Enterprise Architecture – Catalyst for Digital Transformation.

Today, most business organizations understand the need to leverage digital technology to boost their businesses and hence are engaged in some form of digital transformation efforts. In the process some organizations build up very complex IT systems that become cost burdens to the business. When organizations continue deploying more and more applications and upgrading existing ones to meet the increasing demands of their customers without a clear blueprint into the future, the complexity of the IT systems and the cost of running IT increases exponentially. Sometimes these do not bring commensurate business returns. This complexity of also limits such organizations ability to respond swiftly to changes in the business and technology environment.

According to a survey report by Mckinsey “When companies go all in on digitization, the number of point-to-point connections among systems rises almost 50 percent, the quality of business-process documentation deteriorates, and services get reused less often”

 To avoid the above pitfall of digital transformations, organizations planning or undergoing digital transformation needs to have a central framework that establishes guideline around technology usage to ensure consistency across business and IT functions. This can be achieved by developing an Enterprise Architecture.

A well developed and governed enterprise architecture supports digital transformation of businesses in the following ways;

• Enterprise Architecture establishes operating standards that reduce complexity and promote cross-functional collaboration which is critical for success of digital transformation.
• Digital transformation involves reinventing the business model with digital technology, this makes collaboration between business and IT essential for success. Enterprise architecture fosters this collaboration by aligning IT capabilities with business needs.
• In today’s digital economy, business strategy deals more and more with technology, the Enterprise Architects supports digital transformation by contributing to business strategy discussions. In doing so he helps business executives rightly apply digital technology in their business models.
• Enterprise Architecture creates a balance between meeting the day to day business needs and the future plans of an organization. This is achieved by defining the current state and future state of an enterprise and following a migration plan to achieve the desired business outcome.
• Enterprise architecture provides opportunities for fast integration and rapid scaling which is a catalyst for digital transformation.
• Digital transformation succeeds when IT priorities are aligned with business outcomes, EA supports this by mapping IT functions to business needs.
• Enterprise architecture provides a template and coordinated approach for responding to changes in the rapidly changing business environment. This makes decision taking faster and shortens time to market hence accelerating digital transformation.

 So If you planning or already engaged in digital transformation, developing the right enterprise architecture is critical to create that IT system that is robust enough to meet your immediate needs and yet flexible to swiftly leverage technological advancements to disrupt the business environment and position you ahead of your competitors.