Client Lifecycle Management A Vision for Enterprise Architecture

When looking at their enterprise architecture, Financial Services firms usually approach this from one of two main viewpoints; application architecture or business architecture.
The business view outlines the processes and standards by which the business operates on a day-to-day basis (BAU). The application view defines the interactions between the standardised processes (operating model) used by the organisation.

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Thinking strategically about both of these architectures will deliver benefits.

Whilst an enterprise business architecture is the blueprint that defines the structure and operation of your organisation, it is a common mistake that firms often buy or develop and deploy different platforms, in silos, for the same purpose across their functional lines. For example, many firms still have multiple payment processing applications and at least a handful of CLM / Onboarding applications.

These firms inevitably find themselves stuck with platforms (and sunk costs) that need significant altering at best, or entire replacement at worst, every few years. This is where an application architecture that describes the behaviour of applications used in a business (mapped to business functions), and focused on how they interact with other applications and with users, is as important as the business operating model.
In the CLM space, this application architecture should have the explicit goal of enabling the widest use of the CLM application

across the firm’s logical functional divisions (functionally flexible), as well as enabling low cost / quick updates when changes are required (configurable and adaptable).
In addition, a strategic architecture needs to consider and be designed from two further angles: The information angle defines and classifies the raw data (such as source data, documents, databases and spreadsheets) that the organisation requires in order to professionally and compliantly operate. While the technology perspective defines the hardware, operating systems, programming and networking solutions required by the organisation.
Bringing these complementary viewpoints together for a holistic approach is as challenging now as it always has been; as business drivers, operational models and current and emerging technologies all evolve over time, but rarely in step.

Whilst taking a holistic approach is challenging, it is more likely to achieve an architecture that delivers both efficient operations and application relevance across geographical jurisdictions and business verticals.

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