We have typically found in the acquisition process that EA is primarily a technical capability and engaged in a constrained fashion. In most firms, the EA team does not possess the necessary critical business knowledge and, therefore, is not able to contribute to the acquisition process through direct engagement. At some pioneering firms, however, the reformation of EA has explicitly aimed to build a business strategy competence in the EA team by giving enterprise architect roles the responsibility for business and operations architectures.

Enterprises are expanding their API programs to include the broader concerns of enterprise architecture. In this Advisor, we describe some next steps for evolving your API platform.

Data is not a resource. Data is the breadcrumb trail of human activities. Like a true breadcrumb trail, it indicates the activity but never fully describes it. Data doesn’t fall out of the sky like manna from heaven; it cannot be mined like cobalt, either. Data is a residue of activity, and when you think about data in this way, you can envision a data management practice where you start to fully focus on the activities that bring you value and, therefore, the data you need to collect.

Continuous disruption is going to be the new normal; you will either disrupt or be disrupted. For those that succeed in adapting to the new era and reaching beyond their current business models, digitalization brings great opportunities for business growth both within industries and across industries.

Leading organizations leverage BA not only to articulate and detail their business strategy, but also to create guidance that drives business and IT execution toward that future-state vision. Business architects can succeed only if they support BA in conjunction and in collaboration with, and maybe integrated with, other closely related disciplines, including business analysis, strategic planning, and portfolio management.

This on-demand webinar explores how enterprise architecture can not only help mitigate the challenges that arise during growth by acquisitions, but can also enable value creation. You'll explore a few case studies of Fortune 500 companies that grew through acquisition. You’ll view through the lens of both the M&A leader and the EA professional how these organizations were able to unlock value. And, you’ll discover how EA catalyzed the acquisitions these companies made.

There is a space within which we operate. There is also a time window through which we peer into the world. There may be a broader universe that contains more of space and more of time, but that would be of little concern to us because the only universe that realistically matters is the little piece of it that we have carved out for ourselves, out of the vast spaces and time horizons of the broader one. And therein lies the architect’s challenge: Where are we operating in the space-time continuum? And are we sure that this is where we would like to be? This Advisor introduces an architectural tool that helps the enterprise center itself.

Business architecture is many different things, capable of delivering many different value propositions to an organization. It is a shared enterprise business language and mental model; a macro business lens for analyzing investments, risks, opportunities, and more; a key component of end-to-end strategy execution; and an important mechanism to bridge and break down silos. Certainly, silos can be necessary for organizations to operate; however, silos can be detrimental to an organization’s success. This Executive Update explores the challenges with organizational silos and how business architecture is uniquely qualified to address them.