Management
Quanta Value Network℠(QVN)

Tuning into the 'Enterprise Digital Framework™(EDF)'

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Tuning into the 'Enterprise Digital Framework™(EDF)' 'QVN is a new set of architecture guidelines and approach to business model design and transformation that focuses on the positioning and linking together of services within a more open, collaborative and boundaryless digital world, supported by three foundational frameworks' EDF = 9 Architecture Core Domains for Digital! The framework defines logical services that sit between the business needs and the vendor actual deployable platform solutions. Think of EDF as the central digital services exchange framework for an organization that is secure, scalable and trusted. This is essentially the digital glue coordinating all the enterprise digital entities. The framework supports a move in thinking from company inside-out to collaborative outside-in to link to the next generation of platform partnerships. The EDF contains nine components which are grouped together within three main categories of: touch-points (the components connecting with the edge devices and people); data (all aspects of digital data manipulation); and applications (the provisioning and hand-shake integration to digital assets). Although the framework describes nine components these will all work collectively and the value is in this interoperability and interchange between the various components. The framework below is a summary of the nine components. 1. 'Internet of Things' edge services: This covers connectivity to all edge/smart devices. Anything from cars, sensor devices, check-out tills, smart retail shelving, domestic appliances, smart city nodes, etc. The services in this component range from actively establishing and managing the connection to the smart edge device, through the ability to have logic running at the edge on the device itself and also the ability to have some local persistent storage. There are many examples of scenarios involving the 'Internet of Things' - one obvious one being to remotely trigger an alert from a device when something appears to be going wrong. 2. Identity management services: For any digital platform to work it will require a comprehensive solution to manage security and knowledge on whom and what can connect with each other. Here the identities under management can be people or devices. Here we cover federated broker identity services (the linking to other cloud based 'as-a-service' vendor platforms - cloud based proxies), a full lifecycle of identity management services (from registration to retirement), and bridge identity services. Another important factor that comes into play with a full feature digital platform is the ability to authenticate and authorize users at specific locations (say when within certain allowable geographic perimeters) or at certain moments in time (maybe never between the hours of 0100 and 0600 as an example). 3. 'User Experience'/social services: In the past this was referred to as portal services. In essence this is the ability to digitally communicate with end customers through a range of options such as email, twitter, other social networking products, portals, etc. The platform deployed should have basic collaboration services - should enhanced services be required the platform will link with 'quanta' specialist vendor services - whilst still not losing the benefits of the interconnected overall platform. There are three main audiences for this user experience service. The first is, as mentioned, end customers, the second is the ability to establish communication with suppliers and channel partners (B2B), and thirdly a platform to support employee collaboration and links to programs such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). One important aspect here, to link with the value service design, is the need for rapid prototyping tools. This is seen as a crucial component - the ability to jointly design the user experience collaborations with the actual users themselves! 4. Data identification/discovery and exchange services: This looks at the actual ways to exchange data with remote devices or other 3rd party companies. It establishes the digital connections and supports data transfer in a safe and secure way. Any digital platform should support the interchange of information. This area is important when looking at transferring information to other edge quanta services. One great example is the data analytics function. The analytics service can be a dedicated expert service running remote (even federated) - but it will require access/need the right information transferring to it - the platform's exchange services play an important role in this linking to other 3rd party specialist services. 5. Data conversion services: Another key component within the EDP is that of data conversion. There are many examples within a digital world where you will need the assistance of data conversion services. A few obvious ones are: data splitting and filtering (where you take large amounts of 'big data' and segment/filter this for sending just the required information); data parsing services (allowing smaller packets of data to be sent for speed of transmission); standards compliance service (the ability to convert data from one format to another so that each end party can operate within their own standards world - plus the ability to convert to any industry/regulatory standards) - this latter aspect is especially useful in supply chain scenarios. 6. Data aggregation services: Within a digital world you may not get a complete picture of an entity (say a person, a claim, a device, etc.) from a single source. The ability to aggregate data from multiple sources and create a complete entity view is very significant. The EDP should have data aggregation services as part of the menu of services. Aggregation is also useful when having to put together messages - the ability to construct a required message format from multiple sources. You may also link aggregation to other 3rd party ingress services for automated content building. 7. Application provisioning services: In order to control the digital applications you have running on various devices you need a command center for provisioning. The EDP needs to cover the provisioning of logic within three domains: the internet/web applications; smart mobile applications and intelligent device logic. Here you need to consider the support of various devices, operating systems and browsers. 8. Workflow and rules service: A key element of the EDP is the capability to run the end-to-end scenarios/value pathways. Within the EDP these could be inside a single organization only, or increasingly and now more importantly the connection between single company workflow and wider collaborative orchestrated new business model scenarios. This service should cover the basic workflow/process modeling and link to the execution engine. It should also provide capabilities to link to a loosely-coupled (for ease of change/maintenance) rules engine to govern and direct the workflow. The workflow should also provide an audit trail for transaction history and subsequent review/analysis. This is a key component of the EDP and should allow for linking to more specialist workflow and case management systems if needed. The ability to discover and provision dynamic services into the workflow should be a significant consideration. 9. Application integration services: The last of the nine services involve integration. The EDP needs to allow existing legacy code to participate within the new digital world - so the integration component is key in order to leverage and protect some existing investments - this being achieved through a set of digital API's. The integration services cover access to existing in-company legacy applications as well as other 3rd party vendor systems (such as 'as-a-service systems in the cloud). Another feature of integration is the ability to form and run a tight ecosystem of companies in a private and secure manner. This will support new collaborations and new business models being developed as part of the digital landscape This is the third in a series of short publications that will dive deeper into the Quanta Value Network thinking - I hope you like and find it useful. A more detailed paper describing the nine EDF components is in construction and will be soon available for research. Please let me know if you would like this fuller description sending to you over email (either send me a personal message with your address or comment below). Thank you for your interest in this!