Raymond Slot M.Sc, MBA (44) is Principal Consultant and Enterprise Architect for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. He is interested in the role of Business and IT architecture for improving Business-IT alignment. He has been working with ABN AMRO Bank, the ING group and the RABO Bank to deliver enterprise architectures. He specialises in business, information, application and security architecture. He is working on a Ph.D. to measure the role of Architecture for improving Business IT alignment

Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has developed an integrated Business-IT architectture method – IAF, the Integrated Architecture Framework – and used it for ten years. IAF provides a practical, well-tested approach for improving business IT alignment. IAF integrates all main Business IT aspect areas on one approach: Business processes, Information, Information Systems, Infrastructure, Security and Governance.

Mr. Slot is one of the core developers of IAF and has used it to deliver architectures at many different sites. He is international trainer for the method.

Workshop Architecture Awareness
Introduction workshop IT Architecture
Round table bITa / Maturity

Key-Note – Architecture as pre-requisite for alignment

Now that the glamour of the Internet has been washed off, it is time for a hard look at the main issue that the IT-world faces: How to deliver more value with tighter budgets while simultaneously increasing flexibility?

The IT world has a strong fixation on efficiency and on quality. As a consequence, development productivity has increased orders of magnitude. However, questions like “Does this IT system fit our organisation?”, or “Does this system not only provide for our immediate needs, but also for our future needs?” are rarely asked. IT systems are built to last for a few years and then thrown away and build anew. Or even worse, some of these disposable systems keep working for decennia. The first situation adds to the high cost of IT development, while the second adds to the high cost and inflexibility of legacy environments. This attitude is the primary reason that we are not able to achieve a better business-IT alignment and bring down the cost of IT significantly.

It is time to broaden our view and build systems that last and that keep delivering value to the business. Business and IT Architecture play a pivotal role in achieving this goal. We will illustrate the role of architecture, using the Integrated Architecture Framework, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’s architecture method. It is a standard approach to develop integrated Business and IT architectures, at the enterprise level or at the project level.

The use of architecture varies widely between organisations. Some are using it heavily, while others are just starting. To understand the architecture maturity of an organization and to be able to improve it, CGE&Y uses an assessment tool – the Architecture Maturity Index – to classify the architecture maturity level of an organisation and to derive and describe the expected benefits.

Wednesday 12 March 2003 - 17.45-18.30H