Building a support framework for enterprise integration

Knowing 'what to do next' and what artefacts to use so as to achieve the desired future state of an enterprise is a recurring management conundrum. This paper describes a framework (and a possible application) aimed to support the efforts to achieve and maintain enterprises (or networks thereof) in a state where the flows of material and information are seamlessly integrated so as to not only achieve the internal and external synergy and agility required to survive but also to thrive in today's fast-evolving business environment. The framework is based on the integration of a structured repository containing architecture framework elements and a set of steps guiding the creation of specific enterprise engineering tasks. An outline of the theoretical foundation is followed by a high-level description of the requirements, architectural and detailed design descriptions of the proposed support framework and its potential application as a decision support system. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.