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Novelis Inc.

Enterprise Architecture - Rationalizing an Irrational World

Does your company use just one system for all of its activities globally? In all locations? What about technologies (servers, network, etc.)? In my experience, very few companies have accomplished this, but some are certainly trying. Every global company I have worked at as the Chief Enterprise Architect (EA) has had an abundant and diverse mix of applications and technologies, often with significant overlaps in capabilities and functions. Usually, there are many explanations for this:

• We have to support different business processes in different locations,
• These are legacy acquisition applications and technologies, or
• There is no business case for changing.

EAs are uniquely qualified and have proven techniques for identifying opportunities to rationalize, consolidate, or “right size” technologies and applications. EAs find places where processes, capabilities, and data landscapes may be simplified and commonized, which:

• Leads to higher reliability of systems,
• Lower ongoing support and operations costs, and
• Ultimately driving more efficient and profitable business operations.

The first step in The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is to develop a vision for the future. Just imagine a future where you have a single application that everyone in the organization uses to perform a function and not different applications, on different technologies. Imagine all of your data in a single data repository, with all of your major data entities mastered across the enterprise. Imagine these running in your data center or cloud on a single operating system, database, and middleware. Imagine everyone getting reports and dashboards from a single source of truth that is complete, accurate, and up-to-date. Once you have a vision of where you want to go, EAs can develop a roadmap for how to get there.

At General Motors, Dana, and at Novelis, my team and I identified opportunities for decommissioning thousands of servers, shutting down and archiving tens of thousands of applications, and saving hundreds of millions of dollars. Often the “low hanging fruit” is realized via simple analysis of metrics, like cost for an application per user. Expensive applications that have few users end up with ridiculously high costs per user (as high as $1M) and when the users know what it is costing the company, they enthusiastically agree to eliminate the application or replace the application with a lower-cost alternative. Keeping old, expensive applications, often running on outdated and expensive technologies, when cheaper, faster, more user-friendly options are available, is just not rational.

With Enterprise Architecture, the future of your processes, applications, data, and technologies can be rational

Another technique to drive rationalization is to create a “Bill of IT,” which identifies a standard application for supporting each function and process, and then inventorying what application(s) are used by site and region to perform that function or process. The goal is to drive change across all sites so that everyone is using the same application. By driving to common applications, which also can drive everyone to common technology platforms for functions, the support and maintenance costs are reduced, as other platforms, databases, middleware, and commercial-off-the-shelf applications can be decommissioned.

The adoption of newer technologies, such as data lakes and Big Data (Hadoop, Teradata, etc.), Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Low Code, Mobility, and others provide more opportunities for rationalization. If everyone goes out and picks different digital technologies then you end up heading in the wrong direction. It is better to do some quick (low cost) proof-of-concept or pilot projects before committing to a new technology or application and then pick one which will meet everyone’s needs. Having a standard platform or tool is more efficient and effective to keep from having application or technology sprawl in the future.

These technology spaces are evolving quickly and while there are many promising vendors and technologies being introduced, they are not going to all survive. Care in picking the right vendors and products will be important so that you do not have multiple legacy solutions from defunct companies.

Finally, Enterprise Architecture is all about aligning the business to IT, not just from the perspective of applications, data, and technologies, but also looking at the business processes. Many companies do not have the same applications globally because their business processes are different in different locations, countries, etc. However, do they need to be different? Sometimes they do need to be different due to regulatory requirements. By removing the rationalization (or lack of) for having multiple applications and technologies, and providing the business case for commonizing more efficient processes, executive stakeholders will see the benefits and efficiencies to their processes, organizations and bottom line.

With Enterprise Architecture, the future of your processes, applications, data, and technologies can be rational.

The articles from these contributors are based on their personal expertise and viewpoints, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their employers or affiliated organizations.