Using Business Architecture for Application Rationalization — TCBAF September Community Meeting

Using Business Architecture for Application Rationalization

Business Architects know that today’s enterprise architecture cover a broad gamut of strategic initiatives that extend outside of the traditional IT realm. Whether dealing with portfolio rationalization requirements, mergers and acquisitions, master data management or digital transformation initiatives, a sound platform to gather and maintain information from all relevant stakeholders becomes necessary quickly. This session will explore the practical challenges Business Architects can experience when trying to manage large amounts of information and knowledge using typical desktop productivity tools or EA tools not designed for Business Architecture. We’ll discuss the drivers and benefits of deploying a modern age SaaS platform using a case study featuring a multi-million dollar Portfolio Rationalization program.

In addition, we’ll present a case study on how a Digital Transformation at a large oil and gas company included the need to reduce its technical debt and IT costs that supported its global operations. During the boom times of the oil industry the number of applications had grown considerably, but when commodity prices declined sharply the company needed to right size their application landscape. Management initiated application and data center rationalization efforts that were designed to cut costs, right size its application portfolio, and build a roadmap for modernizing their applications. In order to intelligently rationalize applications, Business Architecture was used to create a comprehensive understanding of how thousands of applications related to business capabilities, processes, organization units, locations, and other factors. This detailed understanding was then used to identify the right applications to eliminate and to help with numerous transformational efforts associated with the rationalization project such as what to do with data associated with applications being demised. As a result, Business Architecture made it possible to save millions of dollars and to better align IT investments to business realities.

Vernon Smith
Vernon is a highly experienced Enterprise Architect, with full-lifecycle experience gained over 30 years. He has built and delivered entire architectural practices for major organizations, and was responsible for creating the Architecture Profession at one of the world’s largest global companies. He has established and implemented cultural change at the most fundamental level, changing the way that organizations think about their corporate information and driving transformation as a direct result. By bringing a business focus to Enterprise Architecture, Vernon is able to lead change in an organization with his passionate and engaging approach that brings together management consulting and IT strategy in a way that shows true value and benefit to both.