Enterprise Architecture

Enterprise Architecture

CIS 336 week 9 assignment 6

Enterprise Architecture

Dell, which is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of personal computers such as desktop computers and laptops. Being founded in 1984 by Michael Dell, his company grew rapidly worldwide and employed 100,000 personnel globally. The primary problem dell was going to facing was the inevitable creeping diversity issue. This issue needed to be dealt with in a head-on manner. Dell had initiated a significant transition from a hardware infrastructure to a software solution, during this time dell was also acquiring several other companies. At this time dell was needing to implement technology to be able to facilitate transactions regardless of which branch of the company that is generating revenue.

Initially, Dell was dealing with 12 completely different ordering management systems as well as 27 various interfaces for their products and customer data. They had a goal which was to integrate all of these interfaces together; they had shared this same goal with their IT department. Consolidating all of these systems achieved one major bonus, which was to increase efficiency. The process that was used is described as rationalization. Rationalization involves an understanding of the current state of the organization and its IT portfolio and business processes. Once those processes are understood, then it is the mapping of the business capabilities to IT capabilities.

Throughout this process, Dell implemented the enterprise architecture team which included infrastructure specialist’s, application architects, and business and information architects. Each team was charged with tasks including rationalizing the organization which was based on five specific process areas. The process areas that were focused on which is development, market, sell, fulfill, and support. Every owner of a process partnered up with an IT associate to be able to come up with different ways to support any future systems.

To be able to provide any further increased value in the enterprise architecture to Dell, the company could implement a management level architecture. Which the management levels are defined within organizational settings as well as listed as an executive, senior, and first level management. Having clearly defined management levels, the top-level executives can relay any information down to the lowest level accordingly using a waterfall type method. Working in conjunction with the management level architecture, Dell also has the option to implement various new position which could be named and defined for a specific collection of tasks which could be performed by one or many people. With the new positions, this would make sure that any knowledge is not being lost or forgotten by individuals and to ensure that work would be able to be completed even if certain people are not at work or leave the company for whatever reason may it be voluntary or involuntary. One more enterprise architecture component that dell could utilize is a business information system. The Business information system is known for its characteristics, operation lifecycles, and its employed databases. This system is a computer-based system because Dell is moving away from hardware-based systems to software solutions this would be an excellent fit for the organization.

In today’s computer and technology-based world, most companies employ a business information system just to be able to maintain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Using this type of system has the ability to increase productivity and can help the organization by obtaining any required knowledge to be able to make informed business decisions. Another thing that the business information system is able to do is to create a streamlined operating procedure for handling business processes, making sure that their customer’s experiences are pleasant. With Dell having the ability to implement this type of system gives them the ability to stay competitive in today’s market as it is continually evolving.

References

Pearlson, k.e., Saunders, c.s., Galletta, d.f., (2015) Managing & Using Information Systems. (6th

ed.). Hoboken, NJ (pp. 136-137)

Baum, David., (2012). IT Transformation at Dell. Retrieved from

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/oea-dell-case-study-1521201.pdfell

Julie Davoren., The Three Fundamental Roles of Information Systems in Business.

Retrieved on November 27, 2017, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/three-fundamental-roles-information-systems-business-23681.html

Brett Colbert., (2014). 5 Key Components of a Successful Enterprise Architecture Function.

Retrieved from https://www.salesforce.com/blog/2014/08/enterprise-architecture-function.html

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