Integration means the ability to communicate easily across organizations and connect the business processes of the buyer with those of the seller. If e-markets and exchanges had high levels of integration, the information systems of a company wishing to buy something would send out a request to purchase. The exchange or intermediary would determine which vendor offered the best price and the best fit with the purchaser's requirements. Then the request would be forwarded to the vendor's information systems, and all of the purchase transactions would be taken care of automatically. This vision is appealing, but it is just a vision.
Integration is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming.
It requires that trading partners coordinate their business processes and agree on what to call particular components, products, and services across the industry. Of course, technology can help with the hard work of integration. One such technology is XML, the Extensible Markup Language. It will become the primary vehicle for electronic interorganizational communication, and will ultimately lead to new worlds of information and process integration. Industry groups such as RosettaNet, an electronics industry standards group, already have made considerable progress in using XML to define information and process standards, but many participants have yet to implement the standards in their businesses.