Enterprise Architecture Frameworks
The sheer pace of change has meant IT has evolved organically in most organizations. The right decisions have been taken for each business challenge, but there has been little time to focus on the ‘bigger picture’.
As a result, today’s CIOs, IT directors and managers are faced with a complex mesh of technologies within the enterprise - a situation that is expensive to maintain and difficult to adapt.
Yet, today, organizations need to adapt and improve faster and more often than ever before. With IT extending into every area of operations, this can only be achieved with a more flexible, agile IT infrastructure.
Zak Systems empowers your organization to design and implement a better IT architecture - one that reduces costs, improves responsiveness to change and powers business goals.
The view of your IT architecture
Before you can enhance your IT architecture, you first need a clear view of the 'as-is' situation which can enable you to model the dependencies between applications, operating systems, hardware, databases, processes and people.
Armed with this view, managers can make better strategic and tactical decisions by knowing the full ‘ripple’ impacts of proposed change.
Adapt IT to corporate strategies
In addition to a clear view of IT architecture Zak Systems provides the means to align business and IT with corporate goals.
This unique view enables managers to prioritize, schedule and track IT projects right across the enterprise. By coordinating projects through the Roadmap, IT directors are also able to optimize use of resources, avoid project conflicts and tackle major issues, such as security, on an enterprise-wide basis.
Increase efficiency, reduce costs
An enterprise-wide view of IT enables IT directors to find and eliminate hidden inefficiencies to reduce overall costs. By finding and eliminating duplication and redundancy of systems and by co-coordinating projects more efficiently Zak Systems helps customers to achieve the maximum capability of its IT infrastructure.
Rate the value of existing systems & projects
In addition to modeling architecture there is the need to be able to capture and assess current and planned IT projects and strategies. A range of assessment grids help managers and analysts rate the business value of current and planned IT projects. Judging against key criteria such as cost, time-to-market, risk and business importance, managers can ensure their organization has the right IT projects in place to deliver a stronger and more responsive IT infrastructure.
The Zak Systems driven assessment also means managers can rate the value of existing corporate and desktop applications to help define the best standards for the organization.
Manage the change
Planning and exposure of IT projects right across the business creates awareness to the change that must drive the constant business adaptation and reduce the resistance to change. IT managers can schedule and monitor the progress of multiple projects and see the consequences of any delays.
This approach ensures everyone - from the CEO downwards - has a clear understanding of IT direction and the progress of individual projects.
Schedule IT projects & programs
As a central, infinitely scalable planning tool, Enterprise Architecture promotes an enterprise-wide approach to IT design. By linking business goals, corporate projects and existing and planned IT projects within a central view, managers can formulate a clear Roadmap for IT.
Track progress, highlight issues
Delays in project timescales can have a great impact on an organization. With better Enterprise Architecture programs, risk factors can be identified and help avoid any possible failures. ‘Knock-on’ effects can also be visualized and planners can be used to adjust timelines and delivery schedules accordingly.
This integrated, multi-project view helps manage the complexities of a large project portfolio to maximize business return from IT assets.