# Integration Overview ASM can facilitate the transfer of information (for the resolution of calls or the completion of tasks, for example), the management of alerts across different systems, and the population of the ASM Core CMDB with externally discovered resources. ### The Integrated Platform The ASM Integration platform is designed to enable easy integration with external applications, data sources and products in ASM. The platform provides a powerful user interface granting end-users maximum configurability of all their integrations from a single, unified administration area accessible from via the application client. The platform defines a minimal set of connector interfaces that provide the basic services that are required by each integration, which makes developing plug-in connectors much quicker. The Integration platform supports four integration scenarios. Each scenario is associated with a particular type of data. * The **Federated CMDB**, which allows you to communicate with external applications (network discovery tools or LDAP-compliant directory servers) to discover resources on these applications. Once detected, those resources can be imported into ASM as CMDB records or linked to existing CMDB records. * **Event Management**, which enables ASM to handle incoming alerts received from network monitoring tools and track the progress of these alerts through calls or requests. * **Outbound Actions**, which invoke business process, automated tasks or logging tickets with Service Desk as Outbound Actions. * **Inbound Actions**, which enables ASM to initiate items such as calls and tasks in other applications. ### Role of Connectors Communication with supported external applications is performed through a series of connectors (one per external application) supplied with ASM Core and which must be installed on the ASM Core server. Once a connector is installed, the system administrator must: * Configure sources, which are instances of the connector or external system in ASM Core * Enable and further configure each module of the **Integration Platform** * Set up the appropriate security rights for analysts to manage external resources, events and Inbound and Outbound Actions. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.alemba.com/asm-hermes/integrate/integration-overview.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.