Expanding our HoriZZon in 2021
2020 was a tough year. Covid-19 created a ‘perfect storm’, leaving many companies fighting an unfair fight. And we are still in the middle of it. Let 2021 be the start of a better future for all of us. Read more
Enterprise Architecture Tools
Address Regulatory Compliance Challenges in the Financial Services Industry with Enterprise Architecture
Regulatory compliance is a core business fact of life for the financial services industry today. Compliance is not only about combating financial crimes such as money laundering, fraud, and tax evasion. But also about operating in a prudent and responsible manner and being able to prove that you have the policies, procedures and processes in place to do it reliably – covering everything from capital and corporate governance to data privacy, disclosures and diversity. Compliance plays an essential role in helping to preserve the integrity and reputation of a bank.
BiZZdesign Connect Conference Links Attendees with Value
Designing Better Enterprises – Yes, Please!
The 2020 BiZZdesign Connect Conference has concluded and we’re happy to say it was a tremendous success! Our theme and proposition for you this year was Designing Better Enterprises, and apparently the rest of the world found it really relevant. So many hundreds of professionals attended the online event that took place Thursday, November 19th in order to witness the talks we had prepared! Read more
A New Home for HoriZZon
While we are navigating the “new normal”, we are trying to cope with things in the best possible way. As such, we continue to realize new product developments and improvements for our customers. Read more
An EA Response to the Pandemic, Part 1: University of Missouri
With the COVID-19 pandemic in full swing, it seems hard to imagine that so little time ago everything was business as usual. Read more
Expressing the BIAN® Reference Model for the Banking Industry in the ArchiMate® Modeling Language
Recently, the Banking Industry Architecture Network (BIAN) published version 8.0 of its financial industry reference architecture (https://bian.org/servicelandscape-8-0/). This provides a comprehensive model of the business capabilities, business scenarios, service domains and business objects used in banking and other financial services. Read more
The Value of Architecture Models for Agile Organizations
In the past, I have written extensively on the combination of enterprise architecture and agile development, most recently about the notion of intentional architecture. It is clear that for any organization or system of some size, a solid architecture practice is needed next to agile ways of working.
A Leading EA Tool Comes with Extras
The recent release of the annual Gartner MQ Report for Enterprise Architecture Tools provided all of us here at BiZZdesign with a very pleasant piece of news. For the fourth year in a row we were acknowledged as a Leader, and for the second time the vendor with the highest Ability to Execute score.
The Definitive EA Tool RFP Template
A Request for Proposal (or Request for Information) is a critical stage in any business transformation process. With the need to procure a professional tool onto which to anchor the enterprise architecture practice clearly identified, the next step is just as important – but not so straightforward. It is at this junction point that one must ask themselves – How do we identify the best offer out there? What should/shouldn’t we prioritize? And is it possible to make it more difficult for ourselves, or perhaps even endanger the transformation initiative through our own fault?
Cloud Migration with the Help of EA
A great many organizations have migrated their workloads (databases, back office systems, web applications etc.) to the cloud over the last decade or so. A great many more have still to do so, either because they’re dealing with industry-specific regulatory requirements or, more likely, because of the disruption this change would cause. In any case, the benefits of a cloud migration are well-known at this point, so we won’t waste time talking about those.
Business Friendly Dashboards
One of the biggest challenges in making Enterprise Architecture successful is ensuring proper communication with business stakeholders. Enterprise Architecture is quite often perceived as a discipline of the IT organization (where unfortunately also many EA teams are operating), and the traditional EA diagrams are not always the best visualizations for business stakeholders. To create better alignment with the business organization, it is important to create business-friendly visualizations, both from format and content perspective. This will help in improving the maturity of your EA practice and establish it as an enabler of strategic decision making and continuous change.
An Overview of the Levels of Abstraction in Enterprise Architecture
Organizations today are faced with an ever-increasing speed of change. To enable faster transformation, they implement agile methods, which impact the whole enterprise. Obviously, change need to be communicated, but one cannot document all the details because otherwise they would be outdated the next week, or perhaps the very next day. Read more
Why a CMDB Cannot Power Your Digital Transformation
“Do I need an EA tool to deliver digital transformation, or can I just rely on a CMDB?”. Or, in the same vein “What is the difference between an EA tool and a CMDB?”. And “Why buy an EA tool if I have a CMDB?”.
EA and Security
How can Enterprise Architecture help your organization become more secure, reliable, and compliant? Read more
Finding and Unlocking Business Value
Decision making
Whatever your role, wherever you are, you are measured by the value that you bring. People interact with you because they derive some value from that interaction. That could be political, social, economic, intellectual or technical. To maximize your value, you need to understand how that interaction is measured.
EA and CX
The intersect between Customer Experience Design and Enterprise Architecture is an interesting development in the world of business transformation. To help our customers get a better understanding of this subject, we asked Marc Lankhorst, Managing Consultant and Chief Technology Evangelist here at BiZZdesign, to share his thoughts on this with us.
When “Data-Driven” Is Not Enough
An enterprise architect friend of mine recently posed an interesting question: “I lead a relatively mature EA practice that delivers good value to our organization. We are digitally transforming the organization and adopting agile ways of working across the enterprise, which is improving our outcomes for individual initiatives. But I am worried these efforts are sometimes wasted on delivering capabilities managers tell us are important, rather than the ones that are truly game-changing. How do I get in front of this, and help lead us to the right strategic outcomes?”
The 5 Best Pieces of Career Advice for Enterprise Architects
A while back we put out a post meant to give enterprise architects a hand with successfully passing a job interview. In a similar vein, today we’re offering architecture practitioners some great pieces of advice that we’ve come by after consulting with some of the more experienced members of the BiZZdesign team, people who have counseled countless EA practices and successfully carried out a wide range of business change initiatives. Read more
Architecture and Talent: a Path to Fostering the Right Skills and Expertise
Talent is rare
Well, the right talent is, anyway. As new technologies make their way into the marketplace and their adoption becomes generalized, organizations are experiencing a personnel squeeze that poses a risk to both ongoing operations as well future plans. The newer (and more sophisticated) a technology, the scarcer the talent to support it, and ultimately the more difficult it is for an enterprise to ensure it doesn’t miss out in favor of the competition.
How to Get AI Right Using Enterprise Architecture
Artificial intelligence (AI) is probably the most important new technology today. It has clear use cases, and the value that it’s produced so far is indisputable – just think of the digital assistant on your phone, driverless cars, even Gmail uses it. But it’s no longer the sole remit of huge tech companies. With AI becoming more established, many organizations are starting to get access to and try their hand at running artificial intelligence initiatives. The business world is after all similar to an arms race, and having the latest ‘weapon’ to help you get ahead of competitors is an irresistible prospect. The forecast? A large wave of new AI deployments in the near future… and with it, a lot of heartache.