Role of EA in recession

The role of enterprise architecture (EA) has never been more important, and never have IT departments had to be as responsive to the businesses they support as now, writes eCommerce Times. So how are enterprise architects perceived in a daunting economic recession?

This question was probed during a recent panel discussion at The Open Group's 22nd annual Enterprise Architecture Practitioner's Conference in London. 'Resisting short-term thinking: rationalising investments in enterprise architecture during a recession', uncovered surprising insights into how enterprise architects can help businesses and IT departments, especially during periods of turmoil.

The challenge for EA is to be able to balance the long-term goals against the pressing short-term needs of the business.

BlueStar Energy Services has invested in a service-oriented architecture (SOA) in a move it says it was the right way to streamline the electricity retailer's core business processes: enrolling and provisioning customers, customer care and billing, and energy purchases, says Computerworld.

For BlueStar, millions of dollars in revenue hinge on timely access to information and the ability to act quickly on that information.

The company says that SOA, by tying together the necessary legacy systems, workflows, vendors and trading partners, could manage this flow of information better than the industry's packaged applications ever could.

Enterprise content management specialist Open Text has appointed Lee Gale as Australia-New Zealand SAP sales director, based in Sydney, says Australia IT News.

Gale has more than 10 years' experience in the IT industry, including channel development, partner management, enterprise sales, technology services delivery and help desk support.

He previously spent six years with Adobe Systems in partner management roles, most recently as partner sales manager for the Asia-Pacific region.