The true impact of EA becomes evident when we move from description to design. To show that this is far from an academic exercise, consider what the tray discovered at the end of last year: 86% of enterprises require updates in their existing technology stack in order to establish it.
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By Matthew Grant, old writer, SAP Lean IX and SAP SIGNavio
Considered a somewhat rare and academic discipline within IT management, the architecture of the Enterprise (EA) is going through a moment.
While it may be difficult to determine exactly when this moment began (Ardo getting $ 125 million In series D funds three years ago this month would be a candidate), things eventually received in 2023 when SAP announced his purchase of Leanix.
At that time, Ruven Morato of SAP, adapted the purchase clearly in terms of Help companies run and manage transformation. He said:
In recent years, company processes and system landscapes have become very complex. And when they needed to transform their IT system landscape, they had no visibility in it. So we started looking at how we could address the aspects related to the business transformation system more effectively. This led to the purchase of Leanix, a SAP Signavio partner for many years and an indisputable market leader inThe architecture of enterprises ROOM
After a long time, in July 2024, servicenow was renamed the “Enterprise Architecture” Portfolio Management Product, and in September 2024 Announced bizzdesignthat he was receiving two EA inheritance sellers, Mega and Software AG alphabet.
Given the amount of investment and consolidation in this former unclear niche, one might reasonably ask, “Why EA and why now?”
To answer this question, let’s take a close look at what the architecture of the enterprise is and what the architects of the enterprise do.
Enterprise architecture 101
For those whose architecture of the enterprise remains a somewhat esoteric field, the underlying problem it addresses is relatively direct.
Companydo company can be thought of as a group of business skills: things that need to be able to do to do business. Some of these skills are common in businesses – the ability to employ and pay people; ability to release bills and raise money; Ability to trade products and services.
Some, on the other hand, are unique to specific industries. Device manufacturers will depend on the business skills that Saas software manufacturers do not. (If you want a comprehensive summary of possible business skills that a company may need, you can find it here .)
You start with as-is
One can think about the architecture of enterprises such as describing and designing the complex network of technologies that support a particular set of business skills. I say “description” because most companies initially do not have an architect of the enterprise. Instead, they leave their technology landscape to grow organically. When they need something, they buy it and then work to integrate it into their existing landscape.
Finally, as a company grows, the landscape becomes as complex as an organic approach (read: coincidence, unplanned) so EA creates more problems than solves. And, as you can imagine, if the company’s growth has included joining and purchases, these composite problems. Simply consider the agony of the union of two or more thick technology.
From the description to the rationalization
The management of the architecture of intentional, intentional enterprises thus becomes an advantage. And the first step in that direction involves describing the situation as it stands today. In other words, you start by creating a technology inventory you have. A separate inventory will not tell you much, so enterprise architects compare this inventory to the company’s business skills map.
This exercise can reveal a lot about your IT landscape because it tells you, among other things, where you have more than one technology that supports a special business skill. Given that cost management is better for many CIOs and CFO, it can quickly see the benefit of simply mapping technology in business skills.
You can discover, as A SAP Leanix customer A, that your company has four salary systems (result of a series of purchases). Of course, you can’t close three three and close them. You need to understand the whole picture.
You should ask, after recommending this client’s VP, “What are the strengths and relative points of a particular application when it comes to servicing this [business] Ability? Do you like users? Do users cheat? Do they cheat it, but is the only app that can meet a special need? “
In other words, before making a change in something like your salary system, which can have widespread consequences, you need a clear overview of the impact such a change will have. Ea helps you understand that.
The architect of the future
No matter how powerful this exercise is, the true impact of EA becomes evident when we move from description to design. To show that this is far from an academic exercise, consider what Tray.ai discovered At the end of last year: 86% of enterprises require updates in their existing technology stack in order to set up agents.
Writing about these findings in Cio.comMaria Korolovstated the problem openly: “… before agents of it can integrate into a company’s infrastructure, that infrastructure must be brought to modern standards.”
Think of everything an organization will have to do to move from its current state to what reflected “modern standards”. The description and inventory of the current situation would of course be part of this. But the most important would be to set those standards. In today’s world, such standards will include prioritizing Cloud technology, approving a home -built software -oriented architecture, working with open api, etc.
Enterprise architects are in the business of both setting technology standards for business, as well as regulating the approval of new and developing technology in accordance with the standards.
Standards begin with strategy
But the definition of standards is not done in a vacuum. On the contrary, this work is guided by the strategic goals of the organization. These goals, in turn, can be seen through business skills lenses.
Specifically, the business must determine what skills it will need to realize its strategy in the future. The architect of the enterprise then begins to design the landscape of technology needed to support those new skills. Standards help lead the technology choices that business will have to do.
The challenge that many organizations face today comes down to this: a new revolutionary technology – he – appeared on stage. This technology has the potential to transform the way businesses operate. In the near deadline, he promises to increase productivity and efficiency through the automation of tedious and manual tasks.
As that agent matures, she promises to do much more. He, thanks to their adaptive, reasoning skills, will not only change the way it is done, from supporting the client to the management of the supply chain and beyond, but will also change the type of work done. In this process, it can and will transform the business at its core.
EA and transformable organization
But here is delete: most businesses are not ready to be transformed into ways they will seek. They do not have easy access to the data that it will need to give maximum impact and, moreover, their landscape is not structured in that agent can easily navigate.
That is why EA is going through a moment. At the most basic level, companies need to transform the architecture of their enterprises if they want to benefit from its revolutions. Enterprise architects are uniquely positioned to design and determine architecture companies you will need. Their understanding of the current situation also means that they can determine the course from AS-is to it. And, finally, their focus on standard means that they can create a framework to guide the evolution of the technology landscape today and in the future.