In the digital era, the role of the architect is becoming less technical, and is more closely getting aligned to business strategy. Architects are able to help the business envision its future and integrate IT into the business, providing better value for money, faster benefit realization and improved market competitiveness.
AWS & CR Empowering Digital Marketing - AKQA Customer Success StoryAmazon Web Services
The Changing Media and Technology Landscape Requires a New Kind of Agency with Innovation at its Core.
Regardt Meyer, Group Technical Director, AKQA (WPP)
The traditional approach to software and application testing is evolving. Learn how Accenture is ushering a new era of Quality Engineering
Find out more: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/technology/quality-engineering-new
Realising Digital’s Full Potential in the Value ChainCognizant
When we spoke with executives across Europe who lead digitising efforts, they described a diverse range of deployments, but digital can, and must, deliver far more than it has so far. In this ebook, we explore how businesses can explore digital's full potential across their value chain.
100 insurance companies were surveyed to understand how they view their journey to operations maturity.
Our experience indicates that operations maturity can translate into tech-savvy ways to acquire customers faster or discover new revenue growth.
This means combining data, technology, processes and people into an intelligent, data-driven— and more resilient—operating model.
Decode Digitalization for Your Discrete Manufacturing CompanyCapgemini
Realize tangible benefits in your discrete manufacturing business using digital technologies, and learn where best to apply these solutions. Hear an expert panel from Capgemini and SAP demystify key concepts and explain how to make digital digestible with the Fast Digital 4 Discrete Industries initiative by SAP and Capgemini.
AWS & CR Empowering Digital Marketing - AKQA Customer Success StoryAmazon Web Services
The Changing Media and Technology Landscape Requires a New Kind of Agency with Innovation at its Core.
Regardt Meyer, Group Technical Director, AKQA (WPP)
The traditional approach to software and application testing is evolving. Learn how Accenture is ushering a new era of Quality Engineering
Find out more: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/technology/quality-engineering-new
Realising Digital’s Full Potential in the Value ChainCognizant
When we spoke with executives across Europe who lead digitising efforts, they described a diverse range of deployments, but digital can, and must, deliver far more than it has so far. In this ebook, we explore how businesses can explore digital's full potential across their value chain.
100 insurance companies were surveyed to understand how they view their journey to operations maturity.
Our experience indicates that operations maturity can translate into tech-savvy ways to acquire customers faster or discover new revenue growth.
This means combining data, technology, processes and people into an intelligent, data-driven— and more resilient—operating model.
Decode Digitalization for Your Discrete Manufacturing CompanyCapgemini
Realize tangible benefits in your discrete manufacturing business using digital technologies, and learn where best to apply these solutions. Hear an expert panel from Capgemini and SAP demystify key concepts and explain how to make digital digestible with the Fast Digital 4 Discrete Industries initiative by SAP and Capgemini.
A Reference Architecture for Digitalization in the Pharmaceutical IndustryCapgemini
A Reference Architecture for Digitalization in the Pharmaceutical Industry - Alina Chircu, Bentley University; Levent Sözer, Capgemini Germany; Eldar Sultanow, Capgemini Germany
INFORMATIK 2017
47. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI) | 25.-29.9.2017 | Chemnitz
Workshop Enterprise Architecture Management in Forschung und Praxis
To meet today’s IT demands and your future business requirements you need to transform and innovate to create the IT environment of the future. An environment that speeds new products and services to market and enhances the way your people work together and communicate.
With Technology Transformation Services, we are a trusted partner for your transformation journey with proven service management and transformation skills from Atos and strong partnerships with leading technology suppliers.
We work with you to jointly define your future target operating model, we realize the transformation project, end-to-end, and provide you support and maintenance services, while you keep control of your operations.
More information: http://canopy-cloud.com
Making the life of patients easier in the healthcare sector thanks to digital...Jahia Solutions Group
Customer Case study: Making the life of patients easier in the healthcare sector thanks to digital, presented by Metin Ergener, DXM Solutions Lead at CapGemini for Alliance RX/Walgreens Prime (Capgemini Invent).
LLM-as-a-stack enables your business to benefit from our assemble-to-order approach comprising of an integrated mix of layers including services, processes, applications and infrastructure. This means that you can avoid the hassle of sourcing infrastructure, applications and business process services from separate service providers, and, instead, buy a fully packaged business process as a service.
Apache Hadoop Summit 2016: The Future of Apache Hadoop an Enterprise Architec...PwC
Hadoop Summit is an industry-leading Hadoop community event for business leaders and technology experts (such as architects, data scientists and Hadoop developers) to learn about the technologies and business drivers transforming data. PwC is helping organizations unlock their data possibilities to make data-driven decisions.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has transformed into a true partnership where the clients and the BPO service provider take a deeper ownership of developing, transforming and driving changes with the supporting digital application tools. What can we expect in the future and how will the industry change? How will factors such as pricing and digitalization work in the future? We will share some real-life examples: a few case studies will be presented that describes the challenges our client faced and how they were resolved through partnership with Capgemini BPO.
Profit and market value is migrating away from hardware, but few product companies are prepared and executing the required digital transformation. High tech companies need to invest in digital growth strategies, reinvigorate business models and create new revenue streams. Find out how to harness disruption to grow your business.
Return on Digital Technologies: Insights for OFES Companiesaccenture
Getting a return on digital technology investments: Insights for oil field and equipment and services (OFES) companies
Digital technologies can have a disruptive impact on the landscape of how work is done in the oil field, with the potential to redraw the value chain, deliver a step change in productivity and create new channels to market, but services and machine and equipment manufacturing companies need robust strategies to succeed.
Companies can become enamored with technological advancements, failing to consider how best to apply them toward business goals—at times spending on ventures and business models that do not deliver.
Leaders understand where and how disruptions will impact them—accurately assessing maturity and gaps in the existing digital culture—and determine which solutions are appropriate to further the overall digital vision while delivering the highest return on investment.
Implementing the smart factory: New perspectives for driving valueDeloitte United States
For manufacturers looking to implement a smart factory, considering lessons from those who have done it can provide direction forward and pave the way to greater value.
Capgemini & EMC Transform Brazilian Businesses with Next-Generation Cloud Sol...Capgemini
Brazil is going through a digital transformation. Learn about how Capgemini and EMC are partnering to deliver best-in-class, cloud-based solutions to help clients succeed.
