1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:05,280 Welcome back to the Better Business Analysis podcast with 2 00:00:05,280 --> 00:00:08,640 your host Benjamin Walsh. And today we dive into a topic 3 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:13,960 that I had on a probably a weekly basis and I tried to 4 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:19,080 frame it under the heading Connecting all the bits and 5 00:00:19,080 --> 00:00:21,440 pieces. And what I mean by that is that 6 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:24,800 we need to connect our systems and our processes to generate 7 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:29,480 value for our business. That's part of the reason we are 8 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,119 business analysts and why we are business professionals. 9 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:36,520 And it will requires 2 mindsets, the business mindset and the 10 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,920 technology mindset and that comes under what is classified 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:41,680 generally as enterprise architecture. 12 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,760 But today we're going to dive in why and how and what you might 13 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:52,480 want to integrate across your business and how you can explain 14 00:00:52,680 --> 00:00:59,160 why this is valuable to AC Suite and a Better Business Analysis 15 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,000 Institute presence. The Better Business Analysis 16 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:11,680 podcast with Kingsman Walsh talk to business leaders all the time 17 00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:14,920 about this. Most of my day involves doing 18 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,960 some kind of technical advisory, even though I'm a a business 19 00:01:19,160 --> 00:01:26,240 architect and analyst and it is around explaining that there 20 00:01:26,240 --> 00:01:29,880 isn't really an easy solution to all their problems. 21 00:01:29,920 --> 00:01:34,440 As in there is no one box that will solve their problems. 22 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:36,640 And I'm going to give you an example. 23 00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:40,080 So ERP systems or enterprise resource planning systems are 24 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:43,480 great for manufacturing, right? And there are business models 25 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:47,040 which suit that one platform to rule them all. 26 00:01:48,920 --> 00:01:55,080 Very few businesses that I deal with necessarily require multi 27 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,000 $1,000,000 ERP. But even if you do have that and 28 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:03,360 you're big enough to need that kind of system for your industry 29 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:06,240 or your size, there are other systems you have. 30 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,560 You have e-mail clients, you have Microsoft Productivity 31 00:02:09,560 --> 00:02:12,960 Suite or Google Productivity Suite, or you have some custom 32 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:17,560 apps and AWS. All of those things are part of 33 00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:21,280 what's called your architecture. And I talk a lot about business 34 00:02:21,280 --> 00:02:23,560 architecture. That's the game I play and 35 00:02:23,560 --> 00:02:26,200 enjoy. But today we need to think about 36 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:32,640 how does the processes and the people and our environment, how 37 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:37,000 does all of that relate to our technical architecture? 38 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,480 And usually what you will have in an organization is someone 39 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:45,120 called an enterprise architect. And that name sometimes is given 40 00:02:45,120 --> 00:02:48,960 to more than one person. But the idea of enterprise 41 00:02:49,040 --> 00:02:53,480 architecture is to do both the business side and to connect the 42 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:55,920 technical side. So your technical architecture. 43 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:59,800 And you'll find that people that usually have the term or the job 44 00:02:59,800 --> 00:03:02,800 title enterprise architects are actually enterprise technical 45 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:05,880 architects. And so they look at this Indian 46 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:09,280 state and they draw these really high level solutions, which is 47 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:11,280 fantastic. We need these. 48 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:16,440 We need to make some decisions around our technical 49 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:19,000 architecture, and I'm just going to say architecture for the rest 50 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:23,080 of the episode. And you need to just assume I'm 51 00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:24,920 talking about technical architecture here. 52 00:03:26,240 --> 00:03:29,400 So if you have your ERP system, you need your productivity 53 00:03:29,400 --> 00:03:31,400 suite. So you need, you know, your Word 54 00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:37,280 and your Excel and you need your Teams and you need your Outlook. 55 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:41,560 You need all those underlying functions regardless of which 56 00:03:41,560 --> 00:03:44,040 vendor provides. But generally you buy them 57 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:45,760 bundled and you can't ignore that. 58 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:48,200 So you're buying the Microsoft suite, or you're buying the 59 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,600 Google suite, or you're doing some kind of open suite. 