The way Ken Mapp sees it, there are two basic problems with integrating data. One is a technological problem, says Mapp, manager, special projects, with Grange Insurance Group of Seattle. How do you get data that is coded in different technological platforms to talk to each other? The other is more of a logic-coding problem. How do you get data that is coded using different schemes to talk to each other? he asks.

Mapp and others like him face those problems every day. Data is used throughout the enterprise, but its not always available in the format business users want. Data comes from within and from outside the enterprise, and that means different codes, platforms, and terminology. One of Mapps jobs involves combining data from several different platforms into one enterprise data warehouse. Just look at something simple like some systems use an alpha state code and some use a numeric state code, Mapp says. So how do you know that state 04 and state CA are the same state? Thats a relatively trivial example, but the problem gets to the level where it could take a half-hour or more to describe another example.

There is one simple answer to the problem, according to Aaron Zornes, senior vice president and research director for enterprise information integration at the consultancy META Group: The carrier can buy it all [software] from one vendorspend a lot of moneyor buy an integrated package. But insurers have legacy systems to deal with, so simple answers arent likely to happen, he says.