These transformational offers such as SAP HANA aaS or ECM aaS are based on the suite of EMC’s Federation of technology including VNX, VMAX, VMware.
Presented by Gustavo Trevisan, CTO, Capgemini Brazil, at EMC World 2014.
http://www.capgemini.com/emc
We have all joined a new team, it's scary right? You feel under productivity, stressed, uncertain, to name but a few. A great team does everything to make that person comfortable and productive. The last thing you want is to lose the person you just spent months recruiting!
This talk walks through a number of tips that you can use to help a new starter settle in. Perfect for Scrum Masters and Managers alike. You can use these tips so that the next new starter quickly and smoothly becomes a productive member of the team.
A Reference Architecture for Digitalization in the Pharmaceutical IndustryCapgemini
A Reference Architecture for Digitalization in the Pharmaceutical Industry - Alina Chircu, Bentley University; Levent Sözer, Capgemini Germany; Eldar Sultanow, Capgemini Germany
INFORMATIK 2017
47. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI) | 25.-29.9.2017 | Chemnitz
Workshop Enterprise Architecture Management in Forschung und Praxis
To meet today’s IT demands and your future business requirements you need to transform and innovate to create the IT environment of the future. An environment that speeds new products and services to market and enhances the way your people work together and communicate.
With Technology Transformation Services, we are a trusted partner for your transformation journey with proven service management and transformation skills from Atos and strong partnerships with leading technology suppliers.
We work with you to jointly define your future target operating model, we realize the transformation project, end-to-end, and provide you support and maintenance services, while you keep control of your operations.
More information: http://canopy-cloud.com
Making the life of patients easier in the healthcare sector thanks to digital...Jahia Solutions Group
Customer Case study: Making the life of patients easier in the healthcare sector thanks to digital, presented by Metin Ergener, DXM Solutions Lead at CapGemini for Alliance RX/Walgreens Prime (Capgemini Invent).
LLM-as-a-stack enables your business to benefit from our assemble-to-order approach comprising of an integrated mix of layers including services, processes, applications and infrastructure. This means that you can avoid the hassle of sourcing infrastructure, applications and business process services from separate service providers, and, instead, buy a fully packaged business process as a service.
Apache Hadoop Summit 2016: The Future of Apache Hadoop an Enterprise Architec...PwC
Hadoop Summit is an industry-leading Hadoop community event for business leaders and technology experts (such as architects, data scientists and Hadoop developers) to learn about the technologies and business drivers transforming data. PwC is helping organizations unlock their data possibilities to make data-driven decisions.
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has transformed into a true partnership where the clients and the BPO service provider take a deeper ownership of developing, transforming and driving changes with the supporting digital application tools. What can we expect in the future and how will the industry change? How will factors such as pricing and digitalization work in the future? We will share some real-life examples: a few case studies will be presented that describes the challenges our client faced and how they were resolved through partnership with Capgemini BPO.
Profit and market value is migrating away from hardware, but few product companies are prepared and executing the required digital transformation. High tech companies need to invest in digital growth strategies, reinvigorate business models and create new revenue streams. Find out how to harness disruption to grow your business.
Return on Digital Technologies: Insights for OFES Companiesaccenture
Getting a return on digital technology investments: Insights for oil field and equipment and services (OFES) companies
Digital technologies can have a disruptive impact on the landscape of how work is done in the oil field, with the potential to redraw the value chain, deliver a step change in productivity and create new channels to market, but services and machine and equipment manufacturing companies need robust strategies to succeed.
Companies can become enamored with technological advancements, failing to consider how best to apply them toward business goals—at times spending on ventures and business models that do not deliver.
Leaders understand where and how disruptions will impact them—accurately assessing maturity and gaps in the existing digital culture—and determine which solutions are appropriate to further the overall digital vision while delivering the highest return on investment.
Implementing the smart factory: New perspectives for driving valueDeloitte United States
For manufacturers looking to implement a smart factory, considering lessons from those who have done it can provide direction forward and pave the way to greater value.
Capgemini & EMC Transform Brazilian Businesses with Next-Generation Cloud Sol...Capgemini
Brazil is going through a digital transformation. Learn about how Capgemini and EMC are partnering to deliver best-in-class, cloud-based solutions to help clients succeed.
These transformational offers such as SAP HANA aaS or ECM aaS are based on the suite of EMC’s Federation of technology including VNX, VMAX, VMware.
Presented by Gustavo Trevisan, CTO, Capgemini Brazil, at EMC World 2014.
http://www.capgemini.com/emc
We have all joined a new team, it's scary right? You feel under productivity, stressed, uncertain, to name but a few. A great team does everything to make that person comfortable and productive. The last thing you want is to lose the person you just spent months recruiting!
This talk walks through a number of tips that you can use to help a new starter settle in. Perfect for Scrum Masters and Managers alike. You can use these tips so that the next new starter quickly and smoothly becomes a productive member of the team.
With the pace of business as fast as it is, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Demands and deadlines stack up quickly and the way forward gets quickly obscured. It can be paralyzing.
In those moments, a new perspective can feel like a breath of fresh air, which is why we created this guidebook to help you envision clear business goals with an architected approach.
If you're interested in approaching your work with an architect mindset, reach out to us at connect@oxygenexp.com or oxygenexp.com/contact/
This deck covers the value of using Cisco Prime Collaboration to manage your collaboration environment. Discover new ways of provisioning, reporting and troubleshooting through the single-pane-of-glass that is Cisco Prime Collaboration. For more information please visit our website: http://www.cisco.com/ca/
As pervasive Collaboration Solutions explode out of the boardroom and disrupt our workspace, we are challenged to provide cost effective and scalable conferencing solutions to accommodate these unprecedented levels of continuous growth. More so, the Enterprise is equally torn between how to efficiently deliver both ad hoc and scheduled Conferencing Solutions without oversubscribing their resource base. Cloud vs On-Prem solutions are equally an important factor to consider as part of the overall design. For more information please visit our website here: http://www.cisco.com/web/CA/index.html
My Grandmother the Information Architect: The IA of Everyday LifeHallie Wilfert
Presented at 2007 IA Summit. Home organization can be used as a metaphor for the practice of information architecture. This presentation uses my grandmother and her home as lens through which we can examine this comparison.
Collaborate to Win - Why Every Company Needs a Culture of CollaborationWrike
https://www.wrike.com/blog - Collaboration is integral to a company's success and growth. And without it, there is hampered productivity and no significant innovation. Find out why collaboration should be built into your organization's DNA.
