studio.
  • Process Execution Engine: A run-time component that triggers, manages, routes, and tracks the running of data flows.

Adeptia offers IT staff a simple way to deliver complex process-based integration for business’ changing needs. This enterprise-class software enables companies to leverage the Internet by deploying extended enterprise processes that link partners, suppliers, and customers. Based on API, JAVA, and XML technology, Adeptia’s ESB software solution combines powerful data transport functionality with comprehensive data mapping and transformation capabilities, making it perfectly suited for Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), data integration, and B2B integration scenarios.

Key Features

Features and Functionality

Adeptia’s solution offers all the features and functionality  one would need in a complete process-centric, SOA-based application integration solution. This includes the following capabilities:

Pre-Built Data Integration Template

Adeptia Connect is an application for both business users and IT staff. The pre-built Data Integration Template feature enables business users to create simple app-A to app-B connections using pre-configured connectors that are made available by the IT staff. With this template, users can create a transaction through a wizard wherein they simply define the required parameters, then select the applications and databases they want to connect. This enables true self-service integration for business users to create their own simpler connections, reducing their dependence on IT.

Web Services and APIs

Adeptia provides comprehensive support for web services, including the ability to use any web service as a task in a process flow. Also, a web service in Adeptia Connect can be published as a process flow by using the Publish-WS capability of the product. Adeptia supports both REST and SOAP web services.

This feature includes support for introspection of WSDL and both RPC and message-style invocation. It also includes support for WS-Security.

Web-Based Data Mapper

A graphical tool that makes it easy to configure data transformation, mapping, validation, and cleansing rules to process information. Complex rules can be easily specified without writing any code. Data Mapper supports any-to-any mapping, meaning transformation rules can be applied where sources and targets are in different formats.

This tool includes a library of functions that can be pre-created, then reused. Data Mapper also has a “preview” capability to see the actual source and target data while the rules are being specified, enabling verification that the mapping rules are being defined correctly.

Artificial Intelligence-based Data Mapping (AIMap) capability of this tool reduces the effort required to configure data mapping rules and increases the accuracy by inferring mapping suggestions from the existing library of tested and validated data maps. Read here for more information about AIMap.

Web Process Designer

A graphical process design web interface for creating process flows. IT staff uses its simple drag-and-drop interface for quickly designing process and data flows and implementing business rules. Developers directly implement these processes for execution by creating and populating each service task in the process flow. The Web Process Designer uses BPMN standards-based notation.

Process Engine

A powerful, full-featured orchestration engine for automated process execution. Its support for decision nodes, sub processes, exception handling, forks and joins, loops, and long-running transactions enables the execution of process flows of almost any complexity. Process Engine supports the concept of transactional execution using Java Transaction API (JTA), and directly executes the PF XML generated by the Process Designer. Process Engine also supports failure recovery, as well as a job queue and clustering for reliability and high performance.

Web Forms

These can be created easily and without code. Dynamic, AJAX-based forms are offered, which include support for instantaneous validations, sophisticated layouts, and dynamic behavior. These forms can be used either as a source in a transaction/template, or published as a web page in the submenu of any tab.

Dashboard

The dashboard and reporting engine is wizard-driven to enable the quick design of real-time metrics dashboards and reports. Adeptia Connect saves all logs and process data in a database for archival. Pre-built reports are included that help you analyze run-time process metrics to review performance of processes and identify resource or personnel bottlenecks. Fixing these constraints can significantly optimize processes, resulting in cost savings, improved operational efficiencies, and strategic business advantages.

Portal Functionality

The management of users and roles and relationships, as well as permissions-based access and secure login access, are some of the capabilities included in this solution.

Real-Time and Batch Triggers

These triggers provide you with flexibility in determining how the implemented integration solutions (data flows) will be executed. These can be simple scheduled triggers to run certain data flows at specific times, or they can be real-time triggers that execute data flows based on certain events, such as a file being dropped in an FTP folder or an email being received.

Extensibility

Available in this solution via custom service plug-ins. Any existing external programs, in any programming language, can be plugged-in as a service to the Adeptia Connect and can be reused at any time within data flows. This enables the IT teams to leverage their existing work and move their existing interfaces to a “services-based” solution wherein everything can be centrally managed.

Rules-Based Routing

Helps you specify complex data flows with complex rules so the routing of data, workflow tasks, and information can be affected automatically in the process flows at run-time.

