In order to execute your strategy, you must first build a foundation.
Enterprise Architecture is a foundation for execution: it includes technology embedded in processes that allows your organization to be more flexible (adopt to external market conditions and internal organizational changes), more efficient (reduce complexity, reduce redundant systems & processes, automate things like data extraction/transformation/loading, manage the organizations master data including alternate hierarchies), and more reliable (improving belief in the numbers, focusing on what to do about results rather than where the results came from).
A well defined, agreed-upon, and committed Enterprise Architecture allows you to improve profitability (see efficiency above), go to market faster (with better access to shared customer data and overall information transparency), reduce risk (especially of mission critical systems failure), and leverage the value of IT investments.
Without an Enterprise Architecture, your company wastes quite a bit of time and money on redundant systems that may locally make sense, but do not support corporate objectives.
Your EA informs your business process architecture (order to cash, procure to pay, etc.), which informs your data architecture (enterprise data warehouse, ODS, data marts, OLAP) which informs your applications architecture which informs your technology architecture. So without a solid EA, you are traveling without a roadmap.
To get started, you should build an organizational accountability map that shows, on one sheet of paper, how the various functions in your business interact around performance and value. This will go a long way to breaking down information silos and building your foundation on the solid ground of strategy, value, and out-performance.
And have a look at this book:
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