A Study of Information Technology Integration

The integration of legacy and other disparate systems from a variety of vendors or developers has been seen as a major issue for information technology. This study reviews a major survey of financial executives and examines their views on aspects of systems integration. First, it was found that integration of disparate systems was viewed as an important issue in overall IT success. This impact was generally dependent on the size of an organization. It was next found that integration success and overall IT project success were significantly correlated. With regard to integration project success itself, there was a correlation between the ability to measure projects and overall system development or integration project success. Finally, the overall approach to integration was examined. The operation and maintenance of separate systems was found to be significantly less successful than other methods. The implications, limitations, and conclusions of these findings are discussed.