I've encountered many customers who want to use the XI (because "its an integration tool") for data synchronization(the old way interfaces used to work)between the legacy systems and R3 for example,
while i belief XI exchange data as part of a business process and synchronize master data using the MDM.
When thinking on the XI as a data synchronization tool
many problems occurs:
1.You can't always find right object on R/3.
2.When building RFC for a specific use(trying to encapsulate a lot of "own written" business logics) you have to plan and catch all your exceptions and error handle a lot of logic inside your own build RFC - you always miss something.
dealing with huge legacy files trying to break the xi-xml in the mapping to fit the target system's objects.
4.doing synchronization between sender and receiver system (two interface scenarios to be written)
5.building memory consumption BPMs in order to achieve the goal.
And many many more issues.
I was wondering what do you people think about it????
I'll appreciate your response.