Figure 1 depicts an example of the business object architecture for an insurance company. The architecture shown is depicted in three dimensions: Business and Technology. This dimension specifies the operating model of the enterprise. Products. This dimension identifies all the insurance products, services, and offerings that the enterprise supports. Distribution Channels. This dimension defines all the appropriate ways in which the various enterprise products are marketed, accessed, sold, and serviced in the marketplace.

Figure 1. Architecture for an insurance company.

This architecture example is depicted using seven domains, the three domains (called dimensions in the figure), which exhibit an orthogonal relationship to each other, and the four domains within the business and technology dimension itself (shown on the front face of the cube in the figure). As before, the four business and technology domains exhibit a hierarchical relationship. Consequently, the concept of layers or levels can be used to understand this structure.

The other two domains (i.e., products and distribution channels) could also be structured further into their appropriate subordinate domains, as needed, and if so, it would not affect the domains already provided. This refinement would only clarify and elaborate the details of those domains.

This example illustrates some of the benefits of architectures, namely, the clarity they offer in understanding the relationships among, in this case, a given enterprise capability, and the products and distribution channels that it enables and supports.

Another advantage, of course, is the use of the architecture to identify components that can be re-used so that a given asset can be leveraged across multiple purposes. Figure 2 illustrates how this is done.

Figure 2. Enterprise architecture’s leverageable components.

An enterprise architecture (Figure 3) can also be used as a decision-making template against which potential software package acquisitions (or, any technology acquisitions, whether built or bought) should be evaluated for fit with the company’s needs.

Figure 3. Using the architecture for package selection.

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