Architect Roles in e-Business

To understand e-business architecture, we will start by defining the terms e-business and ecommerce.
You may have heard these terms used interchangeably. The Internet itself is continually transforming, and these terms are redefined on an ongoing basis. In this course, we will define eCommerce, or what is sometimes termed iCommerce, to mean business transactions conducted online. This includes, for example, the actual transaction of buying and selling products and services using the Internet.

How does e-business relate to the Internet? For the purposes of this course, we describe e-business as encompassing much more than the Internet, and more than eCommerce or iCommerce. e-business includes more than computers and the Web; it encompasses phone, fax, and more importantly, other yet-to-be invented electronic devices. We might even say that Internet was not the start of e-business, but that it has simply amplified its influence, particularly on the businesses-to-consumer (B2C) frontier.
The graphic below describes the relationship between e-business and eCommerce or iCommerce.

Now that we understand the relationship between e-business and eCommerce, let us discuss e-business architecture and the role of the e-business architect. Within this course, we will define e-business architecture as the structure or design of an e-business.
To fully understand the e-business architects' role, it is important to appreciate the effect of introducing e-business into the traditional business environment.

The important thing to remember is that e-business is still business.
Although many companies make the assumption that e-business is separate from the existing business; this is often not the case. The digitalization, globalization, and deregulation that is so much a part of e-business, simply provides an alternative or additional route to market, and an automated way of doing more of today's business.
There are many technical and operational differences between e-business and non-e-business activity.
The focus may have shifted, but there are also many components that overlap and interact. We will now examine the e-business of redesign.

The goal of the e-business architect is to provide a unified view of the e-business and its effects on the existing business.
The successful e-business architect must therefore understand the overlap between business and e-business activities to ensure the success of the enterprise. He/she must focus on and consider new elements of business activity, but also be aware of the effects and interactions of these activities with existing practices and systems.
The role of the e-business architect requires a very broad knowledge base. In a sense, the e-business architect is more accurately defined as a business re-designer, rather than an e-business architect. As you learn more about the scope of the architect's role, you will see why this distinction is important.
Within the bounds of current technologies, it appears that some goods sell well electronically and others do not. Whatever the product, the architect's role in addressing the needs of the business is to look at new ways of addressing the customer. It is to act as an integrator, a translator, and a facilitator of the design process.
The following series of images below describes the role of the e-business architect:

There are also a number of key concepts about business architecture that many organizations struggle with.
There are multiple components that make up business architecture and business architecture comprises multiple components and organizations should adopt those that are most relevant. Each component depicts a different type of information and provides a different type of value. It is not only important to understand the components, but also how they relate to each other.
Generally, there is not one single component, which is more important than another. However, depending upon what the business situation or problem dictates, certain components may provide more value than others. It is critical for a business architect to understand that the same component cannot be used to solve every business problem, but rather each problem is unique and the techniques needed to solve it are unique.
Business architecture is not just about the

1. strategy,
2. business process,
3. business capabilities, or
4. the data.

It is about putting the pieces of the puzzle together in order to get a complete view of a business problem. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

As we will see later in the course, the architect is in many ways a regulator, a decision-maker, and a designer. In the next lesson, we will look at the scope of the architect's role and responsibilities.

Before you move on to the next lesson, click the Quiz link below to assess your understanding of scope of architect's role and responsibilities.
ebusiness Architect Role - Quiz