Enterprise Architecture
The business environment of your enterprise is ever more volatile. To keep up, you need to make better decisions faster and improve the way you change. But how do you get all the necessary supporting capabilities and data in place to do this?
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We all know that using up-to-date and correct data is crucial to support informed decisions. This is why we are introducing Data Policies in HoriZZon to make it easier for you to carefully delegate responsibilities across your organization. This move will ensure high data quality, as well as support the creation and consumption of trusted analytics. Read more
A curious case of distrust
Year after year, the field of enterprise architecture becomes more in tune with the evolving needs of organizations. Better connected to other change domains, more capable of delivering added value during an increasing list of business change scenarios, and so on. You can check all this out by looking at the way EA tools evolve their capabilities, or the sort of projects they take on. Read more
Internal regulations governance has become more and more critical both because of exogenous pressures (e.g. an ever-changing legislative environment, increased scrutiny from regulatory institutions) as well as endogenous ones (e.g. frequent organizational changes and corporate acquisitions). A company’s own regulatory framework consists of various sorts of documents. Some have merely an informative purpose, others regulate operational activities, while others still focus on the internal control system. Read more
At the start of a new year, everyone comes up with their predictions for the future. However, as we have learned last year, all these forecasts can easily be upended. There appears to be light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel with vaccination rollouts starting, but new variants of the virus could have nasty surprises in store. Who knows what’s going to happen? It’s like predicting the price of Bitcoin. You might strike it rich or you might lose your shirt. Read more
We’ve stepped into 2021 and it seems like the worst is behind us. Yes, in some regions a new, more dangerous strain of the virus has been detected, but overall it seems reasonable to expect things to get better as we move on. After all, a number of vaccines are expected to be released and also most countries have begun prioritized vaccinations already. Read more
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
The Payment Directive Services (PSD2) regulation in Europe aims to foster innovation and competition among financial institutions across the industry by mandating that banks create APIs for digital banking transactions that can be used by value-added innovative service providers. Additionally, PSD2 aims to prevent customer lock-in by standardizing account switching capabilities, and to streamline payment processing. Read more
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.
On a recent episode of the BiZZdesign EA Podcast, where we had an invitee from Thames Water, an interesting point was made that enterprise architecture can effectively enable companies to predict the future. I found it quite relevant in our fast–moving world. Nowadays businesses are competing more aggressively than ever, and the marketplace is constantly presenting organizations with new challenges. The result is that they need to operate with a keen eye on the future. Read more
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
As I discussed in my previous blog and earlier, the capability concept is a great help in defining a good business architecture. It is used ever more widely and rightly so. As I mentioned in that blog, the concept itself is rooted in the defense domain, and from there it permeated various other domains. To quote again from the NATO Architecture Framework: “A capability is the ability to achieve a desired effect under specified standards and conditions. […] In NAF, the term is reserved for the specification of an ability to achieve an outcome. In that sense, it is dispositional – i.e. resources may possess a Capability even if they have never manifested that capability.” Read more
In this recent video, I outlined why enterprise architecture is an essential instrument in improving the capabilities of your organization. The notions of capability and capability-based planning have become quite popular and important in enterprise and business architecture in recent years. But there is also some confusion around this concept, in particular for those who are familiar with the similar concept of business function. In this blog, I want to clarify some of this confusion. Read more
Business capabilities are stable building blocks that define what an organization does. They encompass elements such as people, processes and systems that come together to realize specific functions. Due to their relatively lasting nature and the way they consolidate various cross-domain components, capabilities are a very useful tool for facilitating dialogue between stakeholders on the business and IT sides of the organization. Specifically, by managing and planning the way these capabilities and their constituents interact with strategy, with technology components etc. organizations can better navigate the complexity inherent in any large enterprise’s business-IT landscape. Read more
Even when an Enterprise Architecture practice is present in an organization, it is most often understood to be either strictly preoccupied with the management of IT, or at most with the management of business and IT together, but on a horizontal level. The truth is, however, that mature EA is not only capable but also expected to deliver a vertical line of sights between strategy to execution. This, by definition, entails giving guidance on the direction of investments and the orientation of change programs/projects. Read more
Planning and executing change is a key capability for organizations in this day and age. However, in order to do this successfully, businesses – especially large ones – must overcome the heavy burden of complexity that generally adds up as the organization scales up its operations. Complexity often means that an enterprise has little visibility into the full range of consequences for any proposed change or investment. Read more
Perhaps it’s in the name – enterprise architecture. Maybe that’s what prevents business stakeholders from engaging in a more meaningful way with the EA team. Architecture summons images of systems design, technology infrastructure, software development – IT, in other words, and that spells techie guys in the basement. “Definitely not what we’re interested in”, the verdict probably goes. It’s quite possible that’s at least part of the problem. Read more
As the Vice President of Customer Value here at BiZZdesign, it’s my job to work with a great many organizations and identify ways for them to successfully achieve their objectives. This means I deal with big enterprises, small enterprises; companies that have a mature EA practice, or are only just now starting out; from retail to tech, and everything in between. Read more
The past few months have presented both challenge and opportunity for all organizations. The problems are immediate; businesses face financial pressures to sustain an existing cost base in a context of reduced staff availability and reduced revenue. Given the changing social dynamics, the opportunities are numerous. Read more
I was recently invited onto the BiZZdesign Enterprise Architecture Podcast to discuss the journey of organizational change at the Royal Bank of Scotland, an initiative in which I’ve played an active role – and still do, in fact. I think it was a good talk and I encourage you to give it a listen if you can spare a few minutes. Read more