Systems Design & Integration (SDI)

In systems engineering, system lifecycle is the course of developmental changes through which a system passes from its conception to the termination of its use and subsequent salvage.

For example, a system lifecycle might include the phases and activities associated with the analysis, acquisition, design, development, test, integration, operation, maintenance, and modification of the system.

A system integrator is a person or company that specializes in integrating systems. System integrators may work in many fields but the term is generally used in the information technology (IT) field, the defense industry, or in media.

In IT, system integrators integrate multiple systems for inputting, processing, interpreting, storing, and categorizing data. For example, a system integrator may build an IT solution integrating an Oracle based inventory tracking system, a document management system, a Microsoft CRM system, a group of Panasonic scanners, and a image storage system to produce an overall solution for the customer.

System integrators also play many roles in media and the defense industry.

System integrator may also be considered an informal career path in IT. System integrators generally have to be good at matching customers needs with existing products. An inductive reasoning aptitude is useful for quickly understanding how to operate a system or a GUI. A system integrator will tend to benefit from being a generalist, knowing a little bit about a large number of products. System integration includes a substantial amount of diagnostic and troubleshooting work. The ability to research existing products and software components is also helpful.

In the Defense Industry the job of 'System Integration' engineer is growing in importance as defense systems become more 'connected'. As well as integrating new systems the task of integrating current systems is attracting a lot of research and effort. It is only in recent years that systems have started to be deployed that can interconnect with each other, most systems were designed as 'stovepipe' designs with no thought to future connectivity.

The problem is now to harness all the information available, from the various information generators (or sensors) into one complete picture.

As well as the design of the actual interfaces much effort is being put into presenting the information in a useful manner. The level of information, needed by the different levels in the military structure, and the relevance of the information (information can become outdated in seconds) is so variable that it may be necessary to have more than one system then connect these together.

Another problem is how information is networked, the Internet may seem an obvious solution but it is vulnerable to denial of service and physical destruction of the key 'hubs'. The obvious answer is to use a dedicated military communication system but the bandwidth needed would be astronomical.

It does not seem like the problem will be resolved to any great degree in the near future.

Advantages

• Real time information access among systems
• Streamlines business processes and helps raise organizational efficiency.
• Maintains information integrity across multiple systems

Disadvantages

• Prohibitively high development costs, especially for SMBs.
• EAI implementations are very time consuming, and need a lot of resources.
• Require a fair amount of up front design, which many managers are not able to envision or not willing to invest in. Most EAI projects usually start off as point-to-point efforts, very soon becoming unmanageable as the number of applications increase.

A value-added reseller (VAR) S.E.E.D.^© Technology Center adds some feature(s) to an existing product(s), then resells it (usually to end-users) as an integrated product or complete "turn-key" solution. This practice is common in the electronics industry, where, for example, a software application might be added to existing hardware.

This value can come from professional services such as integrating, customizing, consulting, training and implementation. The value can also be added by developing a specific application for the product designed for the customer's needs which is then resold as a new package.

The term is often used in the computer industry, where a company purchases computer components and builds a fully operational Personal Computer system usually customized for a specific task such as non-linear video editing. By doing this, the company has added value above the cost of the individual computer components. Customers would purchase the system from the reseller if they lack the time or experience to assemble the system themselves.