Business Situations

Situation 1: Systems and Technology Maze

You have in incomprehensible maze of application systems, technology tools and platforms. There are many old legacy systems, and many new system development projects under way. In spite of stated objectives to integrate these efforts, each project tends to operate autonomously . You want to organize, simplify and streamline the systems. You want to reduce the variety of technologies used and invoke a manageable set of standards. But first you must find a more meaningful way to map out what you have now, clarify where the development projects are going, and which tools support which parts of the business.

Situation 2: Transition to E-business

Market changes require that you participate in e-business. This demands fundamental changes in the way business is conducted. What specific changes will be required for your business, and what will be the total impact? How much will this cost? What will happen as the changes are implemented? You need a roadmap to pinpoint where and how the sequence of changes should take place. You need an architectural framework to show how a change to one part of the business will impact other parts of the business as the transition moves forward.

Situation 3: Multiple Process Improvement Projects

You have multiple large-scale process improvement projects underway, but the teams do not talk to each other and work in organizational silos. You sense that the team managers' motivations are self-serving and political. There is much argument about which information technology approaches to use, and little effort to identify standards, let alone enforce them. You need a comprehensive picture that lays out the structure of the business to show all of the basic core processes and how they relate to each other. You need some way to visualize all of the technology tools and the way they support the business processes.

Situation 4: Outsourcing Interfaces

You want to outsource key business functions (e.g., manufacturing), but need a comprehensive picture of which applications and which databases will be involved. You need to clearly specify where and how the new information interfaces with suppliers will occur, and which application systems and databases must be modified or replaced to support these interfaces. To do all this, you need a framework within which to define your business organizations, functions, processes, application systems and databases, and the way they relate to each other.