60 00:03:50,600 --> 00:03:52,200 There aren't actually that many options. 61 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:56,040 So you're using that, especially in a corporation. 62 00:03:56,760 --> 00:04:00,360 And that is where your data's flowing, your data is flowing 63 00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:03,040 and living in those systems and you're producing the, that's 64 00:04:03,040 --> 00:04:06,080 your interface, right? Then you might have an 65 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:09,280 operational system or an ERP, as I talked about before, our CRM 66 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:13,680 system, you've heard these terms and you are storing information 67 00:04:13,680 --> 00:04:16,000 in a structured way in those systems, which may integrate 68 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,839 with your website, which is another interface, a touch point 69 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:21,040 for your customer. And then maybe you've got a 70 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:26,200 reporting suite like Power BI or Tableau or something, which is 71 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,480 connecting to your operational systems, usually more than one 72 00:04:29,480 --> 00:04:33,000 because you've got a financial system and a CRM and something 73 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:35,200 else. And that all needs to come 74 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:39,160 together in a case of way, ideally in an easy way, ideally 75 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:45,920 in what we call kind of single storage of data. 76 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:48,280 So you're not storing the data in more than one place. 77 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:50,400 So that costs money. When you store things, 78 00:04:50,400 --> 00:04:53,160 especially in our cloud environment, you have to move 79 00:04:53,160 --> 00:04:55,880 data, you have to integrate these systems and it all becomes 80 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:59,400 complicated. So the first thing that I see 81 00:04:59,400 --> 00:05:06,920 are CTO or CIO more so or CEO will think about the C-Suite. 82 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,400 We'll think about especially if they're not hugely technical or 83 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:13,400 haven't come from that background is they don't 84 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:14,880 understand the inner workings of that. 85 00:05:14,880 --> 00:05:19,200 They may not care, but the reality is they to operate, you 86 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:25,520 need to get you as ABA and you as a architect, and it needs to 87 00:05:25,520 --> 00:05:29,560 be efficient. And if these systems can't send 88 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:32,600 the information back and forth and don't talk to one another, 89 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,400 then your business process is inefficient and therefore your 90 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:39,600 business is inefficient. So I'm going to cover off quite 91 00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:42,640 a few ways here that you can think about this problem, how 92 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,880 you can connect the bits and pieces. 93 00:05:46,720 --> 00:05:50,040 OK, Number one is the digital glue. 94 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:55,000 So why do we care about connecting these systems? 95 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:59,320 I've gushed on it, but data, primarily data. 96 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:03,120 So to get rid of all the complexity of systems. 97 00:06:03,120 --> 00:06:06,200 C-Suite executive or a person on the street can understand this, 98 00:06:06,400 --> 00:06:12,080 that data, a piece of data is only powerful when it flows just 99 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:16,840 like water to reverse system. If you have disconnected 100 00:06:16,880 --> 00:06:20,320 systems, then you have an efficiency, you have 101 00:06:20,320 --> 00:06:24,600 duplication, you have data solos, you have risk, you have 102 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:28,400 potentially trust issues because 1 area of the business doesn't 103 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:30,480 know about what's happening in the other in the era of the 104 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:36,600 business, or they come up with two different results from AB as 105 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:41,320 perspective. Disconnected solutions break 106 00:06:41,320 --> 00:06:47,600 processes, they frustrate users and they create blind spots for 107 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:53,600 decision making. So a great solution regardless 108 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,160 of what it is. So you know, a sales force or a 109 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:58,800 or whatever you're putting in the widget that you're putting 110 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:05,280 in that's not connected to the rest of the ecosystem is like a 111 00:07:05,280 --> 00:07:11,720 smart person talking to themselves and like a soundproof 112 00:07:11,720 --> 00:07:14,200 room. Doesn't matter how smart that 113 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:18,000 one component is, if it can't talk outside of that to the rest 114 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:19,720 of the systems. The data's not flowing. 