Leading Business Disruption Strategy with EA - Hugh EvansCraig Martin
A Digital disruption presentation delivered as a webinar to the Open Group by Hugh Evans - CEO of Enterprise Architects.
The world is undergoing unprecedented change, driven largely by developments in digital technologies.
Organizations must now consider how to invent new business models as well as new products and services, and they must hone their transformational capabilities to rapidly execute on these plans.
In the recently published Hype Cycle for Enterprise Architecture 2013 Gartner places disruptive forces at the center of the emerging EA mandate:
"Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a discipline for proactively and holistically leading enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing the execution of change toward desired business vision and outcomes."
"EA practitioners have the opportunity to take a quantum leap toward not only becoming integral to the business, but also leading business change."
[Source: Hype Cycle for Enterprise Architecture 2013, Gartner 2013]
Today, businesses are being forced to come to terms with their vulnerability and opportunities when it comes to disruptive innovation. Enterprise Architecture, by leveraging its emergent business architecture capabilities and its traditional technology and innovation focus, has the opportunity to fill a key void, aiding businesses to win in this new world.
This webinar will explore how EA can drive an organization’s disruptive agenda.
Digital Transformation And Enterprise ArchitectureAlan McSweeney
Digital transformation - extending and exposing business processes outside the organisation - by implementing a digital strategy – a statement about the organisation’s digital positioning, operating model, competitors and customer and collaborator needs and behaviour through the delivery of digital solutions defined in a digital architecture – a future state application, data and technology view to achieve digital operating status - is potentially (very) complex.
Digital architecture does not exist in isolation entirely separate from an organisation’s overall enterprise architecture. Digital architecture must exist within the within the wider enterprise architecture context.
Enterprise architecture provides the tools and the approaches to manage the complexity of digital transformation.
The management function that drives digital transformation needs to involve the enterprise architecture function in the design and implementation of digital strategy and organisation, process and policies and the creation of a digital architecture. Management must appreciate the technology focus and the benefits of an enterprise architecture approach.
The early involvement of enterprise architecture increases successes and reduces failures. Management must trust and involve enterprise architecture. The enterprise architecture function must accept and rise to the challenge and deliver. The enterprise architecture function must allow its value to be measured.
Structured Approach to Solution ArchitectureAlan McSweeney
The role of solution architecture is to identify answer to a business problem and set of solution options and their components. There will be many potential solutions to a problem with varying degrees of suitability to the underlying business need. Solution options are derived from a combination of Solution Architecture Dimensions/Views which describe characteristics, features, qualities, requirements and Solution Design Factors, Limitations And Boundaries which delineate limitations. Use of structured approach can assist with solution design to create consistency. The TOGAF approach to enterprise architecture can be adapted to perform some of the analysis and design for elements of Solution Architecture Dimensions/Views.
7 Steps to Transform Your Enterprise Architecture Practicepenni333
Enterprise architecture has a critical role in driving business success. But enterprise architects often find that they must create a better understanding for IT and business leaders of the function’s place in strategic planning, application rationalization, and business/IT alignment.
In this slidecast, author Beth Bacheldor explains what steps enterprise architects can take to transform their practice and give colleagues a greater appreciation of its value. The result? The business will have a greater opportunity to profit from enterprise architecture as an essential component of its operations.
Originally posted on: http://smartenterpriseexchange.com/groups/smart-architect
Aligning business and tech thru capabilities - A capstera thought paperSatyaIluri
Enterprises the world over spend billions of dollars on technology enablement of business functions. A significant portion of those dollars end up creating suboptimal solutions. Most IT project problems are rooted in ambiguous business definition, churn in requirements gathering, scope creep beyond a minimum marketable feature set, wild cost guestimations, not planning for interdependencies, and a lack of strong governance.
This Capstera white paper seeks to address some of these problems and provide a framework to minimize the challenges.
Demystifying business architecture - Presented at COJUG, August, 2019RussellCotterhehimhi
Architecture is meant to take complex things and make them simpler to understand. Simplicity is the friend of coping with change. Find out about how Business Architecture is essential in the way we thoughtfully and pragmatically help to deliver high value change across a partnership between Business and IT.
Deloitte University Press - Tech trends2016Phuong Bi
Tech Trends features perspectives from client executives, industry and academic luminaries,
and our global network of Deloitte professionals, all exploring major trends that are helping
organizations innovate in the digital era. We also examine the roadmaps and investment priorities
of start-ups, venture capitalists, and leading technology vendors.
As you read the following chapters, we challenge you to think beyond the “what” of digital
innovation—the shiny objects, applications, and capabilities—to the “so what”—how you will
harness emerging trends, innovation, and disruption to create real business value. Viewing the
horizon through this paradigm, recognize that the precision to which we’ve all become accustomed
may no longer be a given; in the age of digital innovation, we are exploring largely uncharted
territory. Moreover, any digital transformation journey should also address the more practical
realities of today—reimagining core systems, industrializing analytics capabilities, building
autonomic platforms—which are by no means trivial.
Over the next 18–24 months, the only constant may be the specter of constant change. Amid this
turmoil, organizations that can confidently and purposefully harness technology trends will find
great opportunities to refocus, to revitalize, or even to inspire. Think beyond incremental adoption
patterns. Look not only for ways to do familiar things differently, but also to do fundamentally
different things. Launch new processes, products, and services, and seek out new ways to compete.
No matter what the scope, the time for you to act is now. Build tomorrow, starting today.
The high-level goal of the digital architecture is to provide an exceptional experience. This in turn supports conversions, satisfaction, loyalty, repeat purchases and referrals. The winning business is the one who has the most exceptional experience at the right place, the right time with the most relevant message.
Leveraging Design Thinking for Value Enhancement of Digital Transformation Innomantra
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Digital Transformation has been making waves and has found widespread recognition in most industries. What started as a driver of marginal efficiency is now rapidly shifting to become an enabler of fundamental innovation and disruption within an organization. The scope and scale of digital-driven change continue to grow immensely. However, organizations are still grappling with the nuances of the journey of digital transformation implementation, its implications or its impact. Digital transformation is not about adopting technologies but having an integrated approach involving people and leadership.
This white paper presents the context of digital transformation in manufacturing organizations. It redefines the process to incorporate important aspects such as breaking the silos, rescoping the challenge/ objectives, having an iterative approach and using design thinking to better understand the value implication of such an exercise. Case studies from clients have been used to illustrate the same.
