Trends in Enterprise Architecture (Part 2) – the impact of digital transformation
Part two of a four part series discussing Enterprise Architecture frameworks. Part two looks at changes in Enterprise Architecture tools and thinking, and how this will evolve.
Enterprise Architecture (EA) has played an important part in helping businesses adapt to change during Covid-19, and will continue to do so post-pandemic. It provides businesses with a path to drive change through every phase of recovery by allowing an understanding of technology assets and business needs.
But what changes have occurred in Enterprise Architecture that look set to continue throughout this year and beyond?
Digital Transformation as a driver of EA
Nearly all organisations have had to transform digitally as a result of the pandemic. Covid-19 has had a huge impact on consumer behaviours, and many of these changes will be here to stay. This demand for digital transformation is a key driving force in modern enterprise architecture.
Customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools have evolved to cover new use cases based on customer and financial data. This has contributed to a shift away from purely IT-based enterprise architecture to a demand for business-oriented EA, focusing on how EA can provide real value to the business in terms of data governance, compliance, and customer journey.
Data-driven business models and ecosystems provide companies with the foundations for new, more innovative products and services. It’s crucial for companies to ensure the experience they offer their customers is agile and transparent, and by collaborating with product teams and stakeholders to model and map the customer journey, enterprise architects can consolidate data to ascertain where the customer experience (CX) can be improved through technology or process changes.
As a result, the importance of the enterprise architect’s role is now much more widely recognised in business, with these individuals playing a transformational role within organisations.
The Future of Enterprise Architecture
The EA market is growing, meaning increased competition in the sector. Increased investment in EA research and development will mean that there will be many new offerings for the EA initiatives of businesses. It’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to develop their business ecosystem with EA at its core, and as businesses become more agile, enterprise architecture is having to react similarly.
In line with other digital transformation trends, EA tools will need to be chiefly data focused and driven, and include emerging and intelligent technology such as AI, advanced analytics, and automation. Multi-cloud is becoming increasingly important in EA strategy too, as a result of business requests to serve the global market - particularly following Brexit for UK businesses.
Despite this, they will still need to stay true to the traditional EA approaches, having the required agility and functionality to integrate with and improve on existing models of business operations.
The pandemic has given us a glimpse into the future - where digital capability is a necessity in business. The forced transformation has removed many previous ‘barriers’ to change and experimentation, with organisations having to adapt and pivot in previously unheard-of ways.
In turn, this has rapidly accelerated the use and adoption of EA, which has provided a lifeline of sorts to many organisations to survive the fallout of the pandemic as they take advantage of the benefits of enterprise architecture to stay agile and resilient as they rapidly transform digitally.
Join me for part three of this series, discussing examples of how Enterprise Architecture has played a key role in business transformation.
Did you know that at Monro Consulting we offer an Enterprise Architecture service? Please do get in touch if you’d like to find out more, even if it’s just for a chat about the options on offer to you.