New Role Architect to do A SWOT Analysis Of A Current ICT Service

Question: Discuss about the New Role As An Enterprise Architect to do A SWOT Analysis Of A Current ICT Service In An Organization. Answer: Introduction Information systems such as enterprise systems and applications facilitate businesses today to conduct their operations effectively as well as reliably according to their customers demands. Enterprise systems cover both internal and external applications that are used to enhance business activities. For instance, an internal system such as an ERP system will cover a large fraction of an organisations internal systems where they are used to optimise operational activities such as employees duties (Gulla, 2004). On the other hand, external systems such as SCM and CRM optimise external resources such as customers and resource suppliers. In all, these systems offer packaged solution, unlike traditional systems that offered standalone services that were quite inefficient. In comparison with modern systems, traditional enterprise system provided specialised solutions where each and every aspect of business had a unique application (Engelsttter, 2010). These systems covered a small fraction of any given organisation which lowered their application. In fact, in the olden days, most of these systems were only used to process numbers thus were only dominant in financial departments. This outcome left a lot to be desired as other departments lagged in operations which in general lowered the operational efficiencies. Moreover, when adopted, traditional systems lacked advanced collaboration or integration techniques which generally beat their overall objectives (Malone, 2005). Enterprise system/applications as a packaged solution Modern day system mirror the structure and functionalities of an organisation, this operational design help them integrate their services into the needs of an organisation. At a basic level, these systems will cover electronic files that have replaced the traditional documents used to store data and statistics. Therefore, it's accurate to view enterprise systems as the applications that have adequately replaced traditional processes that involved manual work, this includes the automation of transaction in financial department as well as the coordination of supply resources. Furthermore, enterprise systems offer both specialised and general resources where implementation depends on the organisation i.e. two organisation can use the same application but with varying results and variables (Rashid, Hossain Patrick, 2002). Nevertheless, the application of enterprise systems has also grown due to the overall nature of business. Consider the fact that businesses use the same document or transactional procedures to conduct business, for instance, regardless of the organisation they have to conduct payments or employ workers among other normal operational activities (Oberst, 2001). These generic activities constitute the first and most basic form of packaged application such as those seen with ERP, SCM and CRM. Therefore, organisations will use these resources to optimise their applications. Types of Enterprise system and applications As outlined before, organisations will use enterprise system to boost business operations. Moreover, these organisation will integrate these systems into their activities to gain access to knowledge basis and minimise the redundancy of data functionalities (Nordmeyer, 2017). Nevertheless, the types of enterprise systems will vary depending on the functionalities needed. Enterprise resource planning A general term that outline applications that are used to integrate an organisations processes such as financing and HR with software systems. Its objective is usually to collaborate operations across different department while using the same data. Therefore, data used to pay employees can also be used to assign roles minimising its duplication which saves resources. Furthermore, ERPs come as packaged solutions having different modules which can be activated to give different functionalities, for instance, SAP ERP can offer solutions for the HR, sales and accounting department among many others. In it, the solution will be under one umbrella of SAP but with the varying modules (Nordmeyer, 2017). Customer relationship management As the name suggests, these systems are used to enhance the relationship between an organisation and its customers. The overall goal is to understand customers needs and to implement them in the subsequent products or services (WSM, 2016). Now, a company will use CRM functions to learn about the customer behaviours such as purchase patterns which then they translate into their operations, therefore, maximising on the discovered intelligence. In addition to this, this system can collaborate with many devices and digital platforms such as mobile phones and social media. The outcome of this functionality is an extended source of user information including preferences and motivations. Furthermore, CRM system can be integrated with other functionalities such as e-mails which facilitate communication saving time and other resources e.g. manpower. Supply chain management First, supply chain represents the variables used to move and produce products from suppliers to customers. Therefore, the management of these processes or structures outline the roles played by SCM. SCM will manage and monitor all the activities related to an organisations supply system, this includes the vital information transmitted, such as the materials for