EAdirections News & Events

The EAdirections team will be in Las Vegas for the next Enterprise Architectures Conference at the fabulous new Red Rock Casino. This event will be colocated with 2 other IIR conferences - Business Process Management (BPM) and E3 (Portals, Collaboration and Web), collectively being billed as "Aligning Business & Information Technology".

Tim Westbrock will be conducting a pre-conference seminar on the Fundamentals of Enterprise Architecture.

George Paras continues in his role as event Chairman and will also be involved in an expert panel, with Tim, and other activities throughout the week.

The EAdirections team will be in Orlando for the next Enterprise Architectures Conference.

Tim Westbrock will be conducting a pre-conference seminar on the Fundamentals of Enterprise Architecture.

Larry DeBoever will be conducting a pre-conference seminar on the Next Steps for the Experienced Enterprise Architect.

George Paras continues in his role as event Chairman and will also be involved in an expert panel, with Larry and Tim, and other activities throughout the week.

January 23-24, 2008 - Critical Issues in Enterprise Architecture and Strategic Alignment: A 2-day Conference in Calgary, AB

The EAdirections team will be in Calgary conducting a conference-style summit on 14 topics related to Enterprise Architecture and the Strategic Alignment of IT with an Enterprise’s business direction. The conference will mix presentations, roundtable discussions, and Q&A sessions to address many of the issues that face today’s EA team. Topics will include:

“EA Practitioners ‘Cheatsheet’: 12 Ideas You Can Use Today to Improve Your EA Team’s Effectiveness”

Sometimes the difference between a truly meaningful EA program and one that just “gets by” is that one spark of insight that drives creativity and opens the door to a more productive approach.

The founders of EAdirections – Larry DeBoever, George Paras and Tim Westbrock – have pulled together a set of pragmatic ideas, drawn from recent client experiences, that will improve your EA team’s effectiveness. This fast-paced, one hour webinar will move quickly from topic to topic. Topics will include:

November 8, 2007 – IT Infrastructure Management Conference 2007

The ITIM Association will hold its annual conference and expo November 6-9, 2007 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, NV.

AITP Chicago Chapter is pleased to announce the Enterprise Architecture “Shared Interest Group”, or EA SIG, which serves as a forum consisting of senior IT leaders in the Enterprise Architecture, IT Strategy and Business Planning, and Technology and Solutions Architecture practices.

This meeting's topic will be The Business Motivation Model (BMM) – Aligning Technology Investments with the Business, Presented by: Armando Ortiz.

October 23-25, 2007 – Shared Insights EAC Las Vegas 2007

The next Enterprise Architectures Conference will be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas!

Celebrating a Decade of Excellence - Whether you are an IT or business leader, EA practitioner, strategist or portfolio manager, EAC will help you learn to manage the types of business and information technology transformation that will yield the highest success for your organization. Since 1997, EAC has successfully helped forge the transformation of enterprise architecture from a pure technology focus to one of overall integration of business processes, core information assets and technology. Our conference series focuses on the reality of EA today, bringing together leading visionaries and practitioners discussing issues ranging from strategy to implementation for all levels of maturity and the related concepts of IT Governance, SOA, Portfolio Management and more.

All of EAdirections managing directors will be presenting keynotes and/or breakouts in addition to their popular pre-conference seminars. The EAC Las Vegas agenda is currently being developed, with George Paras directly involved as the Conference Chair.

EAdirections Discount
Register using priority code BFOTL25 and take an additional $300* off the current price of a conference package of 3 days or more.

To register or request a brochure visit EAConference.com or call 781.995.4740

*Offer valid on new registrations only and may not be combined with any other discount.

SIMposium07, sponsored by the Society for Information Management, will be held in Memphis, TN. More than 600 highly influential IT decision-makers and purchasers will gather at SIMposium07, "Technology: Taking Care of Business," to discuss current business issues, identify industry best practices, and lay the foundation for developing business alliances. The event provides three and a half days for IT leaders to take advantage of the unique combination of learning, networking, and entertainment opportunities. There's no better place for taking care of business and learning how leading-edge practices and technologies can impact your business strategies.

