EA case study - End of life

When your application reaches end-of-life and the vendor doesn’t support it any more, you still have the option to run it. But when a cloud application reaches end of life, you don’t have an option.

We have been using Microsoft Customer Manager as a lightweight CRM application. It’s included in one of the Office 365 subscriptions and is therefore a low-cost solution.

However, the application reaches end-of-life in June 2020 and we have to implement a new solution before then and migrate all data.

A parallel example that we also have is StudioBinder that is used for production planning. The cost per user is rather high and they have not added any functionality in a year. 

As I see development of new functionality in cloud service as a health-sign, and no development as the opposite, we are preparing to switch from this platform.

So currently, we are looking at Visma Project Management and Yamdu as new cloud services to replace Customer Manager and StudioBinder.

Lot of IT, yes and but we have defined processes for Film production and Sales as well as our high-level architecture principles.

Making it more corherent

Season 8 of Architecture Corner with only female guests

Sally Bean, Soina Sharma and Petra in’t Veld Brown talks about their views of Enterprise Architecture and why there are so few female architects.

This episode was recorded at British Computer Society in London, UK

See more episodes from Architecture Corner at https://youtube.com/c/architecturecorner     

© Artmann Media 2020 www://www.artmann.co.uk

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Re-use of an EA case study

I’m now assisting a global company with enterprise architecture skills.

The organisation are changing to new business models and I use the same approach here for Enterprise Architecture as for my filmmaking company in the EA case study.

We start with the business model canvas, look at APQC processes as input for new processes. Then continue step by step until consumers can use the service all over the world.

Very straightforward, but not as easy as taming a wild horse.

Reference enterprise architecture checklist

What should a basic reference architecture contain?

These are the artefacts I use when doing a reference architecture for larger organisation.

• Business model canvas

• Capabilities

• Level 1 and level 2 processes

• Key business objects

• Key business metrics

• Information components / groups

• Architecture principles

• Key actors

• Critical business use-cases

• Main applications

• Business critical integrations

• Main stakeholders

• High-level organisation chart

• Constraints

The purpose of the reference architecture is to be a long term guide for development and/or transformation in a business unit or on a higher level. It must fit the future business model and include both business and IT-aspects.

From these part, you can compose a number of views for different purposes and stakeholders.

Mind the gap

When you start a digital transformation you need to mind the gap. This us especially true if your are a traditional manufacturer who sells physical products and you will start to sell services directly to consumers.

Photo: Adobe Stock

There is a huge gap between business models from the past to the future.

This leads to another gap in the core processes when you do new things. You have to work different.

With different ways of working, you probably need new skills, so the organisation needs to learn.

Do you now think that your legacy IT systems are suitable for a new business model, new ways of working and users with new skills?

Mind the gap so you don’t stumble.