IT Enterprise Architecture

Business Problem:

A medium-sized product development firm with a heavily customized older ERP system chartered a large project to move to a new ERP platform.  This was needed to provide revenue reporting for new products that required added accounting capability.   A middleware product was determined to be the solution for data migration issues.  The mission critical project was created to migrate data, install a new ERP, and add new middleware into the current production system.  New product delivery for the company was dependent upon delivery of this project, which became stalled in a series of data management issues.

Challenges:

1. Company could not deliver new product without added reporting, and too much was riding on the project.
2. Middleware solution was architecturally sound, but sequenced migration of data, testing and tuning were essential.
3. ERP decision was solid, but additional decisions and standards were needed to ensure the new systems were deployed with the correct timing and older systems were “grandfathered” and turned off.
4. A sequenced plan was needed to migrate to the new systems.

Results:

1. New product was isolated from the new ERP system and reporting was handled in another manner for the interim.
2. Data and message analysis was undertaken of entire legacy ERP, and an Enterprise Architecture created.
3. A multi-phase conversion and migration plan established - with no system changes or new functionality installed during the migrations.  
4. Organization is one year into successful multi-year phased plan.
5. Enterprise Architecture document used as ongoing standard framework for solutions architects designing changes. 

Improvement Process:

1. Assessed existing ERP strategy and implementation plan, concurred.
2. Completed comprehensive system and development team organizational assessment to identify legacy databases and systems in place, staffing required and risk factors.
3. Interviewed clients and business-facing IT Strategists for direction and priorities.   
4. Recommended Governance Board to oversee Program Management and priorities and manage user expectations
5. Recommended organization changes to align like functional systems and developers
6. Coached architects and business analysts in creating of multi-year roadmap for migration of systems and in creating a governance team

Business Problem:

As a result of recent mergers and acquisitions, a high technology client found itself with multiple CRM, ERP and reporting systems of varying degrees of complexity and age.  They implemented a business-facing team of IT Strategists to work close to the functional business units to plan for new systems and simplified business processes, but the IT team working behind the scenes was too fragmented to be able to provide basic services – and overwhelmed by the creative solutions that were being proposed. 

Challenges:

1. Company could  not pull timely and consistent reports due to disparate data sources
2. Centralized ERP decision had been made with no migration strategy to move from antiquated existing systems and data stores 
3. Multiple systems were supporting similar functions, like Marketing, completely differently, so business processes were unnecessarily complex
4. Company was growing rapidly in some areas and information technology group was under considerable pressure to scale systems to support the business
5. Cost containment was critical and the cost of maintaining separate systems was escalating
6. Several older systems were on unsupported levels with outmoded databases and hardware.

Results:

1. Organizational recommendations were made: re-align the IT department to manage client functions in focused groupings.  Business analyst and solutions architect support was strategically places and augmented by consultants where needed.
2. Groups were tasked with rationalizing business processes and data needs and developing plans and priorities to move application areas to ERP or related adjunct systems
3. Plans were prioritized based upon system prerequisites and business need
4. Corporation is in year 2 of a 5 year plan and on track  

Improvement Process:

1. Assessed existing ERP strategy and implementation plan, concurred.
2. Completed comprehensive system and development team organizational assessment to identify legacy databases and systems in place, staffing required and risk factors.
3. Interviewed clients and business-facing IT Strategists for direction and priorities.    
4. Recommended Governance Board to oversee Program Management and priorities and manage user expectations
5. Recommended organization changes to align like functional systems and developers
6. Coached architects and business analysts in creating of multi-year roadmap for migration of systems.  

Business Problem:

A hardware and technology firm had one document management, two content management, and three collaboration systems installed, plus an active system of file server storage and millions of pages of content on an intra and internet.  There were major problems finding and updating anything.

Challenges:

1. It department installed overly complex content management system that very few people could use.
2. Same product was also inefficiently deployed as a document management system.
3. Three different collaboration systems were trialed, one by IT and the other two by local departments in the organization, and were still installed.
4. Proprietary translation software was positioned in front of content served from an overseas installation.  
5. Money ran out after the first phase of a $4M Intranet rewrite project when just the “look and feel” had been done by no major content migrated.

Results:

1. Installing a major search tool allowed users to quickly find “lost” content.  The tool was used to access and clean up old media on the Intranet and help with migration.
2. Creating a basic Information Architecture set the stage for new media storage and simplified content management for new releases. 
3. Use cases for major collaboration tasks permitted the creating of some common structures and rules regarding set-up of collaboration tools.  Usability improved and one of the systems was retired.
4. The translation software company went out of business and saved everyone a lot of trouble.

Improvement Process:

• Identified from the phase I Intranet project the Information Architecture and basic site design.  Mandated its implementation going forward.
• Created simple use cases for collaboration.
• Eliminated one content system and migrated/archived data from the retired one.
• Installed search appliance and used search as a way to find and archive or migrate content.

Download the full overview of our IT Enterprise Architecture program.