Let me begin with the following (not-so) fictional story: IT and Business camps have been co-operating from the opposite banks of the same river for decades. They make a decent living by ferrying customers from one side to the other by co-owned ferry that they have aptly named ‘Enterprise’. Even though the ferry looks pretty modern and is described on the enterprise Web-site as ‘customer oriented’ it doesn’t take a consulting guru to envisage what benefits would be delivered to both the customers and the service providers if only both camps managed to design and build a decent bridge across the river. In fact why such a bridge hasn’t been built yet is murky waters for many industry visionaries not mentioning scores of bridge and enterprise architects.
In recent years the pressure has mounted even higher as many inconvenienced customers have got a hold of Enterprise ownership (which is now publicly listed) and simply demand it to provide them with yet higher dividends by designing and building what they don’t even call a bridge any more – but an integrated super-system connecting all aspects of the re-designed Enterprise and the World beyond while maintaining client-centric approach. Still, a good ferryman who understands what’s going on at both sides of the river and knows how to get through the currents is in higher demand than ever before.
