BUSINESS ARCHITECTURE

CHALLENGES

Organisations are in continual change. Decisions need to be made round the clock. From digitalisation, pandemics to economic and social shifts, business leaders are having to step back more than ever to reflect on all aspects of their business from organisational direction, partnerships, structure, working practices, to value propositions.

Business Leaders around the world have been confronted with bigger and more difficult questions – How and which industries will reshape and impact our business model? How resilient is our business? Where will the opportunities be and what needs to change? They need to be able to reimagine a future business model that will take advantage of emerging opportunities and areas that need to change.

Strategies, therefore, must stay in sync with changing market realities, addressing new customer behaviours and interactions as well as the macro-level changes in the economy.

In order to execute strategy and enact change in a co-ordinated way that drives business value, a holistic and integrated view of the business, known as blueprints, are necessary as a starting point on which to base planning and investment decisions. For the vast majority of businesses, this is missing. As a result, the best strategies can fail due to poor execution, or due to change that is enacted in one area without assessing the full business impact.

Over time, the business can become internally disconnected with greater barriers, complexity and duplication. The vision becomes lost and is either not realised or takes too long to materialise - eventually becoming out-dated.

How Can Business Architecture Help Your Organisation?

Just as a construction or aircraft firm bases structural decisions and improvements on a set of architectural drawings (blueprints), Business Architecture provides your organisation with business blueprints creating a shared vision and common understanding across stakeholders. These multi-dimensional and reusable blueprints become valuable assets allowing organisations to plan, strategize and to enact and govern change without having to go back to the drawing board.

In today’s environment, a leaner and agile business model that can adapt and achieve faster time to market is vital to remaining competitive. In order to achieve this, strategy and execution need to be an iterative and continuous process and blueprints provide the foundation for this evolution. Organisations that commit and embed Business Architecture, will have a much higher ability to execute on their business strategy through ensuring alignment across all elements of the Business, IT and Ecosystem.