Strategic Differentiator

MANAGING THE ENTERPRISE | A CEO’S DAUNTING TASK

Defining a strategy and setting it in motion can be one of the most defining moments of a leader. Whether you sit comfortably as the industry leader or you find yourself in a competitive chase, an investment decision or implementation gone wrong can derail even the most cohesive strategy. Managing the complexities of the enterprise can be quite daunting for CEOs.

What happens when my strategies are not clear and enduring?
Where are we going and how do I make sure we get there in an operational and fiscally responsible way?
What happens when my operating model is not flexible enough to enable work to get done across the organization
What happens when my leaders are not equipped with the necessary tools, training, and technologies to help them be successful?
What happens when my operating structure is not aligned with both strategy and business model?

SOLUTION:
Leverage enterprise architecture as a strategic differentiator and enabler of stable transformation.

DIFFERENTIATOR | ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE

Enterprise architecture (EA) enables the design and implementation of the structures that link an organization’s strategy with its execution. This vital link captures the organizational strategy as blueprints that include enough guidance and detail for the various parts of the organization to execute while facilitating collaboration and innovation. Enterprise Architects use specialized practices to determine where the company is today, scenarios for where it will be tomorrow, and they provide roadmaps that lead from one stage in the journey to the next:

Long -Term: Where are we going?
The Enterprise Architect (as a strategist) provides long term stability to ensure strategies are clear:

Creating the operating model and transformation plans
Developing strategic technology plan

Near-Term: How will we make sure we stay on track?
The Enterprise Architect (as a tactician) facilitates near-term efficiency by ensuring the operating model is flexible:

Increasing executive awareness of technical and operational issues
Managing technical risk associated with new and updated technology
Determining measures for performance and responsiveness

Continuum: How do we get there in the most efficient and effective manner - without damage?
The Enterprise Architect, (fully empowered) manages the architecture and governance through operational excellence and risk mitigation:

Structuring governance, at the enterprise level
Ensuring that technical solutions align with fiduciary responsibilities

EMPOWER | YOUR ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTS

How do Enterprise Architects lead a strategy of improving business results?

Answer: By formalizing the enterprise's architecture, driving structural innovations, and overseeing investments in change! The Enterprise Architect serves as a point of differentiation and contributes to your executive team by ensuring that the organization and the operation strategies are clear and in alignment; assuring that the operating model is flexible enough for work to be done across the organization.

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTS | AT WORK FOR YOU

ALIGNING AND BALANCING THE NEEDS OF THE BUSINESS

An Enterprise Architect visualizes these impacts over time, and helps the organization retain its competitiveness in the industry. From opportunities to investments, from exploration to integration, the Enterprise Architect has unique training, acumen, and experience to guide a company through its next evolutionary steps.

Organizations that use Enterprise Architects reduce the risk of lost revenue and lost productivity when they make new investments or add new vendors.

The simple hierarchical structures that defined the last 50 years of business have given way to a mixture of complex horizontal and vertical structures, in today's competitive market. Organizations are constantly being challenged as they try to integrate these structures with the added complexities of communication and infrastructure to execute strategy.

Knowing how to address the intersection of these concerns requires specialized knowledge and experience that cannot be learned from working in line positions.

To not have an Enterprise Architect at the table is to risk ruin or losing competitive positioning.

CAEAP | ADVOCACY BODY FOR EA

The Center for the Advancement of the Enterprise Architecture Profession (CAEAP), as an advocacy body, works to establish the trust between the profession of enterprise architecture and the public it serves. It is an obligation and duty for CAEAP to build this trust through a standardized contract and set of expectations for enterprise architecture.

The trust is enabled through oaths, principles, engagement practices, and methods for determining consistency of the profession. For this to be a contract with the public there cannot be barriers to entry for participation. Membership fees, technical qualifications, or organizational membership cannot bar anyone from volunteering their time to advocacy. Furthermore, there can be no hidden or profit-driven agendas as these would serve to interfere with and potentially sever any well-earned covenant of trust.

CAEAP…

Promotes the professional status of Enterprise Architects
Works to ensure the legitimacy of the profession by distinguishing it from other professions
Represents the public face of the profession
Is charged with maintaining a consistent view towards the public, the enterprises we provide value to, and the members of our own profession

CAEAP | VISION - ADVOCATING CHANGE

CAEAP is the leading advocacy group for the enterprise architecture profession, working on behalf of the many professionals on a global scale.

