Business Architect - ERP Development

My career experience has been developing commercial ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software for 7 industries: large scale corporate management, manufacturing, distribution, retail, travel, property management, and construction. I have also worked for larger corporations in Hawaii: Hawaiian Electric Company and Cheap Tickets/Cendant. I spent 6 years as Hawaii’s only Enterprise Business Engineer (EBE) with Century (now www.Pacxa.com ). My EBE deliverables included Visio process diagrams with Word narratives for enterprise business processes. My work at Century spanned several different industries including government agencies. I am an expert at financial reporting and reengineering a General Ledger Chart of Accounts – as well as building crosswalks between subsidiaries that require separate COAs. In each position I worked with the best technologies available at the time. My project management skills and written specifications are also excellent. Currently, I use MS Project 2013 in alignment with PMI PMBOK 5th Edition. In a nutshell, here’s my perspective of the deliverables and purpose for a Business Architect: To increase revenue and decrease costs through operational and financial analysis. This starts by building an Enterprise Business Architecture Portal (EBAP) as a collaborative repository for the current workflow (with costs). The second step is to reengineer the business with improved workflow and software with a series of phased graduated improvements. The additional profits from the initial improvement projects more than cover the cost of future improvements. Information technology has significantly evolved over the last year to support an integrated platform of web based technology. It is common for IT organizations to define the focus of a Business Architect to the hardware and networking infrastructure. This perspective downplays (and often ignores) the higher goal of providing long term planning and direction to grow revenues and increase profits. In the last few months, Microsoft has released significant improvements to the Office 365 “platform” to support scalable web business. The Office 365 platform is the scalable management of Microsoft’s server products integrated with HTM5 open standards. The Office 365 platform can be 1) hosted, 2) on premise, or 3) a hybrid combination. The management of the hardware, networking, and security is well defined by Microsoft so that an organization simply has to replicate the hosted environment offered by Microsoft. This evolution in infrastructure management allows “us” Business Architects to correctly focus on business solutions. I am passionate about SharePoint 2013 (SP2013) because it is a major evolution from previous versions. SP2013 is designed around the new App model. The App model is a major step up from the web part technology. SP2013 is a complete enterprise “platform” that integrates with all of the Microsoft enterprise server technologies for business. SP2013 is a “hub” integration technology that can bring together information from separate systems. It is also a full enterprise Document Management (ECM) solution. Windows Workflow is now completely integrated with SP2013 so that visual workflow diagrams created with Visio can be implemented using SharePoint Designer and Visual Studio 2013. SP2013 is the first platform to fully support integrated coexistence of web site (Content Management Systems) and enterprise business application development. Hawaiian Electric and Cheap Tickets both used Vignette as the “early” enterprise technology to integrate web transactions with back office systems. With Century, I used a combination of “best of breed” technologies to integrate ERP/LOB, Workflow, CMS, and Document Management. Early SharePoint technology was often part of the technology mix. All of these solutions were complex and extremely expensive. With SP2013 (and the Office 365 platform), large enterprises can now achieve these goals with a minimum of effort and costs. The key to getting it right the first time with SP2013 is Business Architecture reengineering. SP2013 is the best possible enterprise tool to organize and map all systems using a hybrid methodology of diagramming and narration with Visio (Windows) Workflow and SharePoint content. Visio Workflow Designer supports an integrated real world mapping of people processes, computer software, and databased information. SharePoint (with a correct methodology and custom apps) allows us to continuously describe and refine multiple complex relationships between each component (part) of a client’s internal and external (customers and business partners) business model. SP2013 provides 2-way transformations between Visio Workflow Diagrams and SharePoint Designer workflow Stages/Steps. Our visual process maps are the foundation for the SP2013 software Office Apps that are built. The Cloud Business App (CBA) has an ingenious technology (that has been in place for almost 4 years now) to support and manage Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) architecture. The CBA technology is teamed together with SharePoint, Workflow, and Office Apps. Using SP2013 as the repository for our business architecture deliverables will allow our clients to architect and implement a series of graduated projects that will increase profits and reduce costs . . . as well as develop new revenue programs in a competitive environment using agile methodology. I see this current Office 365 platform (including on premise architecture) as an unprecedented opportunity for a new era of web business software. This new platform allows us to create modular mini-apps that extend the functionality of existing ERP/LOB applications as well as creating a new breed of ERP/LOB apps. My expert marketing and sales skills have been applied within every position that I have held. In 1987, Apple awarded me their top corporate sales award for the western US division based on my accomplishments in LA and southern California. I’ve responded to hundreds of RFPs and worked with sales teams to win contracts. Austin provides the best environment for innovative business growth utilizing this technology opportunity. Therefore, I’m willing to forgo my love of surfing and Hawaii to be part of what I (reasonably) predict is going to happen in Austin within the next 5 years.

Application Support