Scribe 7.0 Released
Having worked on a number of data and application integration projects over the years, a fairly predictable trend has emerged: more complex requirements with greater detail and less effort. The release of Scribe 7.0 is another significant step forward. This version introduces a few fundamental changes that greatly expand the capabilities of the product.
What does Scribe do?
Until now, Scribe was really a source -> target tool. That is, take data from one place and update it in another. This is the core of data integration, of course, but often it doesn’t tell the whole story. For example:
A prospective client in CRM signs with you and becomes a full client. Let’s say you would want CRM to make sure your financial system automatically contains the new client information, your 3rd party marketing system should place the client on appropriate mailing lists and you would also like the client record in your reporting system, the moment the prospect is converted. At the same time, you want CRM to be aware of all these related systems so it can eventually receive financial updates, email replies from marketing efforts and such.
This scenario could be handled with previous versions of Scribe, but it would require co-ordination and essentially break down as a set of several source -> target operations. Possibly a traffic cop in the middle making sure everyone was following the rules.
In Scribe 7.0, it can be done in one step, without programming.
This type of thing, not so long ago, was prohibitively expensive to a lot of small and mid size companies. We have creatively used Scribe in similar scenarios in the past, and now the product in turn is supporting creativity and opening more possibilities.
So what is new in Scribe?
The most important pieces Scribe has added are a web services adapter (last year), added support for multiple target connections (7.0) and source data updates (7.0). In short, communicate with any database, CRM system, flat file or application that has a web interface and do it in the context of an overall business process, considering other business systems that contain related, integrated data.
What can I take away from this?
Rethink your integration projects. For that matter, rethink your integration requirements. Yesterday’s blue sky ideas may now be well within reach.