BT's Matrix Architecture

摘要

A critical strategic objective for BT is that of enhancing business agility to enable the company to compete effectively in a 21st Century marketplace, a marketplace that will increasingly be dominated by new types of collaborative online services. This changing business environment coupled with the advent of the 21st Century Network (21CN) demands a new business model, transforming the operation of the company. The major barriers that have to be overcome include product and organisational stovepipes and a vast, complex, systems estate. The path chosen by BT has been to introduce a single enterprise architecture, known as the Matrix and based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles, to provide the company with a flexible, standardised platform containing re-usable blocks of functionality. Alignment with core customer-focused business processes ensures that BT will become process driven instead of systems driven, providing the agility needed for business transformation and delivering the functionality to support BT's objective When the deployment is complete, BT expects to cut product development cycle time by as much as two-thirds and massively reduce its cost base. Although at an early stage of its introduction, the Matrix will provide a platform on which BT will be able to create innovative, new-wave products and services that offer customers a zero touch, real time, self-service experience.