Strategic enterprise information systems assessment and dynamics

Enterprise Info

The post modern era has seen drastic improvements and rapid developments in the field of Information Technology. As a result of this rapid development of Information Technology and the increasing rate of Globalization and faster communication methods, business practices in the corporate world have evolved to a significant degree, and are consistently in the process of information. Only a few decades ago, corporate houses were oblivion to terms such as Management Information Systems, Organizational Information Management. Today, effective management of information systems within an organization and efficient incorporation of Information Technology is an integral part of any business strategy and have also become a center of attention for many researchers. It all started from telephones, telex and facsimile and today it has reached the level of video conferencing and hand held tablets.

Enterprise Architecture

The concept of Enterprise Architecture is a relatively new one and is still in the phase of evolution and further improvement and development. However, gradually more and more organizations are aligning their business practices and long-term strategies with this innovative concept of information management.

The concept of Enterprise Architecture primarily revolves around structuring various business components in a definite structure in a manner such that the relationship between an organization's internal components and the external environment becomes clear and coherent (Enterprise Architecture Center, 2010). The sample business model provided by the Enterprises Architecture Center focuses on seven business components that are directly linked to technological operations with each of the components having their individual clearly defined roles. These components include Executive Strategy, Program Management, Business Processes, Business Governance, Business Technology, Business Information, Change Management and Security.

According to the Enterprise Architecture Center, this business model does not cover the entire business but focuses solely and purely on technology operations.

In theory, the system of Enterprise Architecture promotes a clearly defined, centralized hierarchal structure that encourages an efficient two way communication between the employees and the executive management. It also provides a road map to the organization in order to adapt to future changes in the external environment by encouraging transition and training of the workforce skills so that the risk of obsolete manpower can be reduced. Having said that, in practice the idea of Enterprise Architecture contradicts with various crucial aspects of organizational behavior.

It is beyond any doubt that any organization has to deal with heaps of information every day in order to make decisions. In order to make an efficient and effective decision, it is important that the decision makers have access to concise, clear and well organized information. For this purpose, integration of Information Technology into business practices is essential. However, it must be noted that at the end of the day, the whole idea is to work in a direction that results in achievement of organizational goals. This means that technology must be incorporated into business practices in a manner and to the extent that it makes the business practices more efficient and sustainable and more aligned with the organization's long-term strategy (Graham, 2006). However, if the same technology is mismanaged and is used without keeping the ultimate business objectives in view, the whole concept of technology can backfire. A mismanagement and misuse of Information Technology might lead do dire implications such as employee demotivation, communication gaps, lack of planning and coordination and delays in decision making process. These failures in turn may result in loss of revenues and profits, which is the ultimate aim of any organization. When integrating technological systems in the mainstream organizational practices, it must be taken into consideration that the focus should be on the ultimate organizational goals and not on the technology itself (Nobel, 2010). There have been cases reported where some businesses have focused too much on the technology side without taking the organizational aspects into consideration. As a result, the management of information became even more complex and in turn making decision making more difficult than ever before.

The business model laid out by the Enterprise Architecture Center has some major flaws. In many ways, it seems that the model focuses too much on the technological side rather than the more important aspects of the organizational management. In the contemporary era, companies are considered to have a competitive advantage if they are stronger in idea generation and innovation. Contemporary theorists believe that this is only possible if some degree of decentralization is practiced, employees are delegated authority and responsibility and efficient communication systems are in place that supports a two way smooth flow of information.

In theory, the idea of Enterprise Architecture seems to be in line with this idea of organizational theorists. In practice, on the other hand, the business models developed under Enterprise Architecture contradicts with the idea. The proposed business model reflect a somewhat complex organizational structure where two way communication in not directly possible between carious hierarchal levels. Apart from that, too much centralization seems to exist which might result in more autocratic decisions as the chain of command does not support a smooth two way communication between all hierarchal levels. The span of control under the chief architect is too broad which means that he might be overburdened with the information.

Many organizations are now beginning to use entitlement softwares. In an organizational setting, the entitlement refers to the access given to a person, in this case an employee, to any of the rights established within that organization. In this case, it refers to allowing the employees, an access to important information databases, such as email accounts and phone logs. The kind of organizational structure that is proposed by the Enterprise Architecture document would mean that many employees and important third part vendors such as external auditors will have entitlement restrictions and have limited access to a significant amount of information. This will not only result in delayed or miscalculated decisions but will also frustrate employees and managers especially those who are at the middle line. The proposed Enterprise Architecture system supports the idea of employee training and transition but in contradiction to that, the business model it proposes will only make induction more difficult for the employees. They might not have access to a lot of necessary information at the time of on boarding process. The complex span of control and the burden of decision making over the middle line managers are likely to frustrate and demotivated them which in turn might affect their productivity and efficiency.

In organizations where there is large number of employees, this kind of an organizational structure would make it complicated for the managers to decide about providing the right entitlement to the right employee (Yager, 2001). This kind of an organizational structure will also result in lack of coordination at various hierarchal levels. For example, under the proposed organizational structure, there is no direct communication linkage between the PMO and the Chief Architect. As a matter of fact, the PMO has no direct communication linkage with any of the hierarchal post other than the program manager. This means that there is virtually no span of control under the PMO. The structure also indicates that the PMO will be having a very limited access to the information.