The Role of Enterprise Architecture in the Quest for IT Value

Organizations in virtually every industry are facing unprecedented pressures from many external forces. In an environment characterized by more regulatory mandates, more customer demands for better products and services, and an accelerated pace of technological change, some executive teams are turning to enterprise architecture (EA) to help their organizations better leverage their IT investments. The results of our study show there is a positive relationship between the stage of EA maturity and three areas of IT value: (1) ability to manage external relationships, (2) ability to lower operational costs, and (3) strategic agility. We also found positive relationships between EA maturity and improved business-IT alignment and risk management. Although these findings are based on responses from 140 CIOs working in a single industry that has been slower than others to leverage IT (U.S. hospitals), we believe they provide useful guidelines to help organizations in all industries increase the value from their IT investments.