ARCHITECTURAL SOLUTIONS FOR THE INTEGRATION OF EDMS WITH EXISTING ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

ABSTRACT

The presented study is aimed at conducting a comprehensive analysis and systematization of existing architectural approaches to the integration of EDMS with corporate applications (ERP, CRM, HRM) taking into account their domain-specific characteristics and operational requirements. The objective of the study is to examine the particularities of architectural solutions for the integration of EDMS with existing enterprise information systems. As the methodological basis a systematic review of scientific literature and a comparative analysis of classical and modern architectural styles (monolithic solutions, SOA, microservices, API-led approaches) were used. As a result, a model is proposed in which the role of the enterprise service bus (ESB) is focused on processing high-level transactions with accounting systems, the API gateway provides adaptive interaction with client and mobile interfaces, and direct connectors are intended for scenarios with extreme throughput requirements. The scientific novelty of this approach lies in the derivation of an algorithm for selecting the optimal integration pattern for each type of coupling, which opens prospects for significant performance growth, enhancement of information security and optimization of IT infrastructure TCO. The practical significance of the results is high for IT architects, project managers responsible for EDMS implementation and specialists overseeing the digital transformation of organizations.

АННОТАЦИЯ

В исследовании проводится широкий анализ и систематизация существующих архитектурных подходов к интеграции СЭД с корпоративными приложениями (ERP, CRM, HRM) с учетом их предметной области и эксплуатационных требований. Целью работы является изучение особенностей архитектурных решений для интеграции СЭД с существующими корпоративными информационными системами. В качестве методологической основы использованы: системный обзор научной литературы и сравнительный анализ классических и современных архитектурных стилей (монолитные решения, SOA, микросервисы, API-подходы). В результате предложена модель, в которой роль корпоративной сервисной шины (ESB) сосредоточена на обработке высокоуровневых транзакций с учетными системами, API-шлюз обеспечивает адаптивное взаимодействие с клиентскими и мобильными интерфейсами, а прямые коннекторы предназначены для сценариев с экстремальными требованиями к пропускной способности. Научная новизна подхода заключается в построении алгоритма выбора оптимальной схемы интеграции для каждого типа сопряжения, что открывает перспективы для существенного роста производительности, повышения информационной безопасности и оптимизации совокупной стоимости владения IT-инфраструктурой. Практическая значимость результатов высока для IT-архитекторов, руководителей проектов, ответственных за внедрение СЭД, и специалистов, курирующих цифровую трансформацию организаций.

Keywords: electronic document management system, EDMS, information systems integration, enterprise architecture, service-oriented architecture, microservices, API, enterprise service bus, digital transformation, heterogeneous systems.

Ключевые слова: система электронного документооборота, СЭД, интеграция информационных систем, корпоративная архитектура, сервисно-ориентированная архитектура, микросервисы, API, корпоративная сервисная шина, цифровая трансформация, гетерогенные системы

Introduction

Digital transformation is no longer confined to the role of a technological trend — it has become the foundation of competitiveness for modern organizations. At its core lies the abandonment of paper-based document workflows and the transition to managing corporate content on a digital platform, which is achieved through the implementation of electronic document management systems (EDMS). The relevance of this direction is illustrated by the dynamics of the global market: in 2023 its volume was estimated at 1961.30 billion US dollars, and, according to forecasts, it will grow from 2 226.0 billion US dollars in 2024 to 10 944.65 billion US dollars by 2032, demonstrating a CAGR of 22% during the forecast period [1]. Such growth is driven by the demand of businesses for accelerating approval procedures, increasing transparency and execution control, as well as ensuring legally significant exchange of documents with partners and government bodies. At the same time the implementation of EDMS in isolation rarely delivers the expected results: the maximum effect can be achieved only with deep and seamless integration of EDMS into the existing IT landscape of the enterprise, including both legacy and modern solutions — ERP, CRM, HRM, BI and other subsystems.

Despite the apparent importance of integration, its practical implementation is associated with numerous complexities, thus creating a significant research gap. A substantial proportion of studies is limited to describing the functional benefits of EDMS [2] or considering specific integration technologies (API, ESB) [3, 4], while research proposing methodologies for selecting architectural strategies that account for the nature of integrated systems, enterprise scale, and long-term digitalization objectives is lacking. Consequently, companies either rely on outdated and poorly scalable P2P connections or invest in overly complex and costly platforms without adequate returns. The absence of a systematic approach to integration architecture design leads to the creation of fragile, hard-to-maintain, and vulnerable solutions.

The aim of the research is to examine the characteristics of architectural solutions for integrating EDMS with existing enterprise information systems.

The scientific novelty of this approach lies in developing an algorithm for selecting the optimal integration pattern for each type of interface, opening opportunities for significant improvements in productivity, enhanced information security, and optimization of IT infrastructure TCO.