115 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:24,440 You really haven't got any further in terms of what your 116 00:07:24,440 --> 00:07:28,520 enterprise needs into a little bit more detail here. 117 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:32,960 Business functions are really isolated. 118 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,920 So the functions that support your processes are really 119 00:07:36,080 --> 00:07:39,240 isolated. So a customer journey crosses 120 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:42,320 multiple systems. Customer journey is what your 121 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:44,640 customer's trying to do to get their job done. 122 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:49,280 And so that will go from CRM, maybe a CRM system to your 123 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:51,680 ordering system to fulfilment to billing support. 124 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:57,000 Most organizations will not have that all in one system for good 125 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,200 reasons, which we'll touch on in a minute. 126 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:03,920 So therefore your customer journey experiences and and has 127 00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:06,440 touch points with all of those areas either directly or 128 00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:10,720 indirectly through phone call, e-mail, website. 129 00:08:12,080 --> 00:08:14,640 So when systems aren't connected, it's not just an IT 130 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:18,640 problem, it becomes a business performance issue in these 131 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,680 silos. They kill visibility, reduce 132 00:08:21,680 --> 00:08:26,120 agility and create inconsistent data stories, which is where 133 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:29,840 this trust issue comes. So an example would be in 134 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:34,440 education, a student record might live in, I don't know, the 135 00:08:34,440 --> 00:08:40,760 tenant system and might exist in say the ministry's financial aid 136 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:43,679 system. It could exist in the reporting 137 00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:47,000 platform, it could exist in a learning management system. 138 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:49,520 And if they're not all connected, tracking a student's 139 00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:54,760 well-being or performance becomes manual or error prone. 140 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:56,000 OK. And that's that's kind of the 141 00:08:56,000 --> 00:08:58,640 word I'm living in at the moment in in some ways. 142 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,000 And then we'll jump on to the number 2 point. 143 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:08,840 So we know that it's important to have this glue, but why can't 144 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:12,840 we just put it in one system? Why one system to rule them all 145 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:18,160 kind of fails in reality. So it's it's it's really 146 00:09:18,400 --> 00:09:20,560 tempting, especially for executives. 147 00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:25,440 You'll get this in your life. I have on an executive team. 148 00:09:25,800 --> 00:09:29,680 We are. It's easy to imagine 1 mega 149 00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:34,160 platform that does everything OK, but it creates complexity, 150 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:38,960 it's rigid. You end up probably spending a 151 00:09:38,960 --> 00:09:43,520 lot of money on customizations because those, because those 152 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:46,840 systems are so big and they have to have such a wide scope. 153 00:09:46,840 --> 00:09:51,240 They're not really focused on one doing one thing well. 154 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:55,080 And therefore, to get the differences you want for your 155 00:09:55,080 --> 00:09:56,760 business, you have to customize it. 156 00:09:57,280 --> 00:09:59,840 And then it's longer delivery timelines when you want to 157 00:09:59,840 --> 00:10:02,080 change something because you're generally going through 1 vendor 158 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,320 and then you're, you're locked into that vendor and your data's 159 00:10:05,320 --> 00:10:08,520 locked in. Sometimes even if you, even 160 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:11,480 though we're getting better at having some policies and 161 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:15,040 decisions out there worldwide that allow you to get your data 162 00:10:15,040 --> 00:10:17,760 out. So one system to rule them all 163 00:10:17,760 --> 00:10:19,760 becomes one system to slow them all. 164 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:24,240 Does that make sense? So that's kind of a a good 165 00:10:24,240 --> 00:10:29,520 analogy there. And I know from my experience 166 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:31,520 that if you're a smaller business, it might be really 167 00:10:31,520 --> 00:10:35,720 great to have one system. But number one is don't look at 168 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:39,240 necessarily spend your time looking at all the features of 169 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:42,520 that system. Look at it, it's integration 170 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:45,400 ability, OK. And if you, if it's got great 171 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,840 integration ability with other systems that that vendor doesn't 172 00:10:48,840 --> 00:10:52,840 own, so it uses an open system AP is all the rest of it you 173 00:10:52,840 --> 00:10:55,440 know connects to Zapier or whatever other integration 174 00:10:55,440 --> 00:11:00,520 platform that's out there, then that's a good sign, OK, compared 175 00:11:00,520 --> 00:11:02,680 to one that doesn't, it doesn't mean you should buy it. 176 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:06,560 It could be really crappy in terms of how it fulfils the use 177 00:11:06,560 --> 00:11:10,200 case, but it definitely has one of the attributes you need to 178 00:11:10,200 --> 00:11:11,760 worry about, which is integration. 