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W. Thomas Hamlin
PRINCIPAL CONSULTANT
Thomas has comprehensive experience in the modeling, designing and delivering business architectures that support the integration of data, metadata, information, and processes across the enterprise. As a result of this effort, business managers are in an improved position to understand their enterprise as an integrated system and IT has an enhanced vision of the business intent. Ultimately, the deliverables are used for strategic and operational planning, business process improvement, and risk mitigation. Thomas' consulting experience includes advising senior executives on the implications of enterprise integration, data management, data governance as related to technology within their organizational to support improved operational efficiency.
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Posts by this author
Business Architecture: An Actual Assessment
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 28 August 2009 / 10:04 AM : 0 
There may be considerable value in a debriefing from a recent assessment. The client company is an international engineering firm with enthusiastic growth plans. Their goal is to grow their revenues by over 300% within 10 years and expand their international presence among other things.
There was one central driving issue that was the genesis for our engagement. It was to provide the client’s Director of IT with an independent non-technology specific review of their IT infrastructure, enterprise architecture, application portfolio, policies and procedures, methods and processes, and best practices. Can you guess...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 28 August 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Continuity Business Modeling Business Value Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration IT to Business Alignment
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Business Architecture: Aligning technology to your situation
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 17 August 2009 / 10:32 AM : 0
On occasion consultants are brought in to an engagement where the client already knows the answer. This is a case of finding a messenger to shoot while the client retains their job. Sometimes consultants are accused of using a client’s watch to tell them what time it is. The real value of bring in consultants is to learn something new about your organization or to acquire some new skill or insight. The right consultants can bring a different perspective to an organization struggling against external market or regulatory pressures. But watch out for the consultant that offers a "one size fits all" prepackaged (read single sour...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 17 August 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration IT to Business Alignment
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Business Architecture: The Business Value of Process
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 27 July 2009 / 1:12 PM : 1
In a previous post, I discussed the Business Value of Information. Using the automotive metaphor I described it as the fuel for the process engine. This week I will discuss the process engine.
Process is how we get work done. I have a process for making tea and brushing my teeth. My banker has a process for approving or rejecting home loan applications. His process needs more improvements than mine. Processes are described with VERB NOUN combinations like MAKE TEA.
When analyzing business processes you can start at a high level and decompose to lower levels. For example, very high level ...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 27 July 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View: Business Architecture and Requirements Gathering
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 15 July 2009 / 5:17 PM : 0
There is a difference. It is a BIG difference. The difference is between traditional Requirements Gathering and performing the same work using the principles of Architecture.
Traditional requirements gathering focus solely on the immediate project’s sponsor and budget. It is based on ROI calculations to reduce costs. It optimizes a project at the expense of the entire business, i.e., the Enterprise. It can be documented on pizza boxes and cocktail napkins or for the semi-enlightened by using an Office package including a Word Processor, Spreadsheets and a Presentation/Drawing package. The documents are not in...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 15 July 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business Value of Information
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 09 July 2009 / 12:45 PM : 0
Let’s start with an Automotive analogy to Business Architecture. A vehicle represents the business/enterprise. What does information represent? What does the vehicle’s engine represent? Here is my take on it. If the business is a vehicle, then information is the fuel for the “process” engine.
If this is true, why are we still having discussions between the business and IT about the value/quality/importance of information/data? However, if we have low “octane” fuel for a high performance engine, the results will be less than stellar. The only hope for the business to stay in the race is that their competition is...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 09 July 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business Value of Enterprise Architecture
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 06 July 2009 / 10:44 AM : 0
The businessman wants value. But, what does value mean and how do you measure it? Back in the good old days when we were replacing people with machines and software, it was the Return on Investment (ROI) or some other financial calculation that demonstrated value. If the businessman increased cash flow in some manner, the IT project was a winner. Integration was not an issue to the business or IT.
For almost five years I consulted as a Business Architect at an automotive OEM in the Detroit Michigan area. I sat through numerous IT presentations to the “business” where ROI returns in the range of hundreds of millio...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 06 July 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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Business Architecture: Human Factors Success
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 26 June 2009 / 8:55 AM : 0
Many years ago Egyptian Hieroglyphics were seen as unintelligible to modern man, who admired them for their beauty. It was not until 1822 by the British scientist Thomas Young and the French scholar Jean-François Champollion found and interpreted the “Rosetta Stone” containing hieroglyphics along with several more modern languages was the mystery solved. The point not to miss is that the Rosetta Stone added something to the hieroglyphics - it added text.
Business Architecture like Egyptian Hieroglyphics requires two presentation modes to be fully understood. Business Architecture requires graphical models and support...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 26 June 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View: Different Architectural disciplines within Enterprise Architecture
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 15 June 2009 / 4:53 PM : 0
To the businessman or manager there seem to be an increasing number of IT positions containing Architecture within their title. If Enterprise Architecture is the organizing principle for better understanding of the enterprise as a unified whole, why are there so many “architectures” and why are they important? Do too many cooks spoil the broth?
