The Case of Syngenta as an Example of the Enterprise Architecture Components

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Overview of the Case
Enterprise Architecture Components
Additional Enterprise Architecture Components
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The case of Syngenta told by Peter Hungerford is rather educative in nature. It provides an excellent example of the informed use of enterprise architecture (EA) and demonstrates its capabilities. Due to its rich potential for learning and an opportunity to implement knowledge of EA, it is paramount to study the case in detail, reviewing its key features and proposing certain measures to aid Syngenta.

Overview of the Case

Syngenta is an agriculture company that produces chemicals and seeds for the needs of farmers. It was formed as a result of a merger from two different agriculture-related businesses, Novartis and AstraZeneca in 2000 (Saran, 2010). Both companies possessed deep historical roots and established a corporate culture. As a result of the merger, the newly-formed Syngenta happened to have two IT groups, strategic and tactical (Saran, 2010). Yet the company’s goal was to create a business oriented toward a customer. In addition, there were problems with complicated soft usage and budget for the two IT teams that was not used optimally. The technical issues were also one of the primary issues in Syngenta.

In an effort to address the issues and lift the company to the heights of effectiveness, Hungerford and his team elaborated a strategy-based project that incorporated three main aspects such as application decommissioning, SAP and Microsoft simplification. The essential models for action were portfolio management and standard governance (Saran, 2010). The team managed to standardize desktop, transfer all data to pay-per-use databases and optimized the usage of SAP tailoring its utilization to the company’s needs.

Enterprise Architecture Components

Several EA components were demonstrated in this case study. The first is the introduction of new IT service. The team of EA professionals rightfully assessed the costs of storing, accessing and putting in data to owned servers, which is why it was probably decided to use outside services. This innovation helped optimize the company’s resources and let go of unnecessary complications in the company structure, which aligns perfectly with the goals of EA itself. The company seemed to have lots of unnecessary operations in progress that were probably established and deemed necessary through multiple stages of mergers, changes of priorities, management and ownership of the two companies from which Syngenta finally emerged. All these systematic problems and the use of owned servers, in particular, were the signs of the outdated technology of which the EA team decided to divert (Patil & Wongsurawat, 2015).

In addition to that, data flows within the company need to be further optimized through IT governance. The decommission of applications was one of the necessary operations to initiate. According to EMC (n.d.), companies tend to contribute plenty of resources on keeping old applications to maintain the stability of current operations. Yet, in a changing business environment, orientation on new software solutions is key for an IT company, especially one with the scale and size of Syngenta. With 70% of the companies still interested in maintenance and stability, orientation on innovation in the company allowed it to be technologically and strategically ahead of this 70 % of the potential competitors (EMC, n.d.). The beauty of this EA practice is that all the data, regulatory aspects of its use, and daily needs of business stay unchanged, provided application decommissioning is performed in a timely and informed manner.

Desktop optimization, Microsoft, and SAP usage simplification was also part of IT governance. These measures assisted Syngenta in preparing the workforce to the new, efficient standard of operation. Less useless work they perform, the more free time they have for daily tasks, which is directly linked to company’s effectiveness. By optimizing the day-to-day operation cycle of the company’s staff, EA team built a solid foundation for further upgrades.

Another key EA initiative was IT strategy. According to Saran (2010), the team tried to “take a bigger-picture architecture approach” (para. 4). Long-term It strategy for Syngenta was comprised of optimizing IT expenses with retaining and even increasing productivity. A secondary goal was apparently, to nullify the negative effects of the merger when two companies use different approaches to data management, storage, creation, and transfer. Unifying, standardizing, and simplifying these processes seems to have been a perfectly balanced solution. It provided the company with necessary instruments and unburdened it from design flaws so that it could stay optimally functional for the next several years or more. An essential part of the IT strategy was using a bottom-up approach to modernization. Given the long history of the newly merged organizations, it was the right decision to give them time to decide on global changes while optimizing minor issues of data flow.

Additional Enterprise Architecture Components

In order to bring further benefit to the company, additional EA measures can be suggested for implementation at Syngenta. For instance, security practices can be introduced as a standard for operation. Security is a fragile concept, and a company can rarely be 100% safe from breaches. Yet certain EA strategic measures such as risk calculation of potential threats should be implemented. It is also paramount not to commit to many resources to security but rather find a balance between the most possible or most severe threat and generate an appropriate response. The reason for such consideration is the fact that malware is advancing rapidly and software insecurity grows with it. It is easy to overspend on methods of protection, but one of the cheapest and most effective solutions is introducing new standards of security into the corporate culture. For instance, mandatory weekly password update for all employees could greatly decrease the incidence of data leakages (Safa, Von Solms, & Furnell, 2016).

It could also prove vital for the company to establish a solid process for gathering, analyzing, and acting on feedback. This EA intervention is also based on the notion of the fast-paced business world that forces the companies to be agile. Informed feedback could predict the rise of the structural problems in an organization, which marks the need for trends among employees. This instrument could also help keep track of successes and failures in other EA measures, which makes it a key component of change. Proper response and action on feedback can also help retain staff, as employees can often be loyal to organizations that value their input and opinion.

Conclusion

All things considered, the case of Syngenta presents an excellent example of the implementation of certain enterprise architecture components. Among the key ones were the introduction of new IT services, IT governance, and IT strategy. As a result of their integration, the company could concentrate on their customers and generate the best services due to optimized infrastructure and operational costs. Such measures as enterprise security and feedback management could also contribute to the company’s architectural sustainability.

References

EMC. (n.d.) Application decommissioning: Achieving rapid ROI with the InfoArchive table-based archiving method. Web.

Patil, S., & Wongsurawat, W. (2015). Information technology (IT) outsourcing by business process outsourcing/information technology enabled services (BPO/ITES) firms in India: A strategic gamble. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 28(1), 60-76.

Safa, N. S., Von Solms, R., & Furnell, S. (2016). Information security policy compliance model in organizations. Computers & Security, 56, 70-82.

Saran, C. (2010). Case study: Enterprise architecture at Syngenta. Computer Weekly. Web.

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