Our goal is to guide the industry to a self-governed status of maturity by 2015 - moving from organized, to qualified, to self-governed which includes a measured level of maturity in three very distinct broad areas:

Standards of practice
Professional learning
Industry governance

GOALS:

Clarify in the public eye as to what a professional Enterprise Architect contributes
Ensure the public’s trust in EA as a profession
Assure the public they’re dealing with competent EA professionals
Sustainability of the profession
Brand recognition for the profession
Support professional autonomy

Consider joining CAEAP. When you become a member of the CAEAP leadership team, you not only have access to talented industry peers, who share your values, and commitment to corporate excellence but you become part of the solution.

CAEAP was founded in December of 2008 by Mark Lane and Mark Goetsch. As of the first quarter of 2010, CAEAP has over 1,500 members comprised of Enterprise Architects, Chief Enterprise Architects, and business executives across four continents.

INDUSTRY RECOGNITION
As a member of CAEAP, you will be recognized and acknowledged by colleagues and professional leaders with whom you work.
TRAINING & EDUCATION
Serving as a member can be a tremendous learning opportunity - assuming a leadership role requires one to develop a broader scope.
KNOWLEDGE SHARE
The best way to “give back to the profession” is to author articles and presentations, or to join one of the association’s existing work streams to exchange ideas, expertise, and best practices.
NETWORKING
At CAEAP, you will have access to peers with similar professional backgrounds and resources, such as our peer-reviewed journal, books, conferences, and seminars.
CAREER ADVANCEMENT
Of course, all of the above can help advance your career – sharing knowledge, accelerated learning about EA, greater visibility, networking and relationships.

EA | IN ACTION

Through professional experience, personal observation, and judgment, EA advises on investments, opportunities, and risks:

Organizational Context
Impacting the formal structure, work management practices, human resource policies, leadership, and culture

Corporate Vision
Mapping and alignment with the mission, objectives, goals, tactics, and strategies

Value Chains
Strengthening alliances, capabilities, services, and processes by determining the return on technology investments.

Plan
Rationalizing roadmap investments with respect to capabilities, resources, and competencies

Marketplace
Recognizing internal and external competitive forces that determine the product/service offerings and their relationship

Language
Defining the glossary, taxonomies, concepts, patterns, and references used to frame the organization

EA | CAPABILITIES

Business Alignment

Enables alignment with business strategic intent.

Technology Vision

Clearly defines & communicates strategic direction for technology

Transformation

Ensures technology lifecycle is managed according to future state architecture

Architecture Governance

Actively facilitates and governs change for the enterprise

Risk Management

Defines, communicates and mitigates technology and architecture risks in a timely manner

Investment Oversight

Capitalizes opportunities to maximize value of asset portfolio through innovation and rationalization

Architecture Management

Establishes, sustains, communicates and actively pursues EA concerns to achieve its objectives

Integration

Uses standardized interfaces, interoperation, information and connectivity practices

EA | DUTIES

STRATEGIC

Describes vision, principles, desired outcome, & roadmap for developing, documenting, maintaining, and using the enterprise architecture

ENTERPRISE MODELS
Produces models and other artifacts to describe / represent the enterprise and its components

ENTERPRISE ALIGNMENT
Develops transition and sequencing plans based on the as-is and to-be architectures

PERFORMANCE MEASURES
Establishes and executes a performance management / metrics program to measure its success

ENTERPRISE GOVERNANCE
Inform processes and structures implemented to direct, manage, and monitor the enterprise’s activities in pursuit of its objectives

FIDUCIARY PARTICIPATION
Performs architecture analyses to identify cost-benefits, performance issues & technology risk

INFLUENCE
Influences, and is influenced by, the enterprise’s business and investment planning processes

LEADERSHIP
Senior executives support, promote, and apply EA as a method to manage the business and the changes in that business

LEARNING
Embraces continuous learning and knowledge acquisition

EA | DUTIES

STRATEGIC
Describes vision, principles, desired outcome, & roadmap for developing, documenting, maintaining, and using the enterprise architecture