enterprise architecture

Today, business users need trusted data fast to make better business decisions, while business technology needs require lowering costs, minimizing complexity, and improving efficiency. In addition, the proliferation of data, and the explosion of new data sources such as social media, IoT and mobile, further aggravate the issue. Poorly integrated business data often leads to […]

In past Forrester/InfoWorld Enterprise Architecture Awards competitions, we had named themes to align entries and winners to the current needs of modern enterprise architecture (EA) programs. This year, we went theme-less to simply find the most dramatic stories of EA’s strategic leadership. But the winners of the 2018 Forrester/InfoWorld Enterprise Architecture Awards show that there […]

The demand for exceptional digital and customer experiences is exposing the constraints of existing technology organization practices. The people, processes, governance structures, and technology of the technology organization must change to drive and enable business success. CIOs need help, and enterprise architects (EAs) are best placed to influence and guide these digital transformations (see my […]

Most organizations today recognize the need to become customer-obsessed digital businesses. They need to map out customer touchpoints to fully understand their customers’ experiences and interactions with their firms’ processes and those of their partners. They also must transform their internal operating models and technology foundations, creating new systems of engagement and systems of insight […]

erwin, the very well known data modeling vendor separated from CA in 2016, is announcing a data governance module in addition to their existing suite of  Data modeling, Enterprise Architecture and Business Process modeling The first release of the data governance is benefiting of the strong metadata repository acquired from Corso and is delivering business […]

This Year’s Winning EA Initiatives, Brought To You By Forrester And Infoworld, Drive The Customer-Obsessed Digital Business Any enterprise architects worth their salt can tell you how strategic enterprise architecture is, but the fact is that most EA programs struggle. The problem? Getting the enterprise to act strategically in the face of the need for […]

IBM and Automation Anywhere  (AA’s) today announced a collaboration (note-not a formal partnership yet) to integrate (AA’s) Robotic Process Automation (RPA) platform, used to create software bots to handle repetitive, task-based work, with IBM’s portfolio of digital process automation software, that includes IBM Business Process Manager and Operational Decision Manager. For AA, the partnership is a validation of […]

Containers are at the heart of so-called “cloud-native” applications and platforms — the emerging term of art for apps born in or redesigned for container-centric technologies. Containers enable faster software delivery, tremendous scale, higher resiliency, greater flexibility, and a wider range of implementation options — all critical features that EA pros need to accelerate digital […]

Big announcement at Dataworks today — IBM is transitioning Big Insights into a partnership with Hortonworks. This seems not unexpected and only mildly interesting until you think deeply about it. Then it hits you: Hortonworks, after digesting Microsoft, is now eating IBM. It’s a total reversal from the past, when big fish like IBM would […]

I had an epiphany today about a major reason open source is disrupting enterprise software. This is perhaps one of those things that you have heard so much, you've gone numb to it. All the big giants are still alive and kicking, however; so is this really happening? The answer is yes, however the mechanics […]

The search for “quick” solutions to fragmented business applications has pushed RPA investment. I've taken over 200 inquiries on RPA in the past six months and attended Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, NICE, and other vendor conferences and spoken to their customers. About half the enterprises I have talked with are just starting out either in vendor review […]

In the past several months, I’ve given 10 talks on robotic process automation (RPA), its relationship to AI, and its future effect on jobs. These talks were mostly at tech conferences where the audience is a mix of corporate and government technology and business leaders. The industries represented are diverse, as is the process focus […]

The overriding theme of every disruption story I’ve ever heard is that firms thought they had more time than they did. So, I’ve been pondering the why. We can see disruption happening all around us, but why is it so difficult to get out in front of it? Then I slogged my way through Ray […]

Three very different brands with an unfortunate commonality: Each has recently incurred the wrath of a growing segment that Forrester calls the values-based consumer. Last week at Forrester’s Consumer Marketing Forum, my colleague Jim Nail and I launched a new line of research. It helps marketers manage the trend of consumers looking beyond the direct, personal benefits they […]

Several Forrester colleagues and I attended the Google Next conference earlier this month, an event showcasing the Google Cloud Platform portfolio. One message, however, was distinctly NOT cloudy: Google is aiming at the enterprise market. And that includes your enterprise content.   Google Drive has been a popular offering in the cloud enterprise file sync […]

If you’ve been following my research, you know I like to divide the business world into three categories of company: Digital Predators successfully use emerging digital technologies to gain market share and/or displace traditional incumbent companies (e.g., Amazon, Lyft, Priceline, Airbnb, Netflix). Digital Transformers evolve a traditional business to take advantage of emerging technologies, creating […]

Forrester has seen unprecedented adoption of Hadoop in the last three years. We estimate that firms will spend $800 million in Hadoop software and related services in 2017. Not surprisingly, Hadoop vendors have capitalized on this — Cloudera, Hortonworks, and MapR have gone from a “Who?” to “household” brands in the same period of time. […]

While data governance has been a business need for years, it is becoming more visible as a center-stage business concern. Driving this shift are new regulations and new requirements addressing consumer data ownership, privacy, and business data monetization. Two of the most important regulations are the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Basel […]

Just about every company Forrester works with tells us they are driving to become Digital Businesses.  But not just ‘digital’ as a technology imperative – they are investing in digital to dramatically change how they serve their customers – with target benefits rippling over to customer retention and acquisition.  We call this focus Customer-obsessed Digital […]