The Nexus Connected Enterprise Roadmap is a tactical approach to the development of
modern business solutions with the aim of developing extensible business applications and services
that connect people and processes to systems internally and externally. The main driver
to leverage the greatest competitive advantage from software systems.
The roadmap is comprised of 6 elements; from redeveloping legacy systems and connecting systems
together, to abstracting management information and creating plans to maintain and go on developing systems to
eliminate legacy risk in the future and to protect software investment. Use the tabs below to view a summary
of each step.
Connected Enterprise Roadmap
The Connected Enterprise Roadmap illustrates how Nexus technology can meet the modern technology challenges facing organisations.
The Nexus Connected Enterprise Roadmap is a 6 stage process each identifing common stages of technological capability. Each stage describes the condition of an organisations technology infrastructure. In reality organisations are likely to experience a combination of the stages. In general though, moving all systems along the roadmap will result in a highly integrated software infrastructure that enables the maximum return from software investment.
The roadmap helps form a basic opinion of a future software strategy by diagnosing current status of systems and their drawbacks whilst prescribing a tactical remedy to the current systems.
The 6 stages of the roadmap can be summarised by;
- Unlocking legacy systems (old systems) by transitioning them to new platforms enabling further improvements in the roadmap.
- Integrating systems together to create over arching functionality and benefits.
- Creating custom applications to meet the unique needs of the organisation.
- Creating a data abstration layer on top of integrated systems to create detailed views of the organisation (sually tied to KPI's) on which to make decisions, also known as Management Information Systems (MIS).
- Integration with external systems, usually up and down the supply chain and with trading partner systems.
- Service level agreements and a managed support infrastructure to ensure continuity of systems and constant improvements.
Legacy system migration
Legacy systems provide all manner of challenges for organisations not least the benefits of a connected enterprise cannot be obtained with old systems that will not integrate.
A legacy system is defined as a system based on either old hardware or old software standards. The most obvious image to spring to mind is of an aging mainframes and tape reels, however I reality there is no specific timeline to determine when a system has come of age. Some of the most complex legacy migrations to new platforms involve fairly recent Microsoft Access and network distributed ‘fat client’ programs.
Reasons to transition legacy systems to new platforms vary, but mostly the reasons come down to:
- Risk – Older systems tend to be difficult to impossible to find support for meaning that systems which are mission critical and required to have 100% availability pose a serious threat to the day to day operation of organisations. If the owner of the system is lucky the vendor will provide support in ‘legacy mode’, at some stage it would be expected that the vendor will reduce or remove support based on support cost becoming unviable.
- Opportunity/Cost – As a rule of thumb the older a legacy system becomes and the more data and users it accumulates the more expensive it becomes to transition.
- Improvement – Developing new features for legacy systems or integrating them into other systems is often purely economically unviable in relation to rebuilding the system on contemporary architectures and platforms.
Although the reasons to transition legacy system to new platforms are powerful so too are the perceived resistance to change by owners of the system. If there is no requirement to develop the system and the system currently works satisfactorily then the short term cost can seem high for little immediate benefit. Additionally these costs get higher for complex or monolithic applications, especially if they are undocumented or the understanding of the workings of the system has been lost in time.
The single most powerful determinate for a legacy transition can be derived from the specific benefits a new system can bring. Legacy risks aside, if capacity can be increased or costs reduced by developing new features of a system at the time of migration then there is probably an immediate business case for doing so.
Nexus can help determine what this business case might be by analysing the current systems and creating a functional scope for the next iteration of the system built on new a platform. The performance and benefits gap between the old system and the new system provides the necessary insight to provide a cost/benefit analysis of the transition.
Nexus builds applications based on cutting edge methodologies and technologies. Systems transitioned by Nexus will also benefit from open architecture that will support continual development and integration so the risk of the system becoming a legacy in itself is minimised. The Nexus Architectural Model (NAM) incorporates the best development practice that recent IT history has to offer.
Using such architectures not only allows Nexus custom applications to be integrated fully into other systems in an organisation, but also provides a platform on which to enhance and expand the functionality of those systems.
System Integration
System integration is the process of connecting seperate systems withn an organisation in order to create opportunities for over arching functionality and visibility.
This process of aligning systems is becoming ever more important commercially for businesses to realise additional competitive advantage and in the public sector where visibility of information (connected government) is becoming a necessity.
Specific examples vary wildly depending on the specific form of the organisations integrating. For example, in business a common integration is from a sales system into a stock ordering system, reducing the resources for purchasing functions and improving JIT delivery.
In the public sector criminal databases can be connected in order provide greater granularity, and the NHS is creating the Electronic Patient Record which can make patient details available through many systems throughout the NHS.
A major source of system integration stems from the web. Most companies now see the economic and customer service benefits of providing sales and support through web portals.
In many companies the web portal has become a major central role in integrating systems and replacing legacy systems. Web architecture has partly by design and partly through its natural evolution provided an interface for applications to work internally in the office (intranets), and extend functionality to staff outside the office (extranets) whilst also providing public and customer access (internet portal).
The interfaces, logic, and databases of this architecture can link into virtually any system. Most of Nexus’ development methodology is based on this open architecture.
