I recently presented at an Information Age Event – Social and Mobile Business.
The topic was an interesting one – Enterprise Architecture for the Social Enterprise. Until recently, social media was focused within the marketing department without much interference or input from IT. However, we’re now seeing a lot more thought put to how IT can help build out the Social Enterprise.
IBM have published a CMO/CIO research survey which indicated that CMOs are now looking at IT to help deliver their business requirements. Most marketing departments have not really needed a lot of support from technology.
So, my topic around architecture and how this fits into the Social Enterprise is now becoming more important. To quote directly from an article around this (click link above):
It is testimonies such as this that lead some to believe that social collaboration will soon be an essential layer of the enterprise information technology stack. This was the argument made by Alpesh Doshi, co-founder of social business consultancy Fintricity.
Doshi believes that the ‘social layer’ will in future be the point of interaction between employees and the underlying business applications and data repositories.
“The way that it works today is that you access an SAP or an Oracle system directly through a dedicated front end,” he explains. “But in the future, applications will be accessed via a digital workspace that is socially enabled.” Furthermore, Doshi said that the role of enterprise architects is destined to become more social in nature. He believes it will be their job to understand the ways in which employees collaborate and interact within the workforce and to adapt the enterprise architecture to facilitate that behaviour.
Just as social technologies are changing the way in which employees share information and communicate, mobile devices are giving rise to new ways to consume information.
Architecture needs to change and adapt to how social is applied. It’s a nascent discipline and one which requires further thinking around User Experience, Digital, Intranets, Analytics, Data etc.
