The latest Open Group member spotlight focuses on Eric Boulay, Président Directeur Général & CEO, Arismore, France, who has been involved with The Open Group since 2004.
Q: How long have you been involved with The Open Group?
I have been a member of The Open Group since 2004.
Q: What spawned your personal involvement in the organization?
I shared The Open Group’s conviction that it is crucial to set up an architecture process that involves all stakeholders within an information system.
Q: Why did your organization become a member of The Open Group and how is your organization specifically involved?
We became a member of The Open Group because of the organization’s efforts to better enhance the enterprise architecture profession. It is the only independent organization that works on EA best practices and helps bolster the enterprise architect’s skill set while raising awareness of the industry at large. In addition, the Architecture Practitioner Conferences are unique meeting points to gather high-value professionals and share experience with senior enterprise architects and senior managers. The Architecture Forum is a first-class sample of enterprise architects from both vendors and end-users. Finally, The Open Group offers many different workgroups that study nearly all of today’s key IT issues.
My organization, Arismore, is involved in hosting the French Franchise of The Open Group, as well as the Localization Workgroup. We are also connecting The Open Group with major French groups such as the CIO Group (CIGREF) and Architecture group (Club Urba); recruiting new members (CEISAR, France Telecom, La Poste); and providing training and TOGAF certification in French. In fact, our French TOGAF courseware was certified by The Open Group in July 2008.
Q: What key forums/initiatives are you personally involved with at The Open Group?
I am personally involved with the Architecture Forum and the Localization Workgroup. We are also a member of the Case Study workgroup. Since Enterprise Architecture is a relatively new profession, education and training is a key point of focus for me and my company.
Q: How has membership in The Open Group benefited you, your organization and the industry at large?
Arismore was founded to promote EA best practices. Since EA is a young discipline, it is important to benchmark French best practices with international best practices. The Open Group offers me and Arismore a very valuable view on these practices as well as method framework. It validates our conviction that enterprise transformation is not led solely by business, top management or IT; instead, success is based on a smart cooperation between all stakeholders. EA is an enterprise process that enhances the decision process in every phase of information system transformation. For me, The Open Group is the first body to explain that enterprise architecture is not simply a bunch of deliverables; it is an enterprise-wide process and the Architecture Development Method (ADM) is a valuable workflow that makes the process easy to roll out.
Q: What contributions to The Open Group are you most proud of?
In 2007, CIGREF, a major CIO group in France, decided to support The Open Group and enterprise architecture by participating in the April 2007 Architecture Practitioners Conference in Paris and by launching an “EA Group” to host CIGREF members and fellows interested in practicing enterprise architecture. The EA Group will also be a reviewer of a localized version of the TOGAF pocket guide. CIGREF’s participation is a strong recognition of The Open Group’s value to the global IT community.
Q: Why is it important for other organizations to join The Open Group?
Government agencies and companies are facing more and more complex issues to align IT with business or customers’ expectations, mostly due to size or international operations. They need a strong common understanding of the goals, requirements, models, assets and process necessary to transform the enterprise and its respective information system. The Open Group is a unique and independent association which provides a comprehensive framework to achieve this challenge. Regardless of your bandwidth, you can use TOGAF inside your company or share your experience with peers, thus participating in the evolution of this important industry standard.
Q: Any last thoughts?
As a first deliverable of The Open Group’s localization effort, Arismore is proud to announce the TOGAF 8 certification course, which was released on July 24, 2008. French speaking companies can now access TOGAF 8 with courseware and case studies in their language - a key point to ease TOGAF access for French speaking architects who are eager to consider using TOGAF. Large French companies in a variety of industries, such as telecom, services and banking, are increasingly considering EA as a management practice to foster enterprise transformation and to align IT with their business needs.
There is a long tradition of systems modeling within the enterprise architecture community in France - all major government agencies and companies use this approach to build views of business, application and technical architectures. The French courseware of TOGAF will bridge the gap between business and IT and reinforce the value of creating architectures that support tangible business processes. The real value remains in the TOGAF 8 artifacts and principles which are written in English. Teaching French architects about these tools in their local language will make them much more accessible. Arismore’s new TOGAF course reinforces our strategy to be a center for enterprise architecture excellence and advance the status of this emerging profession.