Benefits

Key Benefits of Adeptia Connect

Adeptia’s application integration capabilities enable IT departments to be more productive and responsive to the needs of the business. Some of the main benefits of Adeptia’s solution include:

  • Increased IT efficiency
    • Empowers self-service integration by business users for simpler use cases
    • Enables IT staff to provide self-service capability for business users to perform integration operations
    • Redeploys IT team to focus on more strategic business initiatives
  • Increased productivity
    • Automation reduces manual steps and processing time
    • Automated exception handling and routing of data and errors increases productivity
    • Reduced errors lead to cost savings
  • Faster Time to Market
    • Because connections can be created in hours, integration projects can be completed sooner, delivering speed-to-market.
    • Codeless approach simplifies long-run connection creation process
  • Rapid, Efficient Development
    • Unmatched flexibility – can be deployed via on-premises or in the cloud as an integration-as-a-service platform
    • 100% standards-based, with zero reliance on niche middleware skills
    • Includes pre-built connectors for SaaS applications, CRM, ERP, customer support systems, all major databases, flat-files, Web Services, messaging systems, and more
  • Simple Monitoring and Management
    • Web-based management and administration
    • Proactive alerts and notifications of data and connectivity errors
    • Monitor from anywhere, anytime
  • Easy maintenance
    • Up to 80 percent lower maintenance costs vs. traditional integration developer tool alternatives
    • Single installer and package remove the need to maintain multiple components (hardware, web servers, databases, integration brokers, etc.)
Problems Solved

Addressing Almost Any Type of Data Integration Need

Adeptia’s application integration and ESB software rapidly connects a wide variety of applications and endpoints while complementing existing integration technologies. Companies in a wide range of industries – finance, manufacturing, retail, consumer packaged goods, energy, transportation, and logistics – use Adeptia’s solution to solve application integration challenges, including:

  • Enterprise Application Integration (EAI): Adeptia is perfectly suited for application integration scenarios commonly found when connecting interfaces between various back-end systems and databases. Even in scenarios where the primary integration need is not B2B integration, there is always a need to connect with at least one back-end application or database either as a source or target. Adeptia can act as an Integration Broker and connect with any message queue or Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) using the built-in JMS protocol to exchange transactional or bulk messages.
  • APIs and Services SOA Enablement: Many organizations have initiatives to extend their investments in legacy applications by creating a services layer of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) as a front-end. The adoption of REST and SOAP Web Services has accelerated this trend and has made Web Services Enablement a credible integration strategy. Adeptia’s solution provides all the functionality needed to create a rich web services API layer; it not only includes the Web Services client capability, but also the ability to publish data flows as Web Services, allowing business functions and integration APIs to be created for older applications.
  • Cloud or Software as a Service (SaaS) Integration: As enterprises are increasingly using cloud-based applications, it is imperative that those applications work seamlessly with other legacy applications. The ESB capabilities of the Adeptia’s solution is ideally suited for connecting cloud applications with on-premises applications and databases.
  • Integration Middleware: Adeptia’s solution is ideal for use as a SOA integration middleware because of its services repository, where all the services and data flows can be created, managed, and tracked from a single web-based interface.
  • Business Process Integration: Adeptia’s Enterprise Service Bus capabilities are an ideal solution for automating the complete business processes around any application integration need. With its unique process automation capability, Adeptia’s solution can orchestrate and synchronize data in real-time between your enterprise and cloud applications. Use cases include:
    • Order to Cash integration between CRM, ERP, warehousing, and financial systems
    • Billings, Bookings, and Backlog visibility from ERP to CRM
    • Candidate information from HCM to recruiting systems
    • Employee payroll data from HCM to payroll systems
    • Pricing and product catalog information between ERP and customer portals
    • POs, shipping notices, and payments with suppliers
    • Repair and warranty information between call centers and customer portals
    • 360° view of customer and product across ERP, CRM, and call center applications
    • Opportunity to Order integration between marketing automation, CRM, and ERP systems
    • Customer support integration between ERP and customer support systems
    • Integration associated with mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures
Architecture

Application Integration (ESB) Architecture and Design Patterns

Using an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) model for your application integration solutions is recommended when you have multiple business applications, data repositories and data consumers that need to talk to each other through a service layer that contains the rules and a common framework on how to communicate between those entities.

Adeptia’s solution combines services-oriented architecture (SOA) with process orchestration to offer a powerful ESB application that quickly and easily automates data flows and connects applications both in the cloud and on-premises. Adeptia ESB is completely browser-based and it enables developers and business users to collaborate and build business solutions by utilizing a comprehensive set of application integration features.

Adeptia Architectural ESB

It provides a seamless process of using connections from the services layer to get the data from any application whenever and wherever it is needed to facilitate business functions. Applications talk to the services layer and not directly to the underlying systems.

For example, a service bus that provides a patient’s insurance coverage can be called by any application, such as a Claims Management System or a Policy Underwriting System or an Agency Management System, to view or update an insurance policy as part of a business function performed by an end-user. Thus, all these applications would use one common service to get the patient data. Similarly, there would be additional common services in your ESB layer that provide specific business data by connecting to the underlying systems. Having a library of services that your business can utilize to get the data from any application, whether it’s local or onthe cloud, removes the need to implement point-to-point connections.

Read more about the key features of Adeptia Application Integration (ESB) Architecture here.

Read more about ESB Design Patterns by Use Case here.

Sander van Loosbroek

Adeptia has proved to be a robust and versatile solution that we continue to integrate with different aspects of our business. Pricing was an important aspect of this investment and Adeptia exceeded our expectations in both performance and value for money.

Sander van Loosbroek

Chief Technology Officer, EPM

Adeptia testimonials