Enterprise Architecture – Benefits

  • Environmental Factors
  • Large applications are complex and incorporate other applications & components.
  • Need for standard interfaces and products
  • We continually need to accommodate change, and a review of our infrastructure each time we need to make a change is cost and time prohibitive
  • System design modifications & upgrades now are needed on weekly or monthly schedules
  • We are finally building applications that we expect to change, and need to have a solid, well thought out foundation on which to build them

Expected Benefits

  • Improved alignment of IT solutions with business strategy
  • Greater ability to set realistic IT goals
  • Enhanced enterprise information sharing
  • Reduced software and data redundancy
  • Reduced information systems complexity
  • Greater reliability at implementations & updates
  • Reduced dependency on key resources
  • Improved accuracy in scheduling software development / implementation
  • More accurate forecasting of development and support costs
  • More efficient deployment of technology solutions
  • Increased traceability

Tangible Benefits

  • Promote better planning and decision making
  • Improve communication through standardized vocabulary
  • Views communicate complexity and facilitate management
  • Enable strategic use of emerging technologies
  • Improve consistency, accuracy, timeliness, integrity, quality, availability, access, and sharing of IT-managed information
  • Allow the Assessment of benefits, impacts, and capital investment
  • Analysis of alternatives, risks, and tradeoffs
  • Opportunities for building greater quality and flexibility
  • Achieve economies of scale by sharing services
  • Expedite integration of legacy, migration, and new systems
  • Ensure legal and regulatory compliance

The EA Provides Leverage – In Planning & Decision Making

  • Provides Continuity for short term leadership and planning
  • Allows coordination of IT changes with business initiatives
  • Provides a commonly known solution space with Business direction and strategy information
  • Provides a migration strategy to steer technology decisions
  • Provides architectural views to analyze emerging technologies – Allows IT to Consistently apply technology within its’ lifecycle
  • Ensures legal and regulatory compliance for each business decision
  • Offers Quality and flexibility application opportunities
  • Allows IT to manage change effectively
  • Models & frameworks can identify overlaps and opportunities for consolidation
  • Allows reconciliation within known boundaries where possible as change occurs

The EA Provides Leverage – In Managing Costs & Assets

  • Improved decision making tools offer more investment protection
  • Allows the Enterprise to allocate funds to replace systems & equipment before life-cycle end
  • Provides a multi-year planning and budget strategy for projects and infrastructure
  • Allows IT Management to limit resources dedicated to “Legacy” architectures; schedule their replacement with Technology refresh.
  • Provides a controlled environment for “evaluation projects”
  • Allows IT to invest in appropriate education training
  • Allows IT to seek out Economies of scale opportunities – share services, technology, apps & data

The EA Provides Leverage – In Communication

  • Provide a reliable communication infrastructure for business opportunities
  • Manage services effectively
    - know what you have
    - what you need
    - what you will need
    - who will manage
  • Benefits and methods to business communities & ways to employ modern technologies
  • Standardized vocabulary

Leverage – Utilize

  • Utilize standardized products and environments where possible
  • Use target architecture to address the need for interoperability and to standardize data interfaces
  • Evaluate business processes for redesign opportunities before automating them
  • Implement contemporary, proven technologies
  • Introduce new products through pilot projects through appropriate benefit and cost evaluation before adoption
  • Ensure H/W & S/W adheres to open stds & minimize proprietary solutions
  • Look for Data Sharing Opportunities
  • Identify reuse opportunities, components, etc. Apply existing blueprints to accelerate system design and development
  • The EA approach reduces the number of IT products, reduces system maintenance and operational costs, and simplifies staff training.
  • Leverage technology evaluations and feasibility studies; prototypes.
  • Leverage core processes and capabilities of business units.
  • Leverage back end processes – look for development in tech innovation.
  • Leverage shared capabilities in logistics, and common processes