Resource and Energy are highly competitive industries with the drivers of safety, efficiency and cost reduction. In the current market, funding will only be provided to projects that can demonstrate value-add to the business. Therefore, it is critical to ensure the business and technology strategy is aligned.
Technology is one of the key focus areas for productivity gain, from auto everything, to remote operations. Big data analytics can be used to determine areas of cost reduction or productivity gains. Mobility is part of the productivity gains and security will play an important part in ensuring information is safely accessible.
These are all extensive topics in their own right. However, the focus of this article is to describe how Enterprise Architecture can be applied to enable alignment between business and technology, thus providing:
- Confidence the solution will be fit -for-purpose.
- Peace of mind that the dynamic plan can tolerate changes.
- Value for money due to a clearly defined scope and control of deliverables during implementation.
- Support from the business due to common understanding.
Some organisations know their pain points; several even have an idea of potential solutions. Yet most struggle to convince management to fund the recommended initiatives, particularly in the current cost conscience market.
The first step is to define the business strategy in the context of people, process and technology. Titan uses an approach that we call ‘Rapid EA Cycle’. It is a framework to assess the current state and identify high risk capabilities.
Experienced Engineers and Solution Architects define initiatives to mitigate the high risk capabilities. Titan ICT’s focus is in the areas of wireless radio, networking, automation, data analytics and cyber security. The initiatives are combined into a roadmap, which is a strategic plan for the transition to the target state. Titan ICT uses the content repository system Orbus Software iServer Platform to build a roadmap. An example is shown in the figures below. A motivational model is used to align the initiatives to the business drivers. Further analysis can include cost and benefits assessment, such as ROI and NPV. All this collateral can be used to support the business case.
The background of this example is that many organisations have legacy analogue radio systems to support their business operations. In order to maintain regulatory compliance the configuration of the radio system must be modified as a result of the ACMA changes to 400MHZ band.
It is not a straight forward process to perform this modification. Therefore, companies are weighing up options to upgrade to a digital radio platform that provides additional functionality and potential business benefits.
You may have a good idea however, unless you can easily explain the benefits, the business is unlikely to support it. To learn more about how you can align your business and technology strategy, contact Michael Ryan on +617 3360 4900 or via email.