What is Enterprise Architecture Assessment?
Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a handy phrase used by IT consulting experts like the ones at Savvior’s Pittsburgh office that encumpasses everything aspect of your business’s IT processes. Every application, network, portal and automated process is described by a company’s EA. The process of enterprise architecture assessment is to build a blueprint of this architecture. EA assessment does not seek to solve a single problem within the business. It is a holistic health check across the entire enterprise which seeks to uncover opportunities within the business to optimize IT practices.
This is a review of technical assets, business processes, and infrastructure. The primary goal of the assessment is to uncover areas of improvement and alignment with current and future business initiatives. The process is geared at optimizing manual and automated processes in an integrated environment, which will allow the business to respond rapidly and make required changes.
The key goals of EA assessment are:
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Keeping IT aligned with business objectives
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Efficient governance and regulatory compliance
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Increasing speed of response to business strategy changes
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Improving quality of IT services
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Reducing risks represented by lack of EA documentation
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Increasing ROI/Success of larger IT implementations
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Simplifying and reducing costs related to procurement
EA Assessment
The first step of many to driving your business forward is the actual EA assessment. We can’t go anywhere without a map, and until you’ve properly completed the EA assessment, the map isn’t drawn. The IT consulting experts at Savvior’s Pittsburgh office recommend splitting the assessment process into 4 parts.
1. Planning
The IT consulting experts in Pittsburgh use this stage to establish the assessment parameters, identify the stakeholders, and finalize the scope. You need to know a rough outline of what you’ll be looking at so nothing is missed. Preparation is the key to this stage.
Stage Goals
? Identify Stakeholders
? Establish Assessment Plan
? Confirm Scope of Assessment
2. Discovery
In this stage, the IT consulting experts at Pittsburgh’s Savvior will focus on interviews, information gathering, and understanding the vision. This is the meat of the EA assessment process. Most of the work will be done in this section, but it’s imperative this is done correctly. If anything is overlooked or missed, it will mean an incomplete look at the EA -- meaning the business decisions made from it will also be incomplete.
Stage Goals
? Interview Stakeholders
? Identify Business Goals and Business Drivers
? Identify Frameworks and Tools
? Identify Compliance and Governance Frameworks
? Identify Procedures
? Identify Skill Stacks
3. Analysis
During this stage, the IT consulting experts in Pittsburgh will take the information captured in the discovery stage and perform gap analysis. From this, their team will identify risks, possible improvements and prepare any recommendations. This is where the work of finding data is put to use. The process of EA assessment is useless without this stage.
Stage Goals
? Analyze Captured Information
? Detail Assessment Documents
? Identify Risks
? Gap Analysis
? Identify Areas of Improvement
4. Recommendations
In conjunction with the client, the IT consulting experts at Pittsburgh’s Savvior will develop a roadmap for goal achievement. Taking the data found, the analysis from that data, and the business’ goals into account, we establish a map of where we want to go and how to get there.
Stage Goals
? Framework & Tools
? Industry Specific Architecture
? Stakeholder Management
? Security
Implementation Plan
In this phase the IT consulting experts at Pittsburgh’s Savvior take a deeper dive through the recommendations with the goal of creating actionable sets of implementation plans. We have a map and we have a goal; in this stage, we will determine where the key stops along the way are. Breaking the process up into these easy to chew, actionable plans makes success more likely. Results from this phase could include
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Detailed process workflows
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Business Process Automation Setups and Evaluations
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Software Requirements Documents
Network Audit by Savvior
The IT consulting experts at Pittsburgh’s Savvior can do all this for your business and more. With the help of Savvior’s expert team of IT consultants we can provide findings and recommendations for performance and design enhancements -- as related to application performance -- and ways to maximize return on the existing investment and future growth.
Scope
The IT consulting team at Pittsburgh Savvior is prepared to provide our clients with a full network assessment of current data and print infrastructure and environment; asses risks based on hardware, software and communications; propose a path for update/upgrade, and asses any overlap from service providers and possible cost savings from consolidation.
Deliverables
1. A set of network maps with device connectivity
2. Current bandwidth analysis
3. A series of reports showing devices, addresses, components, age, OS version, common software installations
4. Summary of findings and risks associated
5. Options for upgrade, update and or migration
6. License summary
7. List of performance issues
Conclusion
Enterprise architecture will help C-level fine tune the business and increase efficiency -- especially with relation to changes in the organizations business process. Ultimately, this will allow for effective growth in the marketplace.
Partners such as the IT consulting experts at Savvior’s Pittsburgh office can help accomplish this by using a robust methodology that can accelerate the process. We can follow up by creating a longer term partnership that can help the organization by delivering IT services, in conjunction with internal IT, to deliver on the vision.
Contact the IT consulting experts at Savvior’s Pittsburgh office for a consultation to see how Savvior’s EA assessment services can see your business reaching its potential.
