I is often perceived as a "silver bullet," a perception that the EAI vendors do nothing to dispel. EAI tools provide a technical framework for integration that can significantly reduce development time and create a more robust integration environment. Integration is all about the data. Understanding the required data and mapping it into the target applications is the hard task of manual analysis that is a prerequisite to integration. In this regard, EAI has no advantage over point- to-point integration. 15.1 What Connectors are Available? Determining what connectors are available is like trying to hit a continuously moving target, and can only be answered in a general way. EAI vendors' motive is to provide a portfolio of connectors that meet the largest demand for the most widely deployed applications. There is a very good chance of finding the right connector for popular horizontal packages that Chapter 6 - Integrating the OSS Platform target many industries. These horizontal packages are best typified by CRM and financial applications, e.g. Siebel, Clarify, SAP and Peoplesoft. The next tier of applications EAI vendors target is the most popular OSS packages. The billing and order management products, e.g. Portal, MetaSolv and ADC, typify these packages. Beyond them, EAI vendor support becomes patchy, particularly in the network activation and management spaces, where there are no dominant vendors. An alternative source for connectors is the OSS package vendor community. Many OSS vendors realize that customers embrace EAI and have made efforts to develop and support connectors to their packages. This approach allows the applications to connect to many other applications without undertaking individual partnerships and joint development with other vendors. Overall, the chances are good that within any given OSS environment, the EAI or the vendors will meet 50% to 75% of an IIC's connector needs. But what if there are no connectors for a particular application? The answer may be to develop the connectors in-house. 