Module 1: Introduction to Systems Integration and Enterprise Architecture

Overview

The Role of IT in an organization is very important especially in enabling business processes. Business
capabilities of a modern organization are often determined largely by the capabilities of IT systems.
Although modern organization are facing misalignment within its different department and its external
parties due to decentralized Information Systems, poor communication within groups, inadequate
planning, incomplete requirements. This challenge creates a critical implication to meet the
organization’s business goal. To achieve this alignment, the organization should act as a single “big brain”
always making best globally and locally optimized business and IT decisions.

Systems/Enterprise integration is a progressive process; furthermore, its objectives have changed with
the increase of computerization in the society. Facing all these uncertainties and changes, business
processes must be loosely coupled and flexible enough to be easily reconfigurable and to support the
collaboration of workers at distributed geographical locations.

Enterprise architecture is the process by which organizations standardize and organize IT infrastructure
to align with business goals. These strategies support digital transformation, IT growth and the
modernization of IT as a department.

Lesson Outcomes
● To discuss the role of IT and its importance in an Organization
● To define an Enterprise integration and explain its goals in an enterprise.
● To distinguish Enterprise Integration to System Integration,
● To elaborate the four stages of System Integration.
● To articulate the Enterprise Architecture and explain its goals, and advantages.
● To Enumerate the common Enterprise Architecture Frameworks

Lesson 1: Importance of IT in Organizations

Most organizations nowadays are critically dependent on the daily operations of Information Technology
(IT). Large Companies/Organizations often to run and maintain thousands of various IT systems to enable
their business processes. The influence of IT systems on business models is continuously increasing.

The role of IT in an organizations has evolved from purely technical and supporting action to a more
strategic or even business-enabling function. Information systems often become a backbone of major
organizational changes and transformations.

The capital investment in IT systems, IT budgets and infrastructure are steadily increasing over time.
Through the decades, the Information systems become more powerful, ubiquitous, diverse and
affordable. The computing power and storage capacity of IT systems are exponentially increasing. Today,
Business Applications can be deployed on dedicated servers, can be hosted in the cloud, and can run
web 6 browsers and even installed on handheld devices. The relative price of IT systems are getting
affordable making it more accessible. The purpose of IT is not only limited on installing the appropriate
software and hardware in an organization rather improving the quality of business processes that
requires consistent and coordinated changes in the three broad organizational aspects:
∙ People
♣ Trainings and Education to system users.
∙ Processes
♣ Introducing new improved business processes enabled by system
♣ Decision Making procedures and rules.
∙ Technology
♣ Setting up new IT systems and required infrastructure.
♣ Providing Technical and helpdesk support to users.

Information systems can help organization executes their business strategies and gain competitive
advantages in terms:
∙ Operational Excellence and Cost Leadership
∙ Product differentiation and leadership
∙ Customer Intimacy and focus.

Lesson 2: Defining Systems Integration

Each department added its own custom-built applications, built specifically for its own use, without
coordination with other functions or departments. With the passage of time, organizations accumulated
isolated computer silos, each with their specific hardware, software, access procedures, data formats,
and processing tools.

To bring some order into a chaotic situation, enterprise systems integration started as a vehicle and a
methodology to bring disparate systems together through a common front-end and mask the underlying
computer and communication infrastructure. It has evolved into a systematic redesign of the information
architecture, within enterprises and across enterprises, to ensure the flexibility and extensibility of the
Applications by design, in addition to their interoperability. Both aspects coexist in initiatives for systems
integration, even when they are not explicitly stated.

System integration is closely related to enterprise integration, which “is concerned with facilitating
information, control, and material flows across organizational boundaries by connecting all the necessary
functions and heterogeneous functional entities (information systems, devices applications, and people)
in order to improve communication, cooperation and coordination within this enterprise so that the
enterprise behaves as an integrated whole, therefore enhancing its overall productivity, flexibility, and
capacity for management of change (or reactivity)”. The important distinction is that the scope of system
integration may extend outside the boundary of the enterprise to cover suppliers, customers, banks, and
other parties involved in electronic commerce.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) was one of the first architectural concepts to bring together the
various heterogeneous applications and information systems of an enterprise. The goal was to integrate
the various platforms, tools, and applications spread across various departments and areas separated by
organizational boundaries, so that they could access the same data and communicate using a common
protocol.
Four Stages of System Integration

System integration can be achieved at different levels, which are labeled as follows:
o Interconnectivity o Functional Interoperability
o Semantic Interoperability
o Optimization and Innovation Drivers for Systems Integration

A combination of several factors have stimulated and facilitated systems integration projects. These are:
o Advances in computer networks and information processing.
o Globalization. o Need for organizational agility to cope with competition and rapid development.
o Market positioning through the customization of products and services.
o Regulatory compliance.

It should be noted that the various integration drivers interact with each other, and their effects are
usually combined. For example, both technological advances and deregulations have resulted in a
worldwide competitive environment with new patterns of collaboration and partnerships that enterprise
information systems have to contend with.

Issues in Enterprise/System Integration

Current enterprise (or system) integration plans pose significant challenges due to the following issues:
o Nature of the networking technology.
o The difficulties of standardization.
o The security threat to institutions and individuals.

