Digital Transformation – The evolution of Enterprise Architecture

Digital transformation and architecture is a new reality whether we know it or not! In many cases, customers are demanding digital transformation without realizing it which is a significant risk for those who don’t have knowledgeable resources to guide them. Service providers and systems integrators must distinguish themselves as thought and transformation leaders in this new Digital context, and begin forging new partnerships with customers in this new domain.

The advent of cloud and hybrid technologies has brought with it a need to shift culture and mindset from traditional enterprise architecture thinking to one that is truly digital. Digital Architecture is no longer your “Daddy’s I.T.”. Enterprise Architecture frameworks and developments seek to encompass traditional, tightly coupled “in house” technology utilization, where Digital Architecture expands on that concept to leverage technology and data wherever it is located to serve the malleable needs of the business’ it serves. 

This means cross-business and industry contexts must also come into play. The need to securely share and govern data and information systems, while facilitating ease of access to business-relevant knowledge and information is driving requirement of digital architecture.

“Data-Driven environments” are something of a buzz phrase and misnomer associated with digital transformations and architectures. “Data-Driven” couldn’t be further from the complete truth. Data, while being a foundational block of any digital architecture, is only one of many interdependent elements of such an architecture. Implicit to data is the ongoing acquisition of information (data in context), knowledge (actionable information in the minds of those in the relative context) and intelligence associated with business processes and products. In other words, the ability and opportunity to use acquired and captured knowledge over time to understand or evaluate an opportunity or outcome (gaming a concept or business process for example). Capturing data in this way, information and knowledge can then be leveraged to serve the ongoing, dynamic needs of the business it serves; in an agile, scalable and extensible way. Put yet another way, if enterprise architecture is 3D (people, process & technology), then digital architecture is 4D (people, process, technology and time).

Large consulting firms and systems integrators are capitalizing on “digital transformations” for their customers, but may not be fully positioned (customer business focus dependent) to facilitate such an all-encompassing shift in the enterprise paradigm. True partnerships between companies and their facilitating service providers and systems integrators, grounded in a singular but flexible vision for what is possible in a digital context is what will bring long-term value and benefit to the customer. The digital context for any enterprise is not singular or vertical since it involves the entirety of the organization and potentially beyond. All members, whether executive or employee can both leverage and contribute to the potential and power of such a resource. Digital architecture not only makes vast resource and knowledge available to its consumers, it’s also intended to engage or capture knowledge from any potential resource relative to the business(s), further enriching knowledge and business intelligence. Digital architects must carefully engage with businesses, business units, entities and individual contributors as potential subject matter experts while working with systems engineers, solution / data architects (scientists) and developers to deliver highly available, easily accessed, relevant, meaningful and well curated content.

As previously stated, many enterprise customers are moving toward Digital Transformations without realizing it which brings significant risk. SI’s must seize the opportunity and provide proactive thought and transformation leadership in this space. Transforming enterprise architecture thinking to that of digital creates business value opportunity beyond the value derived from a singular or context limited solution or platform alone. Industry experience, coupled with thought leadership relative to customer success and value can be demonstrated in many ways. 

Success opportunities lay in defining and establishing vision for a robust digital continuum containing digital threads. Starting with concepts and progressing through product delivery and long term sustainment, realization of these opportunities can be demonstrated using examples like:

In a concept, design and manufacturing context, comparative and progressive concept/design and operational analysis studies captured using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Design (CFD) tools, evaluated by subject matter experts, and then demonstrated/visualized using dynamically updated data in real time using Data Analytics / Business Intelligence Visualization tools. This virtual feedback loop not only serves to improve design efficiency through the use of analysis tools (FEA, CFD & Analytics), but also provides spin-off benefits like vastly improved collaboration, shop floor/manufacturing efficiency gains and an opportunity for continuous improvement.

Make no mistake, the need for well-defined taxonomies and well documented enterprise architectures are still mission critical necessities; however, this must be blended with a new mindset which couples architectural guidance and principles with dynamically changing business influence and value definition in an agile, global context. Digital architecture and transformation are a cultural mindset as much as they are a methodology and framework. Thought leadership and customer partnership in the form of “trusted advisor status” in this area is key to success in this new realm of digital information systems technology.

While industry is slowly migrating toward digital architecture, a true digital enterprise will allow people to create or consume information (data) using tools which allow them the freedom to work to the best of their ability while remaining easy to use and which mitigate or nearly eliminate the impact of change. In other words, the confluence of people, process and technology in a tool and data agnostic environment which facilitates high productivity, employee satisfaction and safety and where the pain of change is limited or eliminated altogether. 

This is a complex subject. Concepts noted below require active community discussion on this topic:

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