The concept of enterprise architecture plainly refers to the extensive use of data management systems in the organization of businesses. A single corporation may feel the need to harmonize different types of data from its constituents for the purposes of decision-making. Enterprise architecture proves to be the best solution from Polizzi’s perspective. Through this, he argues that the company will be able to integrate the different aspects of its stretching potential into a single managerial core. As a result of its increased business transactions, it is unable to organize its sales and product variability and seeks to solve this problem through a product and data management system. In fact, it is a logical comment that where quality and governance of data is objectified, master data management approach would be the perfect block for the puzzle. For the establishment of a functional and benefiting data system, it is paramount to determine the business parameters and its essentials that would benefit from the system. As a matter of fact, there are those businesses that will benefit directly while others will be impacted on indirectly.
The numerous business entities BJ’s has in its organizational structure necessitate the development of a central data system. For instance, sales and service, merchandise, storage management and business and corporate managements are the respective managerial tags that the corporation is organized. If the data management system is to serve all these departments, then there will be an optimal requirement for each department which will help in the harmonization of the whole business’ data system. This means that the business does not only require the establishment of a master data management system, but also a cooperative response geared toward ensuring that important data from each department is well handled at that level in the hierarchy of data management systems.
The case of BJ’s enterprise offers a perfect example of a business that would be totally transformed through the introduction of enterprise architecture. As depicted in the organizational structure, the corporation runs a series of services some of which depend on each other and some that don’t. The best approach as Polizzi puts it is to harmonize a unifying factor that would enable the management of these entities. It also shows that with each service that reports directly to the departmental managerial team, there are consequent entities that it serves. This reveals the enterprise to be a set of business hierarchies that have to be united through more than one enterprise architecture principles. For instance, storage management has constructs in the organizational structure which independently handle loss prevention, refrigeration, club operations, as well as club development. Therefore, the developed principles must be iterative and evolving enough to create an integrated environment for all the entities as well as a platform for the formulation of cost-effective solutions which will meet the new business requirements. The most appropriate for BJ’s case given its strategic characteristics and organizational status are mission-driven, simplification, explicitness, holistic and reuse.
Enterprise Architecture Principles
It is of optimal importance to establish how the principles will impact on the company’s members, vendors, products, and customers. Additionally, an analysis of the business capability map with respect to the highlighted principles is of importance. This is because an analysis of each principle will reveal that, as mentioned above, direct and indirect relationships. This way, the business, is able to evaluate those important aspects that benefit them and those that, however, small their benefits are, can be replaced by an extensive effort from another entity. This will make the business compact and manageable.
Principle 1: Mission-driven
Principle 2: Simplification
The principles of simplification and explicitness go hand in hand as they require the business to layout its entities in a more explicit and pragmatic manner. This will enable the business to optimize its departments and gear them towards the strategic plan as well as ensure continued use of enterprise architecture. As a matter of fact, the business map provided can be simplified through this design to produce a compact form of the corporation.
Principle 3: Reuse
Furthermore, the principle of reuse is mainly geared towards reducing the costs and complexity of the business. For instance, the sales and merchandise department can be harmonized to use the same personnel for numerous services that are attended to solely in the current organizational structure. Making such changes would reduce the costs incurred as well as distinguish the sales and merchandise department in a more compact form. Additionally, the company would probably find it useful to integrate different types of hardware and operating systems depending on the nature of the service that is tailored for optimum performance. For instance, the use of android applications and websites in their sales department would be very influential in promoting their sales. Additionally, computerized files save and retrieval system would go handy with a data management system as opposed to the filing system. Basing on these proposals, the current status of the corporation is visible and can be easily connected to the future aspirations tailored by enterprise architecture.
Principle 4: Explicitness
Integrating the ideologies of business intelligence, short and long-term business planning, it is clear that the employment of the proposed principles will display a more convenient form of solving the concerns raised by Polizzi. For instance, his concern on having two different subjects handle two different transactional data that are meant for comparison would be prone to erratic judgments. Additionally, as highlighted by Pollizi, the existence of a data warehouse serves the corporation but not to an optimal level.
Master Data Objects
Formulation of an enterprise architecture that is simple and explicit would provide the simplest tools through computerized design to ensure that the master data objects of the corporation can use the same tool simultaneously in accessing data from the warehouse. Using this approach would light the future of the business to the extent of expanding to more departments due to the pressure of necessity. Aligning the business capability with respect to these principles will change the outlook of the whole business because the principle of reuse will to some extent reshuffle the sales and merchandise departments. The master data objects make the shape of the business. However, the shape of BJ’s corporation can be made compact if these master data objects are made as distinct as possible; a process that would be best tackled through enterprise architecture. These master data objects are members, vendors, products, and employees. As they can be described to provide the shape of the business through determining the scales of operation, they happen to be the most important units in the business.
Business Capability Map
The master data objects (members, vendors, products, and employees) shape the business capability. For instance, retail sales involve product. As a matter of fact, the product is obtained from a vendor; however, the retail sale directly uses the product, not the vendor. The vendor is therefore removed by one-step. This changes the shape and capability of the business. Additionally, the sales and merchandise departments are mainly based on the purchase and sale of their products; therefore, these departments are tightly linked by it. Fundamentally, the business capability map is shaped by how necessary a master data object is to the profitability of the business. Generally, enterprise architecture involves prioritization of activities and creating a list of preferences which ultimately produces a distinct business capability map.
In fact, building another department in its current structure would seem inappropriate and lead to unnecessary expenses while with the integration of this technology, the business will feel the pressure from strategic business entities that will need expansion. The gap between the current status of the business and that of the future given that this proposal will be adopted is not that big. This is attributed to the rapid impact technology can have on the services a business offers and its managerial criteria. Moreover, each of these principles is guided by a misfit in the current operational procedures of the organization. For instance, the existence of an independent sales and merchandise department in the business map calls for the simplification of its operations into more compact and necessary entities. If all these principles are adopted, it would be easier to identify how successful each of Polizzi’s concern has been addressed in how short a time.
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