Control and SCADA systems are designed for process control, operator interface, data collection, and reporting. Because they perform these functions well, system managers have a wealth of real-time and historical data about the process being monitored and controlled. Many control system owners find themselves carefully archiving and storing this information. More often than not, the stored information is never retrieved. Many utilities are asking how information collected by control systems can be productively used. Utilities also utilize automated mapping and facility management (AM/FM), laboratory information management systems (LIMS), maintenance management, modeling, and other software products. These applications are usually used by different groups within the utility, and are often run on a pc or workstation assigned to the group which may be isolated from computers in the rest of the utility. Managers, engineers, maintenance supervisors, and secretaries are burdened and frustrated with reading data from reports generated by applications used by other groups, and entering that data into their computers. Productive use of information collected by control systems, and sharing of data between applications are both issues of integration. This paper will consider how computer network standards have paved the way for integration, and methods for implementing integration. The paper is written from a layman's perspective, and does not assume a command of either networking or data processing.