IT Strategy and Architecture

Information technology is no longer seen as a separate support function in companies. Instead, it offers new business opportunities. That is why your IT strategy must be in line with your business strategy. The principles laid out in the IT strategy are embodied in the architecture.

IT Strategy

In the maturing IT market, it is more important than before for companies to understand the relationship between technology and their own core competences to ensure that their IT investments are suitable from the point of view of their business. Central questions include, for instance, what is the technological operating environment like, in what direction does the organisation want to develop, and how will this be achieved.

By developing an IT strategy, it is possible to create the optimal conditions for implementing a company's business strategy. Moreover, it helps to maximize the return on investment by the efficient use of technology.

Central areas in IT strategy work include:

• Current situation and objectives
• Changing demands
• The relationship to the business strategy
• Investment and ROI
• Architecture
• Partnerships and suppliers

From Strategy to Architecture

A functional IT strategy requires an architecture that is able to respond to the needs of business and changing situations.

The strategy helps establish the principles and guidelines for the application of technology in a company. Strategy work requires projects in which the architecture under the principles of the strategy is attained via concrete system implementations. The implementation process anchors the strategy work to a practical level and provides key information, such as the materialization of risks. The experiences from projects help to improve procedures and enhance methods of operation. Together the strategy and implementation processes form a central part of the continuing development of a company.

By developing the architecture as needed, the architecture becomes flexible, clear and suited to its purpose. This helps to avoid excess complexity that often slows down and complicates system development.

In a modern IT operating environment, the controlled diversity of technology is often more useful than comprehensive harmonization of details. The most important issue is to define the key common principles and mechanisms, and to strictly adhere to them. Excessive definition of details decreases the flexibility of the architecture.

Architecture Design

The operations and objectives of a company must be fully taken into consideration in architecture design. The top level in enterprise architecture (EA) consists of the following parts:

• Business (processes)
• Information systems (application and information architecture)
• Infrastructure (devices, networks, system software)

Services and transactions are also central in modern architecture. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is defined through reusable services of a suitable size that are important for the business. The architecture must also enable recognition of essential business process transactions and the initiation of appropriate measures on the basis of this information.

Sebastian Nykopp, Chief Architect

Sebastian is one of Reaktor's most experienced architects. He has considerable experience in designing architectures and corporate IT management consultancy.