Although South African companies are increasingly practicing enterprise architecture (EA), many of the models have evolved without the establishment of a central EA data repository. Instead, models are being created in programmes such as Word, Excel and Powerpoint, without following any particular notation.
“Fortunately, a relatively new tool to the South African market, iServer, enables the management of Visio shapes and Microsoft Office document components as repository objects,” says Knotion EA Consulting Director, Marius Snel. “iServer can effectively catalyse the development of a good architecture. However, a sound architectural basis is pivotal to the success of any tool implementation.”
Knotion remains tool agnostic, but believes that for many clients iServer will be the best solution as it is easy to adopt regardless of the level of EA maturity, context or organisational culture. Another plus factor is that iServer is generally more affordable than most commercial tools.
With its comprehensive EA experience, Knotion has partnered with international distributors of iServer, Orbus, to provide the complementary architecture expertise required for the successful implementation of the product. Tim Mitchell, Orbus Marketing Manager, states: “I believe the popularity of iServer in North America and Europe is a testimony to the tool's ease of adoption, as well as the power and flexibility it provides to the EA practitioner. Combining this with Knotion's proven track record in EA implementation projects delivers even greater value to our customers in South Africa.”
The adoption of iServer is growing, and it has already been successfully implemented at some South African blue-chip companies, including Vodacom and Old Mutual. Vodacom will outline the value it has generated with iServer in a presentation at the Open Group EA Conference from 15-16 March.
“The strength of iServer is that it allows architects to use the Microsoft tools that they are so familiar with, while also sharing and controlling objects between them,” comments Vodacom Senior Specialist, Hugo Vaughan. “Achieving better integration amongst our architecture teams has definitely enhanced the effectiveness of Vodacom's Architecture. iServer is also versatile in that it fully supports TOGAF 9, ArchiMate 1.0 and ITIL.”
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