Articles

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A Method to Redesign the IS Portfolios in Large Organisations

Proceedings of the 38th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS’05). Over the past decades, large organisations have developed increasingly complex portfolios of information systems to support business processes. Maintenance and leveraging of these so-called system complexes have become a major challenge to many executive boards. The challenge is even bigger for organisations that are the result of mergers. The question arises whether, from both an operational and a strategic perspective, it would be feasible to migrate to a single (new) system complex. In this paper, we describe the ‘picture approach’, a method for analysing, redesigning and combining system complexes in information-intensive organisations. The method was applied successfully in three cases (insurance companies), all operating multiple system complexes. The method consists of mapping an organisation’s information systems and showing their roles in the business processes. The picture approach is evaluated in three ways, one of which is a comparison with design principles for process modelling in Enterprise Application Integration.

A Framework for Information Systems Architecture

With increasing size and complexity of the implementations of information systems, it is necessary to use some logical construct (or architecture) for defining and controlling the interfaces and the integration of all of the components of the system. This paper defines information systems architecture by creating a descriptive framework from disciplines quite independent of information systems, then by analogy specifies information systems architecture based upon the neutral, objective framework. Also, some preliminary conclusions about the implications of the resultant descriptive framework are drawn. The discussion is limited to architecture and does not include a strategic planning methodology.

Selected EA articles

Selected articles (Concepts for Framework for EA, Enterprise Architecture And Legacy Systems, The Challenge Is Change: A Management Paper).

Use of enterprise architectures in managing strategic change

This article discusses the benefits of applying structured, holistic analysis to human enterprises. It describes the Axum framework for enterprise architecture which the author developed as a tool for managing strategic change. This has been used successfully in many varied organisations such as civil service, Web?based betting and even a major political party. It explains how the framework evolved out of earlier work on bussiness process reengineering to provide a more holistic approach in which process is set in the context of all other things that must be managed for successful change. The application of the framework in complex diversified enterprises is also explained and illustrations from the experience of the author are given.

The Integrated Enterprise: Enterprise Architecture, Investment Process and System Development

The enterprise architecture provides benefits to the organization that utilizes it. However, if the enterprise architecture is not tightly coupled with other enterprise level programs such as investment management and system development process, its overall effectiveness is compromised. This paper will identify the process integration and enterprise architecture touchpoints from the perspective of the investment management process and it outlines an overall Integrated Enterprise Life Cycle process flow. The paper also presents a case study of the implementation of the enterprise life cycle process flow.