Keywords: Design Thinking, Industry 4.0, Manufacturing industries, Smart factory, Value Assessment, Digital Transformation, Value Implementation
Outcome Engineering 101: Five Guidelines to Delivering Products that Create I...Cognizant
It’s time to shift to an evolved, technology-empowered design mindset. As technology informs design, and good design arms technology to become most effective by engaging with users, the two now sit at the top of the product development pyramid to co-create success.
Similar to The New Role of the Architect - Central to growing your business in today’s digital world (20)
COVID-19 heightened chronic challenges within the global healthcare industry. It became a catalyst amid fierce competition and tight regulations for health providers and payers to focus on digital health, cybersecurity, patient data transparency, and a variety of customer-centric and operational enhancements. As a result, we found the 2022 trendline pointing to improvements in access and quality of care.
Healthcare challenges such as optimizing the cost of care while simultaneously enabling personalized interventions and consumer-friendly shoppable services are long-standing − but, historically, the industry has been slow to react.
Read our Top Trends 2022 report to examine the lingering ramifications of the pandemic, responses from medical and insurance organizations, and the worldwide impact of ever-changing regulatory standards and mandates.
A combination of factors − the pandemic, catastrophic weather events, evolving policyholder expectations, and insurers’ drive for operational efficiency and future relevance − are sparking P&C industry changes.
In a post-COVID, new-normal environment, the most strategic insurers are building resilient, crisis-proof enterprises poised to take advantage of emerging and future business opportunities. They are leveraging advanced data analytics and novel technologies to assure agility and achieve positive revenue and customer satisfaction outcomes. Competitive advantage will hinge on accelerated digitalization and faster go-to-market. Therefore, win-win partnerships and embedded services with InsurTechs and other ecosystem players are critical.
Read Capgemini’s Top P&C Insurance Trends 2022 for a glimpse at the tactical and strategic initiatives carriers are undertaking to boost customer-centricity, product agility, intelligent processes, and an open ecosystem to ensure profitable growth and future-readiness.
This analysis provides an overview of the top trends in the commercial banking sector as they shift to technology high gear to boost client efficiency and battle a volatile, uncertain, competitive, and evolving landscape.
First, it was retail banking. Now, advanced technology is shifting to – and disrupting − the commercial banking space. Many commercial banks, known for paperwork, red tape, and branch dependency, were unprepared to support clients during their post-COVID-19 ramp-up. But now, the digital pivot to new mindsets, partnerships, and processes is in overdrive.
As commercial banks grapple with competition from FinTechs, BigTechs, and alternative lenders, their inability
to fulfill SME demands and pandemic after-shocks necessitates transformative process changes and a move
to experiential, sustainable, and inclusive banking models. We expect banks to strive to meet the demands
of corporate clients and SMEs by digitally transforming critical workflows and improving client experience.
Additionally, incremental process improvements in the middle and back-office that leverage intelligent
automation will keep the competition at bay because engaged clients are loyal.
Adopting newer methods to mine data and moving to as-a-Service models will prepare commercial banks
to flexibly respond to newcomers and find ways to co-exist through effective collaboration. The time has come for commercial banks to put transformation on the fast track as lending losses in wallet and market share could spill over to other functions!
How incumbents react and respond to 2022 trends could determine their relevancy and resiliency in the years ahead.
The Covid-19 pandemic necessitated the payments industry undergo a facelift, sparked by novel approaches from new-age players, fostered by industry consolidation, and customers’ demand for end-to-end experience. Crossing the threshold, the industry is entering a new era – Payments 4.X, where payments are embedded and invisible, and an enabling function to provide frictionless customer experience. As customers make a permanent shift to next-gen payment methods, Digital IDs are critical for a seamless payment experience. The B2B payments segment is witnessing rapid digitization. BigTechs, PayTechs, and industry newcomers are ready to jump in with newfangled solutions to help underserved small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
As incumbents struggle with profits, new-age firms are forging ahead to take the lead in the Payments 4.X era by riding the success of non-card products and services. The new era demands collaboration, platformification, and firms can unleash full market potential only by embracing API-based business models and open ecosystems. Data prowess and enhanced payment processing capabilities are inevitable to thrive ahead. The clock is ticking for banks and traditional payments firms because the competitive advantage is not guaranteed forever. As industry players seek economies of scale, consolidations loom, and non-banks explore new territories to threaten incumbents’ market share. While all these 2022 trends are at play, central bank digital currency (CBDC) is emerging globally and might open a new chapter in the current payments landscape.
As we slowly move out of the pandemic, financial services firms have learned the criticality of virtual engagement to business resilience. Wealth management firms will need capabilities to cater to new-age clients and deliver new-age services. This report aims to understand and analyze the top trends in the Wealth Management industry this year and beyond.
A year ago, our Top Trends in Wealth Management report emphasized how the pandemic sparked disruption and digital transformation and changing investor attitudes around Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) products. As we begin 2022, many of those trends continue to hold as COVID-19’s wide-reaching effects continue to influence the wealth management industry.
As wealth management (WM) firms supercharge their digital transformation journeys, investments in cybersecurity and human-centered design are becoming critical to building superior digital client experience (CX). Another holdover trend − sustainable investing – is gaining mainstream attention and generating increasingly sophisticated client demands. Data and analytics capabilities will become ever more essential for ESG scoring and personalized customer engagement. As large financial services firms refocus on their wealth management business while new digital players make industry strides, competition is becoming historically intense. Not surprisingly, client experience is the new battleground.
This analysis provides an overview of the top trends in the retail banking sector driven by the competition, digital transformation, and innovation led by retail banks exploring novel ways to create and retain value in evolving landscape.
COVID-19 caught banks off guard and shook legacy mindsets to the core. With 20/20 (2020) hindsight, firms are more aware, digitally resilient, and financially stable as they head into 2022. The trials of the past 18 months forced firms to shore up existing business and consider new models and revenue streams.
Customer-centricity remains at the top of most FS agendas and is a 2022 focal point. Banks will focus on achieving operational excellence as diligently as delivering superior CX. In 2022 and beyond, it will be paramount for FIs to explore and invest in new technologies to remain relevant and resilient.
