Nils Labusch

The insurance industry is a rather traditional industry. Major transformation was not an important issue for decades. However, this is going to change now. Among the transformation drivers are a changing regulation, the financial crisis, changing customer perceptions and digitalization just to name a few. In this article we present results from explorative studies with industry experts and consultants. We discuss major challenges for insurance companies which are dealing with two very different markets, with a very special product and with IT innovation as a constant challenge. We outline types of transformation that we have encountered, like e.g. industrialization and standardization, outsourcing and acquisition. Finally, we sketch some fields where insurance companies need to engage in order to achieve transformation readiness, including reduction of complexity, governance, and incorporating appropriate human transformation resources.

Due to their holistic approach and some common terminology, Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) and Business Transformation Management (BTM) are two disciplines that need to be investigated in order to better understand their synergies, and to understand where each is best applied. This article aims at clarifying the relationship of EAM and BTM, as well as their respective methods. The article is based not only on the authors' discussion of the Enterprise Architecture and Business Transformation question, but on ten interviews with experts from science, consulting and industry practice, and on feedback provided by a sounding board of several SAP experts and managers. It was discussed with the experts who key users and stakeholders are, which problems need to be addressed, which goals are pursued, and the benefits and value added. The authors further investigated capabilities and competencies needed and how EAM and BTM are evolving.

The discipline of enterprise architecture (EA) has become well-established in many organizations and is continuously discussed in academic literature. However, EA's effectiveness beyond IT is limited. The paradigm of architectural thinking aims at reaching the 90% of an organization that is not related to IT. The paper contrasts the abstract definitions of architectural thinking with empirical case study data. We find that practice has developed implementations of these abstract definitions. However, we also find new characteristics of architectural thinking that have not yet been discussed in literature. Specifically, these are the role of decisions and the role of formal governance mechanisms.

Enterprise transformations (ET) fail in many cases or do not accomplish the expected goals. Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is often considered to be an appropriate means to tackle this problem by providing information that is relevant to ET managers. Therefore, we analyze, which types of information provided during an ET contributes to its success. In addition we discuss if EAM can appropriately support ETs by providing relevant information. The results show that value can be provided to ET management when business-related information on a detailed level is offered. Examples are business requirements, business functions, or qualitative measures. We find information that can be provided by EAM to be an important success factor for ETs.

Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is considered to be a means to contribute to fundamental change (enterprise transformations) in organizations. Based on qualitative interview data, we investigate how EAM contributes to meeting the information needs of transformation managers during an enterprise transformation (ET). We identify the type of information EAM can provide to ET management. We further identify the activities conducted during ETs that foster information needs. Our results differentiate between information that EAM can provide, can partially provide, or cannot provide, to an ET effort.

Enterprises from time to time have to go through radical changes, oftentimes referred to as enterprise transformations (ETs). Depending on the type of ET that is conducted, different information requirements exist. In order to support ETs, a reference information model should therefore distinguish different ET types. Based on the empirical analysis of ETs that is used to determine four ET types with different information requirements, we construct such a reference model in the paper at hand. The application of the model is exemplified with the case of enterprise architecture management as an information provider.

Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is a means to guide the consistent evolution of business and IT artifacts from an enterprise-wide perspective. This paper aims at understanding the means by which EAM supports this coordination task. Informed by theory of coordination and based on empirical data (n=95) we group participating enterprises in different clusters: (1) non-coordinators, (2) dominators and (3) negotiators. We find that a similar awareness of opportunities exists in all three clusters, yet there are gaps in the realization of EAM coordination support: non-coordinators show the lowest realization, negotiators the highest. Based on this clustering and two follow-up focus groups, we provide implications about the occurrence of the clusters in enterprises and on further EAM development options.

In recent years, many different modeling techniques and languages were developed in order to allow for an efficient and appropriate enterprise architecture management (EAM). Recently, EAM is no longer only seen as a means to ensure business/IT aligment but further as a means to support fundamental changes of the organization, often called enterprise transformation (ET). In a joint project with a group of practitioners we aim at developing a framework that provides guidance on how EAM can support such ETs and thus leverage the benefit of modeling. Our design results after more than one year of research reveal different types of EAM, areas of action in ETs and ET activities that can be supported by EAM. The findings show that modeling techniques or languages should focus on constructs like transitions, benefits or risks in order to increase their value for ET support.

Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is considered to be a valuable means in order to support large-scale changes, called enterprise transformations (ET). In the study at hand we apply an explorative qualitative approach in order to investigate the potentials of EAM to support ETs by discussing the topic with highly knowledgeable informants that deal with EAM on a daily basis in nine different companies. The results reveal six propositions about the current and future state of EAM as an ET supporting discipline. The propositions reveal a distinction between IT and business focused EAM, means and activities taken by EAM to support ET, major pitfalls that need to be avoided as much as per-ceptions about the future of the discipline.