Architecture Syngenta A global agribusiness Syngenta Background Formed by a merger between Novartis and AstraZeneca in 2000 20000 end users in 420 site around the world Agribusiness focusing on improving crop production by supplying products like insecticides herbicides etc ID: 1020462
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1. A Case Study on Enterprise ArchitectureSyngenta: A global agribusiness
2. Syngenta: BackgroundFormed by a merger between Novartis and AstraZeneca in 200020,000 end users in 420 site around the worldAgribusiness focusing on improving crop production by supplying products like insecticides, herbicides, etc.Because of the merger the company had multiple SAP, Microsoft, and customer-facing applicationsServers and infrastructure software was Microsoft and business applications was SAPEven though they had 2 technology providers for their software there were still redundancies they could cull outFor the R&D division, however, there was no preferred vendors for software and systems were more diverseThis area was identified as having a high-potential for consolidation and ‘clean-up’ to foster reuse and efficiency
3. Syngenta: BackgroundEA team formed with people from both merging companiesPeople from each company had a different POVs in terms of directing the business: strategy-driven and technology-driven POVsEpiphany for them was that including these 2 types of people in the architecture team meant that both IT and business problems didn’t fall through the cracks if the team only comprised 1 type of person be it a strategy-driven or technology-driver type personAlthough they differed in their view points they had a common goal of aligning business strategy with technology
4. Syngenta: Experiences from 3 perspectivesEA evolved in the company in 3 perspectives: people, process, and technology in the 6-year evolution phase from getting from their base architecture to their target architecture
5. Syngenta: People PerspectiveSkills:Architects developed both technical skills & soft skillsProvide training for them in project management skills and this helped their soft skills improve too because they had to interact more with other teams
6. Syngenta: People PerspectiveArchitect’s RoleInitially ill defined and then become more generic role and as experience built become more definedImportant to regularly review this role as it continually evolves
7. Syngenta: People PerspectiveOrganizationCommittee sizes to decide on architecture and design issues for solutions needed to be small or else decisions and movement in milestones became very hard to achieve
8. Syngenta: Process PerspectiveGovernanceDeciding when and how much the architecture group should be involved in projectsManaging ownership of solutions from architecture to servicesGet buy-in from middle management about importance of EADeciding what to govern
9. Syngenta: Process PerspectiveCommunicationsNeed to know how much detail to provide for each stakeholderNeed to know in what form and when to provide information for each stakeholderThis was identified as one of the hardest parts of the whole EA effort.
10. Syngenta: Process PerspectiveArchitecture DevelopmentArchitects to review any design proposals for solutions for each project to ensure they conform to the enterprise's architecture
11. Syngenta: Technology PerspectiveDocumentationEvolved from unstructured to structuredCommunications & CollaborationInitially using simple technologies like email, then transitioned to real-time solutions like webcasts, and ended with more preference towards asynchronous tools like knowledge bases (Microsoft Sharepoint)
12. Syngenta: Business ObjectivesReduce number of servers by 40%Have integrated go-to-market platformReuse was better at system level rather than at component levelAllow flexibility for local implementations and understand that reuse will be limited in these instancesProvide a unified research platformCommon document storage systemCommon system to record chemical and test dataCommon dictionary and reference dataEnterprise-wide Business Intelligence
13. Syngenta: Execution of their EAAdapted homegrown frameworks to the Zachman framework and used TOGAF to help map old processes to new processes
14. Syngenta: Reduce number of servers by 40%Contracted a 3rd party to architect and design the server architecture and infrastructureSyngenta architects would provide direction, challenged and validated the architecture proposalsTogether with the 3rd party, a baseline architecture framework was built providing the following services:DatabaseWeb serverThin clientsDirectory, messaging and applications
15. Syngenta: Reduce number of servers by 40%Based on the baseline architecture, detailed architectural proposals were created for services being provided These were validated by holding review & approval workshops for all major stakeholdersKey challenge was to strike a balance of not blowing the lid on network bandwidth usage when reducing the number of serversIe, less servers meant more network traffic load to and from the serversThe realized that ownership of architecture was with their in-house architects, but others (3rd party implementer, eg.) can and should contributeArrange for smooth transition out of the architecture group to the implementation team and monitor closely the designs that are made from the architecture
16. Syngenta: An integrated go-to-mark platformThe idea was to provide a baseline platform that made it easy to expand into other markets while adapting that baseline to locale-specific business requirementsThe platform comprised the following application classes:B2BCRMSales Team SupportMarketingContact Center Support
17. Syngenta: An integrated go-to-mark platformThe CRM would use a common technology platform with approved templates for locale-specific customizationsCommon business rules could be reused at this levelB2B would be centrally hosted using standard middleware software for connecting different systemsThe CRM/B2B network was managed by both IT and business people
18. Syngenta: An integrated go-to-mark platformChallengesStriking a balance between global architecture and local-customizations at the design levelConsult the data flows and data processes before architecting technology solutionsThe transition from architecture to design is dangerous and should be monitored closely because:It’s hard for an architect to do this since they lack the detail-perspective that an implementer hasThe architecture could be too rigid to allow flexible designs
19. Syngenta: Provide a unified research platformRequirements were:Common doc storage systemCommon system for recording chemical and test informationCommon, single instance dictionary/reference data system for use across all systemsMost systems were implemented using the SOA approach
20. Syngenta: Provide a unified research platformChallengesSome problems emerged from the particular technology especially with SOA where problems of authentication, transactions, and performance were encounteredDesign teams were still stuck in thinking of designs based on historical legacy systems
21. Syngenta: Enterprise-wide Business IntelligenceToo many redundant systems meant data was inconsistent and lacked transparencyNew requirements required new solutions
22. Syngenta: Enterprise-wide Business IntelligenceBuilt a single source of truth for data about the enterprise and housed it in an EDW – Enterprise Data WarehouseA layer in the EDW was called the SPOT – Single Point of Truth – where all data extracts to other systems were done at. This allowed reuse and avoided having to do extracts from individual information silos
23. Syngenta: ConclusionTheir key finding was that architects needed both technical and soft skills expertise – ie, EA is as much a social activity as it is a technical oneIT people have to focus on problems from a business perspective and not from a technical one