More companies are recognising the significance and benefits of enterprise architecture and, says Divisional Director for EOH Consulting, Hubert Wentzel, there is enough demand in South Africa for enterprise architecture to be placed high on any company`s agenda. Executives, he adds, also need educating on its high value as a career choice.
As the name suggests, enterprise architecture is an outline; a sketch of the current and future structure of an organisation`s processes, information systems, personnel and organisational sub-units, aligned with the organisation`s core goals and strategies. Wentzel believes it is vital to adopt enterprise architecture to improve business performance and productivity.
"Enterprise architecture is often limited to IT," Wentzel says. "However, an organisation must also pay attention to the broader practices of optimisation that address business architecture, performance management and process architecture. Various models exist and a company should select one and stick to its framework," says Wentzel.
The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is an industry-standard architecture framework that can be used freely under licence by an organisation wanting to develop and implement enterprise architecture internally. According to Wentzel, the public sector is catching up and has, largely, embarked on TOGAF as a framework. There is, however, he adds, not enough users and the subject matter is, generally, very poorly understood.
For the growing demand to this industry, Wentzel says, it is necessary to standardise the skills of enterprise architecture and for business executives to be educated about its value.
"There is a school of thought that argues enterprise architecture should be elevated to the level of Chief Change Officer (CCO) in an organisation," Wentzel says. "Enterprise architecture today has a limitless career path and it requires certain personal characteristics, knowledge, and skills. It is critical to spend time encouraging people to acknowledge it as a valuable career choice."
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EOH is a business and technology solutions provider creating lifelong partnerships by developing business and IT strategies, supplying and implementing solutions and managing enterprise-wide business systems and processes for medium to large clients.
EOH operates in the following three clusters of business units as a fully integrated business:
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