Command and Conquer: How to Get a Flexible IT Backbone

All companies are basically built using the same architecture—no matter if they are big or small, in Europe, Asia or the Americas. All have a business model, processes and IT applications. The business model describes what products and services are produced for which markets, who the customers and business partners are, and the company’s plan for the future.

Processes, however, are built for each company based on the business model. A bank, for example, has different processes than a consumer goods/retail or a chemical/pharmaceutical company. Nevertheless, all processes, no matter the industry or business, exist to support the business model. Each process exists at varying levels of maturity—from ad hoc and manual processes to well-documented and automated processes.

Processes are not just something your business does. Processes are your business.
If you consider your business as the sum of its individual processes it’s obvious that
you have to manage them properly. But how can you manage or even improve your
processes if you don’t know them? The answer is simple—you can’t!