This report depicts the importance of implementing proper enterprise architecture in the business organization named as RetailCo. The enterprise architecture helps to develop a blueprint of the organization considering strategic business alignment and managerial objectives as well. With the help of the enterprise architecture the users will be able to gain as per their expectation and also the company will be able to gain measurable success and competitive advantages as well.
The key resources of the company including people, system, process, technology and products will be managed well after the implementation of proper enterprise architecture in the business organization. Not only this but also Enterprise architecture provides the company a clear and comprehensive view of the key resources of the company (Aier 2014). In order to built secured relationship between the service providers and the users of the company the blueprint framework of the company is required to be completely error free.
In order to mitigate the issues associated to RetailCo accurate super market division, modernized business unit, super market competitors and correct management of the stock relationship are required to be adopted by the management authority. As the company is facing key rivalry with huge threats thus, for giving rapid respond to the competitors it is necessary for the company to achieve proper enterprise architecture. The logical architecture, components model, the operational model and IT management strategies are needed to be implemented in the business organization (Simon, Fischbach and Schoder 2014). The key goal of the company is to implement an IT enabled business structure with reduced rate of cost and new strategic plan as well. Additionally, it has been found that with the continuous business improvement programs, it will be able to integrate all the organizational programs such as integrated process, supply chain optimization and shared services as well.
In order to improve the existing framework of RetailCo it is necessary to develop a conceptual design that would be helpful to gain competitive advantages and measurable success from the competitive marketplace. According to the conceptual design it will provide an integrated business and feasible IT infrastructure to the company and competition as well. In order to support the synchronized wide spread enterprise perspectives, numerous numbers of frameworks are there, thus for developing comprehensive enterprise architecture programs the conceptual model could provide proper structure to the company (Vargas et al. 2016). Not only this but also, this architecture provides private and consistent terminology to the employees of the company and to their consumers as well.
Figure 1: The existing platform of RetailCo
(Source: created by author)
The exiting platform of the company is represented in figure 1 which implies that the blueprint of the company is divided into 7 different business units where the loyalty of the consumers is very important thing to be considered. The enterprise architecture development team of RetailCo developed 7 layers architecture. The baseline of the designed architecture is consists of three different activities such as consumer loyalty, marketing and infrastructure. Based on the requirement of the consumers the company has developed their marketing structure (Zarvic and Wieringa 2014). Market segmentation is the initial phase for the development of the business structure. With the help of the market segmentation the company would be able to focus more over their consumers who are willing to buy products from their product stock. In the year of 2003, the CEO of RetailCo had developed this platform or business structure. Marketing is another important aspect on which the company should focus on. With the help of proper marketing agendas the company could promote their brands and service structure as well. The benefits of marketing are as follows:
The other business units associated to the company are the finance team and HR team. The finance team is responsible to develop the budget estimation that is required to structure the new developed EA plan. The previous merchandizing structure of RetailCo was not much beneficial from the consumer and business owner’s aspect. On the other hand, the admin is responsible to manage all the activities accurately. Again a back office plan was there to store the organizational data securely (Zimmermann et al 2015). With the help of the back office the unauthorized users will not be able to access information from the server. Even if the server get interrupted or destroyed then from the back office plan the destroyed information could be retrieved again by the employees and consumers. Moreover, based on the application plan the enterprise architecture is developed. However due to certain structural issues RetailCo was facing major level challenges, and in order to combat the issues, the company is willing to develop a EA structure as a vision in the year of 2007.
Figure 2: The vision platform of RetailCo
(Source: created by author)
After analyzing the issues associated to the primitive EA of RetailCo, the vision of the company was changed and as per the changed concept the newly develop architecture of the company looks like the diagram represented in figure 2.
