Management of enterprise-wide systems integration programs

Abstract

Automation and Information Systems play both tactical and strategic roles in the success of a business enterprise. They also pose an extremely challenging set of management issues concerned with the selection and management of technologies, management of the workforce to achieve successful implementation and operational use, and the integration of automation and information systems with business operations to capture the full benefits. Systems Integration programs involve high levels of technical and management risk commensurate with the significant business benefits that may be achieved. New and emerging automation and information technologies for Computer Integrated Manufacturing/Distribution, image processing, real-time transaction processing, and customer service cut across all organizational and functional units of an enterprise and require full system integration to capture their potential benefits. A wave of re-engineering programs are underway within commercial enterprises and the government to modify their business processes to take full competitive advantage of these technologies.

There are numerous examples of both well managed and hopelessly mangled systems integration programs in both the public and private sectors that lead to the need for better management approaches. The management of software development has been a particularly troublesome area. This article presents a general model of the management structure to implement a systems integration program, using an enterprise-wide Information Systems Architecture (ISA) as a roadmap, and supported by a defined set of measures and metrics. Standards, although no panacea for systems integratio, play an important role in the architectural framework.

The Information System Architecture approach described in this article is comprehensive in covering application software and data architecture as well as the computing and communications hardware infrastructure and other automation technologies that support the overall business process. The objective of the accompanying management model is to define a management structure, its essential functions, and methods that support a traditional systems development approach, as well as new approaches using prototyping and evolutionary development. Any of these management approaches require an ISA that is comprehensive in supporting business objectives, resilient in accommodating changing business conditions and technologies, and useful in producing a practical information architecture that can be applied to business operations. Examples of the ISA approach that support systems management are discussed for representative types of enterprise in the manufacturing sector and the service sector:

• (1) The Manufacturing/Distribution Enterprise example uses automated manufacturing and materials handling systems supported by MRPII software to integrate engineering, distribution, and financial systems; and

• (2) The Financial Services Enterprise example applies automated transaction processing using image processing and document management systems to achieve improved products and a more productive workflow with enhanced response to customers and/or clients.