In their ongoing efforts to gain and retain market share, financial services providers (FSPs) have poured billions of dollars and billions of hours into high-profile IT projects. These "glamorous" initiatives have promised new channels, new customers and new revenue streams — and, all too often, they have failed to deliver the anticipated return on investment. The result is that many FSPs are now refocusing their attention, and their resources, on a decidedly unglamorous aspect of their operations: the development of sound enterprise architecture.

Enterprise architecture provides the strong foundation that FSPs need to efficiently address and support present and future business demands. The enterprisewide application of sound architectural principles ensures that an FSP can deliver the functionality its customers are demanding today, and still be prepared to simply and inexpensively deploy new products and services tomorrow.

The power of enterprise architecture lies in synergy: aligning business goals (established and anticipated) and IT needs and resources. The alignment of business and IT in an enterprisewide view of the organization provides a mission-critical, decision-making framework enabling IT and line-of-business managers to implement new solutions — including those high-profile projects — in ways that support enterprise strategies.

Effective enterprise architecture makes the deployment of new technologies and product offerings simpler, more efficient, more predictable and, perhaps most important of all, less risky. In a time of highly constrained IT budgets and personnel resources, enterprise architecture can be the key to continued profitability. FSPs simply cannot afford to ignore this unglamorous — but mission-critical — issue. That is why this edition of the Gartner Financial Services Spotlight focuses on enterprise architecture, beginning with "Enterprise Architecture: The Enabler of Success."

As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.

Annemarie Earley

Editor in Chief

Financial Services

spotlight.feedback@gartner.com