Enterprise Architecture may well be the highest impact concept to have emerged in the Information Technology sector in many years

Enterprise Architecture concerns the definition and description of a firm’s current and future platform with the objective of relating and aligning IT with the business strategy. It enables the firm to achieve its vision and attain its objectives, using methodologies permitting the necessary definition and description in detail and on a sound basis.

A priori, this may sound rather sophisticated, but it actually means no more than that a sound architectural basis is needed if we wish to construct a complex building. It is not just a question that the building should not “fall down”, but also that it should meet all possible needs in all areas, such as space, lighting, climate control and so on. The objective of Enterprise Architecture is, likewise, to provide detailed and rigorous planning in order to align IT with business goals and users.

The background to this situation is that technology has gradually found its way into firms in recent decades, department by department and process by process. The outcome is spaghetti-ware, the nuclei of which lie in technology silos based on differing solutions. Nevertheless, today’s businesses are supported by technology and depend on it to be competitive, and technology cannot therefore be an obstacle to the successful pursuit of a firms objectives. It must be a facilitator. This makes it necessary to create some order, by defining and describing both the current and the future platform, and commencing an implementation process that will eventually ensure the perfect alignment of technologies and the business.

Analyzing current technological needs, we find that two key issues have emerged in the business environment. On the one hand, technology has consolidated its decision-making support role and has become a pillar of the business value chain. On the other, the value chain is increasingly integrated with suppliers and partners, not to mention customers, in real time. As a result, technology must not only support the value chain, but also be capable of smooth communication with other agents outside the company itself.

Analyzing the value chain, we find that it is supported by all of a company’s processes, some of which add value while others merely support the infrastructure. It would seem reasonable to suppose that processes that do not add value and differentiation from competitors will be supported by packaged applications. Those that do add value, however, must necessarily be unique, because each company stands alone against its competitors. Assuming that the manufacture of the product or the provision of the service is supported by technology, it immediately becomes clear that technology must adapt faithfully to the unique, differential “art” employed by each company in its production process. It is in this light that custom development gains its strategic importance, ensuring that competitive advantage is maintained by providing the basic support for value processes.

These two overarching conditions (technology as process support and technology for partnership), together with the creation of value in key processes (supported by custom developments), have led to exponential growth in spaghetti-ware and technological chaos, frequently constricting the business itself and remaining wildly out of alignment with business objectives. In this light, rigorous, detailed planning is essential to ensure the alignment of IT with business objectives. To put this another way, what is needed is a sound Enterprise Architecture.

As a logical consequence of the above, the business strategy must be properly understood in order to transfer it to the Enterprise Architecture (macro vision). However, it is also important not to lose sight of the fact that the alignment sought is necessary to work on individual projects (micro vision) and provide highly specific guidelines to ensure that the execution of such projects fits perfectly with the overall architecture. EA proposes mapping, defining and standardizing technology, applications, information (data) and business processes both from an overall (macro) standpoint and at a detailed (micro) level.

Enterprise Architecture can be broken down into the four components of Enterprise Business Architecture (EBA), Enterprise Information Architecture (EIA), Enterprise Solutions/Applications Architecture (ESA) and Enterprise Technical Architecture (ETA).

• EBA - Enterprise Business Architecture. EBA defines the business in light of corporate strategy. It contains:
  • The business model and a definition of functions
  • The current and future status of business functions (and those who perform them)
  • Definition of corporate goals and objectives
  • Implementation via EIA, ESA and ETA
• EIA - Enterprise Information Architecture. EIA describes the firm’s information (data) flows.
  • It is based on the business functions defined in EBA.
  • It identifies key artifacts in business functions.
• ESA - Enterprise Solutions/Applications Architecture. ESA is the collection of information systems supporting or related with the business functions defined in EBA. It includes.
  • The inventory of current applications
  • The applications and components to be evolved
  • Migration plans
• ETA - Enterprise Technical Architecture. ETA consists of the set of information systems standards supporting EBA, EIA and ESA. It comprises the engineering guidelines for information systems in eight domains:
  • Applications
  • Data bases
  • Enterprise Systems Management
  • Information
  • Integration
  • Network and telecommunications
  • Platform
  • Security.

Benefits

The existence of an Enterprise Architecture provides clear benefits, summed up in the following three words:

• Better
  • A better business that is in alignment with information technologies, allowing the firm to perform its functions better.
• Faster
  • New functions can be incorporated simply and in an orderly fashion.
  • Synergies are created between systems. When a new function requires the use of other sub-functions, and these are already being used by other systems, they can be reused, saving time and money and avoiding problems. Including a new function in a spaghetti-ware, however, creates numerous additional restrictions, making it difficult to add new systems due to the creation of barriers.
• Cheaper
  • The cost of adding new functions is reduced because the time needed is shortened and the process is less complex.
  • End of uncontrolled lateral effects, since functions and isolated and therefore controlled.
  • The existence of planning and clear working guidelines, everybody involved is aligned and working in the same direction, generating synergies.

At Kynetia we help our clients with the planning and strategic management of their Enterprise Architecture, using working methodologies and frameworks that guarantee successful implementation based on the clients’ own definitions and market standards (e.g. TOGAF and Zachman).