Application binding can take single user profiles into account, like role or geography. This allows a highly personalised level of integration. Meltingpoint's approach integrates functionality as well as data, representing a step change in application usability. The traditonal approach to user integration fails to deliver for a number of reasons. EAI makes data visible across applications, but doesn't move the inherent functionality of each application.
Users still have to switch between applications to do anything.
The data viewed is either not real time, or very expensive to synchronise. EAI requires large amounts of structural change to the applications and their databases. It requires middleware, which is expensive to implement. It is an enterprise wide solution, and does not take into account individual user preferences. It requires control of the physical infrastructure, which may not be available as companies move towards ASP delivered applications.