Monday, February 7, 2011

The value of an Enterprise Architecture

The primary service offering of The Spitfire Group has always been to provide companies with a strategic roadmap for their technology that is aligned to the business strategy. In technical terms this is called Enterprise Architecture, but that buzzword is a buzzkill.

The roadmap really starts with the business strategy. Why is this useful? Well it turns out that as companies grow and mature they tend to develop a bunch of point solutions to every day problems that are often repetitive, costly and are often not aligned with the larger picture of the organization. Down the line this results in increasing silos in the organization and a divergence from the overall corporate vision. When the technology function is not viewed as strategically as, oh say corporate finance, then the operational technology solutions veer off of the corporate runway.

A strategically relevant roadmap for the technology function delivers the right functionality for the business, faster, at a lower cost, and the solutions last much longer (application lifecycle is extended). Customers, suppliers, and employees are happier and more productive and they are working in a mkore aligned manner towards delviering on the mission of the organization. Whats not to love about that?

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