New industry group hopes to reduce failed projects

A 2003 report from the Standish Group, a West Yarmouth, Mass., IT research and consulting firm, found that 95 percent of application integration projects either fail to meet expected schedules, exceed planned budgets, or simply do not meet stated business goals. Such dismal numbers prompted the formation of the Enterprise Integration Application Industry Consortium, or EAIIC. This group—which currently claims 130 members, including Oracle, BEA Systems, IBM, and Best Buy—hopes to create a set of best practices that can ensure more successful integration projects. In a Q&A section on the group's Web site, www.eaiindustry.org, co-founder Michael Kuhbock, CEO of Groundswell Revolution, a Calgary, Alberta systems integrator, says the consortium's primary goals include educating vendors and users about issues relating to application integration, and creating a "global integration framework" that can be used as a guide for successful deployment of integration tools.