Overview
After more than a decade of double digit growth via a combination of acquisition and organic growth, this US based global enterprise had created a federated business structure that allowed local autonomy but also had large overlaps of systems, capability and skills.
To maintain growth, with so many fragmented systems, a technology strategy and rollout plan was needed that aligned with the business growth goals.
The Challenge
The company faced increasing complexity across their global IT landscape:
- Fragmented IT systems and duplicated technologies across regions
- Lack of alignment between regional and global business strategy and IT investments
- Inconsistent standards and governance in a regulated environment with annual compliance reviews taking increasing time and money
- An inability to deliver quickly and roll out features and services
The company had never had any formal architecture roles, formal technical strategy or roadmaps so the introduction of EA principles and practices required culture change alongside through a structured enterprise architecture practice.
The Approach
Where there is limited architecture in place is essential to:
- Understand company culture, experience and business priorities before proposing and implementing any changes.
- Validate key challenges as seen by business and technology leaders along with how delivery teams operate.
In this company, with a federated organisation, we determined that a federated architecture organisation, mirroring the IT organisation was appropriate.
It was essential to start small, address targeted issues, show success, learn and iterate.
- Discovery & Assessment Phase – Our lead architect:
- Operated in a senior role in the company and created relationships with key stakeholders
- Rapidly understood the maturity across the organisation
- Identified key pain points and quick wins
- Strategy & Operating Model – We designed:
- A federated operating model to initially support local needs, extendable for regional and global teams
- Roles, responsibilities and simple governance processes
- Governance & Framework Implementation – We rolled out:
- An architecture governance board and review process
- Architecture standards and training sessions for key staff
- Capability Building – We delivered:
- Regular virtual and physical architect forums across the organisation to develop advocates and provide feedback for future changes and iterations
- Tooling recommendations for future consideration. It is rare to invest unless there is regular proven value
The Outcomes
The initial implementation was successful in training teams in formalised decision making where they had been used to operating independently. Business involvement enabled broader discussions on compromises which led to easier rollout. After 6 months of operation the process was rolled out regionally and following a senior global team workshop taken up globally.
The key success factor was to start small, address challenges and then socialise and iterate to other stakeholders who can see the benefit and pull the process more widely.