SBM4303 Enterprise Architecture

InnoTech is a manufacturing company for steel that had been established decades ago that has grown through the years employing larger number of people through mergers as well as acquisitions for smaller firms dealing with the same kind of market. In respect to the present condition of the firm, the same has been segmented into two major divisions named as Alpha and Beta. Each of the individual divisions report to the head office for quarterly indications of finances (Gong and Janssen 2019). As a reason to this, the following discussion has been undertaken to determine the number of architects for every individual position described within the scenario. In addition to this, the discussion will also list general skills requirement meant for architecture positions. Lastly, role of an architecture manager in InnoTech has been listed out as well.

Requirement of architect in InnoTech:

The company has been specifically divided into two primary divisions for carrying out specific objectives aligned to the business organization and to provision the company with advanced forms of business growth as a part of ensuring that the organization will sufficiently fulfil all the primary needs of the clients on a daily basis.         

Each of the division contains a separate executive director, who has been entrusted upon with the responsibility of monitoring the primary business carried out by their division on a daily basis as well as to ensure appropriate communication with the suppliers, customers, markets as well as the product division (Dang and Pekkola 2017). For the Division Alpha is an established as well as a large-scale manufacturing unit that also has the primary inclusion of a centralized manufacturing shop specializing on specific lines of products. Such products are provided to wholesale clients on a daily basis as and when approached by the specific set of customers in particular.

Alternatively, division Beta refers to a much more complex form of business model that puts forward with three multiple lines of products having the primary focus upon larger forms of market segments as well as groups of customers (Seppänen, Penttinen and Pulkkinen 2018). As a reason to both the divisions of the company, the following architects can come into play as a part of enhancing the existing business scenario.

• IT enterprise architect: this shall be for both the divisions of the company, who shall be entrusted upon with the responsibility of looking after the automation procedure to provision with a smoother flow of the business procedures in Division Alpha (Van den Berg et al. 2019). On the other hand, the same individual shall be having a primary responsibility in Division Beta to look after the investment that is made by the division in the IT infrastructure and to recommend the best form of technologies, which will specifically enhance the business operations in particular
• Network enterprise architect: this personnel shall be having the responsibility of looking after the networks of the business that has a direct association with the IT infrastructure of the company and ensure that all forms of business communication between employees, divisions and with the clients are appropriately carried out.

General skills requirements:

The previous section has greatly recommended and chosen the types of enterprise architects, which are required by both the divisions of InnoTech to ensure enhancement of procedures as well as to increase the growth within the business without any issues occurring in near future (Ansyori, Qodarsih and Soewito 2018). However, for the position of the enterprise architects that have been decided and chosen for the organization, individuals require multiple skills in terms of expertise and general attributes. Some of the skills required for the position of the architects have been discussed in the following points.

• The architects required adequate knowledge in multiple forms of IT infrastructural components that might be acting as a helping hand towards the daily business of the organization and not reducing the growth on the other hand. Such knowledge are required to appropriately recommend the usage of software and hardware applications within the processes of warehousing, delivery as well as sales.
• The architect requires core knowledge in terms of networking such as development and establishment of networking to ensure efficient business communication throughout the premise of the organization as well as with the clients (Banaeianjahromi and Smolander 2019).
• The architect shall have adequate knowledge in IT infrastructure security components to suggest and implement security measures for protecting the physical and software aspects of InnoTech.
• The architect shall have adequate IT knowledge in all fields related to information and technology that ensure appropriate functioning of all the IT related staff employed at division Beta of the organization.
• Lastly, the architect shall also have adequate knowledge in aspiring with the huge amount of data that is generated on a daily basis within the organization and to protect the same utilizing appropriate forms of security measures on the existing IT infrastructure of InnoTech.

Role of Architecture Manager in InnoTech:

An Architecture Manager working in InnoTech shall be acting as a primary assistance in the overall management of executives as well as to maintain an oversight for higher forms of Federal customers in particular (Bui 2017). Similarly, hiring of an architecture manager within the organization chosen for this discussion shall be fulfilling and carrying out the following roles and responsibilities as a part of InnoTech.

• Every individual division of the company contains an executive manager individually to keep a prominent eye upon the daily business objectives as well as to closely monitor the occurrence of all primary activities associated with the business. As a reason to this, the architecture manager shall be taking reports from the executive directors of both the divisions at the end of every working day.
• The architecture manager shall be acting as a primary mode of communication between the executive directors and the suppliers being a part of the business on a daily basis (Laumann and Tambo 2018). This shall maintain an appropriate record of all kinds of information related to manufacturing and business on a daily basis.
• The architecture manager shall pass the final decision regarding the implementation of all kinds of infrastructural components related to the organization, which shall be enhancing the daily business operations in particular.
• The architecture manager shall also be keeping a check upon the supply chain for the organization as well as differentiating between the market segments to choose the one that shall be beneficial to the corporation (Nowakowski et al. 2017).
• Lastly, the manager will also look after the investigation made by the Division Beta in IT infrastructures.

Conclusion:

InnoTech is a large-scale manufacturing firm for steel across the world and has been operating for a long time now. The company has two primary divisions of business having no link to each other. The above discussion has been undertaken specifically to determine appropriate enterprise architects aligning to the business as well as the general skills required for them. Additionally, the discussion also states 5 major roles for an architecture manager within the chosen organization as a part of the business.

References:

Ansyori, R., Qodarsih, N. and Soewito, B., 2018. A systematic literature review: Critical success factors to implement enterprise architecture. Procedia Computer Science, 135, pp.43-51.

Banaeianjahromi, N. and Smolander, K., 2019. Lack of communication and collaboration in enterprise architecture development. Information Systems Frontiers, 21(4), pp.877-908.

Bui, Q., 2017. Evaluating enterprise architecture frameworks using essential elements. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 41(1), p.6.

Dang, D.D. and Pekkola, S., 2017. Systematic Literature Review on Enterprise Architecture in the Public Sector. Electronic Journal of e-Government, 15(2).

Gong, Y. and Janssen, M., 2019. The value of and myths about enterprise architecture. International Journal of Information Management, 46, pp.1-9.

Laumann, F. and Tambo, T., 2018. Enterprise architecture for a facilitated transformation from a linear to a circular economy. Sustainability, 10(11), p.3882.

Nowakowski, E., Farwick, M., Trojer, T., Häusler, M., Kessler, J. and Breu, R., 2017, January. Enterprise architecture planning: analyses of requirements from practice and research. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

Seppänen, V., Penttinen, K. and Pulkkinen, M., 2018. Key issues in enterprise architecture adoption in the public sector. Electronic journal of e-government, 16(1).

Van den Berg, M., Slot, R., van Steenbergen, M., Faasse, P. and van Vliet, H., 2019. How enterprise architecture improves the quality of IT investment decisions. Journal of Systems and Software, 152, pp.134-150.

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