| | October 20168CIOReviewBy Nitin Kadam, Director & Enterprise Architect, Capgemini OPINIONSince the advent of digital revolution and adoption of more agile methodologies and principles for execution of IT projects, the role of an Enterprise Architecture and its effectiveness has come under a cloud of questions. Over the last couple of years though, enterprises have realized that the Enterprise Architect (EA) role has in fact become more critical and relevant than before.Let me set the content here. PwC's 2015 Global Digital IQ®+ Survey reveals some startling data points. In 2015 itself more than 68% of IT spending came from budgets outside of IT, a significant increase from 47% the prior year. As a result, we see that technology investments are no longer the sole domain of the CIO. The CEO, CMO, CDO are some prominent roles that claim a significant stake to the IT budget; thus resulting in a fragmented digital enterprise and hence require someone who has an ability to tie in various threads together to create a common view. This is where an Enterprise Architect/s is the one best positioned to take the reins in his own hands and use his experience to develop the to-be digital blueprint. He is the one who can ensure a synergy in the investments and efforts of various teams, to drive towards the enterprise goal and eventually the vision.To elaborate this point further, let us look at a few keys changes that digital transformation has brought along with it.· Traditionally an Enterprise Architect has been viewed as the techie guy doing complex IT things which requires a lot of money and time to implement and because of this perception, he has to make a lot of noise to get attention of senior management. The Digital Enterprise theme finds a prominent place in agenda of boardroom discussion and hence the direct involvement of CEO, CMO and in some organizations a dedicated CDO position. The challenge for these roles has been to ensure the convergence of various tactical and short term decisions towards the enterprises' strategic goals & objectives. This provides a golden opportunity for architects to get into more commanding position and get to work the way they always wanted to. IN MYTime for Enterprise Architects to Steer the Digital Challenge
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