Our Approach

The term Enterprise Architecture brings to mind big IT departments with massive data stores and complex systems, and there is no disputing that companies with a large IT footprint require serious attention to future systems roadmaps. IT architectural planning at the “enterprise level” is equally important for small and mid-sized companies who want to make strategic investments that meet future business needs with maintainable systems.

What situations drive the need for IT Enterprise Architectural assessment and planning?

Sometimes the catalyst is at the fundamental ERP level. Business growth or M&A mandate a choice for a more robust system or a decision between two foundation systems. The selection of a scalable ERP system that can be implemented and maintained with minimal customization is critical to business success and will be the driver for IT’s overall system roadmap. It is essential that this decision be made in the context of an overall Enterprise Architecture (EA) plan.

Often, without the EA standards, even more confusing problems and choices are confronted at the next tier - supporting applications. ERP is in place, maybe an upgrade is in order, and an IT department realizes that too many customizations were made, that corollary applications, systems and data interfaces exist and must be tested and retrofitted. What to do? Data synchronization and mastery of business critical data may be inadequate. Up or down stream timing and accuracy are unsatisfactory, reports are complex to assemble and arrive too late for business response. Middleware is suggested as a panacea, or may already be in place, and that becomes yet one more production interface to manage. Whenever possible, the right decisions must be made in advance to prevent this complexity. Where it exists and must be remedied, careful migration plans are essential for business continuity.

Confusion in just one key area can also cause an IT department to see the need for architectural simplification and centralized standards. Often this is the result of inheriting systems that users initiated. Poorly integrated CRM approaches, intra and extranets gone wild with isolated applications, content and document managements systems where nothing can be found, multiple collaboration systems – these cause business confusion and cost, and they require that IT “pull up a level,” look at the big picture, define some rules and help the business users move to more workable platforms. Having a solid architectural approach in place allows IT to assist the business when users begin to realize that ad hoc pilots and local systems have grown to the point of requiring integration and standardization.

Download the full overview of ourIT Enterprise Architecture program.