Nexus can realise value in existing systems by integrating with them and creating over arching functionality. An intranet system built for the London Borough of Southwark has been successfully drawing on financial data from systems across the borough in order to provide visibility of expenditure to decision makers.
Custom Business Applications
Custom applications provide organisations with systems that meet the exact requirements of their market or sector. Enabling greater productivity and visibility of operations which in turn creates much stronger competitive advantage.
All organisations are unique. Even if it is a company in a saturated market with many competitors, the particulars of the individual business processes have evolved to work in the way that best fits the culture and preferences of the people that form the company. Nexus aims to build applications that meet the processes of organisations in ways that seamlessly integrate people with processes. Systems that support, enable, and encourage productivity.
The best software for any task is software that has been designed specifically to do the job. That is the Nexus opinion and it may sound like common sense but the other option is to use commercial off the shelf (COTS) to fill the need.
The virtues or proprietary software houses have been rehearsed by the companies that create them at least as often as they have installed the software for their clients, and their arguments for buying it sometimes seem compelling. Except for the most cursory or routine of processes, proprietary software in general offers a one-size-fits-all approach that in reality fits no one. The merits of custom or customised solutions are clear:
- Functionality is delivered that is expressly ask for, that works in the way defined to the software analyst that designs systems.
- Functionality does not have to be bought that isnt required and will probably will not be used. Functionality that more often then not confuses users and detracts from the core business processes they need to focus on.
- Proprietary solutions almost always require additional expensive development work to customise them in ways that make them usable.
- Custom software empowers and further enables existing processes and often removes bottle necks rather then causing widespread cultural upheaval.
- Importantly custom software should be built with open architecture that supports the specific future development goals of the organisation, rather then relying on the future update from the vendor. The enhancement strategy of the vendor is unlikely to align well with the unique future user requirements. Indeed the ongoing support and development opportunities available from a custom software house can be tailored to the needs of the specific organisation or application.
- Custom software can be built around the existing software and hardware assets of an organisation.
- Training, support, and system documentation can be tailored to the specific requirements of the organisation, additionally there is no reliance on the software house to continue providing support.
- Custom software can take advantage of cutting edge technologies as and when they arise and are not tied to the legacy iterations of previous versions of proprietary software.
Management Information Systems (MIS)
Modern organisations usually have a wealth of information latent in their systems. MIS techniques provide ways to translate that information into views that enable better decision making.
In recent times organisations have had enviable amounts of data on which to manage their processes and make strategic decisions. Data is captured from all points internally in the business processes from sales to dispatch and also vertically through the sector supply chain.
The shear deluge of data from such disparate sources can often make managing or basing decision on it tricky. Custom MIS systems reach deep into the data assets of an organisation and provide rich reports and tracking systems based by aggregating data and applying business rules to the interpretation.
These reports can take many forms. A popular interface is a traffic signal based economic indicators that provide real time data on things like expenditure, profit margins and accounting ratios. Danger signs move from green amber and red. Most MIS systems if this type (frequently called management dashboards) also provide more detailed information when the system signals danger.
Other MIS systems are business process based and can track the performance of manufacturing processes or workflows with organisations. These might show progress of manufacturing from parts deliveries to finished products and highlight bottlenecks along the way or track orders from placement through to dispatch.
MIS systems assist management in ensuring the smooth operation of companies and regular use can give valuable feedback on which to base strategic decisions about the company.
Nexus can look at the systems currently employed by a company and isolate the data sources needed to reconcile into the MIS. We can then interfacing with a broad spectrum of software languages, systems and architectures and combine the data in them with real time business rules to create powerful dashboards.
Our systems are embedded deeply into organisations’ data infrastructure within the organisations like the MOD (performance tracking of the Typhoon Eurofighter) and The London Borough of Southwark (spending tracking across the borough). Many Nexus MIS systems are integrated with existing intranet systems.
Supply chain system integration
Are you taking advantage of the systems of your supply chain partners to add value to your organisation?
Powerful over-arching value can be created by linking systems at various points in the supply chain in a similar way to integrating systems internally within organisations functions.
The most obvious functions for this are for buying and selling functions. For example sales orders can be translated into direct purchasing orders to fill inventory. Conversely, the inventory of a supplier can be offered to customers through e-commerce channels. One of the most remarkable consumer applications of this in the last 10 years has been in the travel industry.
Tour operators, airlines, even car hire suppliers offer their services via various electronic feeds. These feeds can be connected to the systems of travel agents both online through their web portals or offline through booking applications based in high street stores.
Managed services
The Nexus managed service and support arrangement are designed to ensure business continuity through out the system lifecycle.
Managed services reduce risk by ensuring business continuity. Generally, Nexus offers support retainers and hosting agreements to most clients.
The Nexus service level agreement is structured to provide explicit levels of service support when needed, detailing support times and actions. Nexus service level agreements (SLA) provide good value by making unused support available as a credit against further system development. This enables Nexus clients to continue to improve their systems indefinately.
Nexus provides hosting services to all clients at our London Docklands Data Centre server racks. Either on Nexus shared application servers, or on dedicated servers. Nexus will also provide hosting for our clents own servers within our rackspace if required and also procure hardware on our clients behalf if necessary.
This forms our basic managed service, however, Nexus can also provide much more sophisticated support strategies where application requirements are particularly complex.