For many companies, virtually every signicant change to

their business has an equivalent impact on their technology

infrastructure. For the business to roll with the punches
and come out on top, the IT organization has to be ready
to respond in like fashion, just as quickly. But in practice,
the hurdles standing in the way of this type of fast action
can seem insurmountable. Many IT infrastructures are
set up without a common language in place that cuts
across different enterprises, making it difcult for strategic
decisions to be effectively translated into the organizations
technology foundation. Thats where enterprise
architecture (EA) can make a difference.
Speaking the same language
For technology leaders who have been around long
enough, it usually doesnt come as a surprise to them
that their systems and infrastructure arent operating in
an aligned fashion. Thats just what happens in a mature
organization, where new companies and technology
portfolios are routinely acquired, shifts in business strategy
change technology goals, and islands of sophistication
emerge as leaders push their teams to new heights.
Although these are mostly positive changes, they can have
a devastating cumulative impact if theyre not managed
properly. The real question is often when to take
action and how.
Enterprise architecture is the practice of creating a
technology structure that brings an organizations processes,
information systems, personnel and discrete operating
units into tight alignment to support its core goals and
strategies no matter what twists and turns they make.
While it involves a heavy technological component, its
multidisciplinary, linking together business managers,
technology managers and technology implementers.
A technology-focused approach isnt enough.
How we can help
Effective enterprise architecture encompasses both
business and technology, so it requires a broad range
of experience, knowledge and skills in everything from
strategy and operations to technology integration,
security and human capital. Deloitte has access to a full
range of capabilities in consulting, tax, audit and nance
worldwide. This broad range of capabilities allows us to
provide services to assist with any enterprise architecture
challenge, including:
Business strategy
Business process reengineering
Technology architecture
Change management
Bottom-line benets
Facilitate complex program execution
Enhance business participation and ownership of IT
initiatives
Link corporate strategy evolution with IT
Provide a clear communication mechanism between
business and technology
Reduce costs of platform support and integration
Ease the challenges of integrating acquisitions
Six ways to get more value now
Enterprise architecture can help you make better business
and technology decisions and deliver solutions and services
that fully align with your companys strategic business
needs. But getting there isnt easy. Here are some lessons
weve learned that can help you develop and maintain an
effective enterprise architecture:
Enterprise Architecture
Lost in translation
Start with business strategy. An effective enterprise
architecture requires a deep analysis of your companys
business strategy and operating model and the business
and IT capabilities necessary to support them. It also
requires strong commitment and leadership from both the
business and IT. Enterprise architecture initiatives that only
focus on technology are likely positioning themselves for
failure.
Capture value through improved business
execution. A key goal for Enterprise architecture is to
help you improve efciency by linking your business and IT
strategies and pulling together the technology capabilities
to support value creation. An effective enterprise
architecture can help you drive out inefciencies through
the creation of a reference point for measuring investment
value, and the transfer of spending from tactical areas to
strategic areas.
Know where you are and where youre going.
Enterprise architecture capabilities vary widely from one
organization to the next. Thats why its important to
honestly assess the maturity of your existing Enterprise
architecture capabilities. A maturity model can help you
understand where you are and where you want to go.
That big picture perspective is a key to success, particularly
for multi-year Enterprise architecture initiatives. One good
test is to understand how much inuence Enterprise
architecture currently has with your business and IT
organizations. If the answer is not much, you know you
have some work to do.
Dont forget about people. Having people with the
right skills and experience is critical to success. Thats true
both for enterprise architecture and for the business as a
whole. An effective Enterprise architecture effort can help
you identify the kinds of talent that the business will need
in order to achieve its strategic objectives. It can also help
you identify the type of talent required to develop and
maintain the enterprise architecture on an ongoing basis.
Actively manage change. An organizations culture
has a big impact on enterprise architecture adoption and
maturity. An effective assessment will focus extra attention
on organizational awareness, acceptance, adoption and
competencies. The goal is to make Enterprise architecture
part of your organizations basic operating model.
Be practical. Although enterprise architecture seems
like a complex concept, it should not be treated as an
ivory tower exercise. A useful Enterprise architecture
framework will provide real examples of how to achieve
the desired capabilities. Similarly, architecture standards and
governance models should be practical and tailored to t
your particular situation. Avoid copying a framework and
blindly following it.
Enterprise Architecture in action
After decades of quick xes, point solutions, and
homegrown workarounds, one of the largest rail freight
operators in North America was left with a technology
infrastructure that was loaded with risks and growing
prohibitively expensive. We helped the company
modernize its IT systems, starting from a business
transformation perspective that used enterprise
architecture to set the strategic direction of its IT
resources. The initiative was then divided into multiple
work threads strategy and governance, portfolio and
nancial, and architecture. We helped dene a ve
year vision for IT and created an extensive roadmap for
getting there, including a new enterprise architecture.
Today, this high-level IT roadmap guides technology
initiatives for the company. Business needs are built into
IT projects as a normal part of doing business, from
operations and infrastructure projects to systems,
information, security and integration architecture.
A leading logistics and transportation company needed
to reduce system and support costs for its Human
Resources (HR) back ofce function. With more than
300 HR systems in use by the company, and with a plan
to make the transition within three to ve years, the
company needed a careful accounting of which
individual technologies and functions would have to be
addressed in order to keep risk at a minimum during
the transformation. Dependencies, resources and timing
would also have to be clearly identied before the
transformation got underway. We helped the company
develop an enterprise architecture-driven business
transformation plan including a timeline, stafng model
and identication of potential risk areas. In the end,
our program roadmap and strategic plan helped this
client reduce costs and redundancies in HR systems by
standardizing common processes across its operating
companies. With this project, the company was able to
simplify and streamline the application landscape and
reduce infrastructure costs by having different operating
companies adopt global HR solutions.
Related insight
Does Cloud Computing Make Enterprise Architecture
Irrelevant?
Related offerings
Data Center and Infrastructure Optimization
IT Service Management
IT Strategy and Effectiveness
For additional information
http://www.deloitte.com/us/enterprisearchitecture
Contact
Scott Rosenberger
Principal
Deloitte Consulting LLP
srosenberger@deloitte.com
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