Enterprise transforming initiatives
Z. Okonski, Emily Parker · IEEE Power and Energy Magazine · 2003
As the utility marketplace continues to evolve, long-term survival and prosperity require clear, strategic thinking on the enterprise transforming initiatives needed to effectively increase efficiency and improve revenue opportunities. After a vision is formulated or refined, one of the crucial steps to be undertaken involves a business-process modeling exercise aimed at determining the operational processes that will support the strategy. In many cases, business-process automation (integrating information across systems) serves as the foundation for an enterprise business-process model. Adapting a modern business-process model includes embracing change. Toward that end, enterprise-application integration (EAI), the nimble strategy that involves technology and process that enables disparate systems to exchange business-level information in languages that each understands, provides the backbone infrastructure for implementing a business-process model. Ultimately, EAI serves as the enabler of high-level strategies detailed out as part of a business-process modeling effort and provides the flexible framework to address changing business climates.