Integrating related data from incompatible systems for enhanced business functionality

1. A method comprising:

receiving a first data set from a first external system, wherein

the first external system is configured to

use a first character set to encode the first data set,

store the first data set as encoded in the first character set, and

supply the first data set for conversion and storage in a common store

receiving second data set from a second external system, wherein

the second data set is related to the first data set

the second external system is configured to

use a second character set to encode the second data set,

store the second data set as encoded in the second character set, and

supply the second data set for conversion and storage in the common store, and

the first external system and the second external system are mutually incompatible by virtue of the first and second character sets being mutually incompatible;

converting the first data set encoded in the first character set into a converted first data set encoded in a third character set, wherein

the third character set is a superset of the first character set and the second character set,

and

the first, second, and third character sets are different from one another;

converting the second data set encoded in the second character set into a converted second data set encoded in the third character set;

integrating the converted first data set and the converted second data set into a third data set, wherein

the integrating comprises discarding redundant information; and

facilitating access to contents of the first data set and the second data set by storing the third data set in the common store.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

using the first set of data and the third set of data to effect a business process.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

generating a unified view of the first data set and the third data set.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the business process comprises order management, inventory management, product configuration, sales forecasting, and marketing management.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein the third character set is Unicode.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the first character set and the second character set are mutually exclusive character sets selected from a group consisting of U.S. ASCII, western European, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Japanese, and Chinese.

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the effecting a business process comprises

processing the third data set to produce business data, and

providing the business data to the first external system and the second external system.

8. A computing system comprising:

a processor, the processor having circuitry to execute instructions;

a communications interface coupled to the processor, wherein

the communications interface is configured to allow the processor to exchange data with a plurality of external computing systems, and

at least two of the external computing systems of the plurality are mutually incompatible by virtue of the first and second character sets being mutually incompatible;

a computer-readable storage medium, coupled to the processor, storing executable instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the computing system to perform the following:

receive a data set of a plurality of data sets from each of the plurality of external computing systems, wherein

each of the external computing systems is configured to use a corresponding character set of a plurality of character sets,

the character sets are mutually exclusive,

each corresponding character set corresponds to a one of the external computing systems,

the received data sets are related,

each of the character sets is a subset of a superset character set, and

each external computing system of the external computing systems is configured to

use the corresponding character set to encode the corresponding data set, and

store the corresponding data set as encoded in a respective one of the mutually exclusive character sets,

convert the received data sets encoded in their corresponding character sets into converted data sets encoded in the superset character set format, wherein

all character sets of the character sets and the superset character set are different from each other, and

integrate the converted data sets into an integrated data set, wherein the integrating comprises discarding redundant information; and

a common store wherein

the common store is configured to store the integrated data set that is a superset of the received data sets,

the each external computing system of the external computing systems is further configured to supply the corresponding data set for conversion and storage in the common store, and

the common store is configured to facilitate access to contents of the received data sets using the superset character set.

9. The computing system of claim 8 , wherein the received data sets, converted to the superset character set format, are used for a business process.

10. The computing system of claim 9 , wherein the executable instructions, when executed by the processor, further cause the computing system to present a unified view of the data from the received data sets.

11. The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the business process comprises order management, inventory management, product configuration, sales forecasting, and marketing management.

12. The computing system of claim 10 , wherein the superset character set is Unicode.

13. The computing system of claim 11 , wherein each of the mutually exclusive character sets are selected from the group consisting of U.S. ASCII, western European, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Japanese, and Chinese.

14. A computer-readable storage medium that provides an executable computer program, which, when executed by a computing system, causes the computing system to perform a method comprising:

receiving a first data set from a first external system, wherein

the first external system is configured to

use a first character set to encode the first data set,

store the first data set as encoded in the first character set, and

supply the first data set for conversion and storage in a common store

receiving a second data set from a second external system, wherein

the second external system is configured to

use a second character set to encode the second data set,

store the second data set as encoded in the second character set, and

supply the second data set for conversion and storage in the common store,

the second data set is related to the first data set, and

the first external system and the second external system are mutually incompatible by virtue of the first and second character sets being mutually incompatible;

converting the first data set encoded in the first character set into a converted first data set encoded in a third character set, wherein

the third character set is a superset of the first character set and the second character set, and

the first, second, and third character sets are different from one another;

converting the second data set encoded in the second character set into a converted second data set encoded in the third character set;

integrating the converted first data set and the converted second data set into a third data set, wherein

the integrating comprises discarding redundant information; and

facilitating access to contents of the first data set and the second data set by storing the third data set in the common store.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 14 , wherein the first data set and the third data set are used to effect a business process.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 further comprising:

presenting a unified view of the first data set and the third data set.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the business process comprises order management, inventory management, product configuration, sales forecasting, and marketing management.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the third character set is Unicode.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the first character set and the second character set are mutually exclusive character sets selected from the group consisting of U.S. ASCII, western European, Cyrillic, Arabic, Greek, Japanese, and Chinese.