The hypothesis put forward suggests that none of the existing approaches (monolithic, service-oriented, microservices-based) provides universal efficiency across all EDMS integration scenarios; rather, a hybrid approach that combines elements from various architectures based on the classification of integration interaction types is optimal.

Materials and methods

In recent years, studies devoted to the integration of electronic document management systems (EDMS) with enterprise information systems can be conventionally divided into several directions. First, market analysis shows a sustained growth in the EDMS segment: the analytical report by Polaris Market Research [1] describes a sharply increasing demand for both on-premises and cloud solutions, emphasizing the benefits of a hybrid approach.

The second direction is the evolution of architectural paradigms: comparative studies of monolithic and microservice architectures demonstrate that the choice between them is determined by requirements for scalability, failure resilience and development velocity. Kamisetty A. et al. [3] conduct an experimental performance evaluation and reveal that microservices provide greater flexibility for horizontal scaling but require complex interservice interaction management. Velepucha V., Flores P. [6] formulate the fundamental principles and patterns of microservice architecture, emphasizing the necessity of using an API Gateway and distributed tracers. In turn, Söylemez M., Tekinerdogan B., Kolukısa Tarhan A. [7] systematically analyze the challenges of migrating to microservices—from organizing CI/CD to managing data and interservice transactions. To support migration decision-making, a neutrosophic ANP model is proposed by Slamaa A. A., El-Ghareeb H. A., Saleh A. A. [5], where the authors demonstrate how to formalize the selection of an architectural path based on multi-criteria analysis under uncertainty.

The third direction covers direct integration techniques. Mishra R. et al. [8] propose a three-layer architecture with an intelligent API layer to unify access to disparate modules (including EDMS), which enhances interoperability and simplifies maintenance. Pal D. K. D., Saini V., Aakula A. [9] demonstrate a concrete implementation of API-oriented data exchange between EHR and EDMS, noting reduced response times and increased transmission reliability. Ogbuefi E. et al. [12] focus on hybrid cloud infrastructures, where integration buses (ESB) and transport-layer encryption provide secure and scalable document handling in distributed environments.

The fourth direction comprises industry-specific cases. In the field of clinical documentation, Sousa A. R. et al. [2] analyze the systematization of nursing care, where EDMS serves as the core of a digital decision support platform, linking care protocols with medical records. In logistics, Di Capua M., Ciaramella A., De Prisco A. [4] integrate EDMS into the ILP 4.0 platform using computer vision and machine learning modules, enabling automatic indexing of waybills and accelerating the processing of freight documents. Alaskari O., Pinedo-Cuenca R., Ahmad M. M. [11] describe a phased ERP implementation strategy in SMEs, where, at the EDMS integration stage, an intermediate data-exchange layer via REST API is used to minimize interference with the legacy system.

Studies on security issues stand separately: Jimenez M. B. et al. [10] classify threats to SDN controllers and propose cryptographic and network measures to protect control channels, which is critical when combining EDMS with an enterprise’s software-defined network.

Despite the richness of approaches to EDMS integration (microservices, API-orientation, hybrid cloud), the literature contains a contradiction between the universality of architectural patterns and the specificity of industry requirements. Thus, migration models to microservices [5] often do not take into account regulatory and compliance constraints in healthcare and public administration [2]. The inverse problem is that industry cases are too narrow and do not provide generalized recommendations for other domains. Moreover, despite the discussion of SDN security [10], insufficient attention has been paid to methods for protecting the API gateways and ESBs through which document flow typically passes. The issues of metadata management when migrating a monolithic EDMS to a microservice environment are poorly covered: there is no unified approach to the transformation and validation of document schemas when transitioning to new transmission protocols. These gaps represent promising directions for further research.

Results and Discussion

A critical assessment of theoretical foundations and existing methods of electronic document management system integration paves the way for the development of practical solutions. Selecting an optimal architectural pattern from a range of often diametrically opposed alternatives becomes a fundamental task for organizations. Each of these alternatives is characterized by its own set of advantages and limitations, which excludes the possibility of a single universal solution. A comparative overview of the key architectural approaches to integration is presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Comparative analysis of integration architectural patterns (compiled by the author based on [4; 5;11]).

The presented data clearly demonstrate that none of the existing integration schemes is without drawbacks. The use of ESB to combine all systems without exception will lead to a disproportionate increase in costs and the formation of a monolithic intermediary layer, whereas the attempt to implement all interactions exclusively through microservices in an organization lacking a mature DevOps culture and the appropriate toolset will inevitably cause process fragmentation and a loss of manageability. Based on this analysis, it is advisable to abandon the paradigm of the only correct architectural solution in favor of an adaptive hybrid integration model.