Lesson 3: Defining Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise architecture (EA) is the practice of analyzing, designing, planning and implementing enterprise
analysis to successfully execute on business strategies. EA helps businesses structure IT projects and
policies to achieve desired business results and to stay on top of industry trends and disruptions using
architecture principles and practices, a process also known as enterprise architectural planning (EAP).

History

EA began in the 1960s, born from “various architectural manuscripts on Business Systems Planning (BSP)
by Professor Dewey Walker”. John Zachman, one of Walker’s students, helped formulate those
documents into the more structured format of EA. Both men also worked for IBM during this time, and
that’s when Zachman published the framework in the IBM Systems Journal in 1987.

The EA framework came as a response to the increase of business technology, especially in the 1980s
when computer systems were just taking hold in the workplace. Companies soon realized they would
need a plan and long-term strategy to support the rapid growth of technology and that remains true
today.
Modern EA strategies now extend this philosophy to the entire business, not just IT, to ensure the
business is aligned with digital transformation strategies and technological growth. EA is especially useful
for large businesses going through digital transformation, because it focuses on bringing legacy
processes and applications together to form a more seamless environment.

Goals of enterprise architecture:

EA is guided by the organization’s business requirements — it helps lay out how information, business
and technology flow together. This has become a priority for businesses that are trying to keep up with
new technologies such as the cloud, IoT, machine learning and other emerging trends that will prompt
digital transformation.

“The framework successfully combines people, data and technology to show a comprehensive view of
the inter-relationships within an information technology organization,”

The process is driven by a “comprehensive picture of an entire enterprise from the perspectives of
owner, designer and builder.” Unlike other frameworks, it doesn’t include a formal documentation
structure; instead, it’s intended to offer a more holistic view of the enterprise.

A good EAP strategy considers the latest innovations in business processes, organizational structure,
information systems and technologies. It will also include standard language and best practices for
business processes, including analyzing where processes can be integrated or eliminated throughout the
Figure 1.0 Dewey Walker Figure 2 John Zachman organization. The ultimate goal of any EAP strategy is to
improve the efficiency, timeliness and reliability of business information.

Benefits of enterprise architecture:

EA can offer support for re-designs and re-organization, especially during major organizational changes,
mergers or acquisitions. It’s also useful for bringing more discipline into the organization by standardizing
and consolidating processes for more consistency.

EA is also used in system development, IT management and decision-making, and IT risk management to
eliminate errors, system failures and security breaches. It can also help businesses navigate complex IT
structures or to make IT more accessible to other business units.

The biggest benefits of EAP include: o Allowing more open collaboration between IT and business units
o Giving business the ability to prioritize investments
o Making it easier to evaluate existing architecture against long-term goals
o Establishing processes to evaluate and procure technology
o Giving comprehensive view of IT architecture to all business units outside of IT
o Providing a benchmarking framework to compare results against other organizations or standards
Enterprise architecture methodologies
Enterprise architecture as a framework can be vague since it’s meant to address the entire organization,
instead of individual needs, problems or business units. Therefore, several frameworks exist to help
companies effectively implement and track EAP.

According to CompTIA, these are the four leading Enterprise Architect Planning (EAP) methodologies:

The Open Group Architectural Framework (TOGAF):

TOGAF provides principles for designing, planning, implementing and governing enterprise IT
architecture. The TOGAF framework helps businesses create a standardized approach to EA with a
common vocabulary, recommended standards, compliance methods, suggested tools and software and a
method to define best practices. The TOGAF framework is widely popular as an enterprise architect
framework, and according to The Open Group it’s been adopted by more than 80 percent of the world’s
leading enterprises.

The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture:

The Zachman framework is named after one of the original founders of enterprise architecture and it’s
another popular EA methodology. It’s better understood as a “taxonomy,” according to CompTIA, and it
spans six architectural focal points and six primary stakeholders to help standardize and define the IT
architecture components and outputs.

Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF):

FEAF was introduced in 1996 as a response to the Clinger-Cohen act, which introduced mandates for IT
effectiveness in federal agencies. It’s designed for the U.S. government, but it can also be applied to
private companies that want to use the framework.

Gartner:

After acquiring The Meta Group in 2005, Gartner established best practices for EAP and adapted them
into the company’s general consulting practices. While it’s not an individual framework, CompTIA
recognizes it as a “practical” methodology that focuses on business outcomes with “few explicit steps or
components.” These are just four of the most commonly referenced and recognized EA methodologies,
but others exist. For example, there’s the European Space Agency Architectural Framework (ESAAF), the
Ministry of Defense Architecture Framework (MODAF) and the SAP Enterprise Architecture Framework.
These frameworks are specifically targeted to individual industries or products, targeting more of a niche
market than the more generalized EA methodologies listed above.

Enterprise architect role

Enterprise architects typically report to the CIO or other IT managers. They’re responsible for analyzing
business structures and processes to see that they align with business goals effectively and efficiently. As
an enterprise architect, you’ll also be responsible for ensuring these structures and processes are agile
and durable, so they can swiftly adapt and withstand major change.

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