Uniting Business and It

Executive Summary

Enterprises are increasing their dependence on their information

technology applications and infrastructure. As a result, the IT applications

and infrastructure are now regarded as primary business assets, and

non-IS/IT senior business leaders such as CxOs and line of business

managers are becoming involved in IT application and infrastructure

buying decisions. In many enterprises, these business managers do not

understand the technical possibilities, and the IT managers do not

understand the business goals.

The cultural divide between the business managers and IS/IT managers

causes a knowledge-gap that becomes a source of great conflict, putting

pressure on business initiatives and technical imperatives. Unfortunately,

most enterprise applications, infrastructures and information services are

not flexible enough to keep pace with the requirements of dynamic

business opportunities. In this paper,we explore new concepts,

techniques and methodologies in solution architecture used to create an

atmosphere of cooperation. Through this atmosphere of cooperation, we

unite business and IS/IT, enabling the IT applications and infrastructure

to be strategic weapons that increase business performance.

Introduction

Enterprises are increasing their dependence

on their information applications and

infrastructures to conduct core business

activities. Information applications and

infrastructures facilitate the multi-directional

collection and distribution of critical business

information. Recent research studies verify

that CxO and line-of-business managers are

now involved in making information applications

and infrastructure solution decisions.

These managers are passionate about the

business information itself, rather than the

information technology. Successful decisions

that promote opportunistic business success

involve the consideration of a wide range of

emotional, technical, organizational, financial,

workflow and sociological factors.

Essentially, each enterprise is centered on a

core of business knowledge. This core

Contents

> Executive Summary

> Introduction

> Business Initiatives and

Technical Imperative

> The Cultural Divide

> The Art of Solution

Architecture

> Summary

includes contributions from internal resources,

value chain partners, customers and markets. The

enterprise applications and infrastructure must

facilitate a global information dial tone that

enables time and location independent access to

the business information core. The art of enterprise

architecture is to unite business and IS/IT

perspectives, resulting in an alignment of business

initiatives and technical directions.

Business Initiatives and Technical Imperatives

Our surveys of enterprise business managers have

revealed this list of their top business initiatives:

• Improve business performance

• Shorten time-to-market

• Increase customer attraction, retention and intimacy

• Enable mergers & acquisitions and divestitures

• Drive new business directions

Over time, as economic conditions change, the list

has been quite constant, but the order of priority

of the initiatives has changed - during difficult

times, those requiring more capital investment fall

toward the bottom.

Our surveys of enterprise IS/IT managers have

revealed this list of their top IT imperatives:

• Always on global infrastructure

• Align with business goals and strategy

• Do more with less

Over time, as economic conditions change, this list

has also been quite constant, but the order of

priority of the imperatives has changed - during

difficult times, "Do more with less" rises to the top.

The Cultural Divide

The cultural divide between business

managers and IS/IT managers is expanded by a

lack of communication. Each side has unarticulated

wants and