Enterprises:Supply Chain Architecture Concept Assessment

Motivating Scenario

Supply chain integration has been an issue over many years, but the latest de-globalization trend, together with the intent to increase supply chain resilience created a situation in which enterprises need to look for solutions to integrate new partners very quickly, and in an agile way, into their supply chain, or to adapt to changes in supplier availability.

There exist offerings by major software vendors that help with enterprise integration, such as Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS).

You, as a strategic architect, are asked to give recommendations to enterprises on the way forward to implement a plan, which increases their agility through the adoption of applicable integration technologies.

Accordingly, you are asked to write a report, in which you:

1. Identify the participants of the market that would be impacted by the introduction of technology solutions that support rapid and agile enterprise integration,
2. Describe the Business Concept, that outlines the vision of this strategic initiative. You will need to conduct brief strategic analyses to demonstrate the state of affairs in enterprise integration technology.
3. Detail a strategy and plan for companies to implement the vision, including the goals and objectives, and the principles that should guide the required transformation impacting the stakeholders in the supply chain.
4. Describe, using a so-called ‘dynamic business model’, what would be involved in the transformation of the present business model that is currently based on long term and stable supply chain relationships.

Submission

• The total length of the assignment, including figures, is likely to be ~10 pages including figures (excluding text of this template), but there is no strict word limit,
• Please do not change or delete this template from your submission.
• Consider Assignment 1 as the draft of the Final Assignment. Submit in pdf or docx format.
• Keep your docx file, because for the Final assignment you will have to use Microsoft Word’s Review > Track Changes function to make it visible where and how you improved the assignment based on the feedback to the first submission.
• Assignment 1 can be done individually or in groups of maximum three, but the final submission (with your revisions) will have to be based on your strictly individual work.

Make sure your statements are backed up by evidence cited from literature. The majority of references must be peer reviewed journal and conference papers, or other authoritative sources (like government publications), and not only web pages, blogs or other unreliable opinion pieces.

1. Identification of the Business environment

Briefly describe the industry sector: what major relevant entities are involved, what are their roles? (This means all industries and players / consumers – whether they are involved directly or indirectly).

1. The Business Concept

1.1 The vision – the present and the envisioned business model (short statement of vision, from the point of view of the proposed strategic technology transformation)

Note that most of this would normally be stated by someone very senior in industry, and developed with the help of advisors, analysts, and planners, and subsequently agreed on with stakeholders or stakeholder representatives.

• Who are the stakeholders and what are their products and services, why change is necessary, and what is to change?
• What is the value proposition of this vision (for the listed stakeholders)? [Note that there may also exist stakeholders who perceive a negative value in the change.]
• Will there be any change in the relationship between stakeholders as a result of the proposed change? Address this only briefly. [In reality this would be addressed by a complete market analysis.]
• Will there be any change in terms of the financial / economic / competitive position of participants in the industry sector / marketplace [leader/ follower/ niche/ laggard?) Identify factors that influence the participants’ positions from these aspects
• What entities should be involved in the implementation of the vision? [Note that the details of their roles will be described in Section 4.)
• When and where should all of the above happen (timing)? (In other words, how to organise this change into stages in time, what should be the scope of change in each stage and why)?

1.1 Brief strategic analyses / feasibility study [~ 1 page – normally this study would be more detailed than this assignment allows]

To complete strategic analyses, one would engage strategic analysis firms / consultancies to complete these analyses, as well as one would refer to scientific literature and other authoritative sources.

Technology: How do existing technology and technology trends compare, i.e., how mature is present technology, ultimately is the vision feasible? (Note that strategic programmes usually start before complete technology maturity and readiness exists, or predicted future competitive situations materialise, etc. We often consider alternative futures, as well as use a staged approach)

• Financial viability (e.g., is the investment needed understood?)
• Analysis of Product / Service / Market related opportunity or issue exist that must be addressed (e.g., quality, source, legal, stability …)
• [Some of these may not apply to your specific case]
• Competition (does any competition exist in this area, either domestically or internationally that influence the urgency of implementing the vision (so as not to be left behind or miss a long-term target)
• Risk Analysis (what risks do you see that can derail the implementation of the vision and how to address these)

[this would normally entail the conduct of a detailed risk analysis, on the ‘appropriate level’ – i.e., risk analysis further down the track would consider details that on this level are not yet available)

Analysis of the current state of Resources and Capabilities that influences the feasibility of implementing the vision (existing / missing / envisioned human-, technical-, infrastructure-, logistics-, IT resources and capabilities)

1. Strategy to implement the vision

Strategic Goals and Objectives to be achieved to achieve the vision

[Normally, for each concrete objective that help progress towards the attainment of a goal, it would be expected to also specify how we shall measure success – such as defining performance indicators and critical success factors, but in this assignment, you are not required to do this].

Principles underlying the planning, design, and implementation of the vision

Here you should state policies / principles that guide the planning, design, and implementation activities / projects, and are also expected to be used in the governance of the change.

Note that in general there exist two types of policies and principles that are to be considered and relevant for the development of architectural solution(s) that support the strategy.

1. Regulatory Policies and Principles that are common and not specific to the strategy (e.g., taxation policies, national and regional laws), such that all proposed architectural solution alternatives must comply with these, because otherwise they would not be valid. Usually these are stated by reference to standards or laws.
2. Governance-mandated Policies and Principles that guide the selection of the best possible architectural solution that fits the strategic intent, and against which architectural solutions can be evaluated to determine which one fits best. These need to be explained and arguments presented why they are important and what are their priorities.

• Stakeholder relationship management principles
• Capability-related policies and principles
• Technology principles
• Organisational and human resource principles
• Information management policies and principles
• Process management policies and principles
• Investment / financial management / efficiency related principles
• Quality principles
• Risk management principles
• Policies and / or principles regarding systemic properties (ilities)

4. Strategic Plan to implement the vision

• Create a dynamic business model that lists the main entities involved, including existing, new, and transitional entities (such as a change programme and change projects)
• Represent on the dynamic business model the life-cycle relationships among these entities so as to be able to read from this model what change activities are necessary to make the vision reality.