Tuesday 27 November 2012

An example of the success using enterprise architecture tools



An example of the success using enterprise architecture tools[1]
Bharti Airtel (BA) is the largest mobile service provider in India and the third largest single-country mobile operator over the world. The company had problem that is a significant decrease in average revenue per user (ARPU) and continuous competition in mobile market, so it needed to find a way to develop using as much automation as possible.
Solution:
“Bharti Airtel’s SMART SOA™ solution with IBM® WebSphere® technologies enables the company to outsource its IT to IBM and other strategic partners and integrate its systems in order to automate routine transactions and hone customer service.”[2]
-          Bharti Airtel integrates strategic partners
In order to get together to create an utility model for the entire infrastructure, the company set up theh SOA framework that based on the IBM WebSphere stack of technologies including IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM WebSphere Portal and WebSphere Business Services Fabric. In addition, the company is using IBM DB2® for data management and IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence for business intelligence.
-          BA monitors real-time responses
With the SMART SOA solution, 600 to 800 software services integrated into the SOA, approximately 150 reusable services handle agilely seven to eight million transactions per day.[3]
-          BA improves customer services the SOA dashboard.
-          BA enables hypergrowth by SOA.
-          With a SMART SOA solution based on IBM hardware and software, BA is executing like clockwork, and working smarter in the larger market. Business intelligence connected to monitoring solution of business activities by its dashboard, so it enables the company to tweak its customer service and resolve any problems.
Benefits:
- The company can provide flawless service to 110 million customers at low margins.
- Employee productivity has been improved by using business activity that monitors real-time responses to customer requests.[4]


[1] http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/SJHA-83ZKF6?OpenDocument&Site=default&cty=en_us
[2] http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/SJHA-83ZKF6?OpenDocument&Site=default&cty=en_us
[3] http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/SJHA-83ZKF6?OpenDocument&Site=default&cty=en_us
[4] http://www-01.ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/CS/SJHA-83ZKF6?OpenDocument&Site=default&cty=en_us

EA tools



Enterprise Architecture (EA) tools are used to gather and systemize models and artifacts that express alignment between business processes and IT systems. Besides, by their analysis and simulation ability, they support enterprise architects and other EA stakeholders in collaborating to improve decisions about changes and development of enterprise and their effect on IT systems.
In more details, why enterprise need EA tools?
Enterprise architects need EA tools because they want to centralize models by consolidating all artifacts into a single repository to get all-sided view of the system. For traders, EA tools provide business process analysis. Otherwise, IT strategists  apply EA tools due to their IT planning capabilities for faster and better planning changes. In general, EA tools make the architect and other stakeholders more productive.
There are many kinds of EA tools, for example:
- IBM Rational System Architect that includes Rational Asset Manager, Rational DOORS, Rational Focal Point, Rational Rhapsody, Rational Software Architect, Tivoli software.
- Sybase (SAP) with Powerdesigner.
- Alfabet with planning IT
- Open Source with Ellipse Agile EA
- Orbus Software with iServer 2011
and so on.
Each kind has each advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, an EA tool can cost companies a huge amount of money when it is included the tool cost, training, consultant support, maintenance, your staff labor, other implementation costs and so on. The company needs to make the best possible selection that allows it to factor in all of your critical elements and business needs. You have a limited amount of time to conduct your evaluation.
Therefore, choosing an appropriate EA tool for the company is a complex task.
How to choose EA tools?
Step 1: EA team selection. There will have an executive sponsor, select a focused interested selection team and formally appoint a leader of the evaluation team.
Step 2: Criteria and Weighting Factor Development.
“Develop an organized objective set of requirements and evaluation criteria and a set of weighting factors to align the importance of these items to your specific needs. Create data recording and analysis spreadsheets to facilitate the collection, analysis and evaluation of the projects.”[1]
-  Functionality – What can/does the tool do? How does it work and how does it meet
requirements?
-  Vendor – Stability, viability and background of the vendor.
-  Cost of Ownership – Total cost of ownership issues from acquisition through ongoing maintenance and the effect of its costs and capabilities on the EA effort.
Step 3 – Vendor Identification
“Create your list of initial list of tool vendors by narrowing down the field with an initial familiarization and evaluation round with your evaluation team. Gain an understanding of the basic capabilities and features of the tools on your list in preparation for the next step.”[2]
Step 4 –Short List Evaluation
“Conduct in person detailed reviews of your short listed tools working with the tool vendors. Conduct even more detailed week long final evaluation sessions as required to gather enough information to complete a through evaluation of each tool.” [3]
Step 5 – Final Selection
Analyze the business issues such as TCO and costs then combine with the technical functionality evaluation to create an overall weighted evaluation of the short list of products.[4]


