Aggregated enterprise architecture wisdom
I would like to be the first to announce the Texas Chapter of the Association of Enterprise Architects! Myself and the rest of the the leadership have been working very hard to create this chapter. This post provides a quick…
Another perspective, similar findings:
“Companies in all industries and regions are experimenting with — and benefiting from — digital transformation. Whether it is in the way individuals work and collaborate, the way business processes are executed within and across organizational boundaries, or in the way a company understands and serves customers, digital technology provides a wealth of opportunity.”
MIT Center for Digital Business research surfaced 9 elements across three categories:
Transforming Customer Experience
Transforming Operational Processes
Transforming Business Models
For the details: The Nine Elements of Digital Transformation | MIT Sloan Management Review.
“The potential impact of digital technology varies widely by industry, but most enterprise leaders share an important challenge: how to get beyond the small share of the prize they are capturing today by looking for impact across the whole value chain.”
Source: Finding your Digital Sweet Spot, McKinsey
Related McKinsey Research: The Digital Enterprise
In the Wall Street Journal article, “The ‘Gamification’ of the Office Approaches”, Farhad Manjoo is justifiably concerned about the growing trend for managers to try to turn work into a game by simply adding points, badges and leaderboards. Manjoo observes, “Getting people to do things they don’t really want to do turns out to be […]
The post The Limits of Gamification in the Workplace appeared first on Brian Burke.
In the Wall Street Journal article, “The ‘Gamification’ of the Office Approaches”, Farhad Manjoo is justifiably concerned about the growing trend for managers to try to turn work into a game by simply adding points, badges and leaderboards. Manjoo observes, “Getting people to do things they don’t really want to do turns out to be […]
What is a vision? It’s not as esoteric as it sounds. A vision, simply put, is a picture of what success will look like at a particular time in the future. It encompasses answers to a range of questions such … Continue reading →
By Allen Brown, President and CEO, The Open Group In his 1970 bestseller, Future Shock, futurist Alvin Toffler predicted that the rate of technological change and progress was beginning to accelerate at a rate faster than what people are often … Continue reading →
In this blog I will describe how to elaborate the identified processes in order to specify the requirements. In my first blog regarding ERP implementation I presented an effective approach for ERP implementation. In my second blog I discussed the firs…
Every year Cutter compile a list of the five most intriguing articles published by their Business & Enterprise Architecture practice. I think it’s a good indication of the topics that are grabbing the top decision makers. How do they come up with this list? They chose articles that garner the most feedback from Cutter Members and…
It didn’t look like much. Not worth much, certainly. It had been a gift from a friend, a former colleague: I’d had it for years, kept it reasonably safe in an old battered ring-case, until finally it was lost somewhere.…
Organizations big and small are getting comfortable with the idea of having business applications run in the cloud. It’s now common and even standard for new software and applications to be consumed as a service. But when it comes to moving mission critical legacy apps to the cloud, a lot more is at stake. Is anyone really ready? There will be a point when this shift happens, as it is already in motion for many organizations, and business leaders need to understand the implications that come along with making the heavy decision to lighten up with cloud.
There are important questions that should be answered ahead of moving business applications and important functions to a cloud environment. Some companies choose to dive head first, making major changes without appropriate data to support the move. Others test the water and become paralyzed by the uncertainty and hesitate to move forward – A recent poll of IT professionals indicated that 19% of cloud owners take more than 12 months to plan a project. In today’s world, that is way too long by anyone’s standards.
A mature Enterprise Architecture practice that focuses on decision making in the context of company strategy and key business capabilities can predict how these areas will be impacted by change and can help eliminate the looming question marks. Business and IT professionals can make wise, informed cloud-migration decisions before it is too late to turn back, and those held back by fear can move forward with confidence.
Here are four important questions to consider when moving legacy applications that your business currently relies on to the cloud – and how EA and Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM) solutions can help provide answers as you begin your cloud journey.
1. Will this move help my business better execute against strategy?
This is a crucial step that is often overlooked due to the new and exciting draw of the cloud. Don’t be too quick to make the move just because everybody’s doing it. Take appropriate measures to ensure your business will gain value from the benefits the cloud can offer. Moving applications to the cloud should improve your ability to execute against current and future business objectives. An EPM solution can help ensure your cloud strategy is in line with corporate goals and bring your business closer to the desired outcome.
2. What business capabilities will be impacted?
A common misconception is that an app running in the cloud versus your data center will provide the exact same experience for the end user. While the functionality will strive to be similar, there will likely be business processes that need to adapt. An EPM solution can help identify these differences and illustrate how they might affect current business capabilities.
3. What information is impacted?
Will running applications in the cloud violate information management rules and regulations? Do the systems planned for migration contain confidential or sensitive information? Data and information security continues to be a big consideration for cloud initiatives. Use EPM to gain visibility and transparency over applications and information to determine the benefit of shifting from the data center and ensure cloud initiatives are in line with your information security policies.
4. What risk does this introduce to the business and how can they be mitigated?
It is unlikely that an organization will move entirely to the cloud. There will always be certain applications that are just meant to remain where they are. Often these decisions are based heavily on levels of risk. An EPM solution can weigh the risks and rewards of various cloud scenarios, ensuring you land on a cloud strategy that is optimized for your particular business needs.
When it comes to cloud, there is no need for trial and error, crossing your fingers or hesitation. The practice of Enterprise Architecture and looking at the world through the lens of Enterprise Portfolio Management is developed specifically for this type of situation. Take a holistic view of your assets, resources, data and business objectives and get the answers you need to make informed and confident decisions about your cloud strategy.
Interested in how an Enterprise Portfolio Management solution can help you determine the best route to cloud success? Download our cloud decision making mindmap below or visit http://www.troux.com/problems_we_solve/it_portfolio_management/cloud/ for additional resources.
Happy New Year! Like just about everyone else, I make personal resolutions to lose weight, eat healthier, and get in more exercise so that I can be healthy enough to chase after my kid. I think there’s an architectural equivalent … Continue reading →