Strategic advice to leverage new technologies
Technology is at the heart of nearly every enterprise, enabling new business models and strategies, and serving as the catalyst to industry convergence. Leveraging the right technology can improve business outcomes, providing intelligence and insights that help you make more informed and accurate decisions. From finding patterns in data through data science, to curating relevant insights with data analytics, to the predictive abilities and innumerable applications of AI, to solving challenging business problems with ML, NLP, and knowledge graphs, technology has brought decision-making to a more intelligent level. Keep pace with the technology trends, opportunities, applications, and real-world use cases that will move your organization closer to its transformation and business goals.
Insight
THE BUSINESS VALUE OF A SERVICE-ORIENTED APPROACH
I was recently presenting some recommendations on architectural direction and strategy to senior staff and one of the business line managers asked a very good question: "What value does this service-oriented architecture approach give me?" Specifically, he meant business value -- or in other words, put the IT recommendations into business terms. This is always a challenge for IT, but I think I hit upon a good explanation with the following scenario.
Service-oriented architecture (SOA) has been on the IT buzzword bestsellers' list for as long as any other phrase I can remember. Over the past 10 years, there have been prominent examples of enterprises that have successfully implemented SOAs and have achieved substantial advantages, including reduced costs and improved competitiveness. Unfortunately, such examples are not commonplace because implementing a successful SOA is difficult. However, when successful, the promise and business benefits of SOA are undeniably compelling.
Most IT organizations today are struggling with the same problem: how to be more agile, responsive, and competitive. When we look at the companies that excel in these areas, we notice some similarities. First, these companies have taken an overall enterprise-wide approach to defining their business processes and the IT infrastructure needed to support them. Underlying and unifying the IT infrastructure is a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Second, these companies have implemented changes in their business and development organizations to support this new approach.
To be a great architect, you need talent. But greatness is accorded to those responsible for great architectures, those that stand out from others in the value they afford. This Executive Report explores what it takes to be a great enterprise architect as well as the exciting opportunity that architects have in shaping enterprises that stand out among the organizational landscape.
In the accompanying Executive Report , we explore what it takes to be great in the context of a historical story. It is the story of James Madison and the creation of the US Constitution. We tell this story in narrative form, giving you the opportunity to discover its lessons for yourself and providing you with a tremendous story to use as you shape how the architect's role is perceived in your organization.