Banking 4.X will arrive in full force in 2022 with platform-supported firms monetizing diverse ecosystem capabilities and aggressively harvesting data to create experiential customer journeys through intelligent and personalized engagements. The new era will compel future-focused banks to finally abandon legacy infrastructure and collaborate with third-party specialists to solidify their best-fit, long-term roles. Increasingly, open platforms will make banks invisible as banking becomes embedded into customer lifestyles. At the same time, banks will shed asset-heavy models and shift to the cloud for greater agility, speed to market, and faster innovation. The shift will act as a precursor to adopting new technologies on the horizon – 5G and Decentralized Finance.
The recent past was filled will extraordinary lessons for financial institutions. Now is the time to act on those learnings and move forward profitably.
While COVID-19 has sparked the demand for life insurance, it has also exposed the operating model vulnerabilities in distribution, servicing, and customer retention. In a post-COVID, new-normal environment, insurers need to enhance their capabilities around advanced data management and focus on seamless and secure data sharing to provide superior CX and hyper-personalized offerings. Accelerated digitalization and faster go-to-market are vital to remaining competitive, and win-win partnerships with ecosystems are critical in the journey.
Read our Top Life Insurance Trends 2022 to explore the tactical and strategic initiatives carriers undertake to acquire competencies around customer centricity, product agility, intelligent processes, and an open ecosystem to ensure profitable growth and future readiness.
Property & Casualty Insurance Top Trends 2021Capgemini
The Property & Casualty insurance landscape is evolving quickly with the changing risk landscape, entry of new players, and changing customer expectations. The ripple effects of COVID-19 on the P&C insurance industry and natural disasters such as forest fires have adversely impacted insurance firm books.
In this scenario, to ensure growth and future-readiness, the most strategic insurers strive to be ‘Inventive Insurers’ – assuming a customer-centric approach, deploying intelligent processes, practicing business resilience and go-to-market agility, and embracing an open ecosystem.
Read our Property & Casualty Insurance Top Trends 2021 report to explore the strategies insurers are adapting to remain competitive amidst the evolving business landscape and how they can explore new ways to enhance their profitability.
A combination of factors such as demographic changes, evolving consumer preferences, and desire to become operationally efficient were already spurring changes in the life insurance industry. Enter 2020 – the COVID-19 pandemic is having a significant impact on the industry.
At the peak of disruption, the focus was on ensuring business continuity, but new initiatives are cropping up to tackle the challenges as the industry is adapting to the new normal.
Furthermore, COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst, pushing life insurers to prioritize their efforts on improving customer centricity, developing go-to-market agility, making processes intelligent, building business resilience, and embracing the open ecosystem.
Read our Life Insurance Top Trends 2021 report to explore the strategies insurers are adopting to manage the changing market dynamics.
The uncertainty of 2020 is setting the global tone for the immediate future in the financial services industry. So it is no surprise banks are laser-focused on business resilience, emphasizing both financial and operational risks. The need to adapt quickly to new normal conditions through virtual customer engagement is clear.
Customer centricity continues to drive commercial banks’ solution designs. And, the pandemic compelled products that deliver immediate client value ‒ quick digital onboarding, seamless lending, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The onus is now on banks to go to market more quickly, which requires the implementation of intelligent processes and integrating corporates’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems with banking workflows.
To achieve go-to-market agility, banks across the globe are investing in and collaborating with FinTechs. Many of these partnerships are focused on boosting digital lending and providing seamless support to anxious small-business clients in need of assurance.
With newfound impetus for FinTech collaboration, commercial banks have picked up their step on the path toward OpenX. COVID-19 made it evident that survival during turbulence is manageable through collaboration with ecosystem players.
Read our Top Trends in Commercial Banking 2021 report to explore the strategies banks are adapting to transform their businesses from a product-led, siloed model to an experiential and agile plan.
When we published the Top Trends in Wealth Management 2020, little did we foresee the pandemic that would sweep through the world and disrupt life as we knew it. Yet, when we reviewed last year’s trends, we found that many still hold and some have taken on even greater relevance. One such trend is sustainable investing, which had begun to gain prominence as investors became more aware of ESG considerations, and firms rolled out more sustainable investing offerings. Another trend that has accelerated in the post-COVID world is the importance of investing in omnichannel capabilities and technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance personalization and advisor effectiveness. The pandemic has driven wealth management firms to accelerate their digital transformation journey, with some immediate focus areas being interactive client communications and digital advisor tools.
There is no denying that time is of the essence. Yes, budgets are tight, but the Open X ecosystem offers wealth management firms opportunities to reimagine their operating models and deliver excellent customer experience cost-effectively.
Top trends in Payments: 2020 highlighted the payments industry’s flux driven by new trends in technology adoption, innovative solutions, and changing consumer behavior. The pandemic has tested the digital mastery of players, who are already grappling with transition. Non-cash transactions are on a robust growth path, accelerated by increased adoption during COVID-19. Regulators are working to instill trust and address non-cash payments risk amid unparalleled growth as players collaborate to quell uncertainty. Regional initiatives, such as the P27 (Nordics real-time payments system) and the EPI (European Payments Initiative), are gaining traction in response to country-level fragmentation and competition.
Investment in emerging technologies is looked upon as an elixir to mitigate fraud, data-driven offerings are being considered for providing value-added propositions, and distributed ledger technology is in focus for digital currency solutions, efficiency enhancement, and cost gains. New players, such as retailers/merchants, are integrating payments into their value chains while technology giants are upscaling their financial services game by weaving offerings around payments as a center stage. Constrained by budgets, firms consider business models such as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to provide cost-effective and superior customer experience.
A combination of factors, including demographic changes, evolving consumer preferences, and regulatory and compliance mandates, were already spurring change in the health insurance industry. Enter 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which is having sweeping implications for the industry.
At the peak of disruption, the focus was on ensuring business continuity, but new initiatives are cropping up to tackle the challenges as the industry adapts to the new normal.
Furthermore, some changes are here to stay, and it will be prudent for the industry players to be resilient to the market shifts by being agile, improving member centricity, making processes intelligent, and embracing the open ecosystem.
Read our Health Insurance Top Trends 2021 report to explore the strategies insurers are adopting to manage the external pressures.
The banking industry’s resilience is being tested as banks navigate through a remarkable 2020 filled with uncertainties. The impact of COVID-19 has been about setting the tone for future operational models. Retail banks have shifted focus towards integrated risk management with a more holistic view of operational risks. Adapting to the new normal, banks have prioritized cost transformation while engaging customers virtually. Incumbents sought to be more responsible within fast-changing environmental conditions and ESG remained a critical focus.
