This blog post is a brainstorm on one of the topics that I finder rather interesting in the sphere of science, systems thinking and Enterprise Architecture. I think that it is of great importance that enterprises are able to achieve competitive advantages in order to cope with the increased competition that almost all enterprises will experience to enterprises across the globe realizes that they can gain access to customers, resources and profits as a result of gaining access to other form of resources that they would need in order to achieve their visions and missions.

As a result of the competition and for that matter the financial crisis the enterprises would have to find all resources needed to implement plans that can move the systems from the current situation (known the as-is situation) to a desired future situation (the to-be situation).

I assume that all enterprises consists of different segments and systems. A segment is a part of an enterprise that in itself serves a function e.g. a marketing department is a segment of an enterprise like the models that are made use of in the marketing department can be a considered a segment. The question of how to define segments of an enterprise is all about avoiding an unnecessary degree of complexity. Segments shares systems and systems have in this case been identified as both technical systems e.g. software, applications, hardware, buildings, technology etc. Likewise can humans, groups, social networks, communities of practices etc. be considered as systems.

The multiple forms of systems have to work together in some form in order to deliver the product or services to the customers or clients. It is my hypothesis that in order to achieve competitive advantages the enterprise’s decision makers would have to take charge of the enterprise and as such start align the various social systems in order to lay the foundation for creating synergies.

As I see it, synergies are the fundamentals for how to establish long term competitive advantages, and it is a part of my hypothesis that the enterprise will be able to achieve competitive advantages through:

1. Informed decision making and governance.

2. Articulation of plans to guide the various stakeholders of the enterprise can act upon.

3. Development of applications, information systems and communities of practices that can ensure better business processes.

4. The coordinated set of actions can change the state of the enterprise to a desired state.

I assume that the hypothesis can be investigated through the “cybernetics” paradigm that includes the assumption that social systems and information systems can be investigated and are connected in some way in the ecosystem of the enterprise.

The focus of Enterprise Architecture is to ensure that the various systems of the enterprise are dealt with through the investigation of the various systems of the enterprise in order to make the decision makers aware of how the complete system of the enterprise works and interacts with its surroundings and how the ecosystem impacts the enterprise.