Benefits of Enterprise Architecture with the ArchiMate Language

The shared customer view and coordinated customer services processes implemented through the transformation initiative described in this Case Study have improved ArchiMetal’s customer service and satisfaction. ArchiMetal’s customers, on average, rate the company much higher on periodic satisfaction surveys, and are much less likely to choose alternate suppliers. The shared customer view has also enabled ArchiMetal to coordinate customer negotiation, order fulfillment, and problem resolution across the enterprise. As a result, conflicting and duplicate efforts in these areas have been eliminated, and labor costs have consequently declined. ArchiMetal can now negotiate with customers, forecast demand, and resolve delivery issues as one company, which has resulted in more profitable customer contracts with accelerated delivery schedules.

These achievements have increased ArchiMetal’s revenue and decreased its costs. Upon recognizing the enhancement in business performance was due to fundamental and sustainable internal changes, ArchiMetal’s management ordered a comparison study of ArchiMetal’s financial performance and customer satisfaction with publicly available information within the automative supply market. A team of ArchiMetal’s financial, manufacturing, service, and marketing experts found that ArchiMetal was performing at a level comparable to automotive supply market leaders. ArchiMetal management then tasked the same team with a plan to enter that market.

… participants cited draft and final deliverables that enabled all stakeholders to collaborate regardless of their background, and provided a clear foundation for the work of specialists …

During a routine cross-disciplinary review of the entire transformation initiative soon after it completed, all participating stakeholders agreed that the work had gone more smoothly than comparable efforts in the past. They attributed this largely to better Enterprise Architecture. In particular, participants cited draft and final deliverables that enabled all stakeholders to collaborate regardless of their background, and provided a clear foundation for the work of specialists in areas such as software, database, and business process design. The ArchiMate views in the figures and tables of this Case Study were key elements of those deliverables.