Enterprise Integration Lab

The Enterprise Integration Laboratory (EIL) was founded by the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration to aid business organizations in seamlessly integrating business activities using information technology (IT). Confronted with global market demands and evolving information technologies, the EIL's mission is to develop business best practices for sharing, managing, controlling, and coordinating business data, work practices, and networks. To accomplish this goal, the EIL performs:
  • basic research to expand the fundamental knowledge related to developing complex management IS
  • applied research to examine how to align theoretical concepts with constraints of the real world
  • business outreach to aid business in applying accepted best practices
  • education to transfer best practices using state of the art techniques and methods.
Each of these areas nurtures the others. The results of the lab's basic research is intended to provide the fundamental tenets that are used to solve real business issues for the first time (applied research). Once these tenets are used and their value substantiated, they become the basis for generalized outreach projects. Outreach projects serve a broad segment of the business community and provide experiential education to students through real-world consulting assignments. To accomplish its mission, the EIL works with the business community, the College of Engineering, and the Alabama Center for Manufacturing Excellence. The lab's resources include:
  • Research and outreach funding through the National Science Foundation, and the State of Alabama of approximately $1 million annually.
  • Over $6 million of commercial software
  • A state of the art multi-media computer development and testing lab
For more information, contact:
Dr. David P. Hale , Director
The University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0226
205/348-6085
205/348-0560 (fax)