The essence of the proposed model lies not in opposing the approaches listed above but in synergistically combining their strengths to address specific tasks within a unified enterprise architecture. The choice of the optimal integration pattern for interfacing the electronic document management system with other information subsystems should be based on a classification of the very nature of the integration interaction. Three key criteria are proposed as the basis for this classification, which for clarity will be presented in figure 1.

Figure 1. Criteria for choosing the optimal integration pattern for interfacing an electronic document management system with other information subsystems [4; 6; 7]

On the basis of these parameters all integration flows of the electronic document management system can be divided into three conditional levels, for each of which its own architectural pattern will be optimal. This concept is presented in figure 2.

Figure 2. Adaptive hybrid model of EDMS integration [3; 8; 10]

As can be seen from Figure 2, at the first level integration of the core and foundational systems is performed. At this level interfacing with key enterprise solutions—ERP, HRM and billing systems—is carried out. These interactions impose increased requirements on message reliability and guaranteed delivery, while communication volumes are moderate and the operating mode is predominantly asynchronous. In such scenarios the enterprise service bus (ESB) serves as the optimal tool, which provides:

• guaranteed message delivery through a mechanism of reliable queues;
• transformation of data formats (for example, transliteration of the ECM system’s XML model into the structure supported by ERP) [1];
• centralized monitoring of transactions and maintenance of audit logs.

This enables implementation of complex business processes such as formation of an invoice in ERP → submission for approval in the ECM system → update of document status after signature [2].

At the next, second, level integration of processes and interactions takes place. Here we are dealing with CRM systems, BPM and corporate portals, where rapid adaptability and functional scalability are important. Request intensity varies from occasional calls to regular invocations, criticality is medium, and the nature of exchange is predominantly synchronous. The optimal solution is to build an API-oriented architecture using an API gateway. The ECM system exposes standardized REST/JSON interfaces (for example, GET /documents/{id}, POST /tasks), which are proxied through the gateway. The gateway handles authentication, authorization, load management (rate limiting) and request routing, simplifying the onboarding of new consumers (including mobile clients) without modifying the system core [3; 9].

The third level covers high-performance and specialized integrations. This level encompasses scenarios involving large-volume data exchanges or requirements for near-real-time transfer. Communication intensity here is extremely high, or non-standard transfer protocols are used. General-purpose intermediaries (ESB, API gateways) often become bottlenecks under such conditions. Therefore it is advisable to employ direct connectors or message brokers (Kafka, RabbitMQ), which ensure asynchronous high-performance exchange, reducing overhead on intermediary layers. Responsibility for ensuring reliability shifts to the application components themselves, requiring more in-depth architectural design [4].

For an objective assessment of the economic return from implementing the proposed hybrid model, simulation modeling was conducted based on aggregated metrics from real implementation projects. The study compared two scenarios: a classical one, in which the ESB served as the universal integration tool for all components, and a hybrid one based on the new model.

Analysis shows that with a small number of integrated systems (two to three), cost indicators remain comparable. However, as the IT landscape becomes more complex and the number of integration points increases, the total operational costs of a monolithic ESB begin to rise exponentially—primarily due to high licensing fees, increased infrastructure requirements and change-management expenses. Meanwhile, the adaptive hybrid architecture demonstrates a more gradual TCO growth trajectory by employing lightweight and cost-effective tools (APIs, connectors) where possible, reserving the resource-intensive ESB only for truly critical scenarios.

Special attention should be paid to the security aspects of the proposed model. Segmentation of integration flows by levels allows for differentiated security policies: for external APIs (Level 2) strict rules are enforced at the API gateway—two-factor authentication, web application firewall (WAF), etc.—whereas for internal interactions via the ESB (Level 1) simpler methods based on trusted subnets may be used, substantially reducing operational overhead. This approach fully aligns with Zero Trust principles, in which trust is determined not by resource location but by the context of each individual request [10; 12].

In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the adaptive hybrid model does not claim to be an exclusive solution, but serves as a flexible framework for designing integration architectures. For its successful implementation, the enterprise IT department must possess deep understanding not only of technical aspects but also of the business processes whose automation is carried out by the ECM system. Only at the intersection of technological expertise and business analysis is it possible to create a truly effective, scalable and reliable integration infrastructure capable of forming a solid foundation for the organization’s further digital transformation.

Conclusion

In the course of the research the set objective was achieved — a comprehensive analysis, systematization and development of an architectural solution for the integration of the electronic document management system (EDMS) with existing enterprise information systems were carried out. An overview of current scientific literature and industry practices demonstrated that classical integration schemes based on the choice of a single universal pattern (whether P2P, ESB or microservices) do not meet the requirements of modern heterogeneous and rapidly evolving IT landscapes: they either give rise to fragile, poorly scalable solutions or are associated with excessive costs and high complexity.

References:

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