To provide more experiential services, banks are leveraging techniques such as segment-of-one to hyper-personalize offerings while aiming to humanize digital channels for increased engagement. Banks are also revamping middle and back offices, going beyond the front end leveraging intelligent processes. Open X is enabling banks to play on their strengths and use the expertise of ecosystem players. Going forward, banks are poised to become an enhanced one-stop shop by providing consumers value-adding FS and non-FS experiences.
To acquire customers in cost-effective manner, retail banks are tapping value-based propositions ‒ such as POS financing and mortgage refinancing. Further, Banking-as-Service provides incumbents a way to provide their high-value offerings to other players. In preparation for the future, banks will be looking to improve their go-to-market agility by leveraging the benefits of cloud. This analysis outlines the top 10 trends in retail banking for 2021.
Explore how Capgemini’s Connected autonomous planning fine-tunes Consumer Products Company’s operations for manufacturing, transport, procurement, and virtually every other aspect of the supply-value network in a touchless, autonomous way.
Financial services is undergoing a paradigm shift that is forcing incumbent retail banks to rethink growth strategies as they struggle to remain relevant. Growing competition from BigTechs, FinTech firms, and challenger banks has added to the complexity created by increasingly stringent regulatory and compliance requirements. Customers now expect a seamless customer journey and personalized offerings because they have become accustomed to top-notch individualized service from GAFA giants Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon. The changing ecosystem offers established banks new, unexplored opportunities and encourages a transition beyond traditional products to meet the exacting requirements of today’s customers. Bank collaboration with FinTech and RegTech partners is becoming commonplace. Incumbents are exploring point-of-sale financing and unsecured consumer lending, while they also boost their digital channel competencies to reach a broader customer base. Banks are beginning to accept open APIs and are working with third-party specialists to create an open shared marketplace. Technological advancements such as AI are fueling efforts to evolve customer onboarding and touchpoint processes. Increasingly, banks are turning to design thinking methodology to understand the customer journey, extract deep insights, and develop a more refined user experience across the customer lifecycle.
Our analysis of the top retail banking trends for 2020 offers a glimpse into the fast-changing banking ecosystem and explores the tools and solutions being used to face new-age challenges.
Aspects of the life insurance industry have remained constant for years – and so have premiums. Traditional savings products have taken a huge hit in terms of attractiveness because low interest-rates prevail. Meanwhile, the risk landscape is shifting, and insurers need to align better with the emerging business environment, manage changing customer preferences, and improve operational efficiencies. Within today’s scenario, industry players are undertaking tactical and strategic shifts in attempts to manage unpredictable market dynamics. Insurers must develop alternative products to breathe new life into policies and leverage emerging technologies (artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and blockchain) to improve efficiency, agility, flexibility, and customer-centricity.
Read Top Trends in Life Insurance: 2020 for a look at the innovative steps future-focused insurers are considering to meet industry challenges and opportunities.
The health insurance industry is evolving and undergoing significant changes. As the risk landscape shifts, insurers are working to improve operational efficiencies, meet evolving customer preferences, and align better with the changing business environment. Accordingly, payers must adapt and align business models and offerings. An incisive tactical approach is required to accommodate members’ needs and related emerging risks — medical, health, and environmental. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, analytics, automation, and connected devices are enabling insurers to manage these changes proactively, partner with members, and help to prevent risks, all the while continuing to fulfill payer responsibilities.
Read Top Trends in Health Insurance: 2020 to learn which strategies insurers are adopting to navigate and align with today’s challenges.
Similar to other financial services domains, payments is evolving into an open ecosystem. The EU’s Payment Services Directive (PSD2) pioneered open banking by encouraging banks and established payments players to securely open the systems to foster competition, innovation, and more customer choices. In tandem with non-cash transaction growth, regulations are driving banks and payments firms to expand their array of payment methods and channels. Governments are encouraging financial inclusion by also promoting the adoption of non-cash payments. Increasingly, merchants and corporates seek to offer alternative payment systems because of widespread popularity among consumers. Alternative payments also enable merchants to provide real-time and cross-border payments to boost business efficiency.
Banks, payment firms, card firms, BigTechs, FinTechs, and other players are continuously developing new technology to cash in on market changes. However, data breaches and fraud continue to hinder innovation as firms devote countless resources each year to address security issues. Many governments are also designing new regulations to reduce ecosystem threats. All these measures are expected to make the current ecosystem much more secure and simple for players as well as customers.
Top Trends in Payments: 2020 explores and analyzes payments ecosystem initiatives and solutions for this year and beyond
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 4DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 4. In this session, we will cover Test Manager overview along with SAP heatmap.
The UiPath Test Manager overview with SAP heatmap webinar offers a concise yet comprehensive exploration of the role of a Test Manager within SAP environments, coupled with the utilization of heatmaps for effective testing strategies.
Participants will gain insights into the responsibilities, challenges, and best practices associated with test management in SAP projects. Additionally, the webinar delves into the significance of heatmaps as a visual aid for identifying testing priorities, areas of risk, and resource allocation within SAP landscapes. Through this session, attendees can expect to enhance their understanding of test management principles while learning practical approaches to optimize testing processes in SAP environments using heatmap visualization techniques
What will you get from this session?
1. Insights into SAP testing best practices
2. Heatmap utilization for testing
3. Optimization of testing processes
4. Demo
Topics covered:
Execution from the test manager
Orchestrator execution result
Defect reporting
SAP heatmap example with demo
Speaker:
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Software Delivery At the Speed of AI: Inflectra Invests In AI-Powered QualityInflectra
In this insightful webinar, Inflectra explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming software development and testing. Discover how AI-powered tools are revolutionizing every stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), from design and prototyping to testing, deployment, and monitoring.
Learn about:
• The Future of Testing: How AI is shifting testing towards verification, analysis, and higher-level skills, while reducing repetitive tasks.
• Test Automation: How AI-powered test case generation, optimization, and self-healing tests are making testing more efficient and effective.
• Visual Testing: Explore the emerging capabilities of AI in visual testing and how it's set to revolutionize UI verification.
• Inflectra's AI Solutions: See demonstrations of Inflectra's cutting-edge AI tools like the ChatGPT plugin and Azure Open AI platform, designed to streamline your testing process.
Whether you're a developer, tester, or QA professional, this webinar will give you valuable insights into how AI is shaping the future of software delivery.
