Integration Of Component-based Erp System

In 1990s, the computing mode has changed from host-centered to network-centered. This transformation resulted in dramatic increase in the function, capability, scale and complexity of application software and gave a new challenge to the interoperability between applications. Thus system integration becomes one of the most important subjects, in which the integration of different kinds of applications is more concerned than the integration of the network and hardware products from various companies. However, it is not an easy task to make software parts designed and implemented in different periods interact and cooperate with one another. Developers often find that time and money spent on interfaces is more than that spent on some specific functions. In addition, the integrated systems are not adaptive.The software component technology makes a breakthrough in the evolution of the software method. Component-based software development provides an ideal way to construct large-scale software applications. By reusing well-designed software components to construct software, the productivity of software development can be dramatically improved. Moreover, the continuous needs to upgrade and reintegrate existing software systems can be achieved by replacing some parts of the system with new components with compatible interfaces. In recent years, the emerge of several kinds of distributed object running environments, such as OMG抯 CORBA and Microsoft抯 DCOM, simplifies the development and integration of distributed applications, but they cannot do all the jobs. These platform-independent component running environments have not provided a direct way to integrate the existing software applications, namely, legacy systems into a new system and realize their interoperation between them. So further research is needed.As the most popular management idea in enterprise, ERP(Enterprise Resources Planning) has been accepted in many countries all over the world. At the same time, many software companies participate in the development of ERP system.As far as the inner characteristics of ERP and the complexity of the operation and management in enterprises are concerned, developers have to deal with many existing, heterogeneous, autonomous and distributed resources during the development of ERP system. That how to reuse the existing resources to the maximum and how to integrate them into a new system is the key of our study.慖n this paper, chapter one is a general introduction to the component technology and the current ERP integration. Chapter two proposes a distributed business component model. Business component in this model forms the basis of ERP integration. Chapter three givea a further discussion on the description and management of business component抯 interface. After a comparison between CORBA and DCOM in chapter four, we focus on CQRBA standard which is adopted in ERP integration. Chapter five analyzes three possible software parts which may be encountered during the ERP integration and presents relevant solutions for them. Adapter technology used to increase the integration flexibility is also discussed in this chapter. In chapter six, MPS, a subsystem of ERP, is chosen to illustrate its interoperation with other subsystems of ERP, the developing process of components as well as other relevant aspects during the deployment of the distributed application.