products, logistics and product/service development. In essence, SCM will enable an organisation to coordinate its development strategies and production plans which in the end optimises its operational activities (WSM, 2016). In general, these operational activities are manufacturing, logistics (transport), and storage. Characteristics of enterprise systems Based on the analysis given so far, several attributes of enterprise system have already been seen, for instance, they are packaged solutions among many others. This section highlight this and other characteristics associated with the applications Integration According to Oracle (enterprise system vendor) enterprise systems should offer seamless integration where services and operational activities flow smoothly across an organisation. A good enterprise system will enable information to flow from the supply department to the customers with minimal obstructions. However, this outcome must also be done by the authorised personnel as it may contain sensitive information. Moreover, a huge part of this integration depends on the configuration parameters which determine the operational settings of an enterprise system. In some instances, some organisation may configure some modules thus fail to achieve complete integration, for instance, activating the financial modules without those of accounting will lower the productivity of the system (Markus Tanis, 2005). Packaged resource As continuously outlined, enterprise systems are packaged resources which offer a wide range of solutions under one holistic package. Why this design method? Well, since most of these systems are commercial applications they are developed by renowned vendors who use the general organisation requirements to implement them, which is both easier to make and sell. Moreover, as a packaged product they lower the overall cost of development and align business activities according to certain standards which streamline operations. Versatile/evolving like all other aspects of IT, enterprise systems are always changing to suit the needs of the users and their environments. The most notable change in these systems are the architectures where in the early 1980s they were designed purposefully for mainframes systems and operations. Today, these structures have changed to cater for clients needs where a predominant client-server architecture is used (Markus Tanis, 2005). A best practice resource Most enterprise system are designed to enhance the results of generic business operations that differ from one organisation to another. Therefore, by adopting them, organisation undertake a best practice method of doing business. This method or business procedure increases productivity which in the end increases revenues the overall goal of business. Conclusion A review of enterprise systems will reveal the operational principles of traditional ERP systems, i.e. the pure ERP where only backbone operations were considered. These systems were efficient for their time and outlined the main service solutions. However, at the time, businesses could also adopt third party system to enhance productivity but as outlined before these systems were inefficient having low productivity as a result of their integration issues. These issues were solved by packaged solutions which eliminated the isolated design and instead used a collaborative outline that combined different functionalities into one system. Today, enterprise packages offer many solutions in the form of modules based on the users requirements. Its hard to imagine that these applications, as well as their resulting impacts, are still deemed as susceptible outcomes as the technology is still in its development stages. In the future, these systems will automate all aspects of business enhancing collaboration and operational efficiencies. Moreover, the developers and vendors seem to concentrate on generic functionalities of business which lowers the application of these systems. If fully integrated into the industry, more specialised enterprise systems will be developed whereas a packaged solution, the user will have both generic and specialised functionalities. This adaptation mechanism will further enhance productivity increasing business output. References Elmarouf. S. (2017). ICT SWOT analysis. Retrieved 15 May, 2017, from: https://prezi.com/v0es3jktnyj2/ict-swot-analysis/ Engelsttter. B. (2015). Enterprise Systems and Innovations. Centre for European Economic Research. Retrieved 15 May, 2017, from: https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/business-school/Public/CAED/E_Engelstaetter_Enterprise%20Systems%20and%20Innovations_CAED.pdf Gulla. J. (2004). Introduction to Enterprise Systems. Introduction to enterprise systems. Retrieved 15 May, 2017, from: https://www.idi.ntnu.no/emner/tdt4175/pdfs/ERPIntro.pdf Malone. T. (2005). Session 13: Enterprise systems. Information technology essentials. Retrieved 15 May, 2017, from: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-561-information-technology-essentials-spring-2005/lecture-notes/lecture13.pdf Markus. L Tanis. C. (2005). The Enterprise System Experience-From Adoption to Success. Retrieved 15 May, 2017, from: https://pro.unibz.it/staff/ascime/documents/ERP%20paper.pdf Nordmeyer. B. (2017). Three Different Types of Enterprise Systems. Chron. Retrieved 15 May, 2017, from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/three-different-types-enterprise-systems-73267.html Oberst. D. (2001). Enterprise systems management. 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