According to the newly developed architecture certain changes are being identified such as the previous marketing agendas and the infrastructure was completely changed. In the newly developed system an Enterprise data warehouse including customer loyalty and marketing will be implemented. In the warehouse the data regarding consumers and the employees would be stored. From the server or storage the development team will be to access data from the server whenever required. With the data warehouse system the system will become a secured one (Buschle, Johnson and Shahzad 2013). None of the external unwanted and unauthorized users will be able to access data from the server without the permission of the Admin. The main difference between the primary architecture and the new architecture are the warehouse and supply chain management approach. With the help of the supply chain management system RetailCo will be able to build a secured relationship between the service providers and the suppliers rather between the buyers and the suppliers.
Figure 3: Building blocks for the agents and employees and inclusive RetailCo’s information system
(Source: created by author)
The above diagram represents the building blocks developed for the employees and agents of RetailCo. From the structure of the information system it is Cleary determined that, RetailCo Company has two different functional components such as RetailCo information and RetailCo agents or employees (Bernus, Noran and Molina 2015). The RetailCo information and the RetailCo agents and the policy and security developed for the company are interrelated to each other. According to the policy and the security oversight developed by RetailCo three different components could be effectively served including two way interaction, information processing and co-managed information (Fischer, Aier and Winter 2015). From the newly developed architecture the company could avail open communication approach. With the help of the open communication the CEO of the company and the employees working in the EA development team could efficiently share their view points to each other. The accurate combination of three of these components such as two directional communication, information processing and co managed information could result a customizable presentation (Simon, Fischbach and Schoder 2014). Finally, it will lead to develop a secured relationship between the consumers, staffs and business owners as well. It means that, the company could develop their existing business interaction. In order to mitigate the identified issue of RetailCo a logical diagram of the Company is represented below:
Figure 4: Logical view diagram for RetailCo
(Source: created by author)
The three functional components of the logical diagram include business process orchestration and collaboration, connectivity and the interoperability and the information security and information privacy. From the IT service and the compliance management service developed by RetailCo, it is determined that, with the help of cloud service delivery system the company will be able to provide effective capabilities to their employees and to their consumers as well (Iacob et al. 2014). The company services both online and offline services to their consumers. Even, a mobile app service is also available for the consumers of RetailCo. With the help of mobile app the users will be able to access information from the server regardless of their location and time as well.
Figure 5: Component diagram for RetailCo scenario
(Source: created by author)
From the operation model of RetailCo it is determined that, it is representing the entire portal access or portal aggregated view of the constituents. In the server all the official information are stored and for accessing any information from the server it is necessary for the system developers to login to the page with authentication (Maccormack, Lagerstrom and Baldwin 2015). The business serves by the company include retention management, security and privacy management, availability and fault management, performance management and control over the service accounting. In order to get access from the server it is necessary to request the portal fort data access. With the help of proper connectivity the user will be able to access data from the server (Rouhani et al. 2014). Security is referred to as one of the most important factors that the company is strictly required to be considered. The enterprise has developed proper data access and capabilities.
According to the
Figure 6: Operational modeling of Content Resource Manager Service Availability
(Source: created by author)
From the operational components it is clearly defined that there are two different functions such as front office system and disaster recovery site location. The switching services and the block systems are interconnected to each other. Again both of the blocks are connected to each other through the SN6 and SN9 (Santana et al. 2016). Even, the head office and the specified nodes also plays active role in the data base or server system.
Conclusion
From the overall discussion it can be concluded that, due to increasing rivalry throughout the marketplace, it is the responsibility of the EA development team of RetailCo to improve the exiting architecture or blueprint of the company. As Information Technology is evolving day by day or even everyday thus the company should adopt all the necessary changes or development within their existing business architecture or frame. It will help to reduce the rate of competitors of the company. Considering the business components, functions and structure of RetailCo, it is necessary to apply all the necessary applications properly with accurate business units. With the help of store replenishments and additional business applications the preliminarily identified issued could be completely mitigated from the functional and operational components of RetailCo. The logical structure of the company, operational model, components and the building blocks with different functional activities are also elaborated in this framework. Considering the business components it is determined that with the help of the architecture the RetailCo will be able to provide cost reduced and integrated business structure to the consumers.
References
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