Dev Dives: Train smarter, not harder – active learning and UiPath LLMs for do...UiPathCommunity
💥 Speed, accuracy, and scaling – discover the superpowers of GenAI in action with UiPath Document Understanding and Communications Mining™:
See how to accelerate model training and optimize model performance with active learning
Learn about the latest enhancements to out-of-the-box document processing – with little to no training required
Get an exclusive demo of the new family of UiPath LLMs – GenAI models specialized for processing different types of documents and messages
This is a hands-on session specifically designed for automation developers and AI enthusiasts seeking to enhance their knowledge in leveraging the latest intelligent document processing capabilities offered by UiPath.
Speakers:
👨🏫 Andras Palfi, Senior Product Manager, UiPath
👩🏫 Lenka Dulovicova, Product Program Manager, UiPath
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
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After immersing yourself in the blue book and its red counterpart, attending DDD-focused conferences, and applying tactical patterns, you're left with a crucial question: How do I ensure my design is effective? Tactical patterns within Domain-Driven Design (DDD) serve as guiding principles for creating clear and manageable domain models. However, achieving success with these patterns requires additional guidance. Interestingly, we've observed that a set of constraints initially designed for training purposes remarkably aligns with effective pattern implementation, offering a more ‘mechanical’ approach. Let's explore together how Object Calisthenics can elevate the design of your tactical DDD patterns, offering concrete help for those venturing into DDD for the first time!
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object Calisthenics
The New Role of the Architect - Central to growing your business in today’s digital world
1. the way we see itInfrastructure Services
The New Role of the Architect
Central to growing your business in today’s digital world
2. In my 25 years of working in the IT industry, technology is not the only thing that has developed.
The role of the architect working in IT has changed dramatically. Gone are the days when
architects were confined to talking just hardware and software; today, architects talk business.
They ensure value for money, shape strategies to pave the way to digital excellence, drive
innovation and deliver IT solutions. They do all this while minimizing impact on the business and
without introducing risk.
Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) planning or executing a digital
transformation journey must understand the value of the architect to ensure that their investments
achieve the desired outcomes.
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work on a number of large architecture assignments
where we enable all executives of all industries to view their businesses through a different lens
and create strategies and solutions that are able to perform to their maximum potential.
The architect’s role is like no other – combining technology, market sector and consulting
knowledge.
An architect understands what is “right” for the business and focuses on managing complexity
to reduce risk and cost. Research outlined in this paper shows that architects can reduce project
costs, project overrun, and increase overall customer satisfaction.
This short point of view paper whitepaper is designed to help CIOs and CDOs get a more concise
understanding of the architect’s role, value and position within their business.
Architects are a key asset to achieving digital success. If you are planning to take your enterprise
on a digital journey, make sure you have an architect, or even better, a team of architects on board.
Gunnar Menzel
Capgemini Infrastructure Services, Chief Architect
Foreword
2
3. In today’s era of digitalization, CIOs must live up to increasingly challenging
expectations that often pull them in different directions as they look to
balance digital opportunities and threats against the demands of execution.
CIOs need “the holistic perspective of an Enterprise Architect team driven
by business outcomes.” [1]
The pace of innovation is accelerating as new developments
are seeding and maturing faster, enabling enterprises to
respond to demand more quickly and change the way
they work. Services that were not even thinkable five years
ago are now standard practice. Open source, storage and
compute, virtual services available on tap and microservices
are only a small number of examples. Tablets, smartphones,
wearables, social media, on-premises private Cloud, off-
premises public Cloud, and hybrid approaches have all
led to a new shift in IT.
Next to this shift comes a fundamental change in the way
we see IT. In the 1st
and 2nd
generation, IT was a back-office
capability, usually reporting to the CFO of an organization,
regarded as a cost. With the advent of the 3rd
and 4th
generation, this has changed; IT is now a core part of the
business. The most successful organizations now see
IT as a vital ingredient to drive real business outcomes.
This is where an architect adds real value. Deployed
correctly, architects have the ability to respond to these
demands and advancements. They are able to help
the business envision its future and integrate IT into the
business, providing better value for money, faster benefit
realization and improved market competitiveness.
Architects are able to help
the business envision its
future and integrate IT into
the business, providing better
value for money, faster benefit
realization and improved market
competitiveness.
1
Gartner, 2015 The CIO’s New Digital Business Advisor: A Resurgent EA Team
The Architect’s
Place in the Business
3
4. According to The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF):
“The role of an architect is to drive change that creates business opportunity
through technology innovation.” [2]
“Architects shape and translate business and IT strategy
needs into realizable, sustainable technology solutions
whilst taking end-to-end solution delivery ownership from
idea to benefits delivery.” [2]
Architects:
• Provide insight, thought leadership and innovation
to ensure that the solution meets the client’s
business goals
• Ensure that the solution is designed for production and
can be delivered efficiently, maximizing reuse
• Ensure that the solution has integrity (is safe, secure
and compliant) [2]
In the broadest sense, an architect will:
• Drive innovation and change
• Own the solution
• Jointly own the delivery
One of the key functions of an architect is to provide
architecture and solution leadership. This is about setting
the vision, creating a plan to achieve that vision, and then
enthusing and motivating others to achieve that vision.
This is done by working effectively with others while being
confident and possessing the necessarily skills, both soft
and technical, as well as experience to make those critical
decisions.
There is a common misconception today that an architect
is an engineer or a software developer. In fact, an architect
does not necessarily need to be technical or hands-on,
although having some content knowledge will always be
an advantage.
As there are an increasing number of architectural
roles in the world today, there is no set career path. An
architect could start their career as a server or network
engineer, or a software developer, but could also start as
a business analyst or project manager. Many architects
spend an engagement mapping out the current business
functions and services, working to understand and
identify how they interact and are supported by IT.
These types of architects would not reach down to the
lower technical levels of applications and hardware
The role of the architect is varied; depending on the need
and the scope of the engagement, different types of
architect are required, and there is no one architect that
will suit all needs.
The role of the architect can be simplified down to
two components:
2
The Open Group Architecture Skills Framework: www.pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf9-doc/arch/chap52.html
What is the Architect’s Role?
