5a - Ross & Weill 1 Flashcards
What does the Ross & Weill book focus on?
Enterprise architecture on an enterprise level, based on:
- Strategy analysis
- Strategy choice
- Strategy implementation
Where does the Ross & Weill book fall short?
- It is based mainly on large firms, only few findings in ‘early adopters’
- It is somewhat outdated (published in 2006, research up to 2005)
- Limited vision for the future
Who is McDonald?
Vice president and head of research at Gartner Executive Programs. He wrote his thesis on EA in a business NETWORK perspective.
What are the three models McDonald adds to the book’s findings?
Value network diagram
Capabilities diagram
Capabilities blueprint
What is the resource-based view on firms?
- Acquire resources
- Develop capabilities (competences to use the resources)
What does VRIN mean?
Valuable, Rare, Inimitable, Non-substitutable.
From the resource-based view on firms.
What does the Business network theory entail?
Organizations work together in IT-enabled business networks or integrated supply chains to outperform other business networks.
How does McDonald position EA?
As an instrument, a management tool, to implement the business strategy.
Why should a firm do EA, according to the R&W book?
- To decide on the division of labour and co-ordination (IT governance)
- Centralisation & decentralisation of processes and data
- Standardisation (of data and processes and technologies and…)
How do Ross & Weill define EA?
The organizing logic for core business processes and IT infrastructure reflecting the standardization and integration of a company’s operating model.
How does McDonald define EA?
The deliberate design of the enterprise as a whole; this in contrast to the design of a part of the enterprise, such as an information system.
How does the US Federal CIO Council define EA?
As a strategic information asset base.
What are some indicators of trouble (business drivers for EA)?
- No standardized/ shared data.
- IT is consistently a bottleneck for change.
- Different processes for completing the same activity, with different IT systems.
What is a Foundation for Execution (FfE)?
Digitizing the routine processes, to provide reliability and predictability.
The IT infrastructure & digitized business processes together automate a company’s core capabilities.
How do Ross & Weill address FfE since 2015?
Digital transformation.
Why use a Foundation for Execution?
- To reduce complexity
- Fulfill needs for regulatory and legal compliance
- Enhance Business Agility, which depends on FfE.
What is an Operating Model?
This model defines the necessary level of business process integration and standardization for delivering goods and services to customers.
It supports how a company wants to thrive and grow.
Which two growth strategies are possible?
Organic growth
Acquisition driven growth
What is business process standardization?
Choosing how a process will be executed, regardless of who is performing the process and where it is completed.
What is business process integration?
Choosing how to link organizational units through shared data
What is CUDR in an operating model?
The different choices of BPS & BPI:
Coordination, Unification, Diversification, Replication.
What is Diversification?
Autonomy + shared services. Low levels of BPS & BPI.
Organic growth based on success of individual BUs;
Acquisition: related business, strengthen portfolio.
Give an example of a Diversification business.
Carlson Companies. They use shared services for IT & financial services.
What is coordination?
Seamless entry to shared data. High BPI, low BPS.
BUs have control over process design and IT apps.
Organic growth: product innovations to existing customers.
Acquisitions: new customers for existing products, new products for existing customers.
Give an example of a Coordination business industry.
Insurance companies.
What is Replication?
Standardized independence. High BPS, low BPI.
Organic growth: replicate best practices in new markets.
Acquisition: expand market reach; rip & replace.
Give an example of a Replication business.
ING Direct.
What is Unification?
High BPI: high interdependence between units (as one “machine”, little autonomy;
High BPS: common processes, common systems, operational excellence, efficiency
Organic growth: leverage economies of scale, grow products and markets incrementally
Acquisition: leverage existing foundation; rip & replace infrastructure
Give an example of a Unification business.
Delta Air lines
What are the 3 business strategies, described by Treacy & Wiersema?
- Product leadership (=replication)
- Customer intimacy (=coordination)
- Operational excellence (=unification)
Choice per BU = diversification
Market leaders excel in only ONE of these disciplines
The others have to be organized “just enough”