179 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:19,520 And I guess the other point about that is that these systems 180 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:24,640 have this romantic notion of simplicity, but actually really 181 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:28,920 comes at the cost of agility. And they're quite hard to 182 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:34,120 evolve. And even systems which are 183 00:11:34,880 --> 00:11:39,320 behemoth or monolithic like Eips, like SAP for example, 184 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:41,080 would be one of the world's biggest. 185 00:11:42,240 --> 00:11:47,800 The ones that do well and don't have this problem the most have 186 00:11:47,800 --> 00:11:50,920 actually started to create the various areas. 187 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:55,920 So, you know, customer management or inventory 188 00:11:55,920 --> 00:12:00,680 management, they have created those as separate apps that 189 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:03,560 didn't live on a platform. So a platform with various apps 190 00:12:03,560 --> 00:12:09,200 that talk to one another is much more preferable than a system 191 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:14,360 which has tightly integrated modules that are that cannot be 192 00:12:15,360 --> 00:12:19,480 pulled out as separate apps. If you want to know more about 193 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:22,800 that, it starts to get quite technical, but there are a few 194 00:12:22,800 --> 00:12:24,920 systems out that they're built that way. 195 00:12:24,920 --> 00:12:29,680 So I'd say a Microsoft Dynamics 365 and a sales force are more 196 00:12:29,680 --> 00:12:34,280 of what the latter where there are modules and it allows 197 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,520 optionality for choice. An example would be here. 198 00:12:37,520 --> 00:12:41,400 If you take a large public agency, they will try and 199 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:44,440 consolidate all their data into one massive ERP or a data 200 00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:49,240 warehouse or a whatever and years and millions later they 201 00:12:49,240 --> 00:12:53,760 had a slow rigid system no one liked and ended up kind of 202 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:56,760 layering smaller tools on top just to make it usable. 203 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:01,600 They haven't a lot, especially if you are locked into a vendor 204 00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:05,960 and that vendor doesn't upgrade their system or that system has 205 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:10,480 decided to invest in function but not experience user 206 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:12,680 experience. So it's really hard to use from 207 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:15,280 AUI point of view. So it looks like doesn't look 208 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:18,920 very nice, but it happens to be feature rich. 209 00:13:19,040 --> 00:13:22,920 Again, SAP comes to mind. OK. 210 00:13:22,920 --> 00:13:25,600 So what's the other end of the spectrum? 211 00:13:26,680 --> 00:13:30,080 The other end of this spectrum is something that became really 212 00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:33,400 popular a few years ago and you may have heard the term it's 213 00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:37,560 called microservices. So you can go to the other end 214 00:13:37,560 --> 00:13:40,320 and go, well, that's bad. Having one system, why don't we 215 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:45,480 just have lots or thousands of Microsystems or microservices? 216 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:49,640 Sorry, and that isn't the answer either, but I'm going to explain 217 00:13:49,640 --> 00:13:53,480 why. Micro services, they promise 218 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:58,120 agility and scalability, but only when governed well, OK, 219 00:13:58,120 --> 00:14:02,400 because you could still have many disconnections, right? 220 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:04,880 And you have to create these kind of mini solutions. 221 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:10,480 So you end up with chaos in the integration layer and you end up 222 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:14,120 with like kind of a bit of a dependency problem between the 223 00:14:14,120 --> 00:14:18,240 systems and then you have to manage the security and the 224 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:20,200 maintenance he'd actually get across. 225 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:25,280 So I would say that micro services done badly are just as 226 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:28,800 kind of dysfunctional as one behemoth. 227 00:14:29,640 --> 00:14:36,200 And but in saying that, if you are a custom product shop or you 228 00:14:36,200 --> 00:14:38,520 really understand it and you own your understand your 229 00:14:38,520 --> 00:14:41,400 architecture well and you don't have lots of micro services, 230 00:14:41,400 --> 00:14:45,480 just a few that are manageable, it is a better option than just 231 00:14:45,480 --> 00:14:48,560 having one behemoth. However, that isn't the sweet 232 00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:52,080 stop spot. Let me just give you one kind of 233 00:14:52,080 --> 00:15:02,400 example of what where you might use micro services in a good way 234 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:05,320 because I don't want to. It is quite new and it is better 235 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:08,080 than what we've had. And that is when you're doing 236 00:15:08,080 --> 00:15:12,880 kind of scathing large systems, but it only works if you've got 237 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:15,400 governance and orchestration and documentation. 