4
5. Agile and Flexible
Responds to new demands and advancements
with the shifting paradigms of IT
Fit for Purpose
Understands what is “right” for the business and focuses
on managing complexity to reduce risk and cost
Build Relations
Works together with the correct stakeholders
to understand the business
Understand the Business
Is able to apply architectural principles to business solutions
Capacity
Holds a holistic perspective, driven by business
value and outcomes
Speed/Risk
Helps the business envision its future, providing faster
benefit realization and improved market competitiveness
Deliver
Reduces project costs, project overrun, and
increases overall customer satisfaction
Trust
Takes end-to-end solution ownership
from idea to benefits delivery
Information/Knowledge
Combines technology, market sector, consulting
knowledge and experience in a unique way
What is an Architect?
5
6. There is no one architect that suits all needs, and it would be an impossible
task for one person to lead an entire journey alone. Across a solution life
cycle many roles are needed to deliver the outcomes the business needs
and expects.
Choosing Your Architect
IT
Strategy
Solution
Lifecycle
Role
Enterprise
Architect
Solution
Architect
Technical
Architect
Subject
Matter
Expert
Engineer
Enterprise
Architecture
Project/
Solution
Architecture
Project/
Solution
Design
Solution
Development
Solution
Integration
& Test
System
Solution
Deployment Production
User
Acceptance
The diagram below outlines the different stages/phases
a project goes through and the typical roles that support
each aspect, from inception of the IT strategy through to
solution design, build, test, implementation and production.
On many occasions the role of an architect and an engineer
are synonymous. One way to distinguish between them is
to look at the context in which each works. An architect
will usually try to understand the reason for a change:
the “why” and “what” questions, whereas an engineer usually
focuses on the timeline and the physical aspects: the “how”
and “by when” questions.
In practice, there is seldom a very clear separation and
sometimes people execute both roles. Fundamentally,
there is nothing wrong with executing both roles; however,
each role requires different skill sets and targets different
objectives to function best.
The Solution Life Cycle
6
7. Architecture is not only about technology, infrastructure and software;
it is also about managing complexity to reduce risk and cost.
Architecture identifies the main components of the
organization or a sub-set of it (such as its information
systems) and the ways in which these components
work together and interact to achieve the defined
business objectives. These components will include
staff, business processes, technology and information.
There is no set representation of architecture itself; to
stay relevant it will be different for each organization.
Architecture in itself does not deliver any direct business
value, i.e. something with direct monetary value.
As this is not a one-off activity, these components must be
maintained, changed and improved on an ongoing basis
to stay relevant to the business.
Is Creating Architecture Always
a “Six-Month Exercise?”
Creating an architecture can take anywhere from a day to several months.
The duration depends on the scope of the engagement and the quality
and quantity of the input material.
There is a common misconception in the IT industry
that architecture must be created “top-down” with all
architecture-related artefacts being developed. This is not
true. Following an architecture approach and designing a
solution can be done, as a team, in one day. Of course,
the level of detail will not be as deep as with one that takes
months to produce, but it could be sufficient to make the
necessary decisions to move forward.
Frameworks like the Open Group Architecture Framework
(TOGAF) and Capgemini’s Integrated Architecture
Framework (IAF) help achieve the correct balance by giving
guidelines for what needs to be created and considered.
However, one thing that cannot be overlooked is experience;
it is crucial to have an architect with experience and who
understands best practices and knows the major pitfalls.
What Is Architecture?
Architecture is not only about
technology, infrastructure
and software.
7
8. As architecture does not directly increase revenue or cut costs,
it is often difficult to show its value.
A recent study [3]
tried to tackle this difficulty and provide
answers in terms of business value against success factors
such as project cost, delivery time and customer satisfaction.
The study compared the results achieved by those using
architecture, against those that did not. There were 49
projects, with an average size of €700,000 . The results and
conclusions (shown in the infographic on the following page)
translatetoanaveragesaving,throughtheuseofarchitecture,
of €140,000.
Typical organizations have a dozen to several hundred
IT projects running, and based on the average project
portfolio, architecture could save millions of euros annually.
There is, of course, a cost associated with building up
and maintaining an architecture process and capability.
These costs need to be balanced and incorporated with
the savings. Having said that, cost is only one aspect to
consider when looking to adopt an architecture function.
Next to the commercial value of an architect there are
other factors that are also positively influenced by having
an architect, such as best overall technical fit, the timely
delivery of projects, delivering better enterprise level value
and ensuring best strategic fit. Architects understand what
is “right” for the business. They ensure value for money,
shape strategies to pave the way to digital excellence, drive
innovation and deliver IT solutions. They do all this while
minimizing impact on the business and without introducing risk.
The Value of Architecture
Based on the average project
portfolio, architecture could save
millions of euros annually.
8
9. The average project size in the study
was €700,000. This translates to
an average saving of approximately
€140,000 through the use of
architecture.
Usage of solution architecture within software development projects also provides the following benefits [3]
The Value of Architecture
3
The Value of Solution Architecture, Raymond
Slot1, Guido Dedene, and Rik Maes, 2009,
9
10. Many enterprises have both traditional and emerging IT landscapes.
Changes to the existing enterprise capabilities can result
in complexity, risk and cost. As one part of the business
focuses on being stable and ensuring day-to-day
activities are supported; another part will tend to focus on
improvement, trying to lower costs and stay competitive.
Given the fact that IT development is accelerating, people are
needed to handle the planning, designing, building, testing
and implementation of IT changes, while, at the same time,
keeping an eye on new developments. In this scenario, using
an architect would be beneficial to address these challenges.
If there is no complexity and no, or only very limited choice,
then an architect is not necessarily needed.
Although complexity may have negative connotations, it
is not a bad thing. It is, however, something that demands
your attention and keeps you moving forward.
At What Point Do I Need
an Architect?
There are no set points in time to begin searching for an
architect; our advice is: “sooner is always better.” It is
important to realize that if you have a vision or strategy,
implementing this and seeing it through to fruition will be
a long and difficult journey; and doing this alone is likely
to end in failure. An architect can be a powerful asset and
one that should not be overlooked.
If you are experiencing any of the following, an architect
might be part of the solution:
• Unable to set a vision or strategy to achieve that vision
• Struggling to keep your IT costs under control or finding
that IT is providing little value in growth and enablement
to the rest of the business
• See technology initiatives constantly failing or going
over budget
Architects are a key to digital success. If you are planning to
take your enterprise on a digital journey, make sure you have
an architect or, even better, an architect team, on board.
If you are planning to take your
enterprise on a digital journey,
make sure you have an architect
or, even better, an architect team
on board.
Do I Always Need an Architect?
10