Managing Business and IT-Architectures seamlessly

Business models differ widely in the financial services industry, and each financial service provider is unique. Especially in turbulent economic times, it is vital to take a well-reflected decision on the technologies to be used for problem-solving so that unique features are taken into account and the substantial enterprise value is raised sustainably. Dedicated technology deployment, however, requires an in-depth understanding of business operations and direct alignment with strategic business priorities. However, existing approaches to architecture management either focus on IT alone or are static. They absolutely neglect integrated management in a business context and do not provide effective and efficient support for new business ideas or changes in co-operation scenarios. With its business process architecture management, zeb/ offers a management tool that can be used for structuring and designing the enterprise architecture.

Today, architecture management provides numerous IT-centred views. They neglect, however, the integrated and interdependent interaction between business processes, organisation, strategy and IT. IT-centred architecture management usually applies methods that represent technical aspects, which however is out of line with the language and approach of the financial world. In order to implement business-driven requirements in a timely and efficient fashion, it is necessary to generate a networked view of functionalities, business and IT and to establish a common basis for all stakeholders within the enterprise on which problems can be solved.

The conceptual design of a business process architecture lays down the setup, structure and the conduct of the enterprise on the basis of clearly defined architectural principles and rules. The strategy, business processes, organisation, structure and project portfolio are represented in a customised business process house. This house covers the distinction of core and service business processes, the representation of communication relations as well as the description of the functions required for implementing them. This integrated view of business and other processes, organisation and technology gives the customer the required foundation for defining and shaping the enterprise’s orientation.

The zeb/proGAM approach offers broad potential:

• On account of zeb/’s industry expertise and consulting experience, the customer gets a realistic assessment of the enterprise’s potentials, uniqueness factors and strengths.
• It is possible to identify earnings and efficiency potentials, to determine functional implications and to evaluate operative aspects for exploiting potentials in a systematic way.
• zeb/proGAM allows you to highlight strategic options and aspects of enterprise orientation and provoke future-oriented decisions.
• zeb/proGAM helps the enterprise to recognise new business segments and identifies realistic options for occupying them.
• Necessary investment decisions can be taken not only on the basis of a robust business case but also with a view to the functional and technical implications for implementation.
• In the strategy process, zeb/ supports the customer by providing experienced personalities with sound managerial judgement.