238 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:19,320 So you everything has to have high levels of integration, 239 00:15:19,320 --> 00:15:23,000 which is what a ideally the the reason for having a micro 240 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:25,680 services that that's what it allows you to do because it does 241 00:15:25,680 --> 00:15:29,160 one thing really well. And you need to be able to have 242 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:33,480 kind of API gateways which are managing all that. 243 00:15:34,080 --> 00:15:36,560 And you need to have kind of a service mesh to manage the 244 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:40,240 communication and you need kind of like document interfaces. 245 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:45,080 So a fintech start up might be good because it's got different 246 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:48,440 services that do things well. But if you don't invest in 247 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:53,920 service discovery or contract versioning and your deployment 248 00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:59,480 processes, then it's really hard to work out where and what 249 00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:03,480 services are breaking your processes if something breaks. 250 00:16:04,640 --> 00:16:08,320 So what I would suggest for most businesses, and I like I said, 251 00:16:08,320 --> 00:16:16,880 there's no one rule to kind of fix your problem is really when 252 00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:18,560 you're looking at the sweet spot. 253 00:16:18,560 --> 00:16:22,040 And that is just integration done right in, in my simple 254 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:24,800 terms. And that is when your solutions 255 00:16:24,880 --> 00:16:29,000 are modular and loosely coupled. So they're not tightly coupled, 256 00:16:29,480 --> 00:16:35,120 but they're tightly aligned not to necessarily each other, but 257 00:16:35,120 --> 00:16:39,760 to the business capability and the step in which your users and 258 00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:42,600 your customers are wanting to perform. 259 00:16:43,240 --> 00:16:47,080 So you need to focus on business driven integration. 260 00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:53,320 So you can connect where data flows, but only if it's 261 00:16:53,320 --> 00:16:55,480 valuable. So another way of saying that is 262 00:16:55,480 --> 00:17:00,160 to connect where value flows through value streams and you 263 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:04,720 need to think about what I would defer affirm we over use this 264 00:17:04,720 --> 00:17:09,119 word actually argument about what this word means today, but 265 00:17:09,319 --> 00:17:14,640 it's around prefer platform thinking over point to point 266 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,640 hacks. So platform thinking being 267 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:21,800 something where you've got your base services platform for me 268 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:27,440 isn't necessarily Azure, AWS. It is having these consistently 269 00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:31,200 used services you want across your organization as a base and 270 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:37,320 then building these kind of areas which have value in their 271 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:41,200 own space as separate systems or services. 272 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:45,560 So let me say that another way. If you were like for example 273 00:17:46,200 --> 00:17:49,840 wanted ACRM system, most CRM systems out there now will 274 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:54,360 integrate you know Hub, a HubSpot, Microsoft CRM or it's 275 00:17:54,480 --> 00:17:58,800 Dynamics 365 and Salesforce. They actually have really good 276 00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:01,720 integration layers. And if you love that tool and 277 00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:05,000 system, it's probably OK to use it because it integrates well 278 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:07,920 and it's decoupled for CRM and it makes sense to do all your 279 00:18:07,920 --> 00:18:11,240 CRM in one place. So all those processes are 280 00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:14,840 tightly coupled from a business process point of view and a 281 00:18:14,840 --> 00:18:19,040 value point of view. Now what makes sense for 282 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:22,120 example, is have that as it's own system, but then any of your 283 00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:26,360 authentication layer or maybe your web content or anything 284 00:18:26,360 --> 00:18:28,760 that's shared would be on the plat. 285 00:18:29,560 --> 00:18:33,680 So it's OK to have that as it's own system and to use 286 00:18:33,680 --> 00:18:36,840 integration to move data around. But I would say you wouldn't 287 00:18:36,840 --> 00:18:38,960 want more four of those big things. 288 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:41,480 Does that make sense? You wouldn't want to break that 289 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:45,400 CRM system down to lead management and then have another 290 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:50,600 interface which was managing your customers, managing your 291 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:52,920 opportunities. Had those as separate services 292 00:18:52,920 --> 00:18:55,640 or systems, it would become chaotic, right? 