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The purpose of Enterprise Architecture is to optimize across the enterprise the often fragmented legacy of processes (both manual and automated) into an integrated environment that is responsive to change and supportive of the delivery of the business strategy. Effective management and exploitation of information and Digital Transformation are key factors to business success, and an indispensable means to achieving competitive advantage. An Enterprise Architecture addresses these drivers by providing a strategic context for the evolution and reach of digital capability in response to the constantly changing needs of the business environment.

For example, the rapid development of social media, Internet of Things (IoT), virtualization, and cloud computing has radically extended the capacity of the enterprise to create new market opportunities.

The advantages that result from a good Enterprise Architecture can bring important business benefits, including:

• More effective and efficient business operations:

— Lower business operation costs

— More agile organization

— Business capabilities shared across the organization

— Lower change management costs

— More flexible workforce

— Improved business productivity

• More effective and efficient Digital Transformation and IT operations:

— Extending the effective reach of the enterprise through digital capability

— Bringing all components of the enterprise into a harmonized environment

— Lower software development, support, and maintenance costs

— Increased portability of applications

— Improved interoperability and easier system and network management

— Improved ability to address critical enterprise-wide issues, such as security

— Easier upgrade and exchange of system components

• Better return on existing investment, reduced risk for future investment:

— Reduced complexity in the business and IT

— Maximum return on investment in existing business and IT infrastructure

— The flexibility to make, buy, or out-source business and IT solutions

— Reduced risk overall in new investments and their costs of ownership

• Faster, simpler, and cheaper procurement:

— Simpler buying decisions, because the information governing procurement is readily available in a coherent plan

— Faster procurement process, maximizing procurement speed and flexibility without sacrificing architectural coherence

— The ability to procure heterogeneous, multi-vendor open systems

— The ability to secure more economic capabilities

Ultimately, the benefits of Enterprise Architecture derive from the better planning, earlier visibility, and more informed designs that result when it is introduced.

[Source: The Open Group White Paper: Why Does Enterprise Architecture Matter?]