AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwire - Oct 9, 2012) - Troux, the global leader in Enterprise Portfolio Management (EPM) and Enterprise Architecture (EA) software, today announced that three of its customers, SWIP (Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Limited), one of Europe's largest asset management companies; Northwestern Mutual, a leading provider of financial security solutions; and National Grid, an international electricity and gas company, are winners of the prestigious 2012 InfoWorld Enterprise Architecture Awards. The awards recognize companies whose EA practice has delivered substantial business benefit to their organizations.
Penn State Center for Enterprise Architecture, an innovative program focused on advancing the discipline of EA through research, education and partnerships between academia and industry, has joined with InfoWorld and Forrester and will use the 2012 winners as the basis for their research on effective enterprise architecture.
"This year's Enterprise Architecture Awards are very significant to Troux," said David Hood, CEO of Troux. "We are honored that three of the five award recipients are Troux customers and they each exemplify our focus on obtaining sustainable business value by strategically managing IT. We recently announced our partnership with Penn State's Center for Enterprise Architecture, who joins InfoWorld and Forrester Research in recognizing EA programs that have achieved strategic control of IT, allowing their Business and IT leaders to make better decisions about business and IT transformational initiatives. "
"Transforming Enterprise Architecture in Ten Months" at SWIP
SWIP is one of the largest asset management companies in Europe. In its submission titled "Transforming EA in Ten Months," SWIP describes how they established a single point of truth for business, information applications and technology architecture, shifting from reacting to the business to effectively leading change.
SWIP's initiative is led by Lead Architect Jon Gasparini and his Enterprise Architecture team. The SWIP EA team supports 550 colleagues including fund managers, research analysts, quantitative analysts, dealers and other financial professionals across a number of business teams including but not limited to back office, compliance and risk. SWIP deploys cutting-edge technology designed to process huge volumes of data and manage sophisticated products, all within policies designed to meet and exceed industry standards for risk management and compliance.
"Ten months ago we couldn't easily communicate what we did or measure how well we were doing. Now we have initial metrics in place and are building more into the program on an on-going basis. As a result of increased and earlier engagement with the business as well as a shift from technology-lead to business-lead discussions, we've raised the bar for EA at SWIP," said Gasparini. "As a team, we are now actively engaged with every part of the organization."
"Transforming Enterprise Architecture to Increase Business Value" at Northwestern Mutual
Faced with external and internal forces, trends and marketplace changes, the Northwestern Mutual EA team knew they needed to reevaluate how they delivered enterprise value. In their submission, "Transforming EA to Increase Business Value," they detailed how they changed their organization's cultural perception of IT to manage technology as a company asset.
Lead by Karl Gouverneur, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, the EA team re-engineered the solution design process and implemented a new Applied Architecture Process. The new process works in concert with Northwestern Mutual's project delivery disciplines and integrates with the company's corporate project portfolio by establishing accountability for designs managed by a solution lead. Also, an Architecture Review Board was established to provide architectural governance and visibility to all architecturally significant design decisions.
Northwestern Mutual has realized several benefits from their EA transformation, including a significant increase in project predictability, reduced risk to business operations and an increased satisfaction amongst business partners and internal clients.
Continued focus on managing the fundamentals, while maintaining and sustaining progress made to date, remains an ongoing priority. "Without strong fundamentals," shared Gouverneur, "credibility does not exist. And without credibility, EA is not viable."
Establishing Business Architecture at National Grid
At a time of profound change in the energy and utilities industry, National Grid is undertaking a fundamental transformation of its Information Services (IS) function. This transformation aims to make IS more agile and responsive to the needs of National Grid's business. In response to these industry demands, IS at National Grid worked to become more strategically aligned to the needs of the business. An expanded Enterprise Architecture (EA) function was built to help drive this alignment by creating a common language that facilitates the dialogue between IS and business stakeholders. As a result, the scope of initiatives and programs can be expressed and agreed upon faster and the business is able to easily see what capabilities are most affected by the introduction of new technology or business divestment.
"I am delighted to receive this award which recognizes the increasing maturity of the Enterprise Architecture function at National Grid," says Nigel Davies, Chief Enterprise Architect at National Grid. "Part of that increasing maturity is the use of solutions from Troux Technologies to help us manage our portfolio of applications and technologies, as well as assist us in expressing and understanding the relationships within our architecture."
Click here to find out how Troux customers are delivering sustainable business value.
About Troux
Troux's mission is to forever change the way businesses make decisions. With Troux solutions, business leaders, CIOs and their teams can use the power of Enterprise Architecture to successfully manage the connected set of enterprise portfolios that define their business. Better-informed decisions powered by the unique TrouxView™ Enterprise Portfolio Management approach helps businesses save money, reduce risk and increase business agility. With the largest and fastest growing base of successful customers, Troux delivers results for some of the world's best known brands including: American Express, AstraZeneca, Bayer Health Care, Boeing, Cisco, Disney, Fidelity, Lloyds, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Vodafone and Volkswagen Group of America.
About SWIP
Created in 2000, SWIP has quickly become one of the largest and most dynamic asset management companies in Europe. In total, SWIP manages £138.2 billion worth of funds, as at 30 June 2012 (Source: SWIP). SWIP forms part of the Wealth & International division within its parent company, Lloyds Banking Group. As well as running its own range of funds and institutional business, SWIP is the centre of excellence for Lloyds Banking Groups' asset management activity. SWIP manages commercial property assets worth £8.5 billion across the UK, Europe and North America, making SWIP one of Europe's largest real estate managers. SWIP offers a range of direct and indirect property funds that invest in the UK and overseas, offering an attractive range of commercial property investment options.
For further information regarding SWIP, please visit our website www.swip.com.
About National Grid
National Grid (
For further information regarding National Grid, please visit http://www.nationalgrid.com/UK.
Contact Information:
Contact:
Amie Coleman
Troux
amie@thedialoglab.com
720-854-8192