Architectures for Business Platforms. Which kind?

Digital transformations, and also the recent experiences in the post-COVID world, stress the importance of IT and Architectural solutions to achieve business agility in the enterprise world. Here, I want to highlight my experiences in defining architectures, in the light of the IBM Cognitive Enterprise perspective.  

In this vision, the digital transformation is supported by business architectures leveraging the pervasiveness of artificial intelligence, blockchain, automation, Internet of Things, 5G, and edge computing. The digital transformation is further enhanced by this “inside-out” potential of data exploited with these exponential technologies, with different elements of Hybrid-Cloud as key technical enablers (See also).

In the Cognitive Enterprise view, the first and key aspect is the concept of Market-making Business Platforms.  I will use my experience in defining solution architectures to highlight the different kinds of platforms, with different goals and contributions to the IT ecosystem.

• Internal Enabling Platforms:

This first kind of platform is focused on providing solutions that enable the IT projects of a company, with the goal of raising the efficiency of solutions and processes.

As an example of this type of platform, I've been working in medium-term projects for defining solution architectures for Enterprise portals, Transactional systems, and payment gateways for clients in the Telecommunication and Banking industries. This kind of solution architecture focuses on frameworks and on the adoption of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) patterns.

• Internal Strategic Platforms:

This kind of platform is focused on providing the enterprise a key strategic advantage in the market, with the goal of gaining an advantage over the competition.

My key and most successful projects have been in defining these types of solution architectures for Travel & Transportation clients, focusing on Railways commercial platforms. This kind of solution architecture focus on Domain Modelling, Data, and Processes, and are implemented with a sequence of projects in long-term programs.

On this, I'm actively working in IBM as an SME supporting international projects for Rail Industry solutions.

• Industry Platforms:

This kind of platform is focused on providing enterprise interoperability and business opportunities with partners and competitors, with the goal of enabling Co-opetition.

As part of my experiences in the Travel & Transportation - Railway industry, I've been able to work with international standard bodies, such as UIC (Union International Chemins de Fer), to integrate with existing standards, but also contribute as an SME to new ones, such as ODSM.

This kind of solution architecture is also based on Domain Modelling, Data, and Processeson but with additional challenges related to APIs and interoperability.

• Cross-Industry Platforms:

Like Industry Platforms, but involving more players of different industries.

I have some experience of these, having worked on Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) solutions, integrating non only transportation players of different types, but also other companies interacting for different services (e.g. entertainment, foods). An additional challenge in this scenario is keeping the Domain Design concepts organized, clearly identifying and connecting different contexts (a.k.a. Bounded Contexts from Domain Driven Design).