IT Strategy and Architecture

For an organisation to perform efficiently it is necessary that Information Technology and main business are closely aligned from both a strategy and operational perspective. In addition, in order to facilitate successful implementation of change it is crucial that the impact of change across the business and supporting IT systems is clearly understood. Sophix consultants, using the MEGA tools and methodologies, can bring significant value to organisations, through Enterprise Architecture assignments, providing senior management with the information required for decision making regarding processes, competencies and supporting infra-structure.

The term "Enterprise Architecture” is taken to mean , in this context, a map of the following in a consistent repository:

• the business operations/capabilities of an organisation (value chain, competencies, business functions, sites, roles, activities, operations...) down to the individual job level, commonly referred to as Business Processes,
• the IT resources that the business uses (applications, data stores, data flow, messages, servers, networks...), which are the information system architecture,
• and the links between the Business Processes and the IT resources, for example answering questions like what is the impact on the business of server X not functioning.

Using this store of information from the repository, Sophix can model and simulate numerous aspects of the business and understand the impact of any business decisions on every aspect of the organisation. Apart form providing critical measurements of throughput we now understand resource utilisation and clearly see how effective the IT infrastructure (Software, hardware and networks) supports the business endeavour.

By connecting disparate pieces of information and maintaining a single consistent view of the Enterprise Architecture, we provide management with a tool to manage Risk, Compliance, Governance, business efficiency and security all at the same time.