Larry DeBoever and George Paras will be co-presenting the following sessions with John Zachman, Stan Locke and Leon Kappelman:

Continuous Strategic Alignment the EA Way

Business and IT managers often use the phrase “IT/Business Alignment” narrowly when referencing successful responses to a specific project's requirements. Leading organizations often use the phrase more broadly when describing IT and business organizations that truly operate in a constant state of alignment: strategically, philosophically, tactically, financially, and operationally. Enterprise Architecture (EA) communicates strategic intent across the IT/Business boundary, defining a shared vision of the business' future operations and guiding achievement in the new model. Hear from members of the SIM Enterprise Architecture Working Group, representing several SIM member companies, as they share how EA provides CIOs the opportunity to engage in tactical business discussions, become a strategic business partner, and steer the IT organization to the highest possible return value.

Architecting IT as a Business

For several years, industry advisors have recommended the concept of “Running IT as a Business.” IT organizations that do so can make great strides in improving internal processes, efficiency, cost control, service delivery, and, in turn, are more relevant as a “business of the business.” If a business uses Enterprise Architecture (EA) concepts to define and pursue a strategically aligned future state for its desired business capabilities, then it only makes sense that the IT organization should do so too. IT can “architect IT as a business” and apply core EA concepts to itself. Hear from SIM Enterprise Architecture Working Group members as they share how important IT leaders with a clear and concise framework reflecting a desired capabilities portfolio will be important to creating an achievable roadmap.

The IT Architect Regional Conference is the largest event in Atlanta to address the pressing needs of IT architects today. ITARC is completely delivered and run by the community of regional architects. With over 30 seminars and four tracks separated by specialty: Enterprise, Infrastructure, Software and Fundamentals the event promises to deliver for every architect or aspiring architect in your company.

Tim Westbrock will be delivering a presentation entitled "Cornerstone: 19 Core Beliefs about EA."

Executive teams work hard to determine and validate a business’s value drivers and develop a business strategy. They perform SWOT analyses, look for strategic inflection points, examine resource allocation and search for economies of scale while debating the merits of operational excellence versus customer intimacy. Business Process Owners look for value from large scale BPR efforts, business improvement through eliminating defects by embracing Six Sigma, or a continuous improvement approach such as kaizen. Staff functions also work hard trying to create value – from improved cash management to talent acquisition. All of these roles – executive leadership, business process owners and staff functions – are striving to create value.

Enterprise architecture efforts must also strive to create shareholder value if they are to gain the support of executive leadership, and be viewed as effective both inside and outside the IT organization.

This seminar will focus on the 19 core beliefs of EAdirections in helping EA teams create value.

George Paras joins Sri Navalpakkam of Enterprise Architects, Inc. and Armando Ortiz, management consultant, as co-chair of this special interest group.

Mark your calendars and register today to join Troux Technologies for the 3rd annual Troux Directions, the premier conference for Troux users, business executives and others charged with driving IT and business transformation. This year’s one-day event takes place on July 26th at The Four Seasons Hotel in Austin, Texas in conjunction with The Open Group’s Enterprise Architecture Practitioner’s Conference, July 23-25.

Keynote Speaker: Larry DeBoever and his colleagues at EAdirections continue to lead the market dialogue on the evolution of Enterprise Architecture well beyond its roots in modeling. Larry’s point of view is unique, thought provoking, and memorable.

July 19 – First Quarterly Directions Teleconference & Webinar: When EA and SOA Worlds Collide!

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) continues to dominate industry press and IT budgets. At the same time, Enterprise Architecture (EA) programs continue to evolve and increase effectiveness. But when the EA program meets the SOA project, it is somewhat more like worlds colliding, than the symbiotic, collaborative experience that is expected.

Join EAdirections and guest SOA expert, David Linthicum, for a lively webinar on how to bring the EA program and SOA projects together to increase the quality, depth and penetration of service-orientation in your enterprise. Click here to Register!

June 11-13, 2007 – George Paras at the EAC Europe 2007

The Enterprise Architecture Conference Europe 2007, produced by IRM UK Strategic IT Training Ltd, will be held June 11-13, 2007 at the Radisson SAS Portman Hotel, London, UK.

George will be presenting the following:

Half Day Workshop: Governance & EA – Making Sense of the Enterprise Governance Ecosystem

Few management topics get more attention today than “Governance”. The term is used to describe everything from enforcing regulatory compliance to maintaining financial discipline, achieving strategic alignment, and controlling processes, projects and even technologies. Fortunately, established governance procedures exist and many enterprises have implemented them. Unfortunately, most have done so as disjoint governance mechanisms, each built independently with different structures, scopes, roles, responsibilities and processes. With so much pressure on organizations to establish coherent governance, it is no surprise that executives are demanding more consistency among their own major management disciplines, including strategy development, portfolio management, program/project management, systems development, operations, and particularly, Enterprise Architecture (EA). EA and EA Governance play a pivotal role in the enterprise, establishing the future state direction and guiding the organization towards it. In this workshop, attendees will explore how to develop solid EA Governance mechanisms and discover the role EA must play in providing the foundation for a strong, coherent enterprise governance ecosystem.

