Essay About Ñž Improve Business Performance And Ñž Shorten Time

Uniting Business and It
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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