[1] http://www.antevorte.com/whitepapers/Selecting_an_EA_Tool.pdf
[2] http://www.antevorte.com/whitepapers/Selecting_an_EA_Tool.pdf
[3] http://www.antevorte.com/whitepapers/Selecting_an_EA_Tool.pdf
[4] http://www.antevorte.com/whitepapers/Selecting_an_EA_Tool.pdf

Saturday 10 November 2012

How enterprise architecture helps the city of Tea Tree Gully (cont)



Establishment of the Steering Committee Terms of Reference
Purpose
The Steering Committee is the senior governance and policy making body reporting to the leader of the city of Tea Tree Gully who is in charge of overall ICT project. The Steering Committee Terms of Reference is a standardized document that specifies the roles of the committee, membership of the committee and operational guidelines of the committee.
Responsibilities
The Steering Committee’s role is to oversee the all ICT initiatives in CTTG, to provide evaluation, guidance and governance. This group has responsibilities to make sure the CTTG’s whole ICT initiatives aligned with its short-term, mid-term and long-term business strategies. The Steering Committee is also responsible for finding and pushing the necessary ICT initiatives that build IT capabilities which facilitate CTTG to take agile business strategies.
In more details, the Steering Committee will:
-          Collect CTTG’s core business goals
-          Define CTTG’s ICT strategy for executive decisions
-          Develop project evaluation criteria and audit process
-          Evaluate and prioritize proposed projects
-          Govern and review the project.
The Steering Committee Terms of reference also defines roles and responsibilities of individual Steering Committee members, an agenda of meeting and so on.
Website analysis
Interfaces
Overall they are acceptable. It is better if they are simpler, easier and more “user-friendly” for users.
Content
The Website is rich in information but there are many separated modules that have some similar record, similar information. They should be combined into main modules.
It should be applied GIS in some online services, for example, Tea tree Gully e-map (for citizens, users get information and for council to manage the city). The GIS and GPS need to be work well and accurately.
Although the Website provides a lot of information, there are few online interactions between users and Website. Hence, more online services need to be built and integrated on the Website, they can reduce the transaction cost and improve customer services.
Moreover, it is required a mobile solution that can work in iPad and iPhone to utilize the strength of GIS and GPS.

Friday 9 November 2012

How enterprise architecture (EA) helps the city of Tea Tree Gully (CTTG)



Why CTTG should apply EA?
The city of Tee Tree Gully should apply a suitable EA to update IT system to support its efforts in performing its mission. An EA would be a blueprint of the council's current and planned operating and systems environment. It would also provide the council an IT investment plan.
The EA program for CTTG supports the strategy and business models. It will integrate existing systems and make the council to do business on the internet. EA program support the centralized information and application and increase the efficiency of interaction between the council staff and the citizens by providing e-services and e-mobile.
EA Program is also to support enterprise strategic goals, business plans, and to identify performance gaps which can be closed through the alignment of Strategic Initiatives and Business Processes. As a result, the business will benefit in long run, and the technical infrastructure can also be documented in alignment to the business needs and goals.
EA must have a well defined scope that is large enough for CTTG to accomplish the entire organization that the architecture would serve.
what EA can help CTTG?
The purposes of the EA project are to help CTTG in long term:
- To Improve customer service via the website of the city by building online services to support customers.
- To improve IT project governance that includes the Steering Committee Terms
- To manage council assets
- To improve IT service by reduction redundant information and integration IT systems

Due to the limited time, we can only provide CTTG the Steering Committee Terms of Reference and an analysis of CTTG's Website with solutions to improve that Website.