Topic

Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Building a Foundation for Business Execution

Firms who decide how they want to grow and then effectively manage their enterprise architectures have higher profitability, faster time to market, lower IT costs and less business risk. At MIT's Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) and IMD in Europe we have studied how top performing firms create a foundation for business execution and growth based on a clear enterprise architecture. These firms have a digitized set of business processes and IT systems that efficiently and reliably execute the core operations of the company. Research at 200 companies throughout the world found that effective firms choose their business integration and standardization requirements. Then they build a foundation for execution one business project at a time with the enterprise architecture as the guide. Firms like UPS, ING DIRECT, and 7-11 Japan illustrate the potential to enable agile, fast-growing business models. In this session, Peter will describe a framework to decide how to grow and the journey through four stages of architecture maturity that leads to more modular, innovative businesses.

Based on: Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution (Jeanne Ross, Peter Weill & David Robertson), Harvard Business School Press, July 2006.

About Peter Weill

Director, Center for Information Systems Research (CISR) & MIT Sloan Senior Research Scientist

Email: pweill@mit.edu

Web: http://mitsloan.mit.edu/cisr/f-weill.php

Peter joined the Sloan faculty in 2000 to become director of MIT Sloan’s Center for Information Systems Research (CISR). MIT CISR (established in 1974) is funded by sixty corporate sponsors and patrons, and undertakes practical research on how firms generate business value from IT. MIT CISR disseminates its findings through briefings, papers, workshops and executive education. Peter’s research and advisory work centers on the role, value and governance of IT in enterprises. Peter presents executive education and MBA programs on the business value of IT and has written award-winning books, journal articles, and case studies. His work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Peter recently coauthored a book entitled Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution (HBS Press, July 2006) and is researching business agility. Peter co-authored a “best selling” book, IT Governance: How Top Performers Manage IT Decision Rights for Superior Results (Harvard Business School Press 2004). He is co-author of the ‘best-selling’, Leveraging the New Infrastructure: How market leaders capitalize on information technology (HBS Press 1998) and Place to Space: Migrating to eBusiness Models, (HBS Press 2001) which won one of the Library Journal of America’s best business book of the year awards and was reviewed by the New York Times. Before joining Sloan, Peter was Foundation Professor and Chair of Management (Information Systems) and a member of the Board of Directors of MBS. Peter continues his association as an MBS Professorial Fellow. Peter has been an Associate Editor for MISQ and ISR and was a program co-chair for ICIS 2000 in Brisbane. Peter regularly works with corporations and governments in IT issues including: Aetna, Australian Tax Office, BCG, British Telecom, IBM, Merrill Lynch, McKinsey, Microsoft, PwC, Raytheon, State Street Corporation and Unibanco. In 2007 Peter received an MIT Sloan “Outstanding Teacher” award.