Business capability mapping

Create a comprehensive business capability map that both business and IT teams can understand and use.

LP-WEB-SAP-LeanIX-Business-Capability-Map

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What is a business capability map?

A business capability map is a visualization of what your organization does. When combined with a detailed overview of your IT landscape, it shows you exactly how your organization supports (or fails to support) the business capabilities it requires to operate.

A business capability map represents everything your business must be able to do, from building products to paying employees.

A business capability map serves as a framework to help you understand the resources needed to run your business.  It enables you to evaluate how well your existing technology is aligned with your business needs.

Mapping applications to business capabilities will reveal gaps and redundancies in your IT landscape.  In this way, you can uncover opportunities for consolidation, elimination, or modernization.

Business capability mapping of your target state is also critical for business transformation. In order to support  new business capabilities, you must determine how your IT landscape needs  to evolve.

Business capabilities are usually  categorized into three levels.

Level-1 capabilities are the baseline capabilities that you need in order to function.

Many of these will be the same from organization to organization. Examples include Human Resources, Sales, and Finance.

Level-2 capabilities are narrower in scope and support Level-1 capabilities.

For example, Human Resources is a Level-1 capability, while capabilities that support HR, such as Payroll and Reimbursement, HR Administration, and Talent Acquisition, are Level-2.

Level-3 capabilities are even more granular and support Level-2 capabilities.

Continuing with our example of HR, Talent Acquisition is a Level-2 capability.

This requires things like Recruiting, Talent Sourcing, and Workforce Onboarding, so these would be Level-3 capabilities.

When building a business capability map, we recommend companies begin by agreeing on a core set of Level-1 capabilities. Start with seven to ten top capabilities.

This will help you organize and visualize your business.  Over time, you can expand your map, adding Level-2 or  Level-3 capabilities as needed.

We also recommend keeping your business capability map to no more than three levels.

Once you go beyond that, you typically are describing individual steps in business processes, which can vary over time, rather than capabilities.

White Paper

The definitive guide to business capabilities

This comprehensive white paper describes the key steps involved in creating a business capability map. It also explains how business capability mapping achieves tangible business objectives, including:

Aligning technology to business needs
Establishing the foundation for business transformation road-mapping 
Controlling costs and optimizing spend 
Mitigating tech obsolescence risk

Get your free copy

Best practices to define business capabilities

SAP LeanIX recommends eight best practice guidelines for mapping your organization's business capabilities. Explore the first four and check out the rest in our 1-page graphic below.

Don’t overlap

For clarity’s sake, your list of capabilities should be mutually exclusive with no overlaps. A good test is to check whether you can assign Level-2 capabilities without ambiguity.

Define “what”, not “how”

Business capabilities describe what an organization does. Business processes describe how it does them. It is important to distinguish between the two

Plan for the long term

Properly defined business capabilities are fairly stable over time. Only major business model updates should affect them.

Think strategically

Work with your business strategy partners to understand how your current capabilities support your business strategy and vision. Determine what new capabilities may be needed in the future.

Poster

Want to see all eight best practices and explore the sample map?

This 1-page graphic helps you create the perfect business capability map for your organization and includes a capability mapping example.

Get your free copy

EN-LP-1P-Best-Practice-Business-Capability-Maps-2

Business capability mapping with SAP LeanIX

SAP LeanIX plays an essential role in defining your business capabilities and mapping how they connect to your applications.

Establish a common language between business and  IT for effective collaboration through intuitive business capability mapping.
Drive cost savings by eliminating redundancies and reducing technology risks through comprehensive application landscape analysis.
Streamline operations by mapping your business capabilities the applications that support them, and all underlying dependencies.
Accelerate business transformation by breaking down silos, fostering cross-team collaboration, and creating a flexible transformation road map.

From capability maps to strategic decisions

No matter where you are with your EA practice, SAP LeanIX helps ensure your technology aligns with your current business strategy.

It is also instrumental in business transformation planning to get you from your current, “as-is” state to your future, “to-be” state.

Import pre-built, industry-specific business capabilities and tailor them to your organization.
Utilize surveys to crowdsource information you need
Perform a wide range of analyses, including areas for investment, improvement, and risk mitigation.

Gain comprehensive visibility through out-of-the-box reports showing application landscapes, lifecycles, and cost allocations.

View-of-data-object-classification — View of data object classification

Aggregated-obsolescence-risk-of-application-landscape — Aggregated obsolescence risk of application landscape

Application-lifecycle-by-business-capability — Application lifecycle by business capability

What customers are saying about us

Business capability mapping with SAP LeanIX is a cornerstone of our customers' EA practices.
It gives them the foundation they need to drive successful IT transformation projects.

Bringing transparency to a complex IT landscape

"We have this big, heterogeneous, IT landscape with thousands of applications, but there was no holistic big picture or transparency in the past. SAP LeanIX enabled us to create a holistic overview of our global IT landscape in a short period of time.

We now have a clear understanding of how important specific business capabilities are and how well the underlying IT systems support it."