Enterprise architecture democratization spreads the workload and increases the effectiveness of your IT initiatives. Learn how everyone in your organization can become an enterprise architect.
Enterprise architecture democratization can be a scary concept. Yet, working to involve all your stakeholders in your business transformation initiatives doesn't mean relinquishing control of your infrastructure.
Proper governance will ensure that your project stays on track, while you leverage the efforts of your entire organization. From an on-the-ground view of your technology in use, to detailed market and process knowledge, your stakeholders have crucial intelligence that can be essential for success; not to mention, simple extra hands.
Let's explore how you can foster a culture of enterprise architecture enthusiasm across your entire organization and just how beneficial that can be. Along the way, we'll consider how SAP LeanIX is an important tool for collaboration.
Enterprise architecture democratization is about the alignment of the needs of your users with the architecture of your IT landscape. To find out more about how the two aspects of your organization support each other, download our white paper.
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What Is Enterprise Architecture Democratization?
Enterprise architecture democratization is the process of breaking down the walls of the EA silo. We believe this is absolutely necessary for enterprise architecture to remain relevant and continue to drive business transformation.
IT teams used to have to provide organizations with the IT tools that they needed to compete in the market, but the rise of software-as-a-service (SaaS) has allowed users to leverage innovative tools without technical support. This has led to so-called 'shadow IT' where users are operating without IT supervision, leading to duplicate licenses and unforeseen security vulnerabilities.
We shouldn't, however, go back to the olden days where IT handed out approved software as they saw fit. A customer success manager is better placed than an IT specialist to know whether Salesforce or Hubspot is best for tracking their customer relations, and your finance team will know whether they're more experienced in the use of Sage or Xero.
Not to mention, when users implement and maintain their own software tools, it frees up time and resources for the IT team. This time can then be spent on your technical infrastructure and hardware, which can't be maintained through self-service.
It's clear that the best way forward is to find a way to allow users to make decisions regarding their own software toolset, while also maintaining oversight and control of your IT landscape. The solution is to have your users become enterprise architects.
Enterprise Architecture For Everyone
Enterprise architecture is the discipline of aligning your enterprise technology with your business strategy. This isn't something that needs to be restricted to technical specialists.
There's absolutely no reason why everyone in your organization can't gain an understanding of the methodology and importance of enterprise architecture. They can all be enterprise architects.
This means that the next time an employee in your organization goes to leverage a software-as-a-service (SaaS) application, they'll understand why they should check to see whether approved licenses are already available. They'll also know when to report an unused application you're still paying for when they discover one.
Likewise, when an application needs to be replaced with an upgraded version or an older application needs to be retained for financial reasons, they'll understand. They can even support you with the replacement process or monitor the legacy application for issues.
Deputizing everyone across your organization as an enterprise architect means that you have an entire organization of enterprise architects to aid you in your work. Enterprise architecture will then be embedded at every level of your company, with specialists in each area working on enterprise architecture.
Achieving this simply requires educating and engaging stakeholders across your organization and empowering them to get involved in enterprise architecture projects. This, however, is often a sticking point for enterprise architects.
If everyone in your organization is working on enterprise architecture, how can you retain governance of your IT landscape? Not to mention, how do you get everyone on the same page when it comes to enterprise architecture?
Retaining Oversight With Intelligence
Enterprise architecture democratization means ensuring everyone in your organization is working together on business transformation. Keeping disparate enterprise architects across your company organized and focused requires a single source of truth for them to work from.
Rather than contacting your enterprise architecture team to get authorization to use a new tool, the team that wishes to use it can check for themselves:
- whether you already have licenses,
- whether the tool is listed as safe to use by your cyber security team
- how it will fit into your IT landscape and future road map.
This information repository can enable everyone in your organization to get involved in enterprise architecture. As much as this will allow them to see your enterprise architecture work, it also allows you to see what they're doing and co-ordinate their efforts.
The secret to empowering your users with enterprise architecture and retaining oversight is transparency on both sides. That means your enterprise architecture information repository has to be comprehensive, functional, and easy to use, so everyone can access it.
The most user-friendly enterprise architecture tool will always be the one that's designed for EA and preferred by enterprise architects. That's why over 1,000 organizations use SAP LeanIX.
How SAP LeanIX Can Help
SAP LeanIX is a collaborative, data-driven solution to empower everyone in your company to get involved in organizing and managing your current IT landscape and planning for the future. Our sophisticated solution was designed by enterprise architects, but for everyone, rather than just for enterprise architects.
Our product set will import your enterprise architecture data from systems like Excel, ServiceNow, or SAP, as well as directly from your IT landscape. The information will then be completed by automated user surveys and customized fields will allow you to add any other information you wish.
This information can then be viewed by anyone in your organization through sophisticated visualizations and tailored dashboards. Our toolset will make your enterprise architecture information so easy to understand that everyone in your organization can work on EA together.
Enterprise architecture democratization is simple with SAP LeanIX. To find out more about our toolset, book a demo:
