Chubb Insurance has spent about 10 years moving toward a comprehensive enterprise architecture, which allows it to address rapidly changing dynamics in markets and technologies. While the process is not yet complete, it shows the value that EA offers, particularly in an organization with a number of business units that are used to operating somewhat on their own, writes Madeline Weiss, director of the Advanced Practices Council at the Society for Information Management.

Chubb's EA reflects the federated structure of its business. A team of five enterprise architects, who report to a chief architect, work with lines of business architects to establish overall strategy and standards. The lines of business architects report to both the chief architect and the CIO of the corresponding line of business.

"Although this structure is harder to manage, its key advantage is that the lines of business CIOs and their IT staff are members of their business teams," Weiss writes in a post at CIOUpdate. "Given the trust between lines of business CIOs and their businesses, there was little resistance to the EA concept."

The architectural model, built on The Open Group Architecture Framework, is made up of five parts: architecture strategy, architecture definition, architecture governance, lines of business project implementation and enterprise shared assets and solutions.

Chubb's chief architect, Patrick Sullivan, says that establishing the proper culture goes a long way in eliminating the interference that typically arises from politics and personalities. "It's all about minimizing the processes, adding value and helping people understand basic architectural principles," he said. "We don't take a 'field of dreams' approach to architecture. Our programs are all business-oriented and attached to real value and real projects. Once leaders understand this, we get their support."

As a result of the EA initiative, in 2010 Chubb saved $600,000 by redistributing unused software site licenses. Time-to-market decisions can be made faster because of the effective processes and standards that have been put in place. Business unit CIOs are better able to convey the value of IT investments to non-IT business colleagues.

For more:
- see Madeline Weiss's article at CIOUpdate

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