Technical application integration within the utility enterprise

Enterprise application integration (EAI), and its "integration bus" approach can be adapted easily to accept technical application integration (TAI). TAI integrates specialized utility planning, engineering, and operations software applications using industry standards and not only provides measurable improvement in the technical operations, but also makes this data available to the larger EAI effort in a sound, technical vernacular. Members of the technical departments control and maintain technical data, while only members of business-oriented departments control and maintain of business data. The issue is how can data sharing be optimized while minimizing data redundancy and allowing continued use of familiar data maintenance tools.