By Jeff Herron
Vice President of Client Services, Beaconfire Consulting
This article was originally published in the November 2003 issue of GetActive Today.
Key nonprofit business needs — including content management, email marketing,
donations processing and advocacy efforts — typically require an organization to
integrate legacy systems with new tools to increase their overall effectiveness.
Data integration, even at the most basic level, is necessary before nonprofits
can share data across departments, deliver better service to constituents and
take full advantage of both online and offline initiatives. The need for data
integration is clear, but the challenge is in understanding how to best plan for
and execute the integration.
There are two options to consider when integrating systems for the exchange
of data. The first is to rely on a technology solution for the integration,
which would facilitate and perhaps automate the process. The second option
relies on manual processes and the efforts of staff (instead of technology) to
import and export data among systems. Regardless of the chosen path, the
following two elements are essential to understanding the larger question, "What
is data integration?"
1) Data Exchange: This refers to the format and the means of
exchanging or transferring data between systems.
Data Format: Many systems support data export or import using common
file formats such as delimited files, CSV, or Excel formats. More recently,
tools are being built to support various XML formats. Currently, there is no
universally accepted non-profit sector specific data exchange standard or
format.
Data Transfer Protocols: The actual exchange of data can be
accomplished using both high and low-tech methods. These include real time or
batch processing, one-way exchange or two-way synchronization. In the real-time
scenario, Web Services or other messaging protocols are beginning to be used as
the technologies become more available.
Many products support some of the data exchange formats and transfer
protocols. The main challenge, however, is that few of them support the same
standards, particularly the more advanced XML formats and real-time transfer
protocols. Therefore, low-tech exchange methods - manual imports and exports -
are still surprisingly common. The result is that when nonprofits automate data
exchange, they too often create point-to-point integration between each system
rather than more strategic approaches.
For those organizations with only a few systems, point-to-point integration
may still be a prudent option. However, for those with many systems or frequent
changes to systems, integrating from one system to another is not a sustainable
model due to cost, level of effort and long-term flexibility. These
organizations should consider creating an integration framework that uses common
standards and creates a platform for seamless integration, rather than relying
on point-to-point integration. The creation of an integration framework is
a more strategic approach that can pay dividends for an organization as the
infrastructure evolves, matures, and systems get added, removed, or
modified.
2) Authentication: This term refers to access control
systems, management of user profiles, and a single login to all systems within
the organization. The concepts of Identity Management and Single Sign-On are
closely related to the issue of authentication.
For many organizations, authentication is the next big, emerging integration
challenge and it promises to be ultimately more important to serving
constituents’ needs. Imagine that you have several systems requiring a user to
log in. These systems may also store some data pertaining to the user’s contact
information, profile, and preferences. Tracking this information is challenging
not only for the users but also for the organization. The users are likely to
assume that the nonprofit is providing only one web site or service to them. So,
users will not understand why they have to manage multiple user names and
passwords. In addition, they expect that if they make any changes to the data –
contact information, profile, preferences, etc – in one system, that this will
be immediately changed and recognized by other systems you provide for their
use. Without attention to this integration challenge, the organization’s
customer service channels will be impacted due to the volume of questions
received.
Together, Authentication and Data Exchange form the integration layer, which
helps organizations effectively tie systems together and overcome the challenges
of integration. As nonprofits begin addressing integration challenges, they
should insist on standards-based integrations and eschew technologies that lock
them into a particular vendor. If the integration layer leverages proprietary
technologies or those not readily available from other vendors, the
organization's risks of becoming dependent on one vendor or locked into a
technology, increases dramatically.
Once an organization understands the challenges of data integration, the
technology decisions can be resolved relatively easily. Solving this challenge
through technology solutions continues to get easier as technology evolves and
nonprofits understand their options more fully.