Architecture in the strictest sense takes one component of an enterprise/system and develops it from an idea to a physically implemented solution. The basic components of an enterprise are information/data, process/work flow, location/network, organization/roles, events/schedules...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 15 June 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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Business Architecture: Frameworks and Reference Architecture Definitions
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 05 June 2009 / 8:04 AM : 0
There is some confusing terminology around Enterprise and Business Architecture. So, let us establish some definitions.
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 05 June 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View of Enterprise Architecture: If it quacks like a duck
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 04 June 2009 / 11:10 AM : 0
There seem to be a confusing array of solutions to today’s challenges being proposed by a variety of different consulting firms. Large businesses may use Management Consultants for their strategic direction and guidance and a different IT consulting firm to implement. Middle market businesses can choose from a number of combination consulting firms that offer both management and IT consulting. Each consulting firm suggests a variety of catchy names for their method, but which one should you choose?
For a brief moment, take a step back and reflect on your business/organization. What do you see around you? You se...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 04 June 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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Business View: Where did my business process go?
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 19 May 2009 / 9:19 AM : 0
Recently while reading a new book about SOA, I came across the following quotes. My comments and clarifications are italicized.
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 19 May 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View of Enterprise Architecture: Everything Old is New Again
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 08 May 2009 / 10:31 AM : 0
It was once said that “a mess is a system of problems”. As a business manager you are certainly faced with a real big mess that has developed over a period of time, some elements of which are out of your control. Unfortunately there is not a Lone Ranger with his faithful companion, a Superman, a Batman or any other “super hero” who can help. It is up to you. So the most logical place to start to clean up the mess is at the beginning.
From my business experiences, two questions immediately come to mind. First, what is the “payback” if I commit the resources and do the work and secondly which element of the mess offe...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 08 May 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View of Enterprise Architecture: Back to the Past to get to the Future
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 01 May 2009 / 9:37 AM : 0
The old rubric says it all, “The reason God could create the world in just six days is that He didn’t have any installed base”. As the Creator, He created all the information any one could ever want. However, we mere mortals must do our best with our very limited faculties to catch up.
But, what we have is enough! We have the wisdom of the ages transformed into a very workable framework for discovering, organizing, using and maintaining the information about Enterprise resources sufficient to answer any “Business C-Level Manager” question about the resources and get a promotion (well, maybe a hearty thank you is reward en...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 01 May 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View: What we have NOT learned
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 27 April 2009 / 8:48 AM : 0
As the old saying reminds us “Even a blind hog gets an acorn once in a while”. Our distributorship was much luckier than we initially thought. True, we overspent on hardware, but I believe we recovered that over time with increased productivity. What I realize now, supported by almost 20 years in the “IT Business”, is that we were completely integrated and internally consistent across the entire enterprise! Not many businesses can say that today no matter what their size, wealth, sophistication, or industry.
The Reason: we simply had only ONE system. When the system went live, the manual records and invento...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 27 April 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View: Moore’s Law
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 17 April 2009 / 8:52 AM : 0
What seems so obvious to us in hindsight in 2009 was entirely novel in the early 1980s. A good case in point is Moore’s Law which reflects the increasing power of technology. That is, since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958, the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years. In our case, we paid 4 times as much when we purchased the system as it cost the following year. This really hurt.
Today, when I speak to groups about technology and technological solutions, I remind them that the watch I purchased at...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 17 April 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View: The OTHER Requirements
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 10 April 2009 / 8:47 AM : 0
We had muddled our way into a real quagmire. Our initial assessment that the “System Contracts” challenge was solely a technology issue was beginning to badly fray around the edges. We had spent almost a year understanding our Data and Process requirements before asking the End Users what they needed! From a Management perspective, we had captured enough detail to get a firm price and delivery schedule and we thought we understood our staff’s and customer’s needs. Some customer needs turned out to be expensive “wish lists” made up of Industry Buzz Words. Our “road was pa...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 10 April 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Business Modeling Enterprise Integration
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The Business View: Defining THE Requirements
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 02 April 2009 / 7:07 AM : 0
Let’s start with another quote:
"Likewise, contemporary management experiences are not so helpful as they could be to other managers. We still find each company and each industry believing its problems are unique. A discussion of present-day experiences in the context of another situation often elicits the rejoinder, "Yes, but my industry is different." Because of the lack of a suitable fundamental viewpoint, we fail to see how industrial experiences all deal with the same material, financial, and human factors - all representing variations of the same underlying system."
- Jay Forrest...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 02 April 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Enterprise Integration
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The Business View: From the Beginning
W. Thomas Hamlin, Principal Consultant : 20 March 2009 / 7:31 AM : 1
The Business View: From the Beginning…………
To frame this effort, I will take a “business perspective” and support that point of view with real life examples, some appropriate theory, and as little “techno-speak” as possible. To set the stage for the business reader, the first few posts will develop a background narrative. It is recommended that the business reader start with the first post and follow through the series and not skip around to obtain the best understanding of the issues. I will respond to questions as they occur.
Let’s start with a...
Posted in Enterprise Integration & IT Strategy on 20 March 2009
Tagged: Business Architecture Enterprise Integration
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