The Business of Systems Integration

Abstract In the past decade or so, systems integration has become a key factor in the operations, strategy, and competitive advantage of major corporations in a wide variety of sectors (e.g., computing, automotive, telecommunications, military systems, and aerospace). In the past, systems integration was confined to a technical, operations task. Today, systems integration is a strategic task that pervades business management not only at the technical level, but also at the management and strategic levels. This book shows how and why this new kind of systems integration has evolved into an emerging model of industrial organization whereby firms and groups of firms join together different types of knowledge, skill, and activity as well as hardware, software, and human resources to produce new products. The business of systems integration has fundamental implications for the capabilities of firms. Firms have made a transition from being vertically integrated to being the integrator of somebody else's activities. The book delves deeply into the nature, dimensions, and dynamics of the new systems integration, deploying research and analytical techniques from a wide variety of disciplines including, the theory of the firm, the history of technology, industrial organization, regional studies, strategic management, and innovation studies.