Influential analyst company Gartner Group has warned the channel not to dismiss enterprise architecture (EA), as its practitioners have the most significant impact on how IT budgets are spent.
According to its research, Gartner said EA influenced $1.1 trillion (£0.68trn) of worldwide enterprise IT spending in 2012, and half of all EA people have significant impact on IT budget activities.
The survey, conducted in July 2012, found that the EA person holds “a great deal of influence” over the final decision maker in the majority of cases. They have a “final decision-making” influence on $331 billion (£206bn) in worldwide enterprise IT spend and a “great deal of influence” on $774 billion (£481bn) in worldwide enterprise IT spending. Overall, EA practitioners are either the “final decision maker” or hold a “great deal of influence” on $1.1 trillion of the world’s IT spending.
An EA practitioner is now a serious job,” he said, “and they must deliver business value and strategic transformation, explained Philip Allega, Gartner’s managing VP. “Gone are the days of just doing EA with little value or impact.”
Now nearly 70 per cent of organisations rely on EA to align business and IT strategies, create commercial value or transform the business, he added.
If you are going to schmooze anyone, schmooze the enterprise architect, was Gartner’s message for the IT reseller. Perceptions have changed and they should be taken seriously these days, he warned.
EA practitioners have a high degree of influence over emerging technology purchases, with 52 per cent of the EA practitioners surveyed reporting directly to a CIO or CTO. They are also “very involved” in integration consulting services (64 per cent) and business applications (52 per cent). As EA practitioners work to make the technology do what the business leaders want it to do, their degree of influence will increase, according to Allega.
“This new generation of EA practitioners offers technology and service providers (TSPs) with an opportunity as well as a threat,” he said. “TSPs should develop targeted marketing to this new generation of EA practitioner as they have a significant influence on their organisation’s buying decisions. Those that fail to understand the priorities, strategic focus and impact of EA practitioners will jeopardise their ability to sell into an organisation.”
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