293 00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:58,600 That's why we have CRM systems in the 1st place. 294 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:01,800 But you don't necessarily want to grow that system out, so it 295 00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:05,680 does everything. So you can use things like 296 00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:09,200 integration patterns and you can use things like business 297 00:19:09,200 --> 00:19:12,720 capability maps, which is a business architecture term to 298 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:15,720 really anchor the integrations that you need and where the 299 00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:19,920 value flows. I would suggest that what you 300 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:26,400 could do to figure out if you should maybe buy a kind of a 301 00:19:26,400 --> 00:19:30,680 package system like ACRM system to fill your needs, or an ERP or 302 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:37,120 both, or which systems you should look to integrate more 303 00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:39,880 closely. All which ones you could 304 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:44,320 specialize in and have a a tiny micro service widget to the side 305 00:19:45,120 --> 00:19:46,800 is to map out the information flow. 306 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:51,320 So map out the information flow across business processes, where 307 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:55,080 data starts, where it travels, and where it's consumed. 308 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:57,160 Use the data management life cycle to do that. 309 00:19:57,840 --> 00:20:00,080 Identify the integration pain points. 310 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:03,840 So where is manual re entry? Where is inconsistent data? 311 00:20:04,160 --> 00:20:07,280 Where do you need to reconcile? That's always a bad word. 312 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,400 Or you've got kind of what we call swivel chair operations. 313 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:13,800 Where are the touch points for your customer? 314 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:17,040 And start speaking the language of integration, like 315 00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:19,520 understanding what a web hook is. 316 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:24,120 Data contracts AP is REST, AP is integration tools like 317 00:20:24,120 --> 00:20:31,840 zapiermake.com. 8 N 8 N which is a free tool and then collaborate 318 00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:36,880 with architects to shape integration patterns that make 319 00:20:36,880 --> 00:20:39,600 sense for your business, not just IT. 320 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:42,520 And if you drew it up and you work with your enterprise 321 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:46,120 architect, then when you make a decision about what systems you 322 00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:49,400 should introduce to your ecosystem, it becomes way 323 00:20:49,400 --> 00:20:50,840 easier. OK. 324 00:20:51,080 --> 00:20:55,000 And and and then there is some insights you can and some 325 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:58,200 patterns you can draw. So for for example, if you are 326 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:02,320 using the Microsoft Office suite and you have Microsoft Dynamics 327 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:06,960 365, it probably makes sense for you to use Azure, which is under 328 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:13,800 all that to do some small services for various reasons, 329 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:17,720 cloud cost moving a data, the way it stores it contracts, 330 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:21,880 authentication, it will might not make sense for you to go, 331 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:23,880 oh, there's something great in AWS. 332 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:27,600 Let's just change our pattern for that because it's going to 333 00:21:27,600 --> 00:21:29,760 cause you headaches. These are all the world's of 334 00:21:29,840 --> 00:21:32,200 architects, but it's a great example. 335 00:21:32,200 --> 00:21:36,200 Again, if you're using the Google suite and you're a 336 00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:40,200 startup company and you're doing everything fast and custom, 337 00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:45,440 maybe on AWS, maybe on Google Cloud, introducing Microsoft 338 00:21:45,440 --> 00:21:49,400 offer, sorry, the Microsoft Teams, and then using that to 339 00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:51,880 save your documents doesn't really make sense. 340 00:21:51,880 --> 00:21:54,800 You should use Google Drive. So you can start to generalize 341 00:21:54,800 --> 00:21:58,240 some of these patterns and that they are, you will see if you're 342 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:00,880 working on the space, you start to have these same conversations 343 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:02,840 again and again, especially with management. 344 00:22:04,360 --> 00:22:07,960 So is your business more like Frankenstein or Ironman? 345 00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:12,200 Frankenstein, which is stitched together with no plan or Iron 346 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:15,600 Man, where there's modular components that are seamlessly 347 00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,800 connected. As a BA, your job is to help 348 00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:21,800 build Iron Man. I'll see you next week.