Relationship Management: Adding Value By Integrating Multiple Systems

What is integration?

The first issue discussed at length was the definition of integration. Thomas Nordby of NDIA raised the point that "fully integrated" to me may mean something entirely different to others.

The panel provided their insight and as moderator, I added that I believe integration is acheived when redundant data entry is eliminated, whether by the staff or by the member/customer. So some examples of integration include:

1. moving summary financial data from the AMS to the financial management system without re-keying.
2. setting up meetings and registration information in the AMS and having that information appear on the website without any additional data manipulation
3. allowing members to login to your website once without having to relogin in other areas of the site that may be managed by third parties.

How does your organization define integration? And how far should we go with integration? Where is the "tipping point" for too much effort without enough return?