When you build a house,
you start off with a plan. When you want to transform your business, you need
to have a plan and a clear vision of what your business will look like in the
future. The principles are the
same: know where you are, know where you want to be, then chart the course
between the two.
Effective business
transformation follows the same steps. First we must know how our business
operates today. At ELA, we firmly believe that this is best accomplished with a
coherent business architecture. This ‘As Is’ business architecture helps us
understand how the multiple pieces of the company fit together. A business architecture describes an organization in terms such as business functionality
(services, functions, features and crucial processes), people, resources
(including instruments and tools), and products as well as inter-dependencies
and interactions between them that are assembled to achieve the organizational
goals. This architecture is the
blueprint for making decisions based on the priorities of the business, the alignment
of the project portfolio and performance of the functional areas. From this point, it is
possible to understand the ‘To Be’ architecture that is necessary to achieve
the future business objectives.
Whether you are realigning
your business for the market recovery, integrating operations from multiple
locations or integrating multiple businesses in a post-merger environment, it’s
especially important to understand how your business ought to function so that
it fulfills the business plan and serves its customers. Business transformation
occurs when you address the needs of your customers through the alignment of
your people, processes and technology.
ELA
Consulting Group helps companies create a business architecture that provides a
unified structure and context for understanding the high-level functioning of
the business. This business architecture guides decision making based on the
priorities of the business, how-to align the transformation project portfolio,
and how to assess technology applications by functional area.
With
business architecture in place, you will benefit by:
- Creating a visual representation of how your business works on a fundamental level and providing a common frame of reference for the entire company.
- Providing a roadmap for growing the business, what functional areas to focus on, and where to invest technology dollars.
- Provides a view of the business independent of organizational structure, project teams, systems and data.
- Getting control of the disparate elements of your business, uniting business departments and divisions, and uniting merged and acquired companies.
- Visualizing and designing how all parts work together, incorporating processes, people, technology.
- Providing future-looking and “what-if?” market scenarios.
- Offering team members a common frame of reference of the business and its core functions.
In a dynamic marketplace, ELA
helps you create a business architecture so you can understand and visualize in
detail how your company operates, and then prioritize and align the processes
and technology to ensure success.