The enterprise architecture discipline has grown steadily over its relatively short life. While early EA activity focused on the creation of “architectures”, the discipline has recently evolved to become a holistic integration point, joining together management activities ranging from strategic planning to project enablement, asset analysis, portfolio management and IT governance. Today’s best EA programs occupy a leadership role in the management practices of the modern enterprise, driving major change in the way organizations embrace emerging concepts like BPM and SOA. The current state of the EA discipline did not come easily, not did it progress linearly. It improved in parallel, across multiple fronts, based on the aggregate experiences of practitioners from enterprises with different needs, opportunities, and cultural behaviors. This trend will continue, giving EA practitioners a rich collection of mature practices as starting points to expand the EA role, delivering value deeper and broader across the enterprise.

Key Issues:

June 4-6, 2007 – Larry DeBoever at GoldenGate Software’s “Real Time 2007 User Conference”

Closing Keynote: Radical Innovation & Industry Leadership: A New Perspective on ‘Real-Time’

Back by popular demand, Larry DeBoever will deliver the closing speech and wrap up Real-Time 2007 with thought-provoking ideas and proven concepts for you to take away and inspire change within your own organization.

Today, companies that have become leaders in their industry have achieved that because of innovation. This may come in many forms - innovative business models, innovative partnership and growth strategies, manufacturing and distribution innovation and in many cases, technology product innovation.

In his closing keynote, Larry will provide a new perspective on the meaning of ‘Real-Time' by looking at radical business innovation being driven by a new generation of ‘business sensors'. He will also discuss the rapid growth in ‘Director of Innovation' positions that typically report to a CEO or COO and are often staffed by former IT professionals with backgrounds in high availability, architecture and real-time systems (e.g. USAA, WW Grainger).

Larry will also examine how real-time information access across an enterprise can lead to innovative ways to do business. Having 24x7 continuous access to key data can fundamentally transform a company's business model. Larry explores how organizations in the financial services, insurance and healthcare sectors have already achieved success and leadership because of real-time information. These organizations are some of the largest, most coveted in the world and they got there by successfully executing innovative ways to use information - Real-time.

David Linthicum, the CEO of the Linthicum Group, and EAdirections, announced the formation of an alliance to provide superior SOA and Enterprise Architecture consulting and advisory services to their new and existing clients within the emerging SOA and Enterprise Architecture services market space.

With over 50 years of combined experience as consultants, analysts, and enterprise architects, EAdirections is uniquely positioned to deliver world-class support to your enterprise architecture efforts, and now more focus on the discipline of SOA as well. Where EAdirections will provide exceptional guidance with the more holistic notion of enterprise architecture, the Linthicum Group will focus on the specialized and changing world of SOA and how it links back to the core enterprise architecture.

“EAdirections provides relationship-based advisory services to improve the effectiveness of EA teams, IT leaders, and business executives,” says Tim Westbrock, managing director at EAdirections. “This alliance with the Linthicum Group brings together the best practices in both enterprise architecture and SOA, creating a depth of knowledge that will ensure that our clients are successful the first time. Our mission in working with David is to help bring together the two camps of professionals generally working separately on EA and SOA within a company."

“SOA is a core component of a healthy enterprise architecture,” says David Linthicum, CEO of the Linthicum Group, LLC. “By working with EAdirections, we’ll be able to provide a complete set of services that span all aspects of enterprise architecture, including those seeking the value of SOA.”

October 23, 2006 - EAdirections Launched

San Diego, Calif. - October 23, 2006 – At today’s tenth anniversary Enterprise Architectures Conference (EAC) in San Diego, three former members of META Group’s EA team announced the formation of EAdirections, a company whose mission is to improve the effectiveness of enterprise architecture (EA) teams by creating deep, mentoring relationships driven by independent research. Larry R. DeBoever, George S. Paras and Tim Westbrock formed EAdirections in response to market demand for practical, objective and immediate real-world EA advice at an affordable cost. The founders had previously worked together to create the highly successful Enterprise Architecture Strategies (EAS) service at the META Group. In 1997, they proposed the idea of establishing EAC to Shared Insights (formerly DCI).

Download the complete press release in PDF format.