Question 1
You design a Solution Architecture, based on SAP S/4HANA, for an internationally active customer that has a national subsidiary in China and other countries that have special requirements for data storage. As the responsible Enterprise Architect, your task is to propose a solution that takes these special requirements into account. How do you proceed when your customer's Architecture Guideline calls for following a "cloud-first" approach?
The customer's architecture guideline calls for following a 'cloud-first' approach, but this does not mean that all solutions must be deployed in the cloud. In some cases, private cloud or on-premise options may be necessary to meet the customer's data protection requirements.
For example, if the customer's subsidiary in China requires that data be stored within China, then a private cloud solution in China may be the best option. Similarly, if the customer's other subsidiaries have different data protection requirements, then a hybrid solution that combines cloud and on-premise deployments may be necessary.
The Enterprise Architect must carefully consider the customer's specific requirements and constraints before making a decision about the deployment environment.
Here are some of the factors that the Enterprise Architect should consider:
The customer's data protection requirements:The Enterprise Architect must understand the customer's specific data protection requirements and ensure that any solution meets those requirements.
The availability of cloud-based solutions that meet the customer's requirements:Not all cloud-based solutions meet the same data protection requirements. The Enterprise Architect must ensure that the cloud-based solutions that are being considered meet the customer's requirements.
The cost of different deployment options:The Enterprise Architect must consider the cost of different deployment options, including cloud, private cloud, and on-premise.
The scalability and performance requirements of the solution:The Enterprise Architect must ensure that the solution meets the customer's scalability and performance requirements, regardless of the deployment environment.
By carefully considering all of these factors, the Enterprise Architect can make a decision about the deployment environment that meets the customer's specific requirements and constraints.
Topic 2, Case Study -- Wanderlust
Introduction
Wanderlust GmbH, headquartered in Germany but with manufacturing facilities and sales globally, is a leading global manufacturer of conventional fuel driven cars. They are renowned for their best-in-class engineering, but not so much for aftermarket customer service. In recent years, Wanderlust has had limited success expanding into the market of electric vehicles. Following is Wanderlust's geographical manufacturing and supply spread:
Wanderlust offers one compact electric Sedan (model ELAN) and one compact electric SUV (model ELUV), each with three variants -- basic (LX), mid-range (VX) and high-end (ZX). Customers can also choose from a range of five metallic colors, two drive trains and two battery ranges.Overall, 50 different combinations are offered for all segments and variants put together.
Extracts from CEO Interviews -- Business Environment
Constraints/Issues
o Stiff water consumption regulations and enormous penalties for violation -- Lithium extraction is a
heavy water intensive process and mine locations are in very arid areas like the Australian outback
and Atacama Desert
o Significant dependence on external suppliers of Lithium batteries due to limited number of
manufacturing units, long lead times and high carbon footprint in all car manufacturing facilities except
Brazil.
o Long delays in spare battery availability, leading to an avalanche of unresolved battery related
customer complaints for vehicles under warranty
o Limited charging infrastructure, long charging cycles (as compared to refilling fuel) and slow resolution
of battery related complaints.
o Dwindling in store footfall due to pandemic (for feature-based vehicle selection prior to test drive)
Wanderlust offers one compact electric Sedan (model ELAN) and one compact electric SUV (model ELUV), each with three variants -- basic (LX), mid-range (VX) and high-end (ZX). Customers can also choose from a range of five metallic colors, two drive trains and two battery ranges.Overall, 50 different combinations are offered for all segments and variants put together.
Extracts from CEO Interviews -- Business Environment
Constraints/Issues
o Stiff water consumption regulations and enormous penalties for violation -- Lithium extraction is a
heavy water intensive process and mine locations are in very arid areas like the Australian outback
and Atacama Desert
o Significant dependence on external suppliers of Lithium batteries due to limited number of
manufacturing units, long lead times and high carbon footprint in all car manufacturing facilities except
Brazil.
o Long delays in spare battery availability, leading to an avalanche of unresolved battery related
customer complaints for vehicles under warranty
o Limited charging infrastructure, long charging cycles (as compared to refilling fuel) and slow resolution
of battery related complaints.
o Dwindling in store footfall due to pandemic (for feature-based vehicle selection prior to test drive)
Extracts from CIO Interviews -- IT Environment
Extracts from CIO Interviews -- IT Environment
Strategic Priorities - IT
o Ease of usage
o Ease of Maintenance
o Total Cost of Ownership Optimization
o Time to Value Acceleration
Transformation Status
o Only at a conceptual stage -- no planning done yet
o Nascent architecture practice
o Unclear on supported processes, required capabilities, applications, and transition path
o Yet to identify, prioritize and sequence initiatives
As-Is Architecture
Wanderlust has a separate organization and setup for their Automobile and Aftermarket businesses
o Wanderlust is reluctant to consider cloud for Core applications due to data privacy concerns, but are
open for Collaboration applications
o Automobile business started off in Europe and grew through acquisitions in Asia and Americas
o Automobile business runs on three continental SAP ECC instances with inherited, disparate
processes, which need to move to S/4HANA
o Automobile business is also looking to harmonize their processes across the continents, adopt a
seamless, transparent global supply chain for batteries and consolidate the continental instances into
a global single instance, data regulations permitting
o Automotive business uses a highly complex custom developed dealer management solution on ECC,
which needs to be replaced
o Automotive business uses SAP APO, which is nearing end of lifecycle and needs to be replaced by
IBP (DP & SNP) & S/4HANA (PP-DS)
o Automotive business uses several bespoke non-SAP applications, which are considered
irreplaceable, except for the Marketing and Sourcing applications, whichare expensive to maintain,
seldom used and henceneed to be replaced
o Aftermarket business processes are largely uniform and handled through a single ECC instance which
also should move to S/4HANA
o Aftermarket business uses SAP SCM which is nearing end of lifecycle and needs to be replaced by
S/4HANA AATP (gATP) and eSPP (SPP)
Extracts from Interview with Enterprise Architect
Enterprise Architecture Dimensions & Maturity
o Wanderlust's Key EA Dimensions, their overall purpose and current maturity level
Top three priorities given the current maturity level, are as follows
o Stakeholder Involvement is the topmost priority, to create a Stakeholder Map that'll identify all key EA stakeholders within Wanderlust
o Business-IT Alignment is also a top priority, to anchor every IT initiative to a Business Strategy Map,
consisting of clearly defined strategic business objectives, tangible goals and measurable value drivers
o Architecture Development is the next priority, beginning with development of business architectures, followed by application architectures and finally opportunities & solutions planning
Enterprise Architecture Practice Structure (Current)
Enterprise Architecture Principles
o Wanderlust's Enterprise Architecture Principles are a collection of crisp and precise one liners
pertaining to business, application, information, integration, technology and security aspects of
transformation
o Some of the EA Principles in the repository are
These EA Principles serve as high level directional statements and long term guard rails to the above
six aspects of transformation programs & projects
o They should ideally correlate (many to many) with the Strategic Objectives, defined in the Business-IT
alignment EA Dimension -- this is yet to be done though
