You can use the IBM® WebSphere® Cast Iron® Live functions from Websphere Cast Iron to synchonize calendars between a customer relationship management (CRM) system and a customer's calendar application. This solution guide describes the business value, integration concepts, and an overview of how to develop the synchronization process.

As more organizations transition from traditional applications to cloud-based applications, the need for solutions that integrate these two applications is increasing. For example, a company needs to synchronize calendars between its customer relationship management (CRM) system and a customer's calendar application. This way, the calendar application users can see events that were created in the CRM on the web or on their mobile device. The challenge is to accomplish the integration without embarking on a lengthy, costly, and complex project cycle that requires specialized skill sets and multiple moving parts to install and maintain.


Figure 1. Calendars that need synchronizing

IBM® WebSphere® Cast Iron® provides a solution that meets the challenge of rapidly integrating cloud applications with on-premise systems, cloud applications-to-cloud applications, and on-premise to on-premise applications. The WebSphere Cast Iron environment focuses on the business requirements, the applications, and the business user requirements, while removing the daunting complexity of integration. This guide explores a calendar synchronization scenario to demonstrate how WebSphere Cast Iron and its included cloud-based service WebSphere Cast Iron Live provide this integration.


Did you know?

Experts expect the global cloud-computing market to reach 241 billion US dollars in 2020 compared to 40.7 billion US dollars in 2010. For more information, see "Cloud Computing Market Will Top $241 Billion in 2020" at:
http://www.cloudtweaks.com/2011/04/cloud-computing-market-will-top-241-billion-in-2020


Business value

The value in integrating cloud-based calendars in general is in the time saved by eliminating the need to enter, manage, and access duplicate information between the various systems. Synchronized calendars offer the following advantages: