a day ago
Exclusive: Craig Stanley on SAP-driven enterprise architecture transformation
Organisations are shifting their IT investment mindset towards reinvention, with artificial intelligence emerging as a key catalyst, according to Craig Stanley, Head of EA Alliances at Kapish.
Speaking exclusively to TechDay during the SAP NOW AI Tour Australia & New Zealand in Melbourne, he said the balance between managing costs and driving growth was tilting towards transformation.
"Definitely a lot of focus on the reinvent side of things," Stanley said. "Organisations are trying to accelerate their growth, their transformation, for sure."
Stanley, whose role at Kapish includes working closely with SAP customers, argued that too many digital strategies fail in execution because of weak alignment between business objectives and technology initiatives.
"Any sort of transformation needs to be aligned to the goals of the organisation," he explained.
"It's the lack of alignment, but it's also the lack of shared vision. Everyone needs to understand where they're driving to and be part of that journey."
He stressed that transformation itself is not the final objective, but a process towards a continually evolving end state.
"The no BS way to get there is having a plan," he said. "But it can't be immutable. Some things are going to fail, some will succeed, and some will have unexpected outcomes."
Working with SAP-aligned tools such as LeanIX and Signavio, Stanley said Kapish helps customers visualise alternate pathways and keep projects outcomes-focused. He illustrated this with a cloud migration example, where decommissioning a server is just one step towards a broader strategic goal. "Strategy versus tactics is key," he said. "Some tactics might fail, but we want our strategy to still succeed."
While not every organisation needs a fully defined 'Plan B', Stanley said the ability to pivot is crucial. "They should be able to identify an alternate path. Fail fast, fail early, but always stay aligned with your strategic goals."
Transforming enterprise architecture from a purely planning function into a growth engine requires broad participation, Stanley said. "We talk about the democratisation of Enterprise Architecture - the contributors and consumers of EA should be distributed across the organisation," he explained.
"It's the opposite of an ivory tower, where decisions are decreed but not communicated."
On governance, Stanley argued that it can either slow progress or become a competitive advantage, depending on its application.
"We talk about just enough governance," he said. "Go slow to go fast. Set the guardrails so everyone knows where they're going, without blocking progress or overreaching."
Metrics, he added, should always align with strategic objectives and customer outcomes. "What gets measured is what gets done," he said. "Whether it's more customers, reduced hardware spend, or faster solution deployment - it has to connect to the reason you're transforming."
Stanley also shared an unexpected business win from implementing LeanIX within SAP customer environments. One client reduced enterprise architect onboarding time from up to six months to just weeks.
"They had a knowledge base being maintained," he said. "Within a week, a new starter was effective - far more efficient than the old model."
When it comes to legacy systems, Stanley acknowledged the challenges of replacement. "I'd like to say detonate, but the reality is there's so much corporate knowledge in these systems that it's very hard to do," he said. "The business rules are often only documented in the code itself."
Looking ahead, he sees enterprise architecture - particularly in SAP landscapes - playing an elevated strategic role. "The future of quality enterprise architecture is a pragmatic outcome, but with clear trust and insights at the C-suite level," he said.
Asked what differentiates successful EA leaders, Stanley pointed to vision, communication, and empathy.
He highlighted practices like design thinking, where professionals immerse themselves in the environments they serve.
"Whether you're wiring networks or doing enterprise architecture, you need to understand the problem you're solving," he said.
"Being able to see yourself in other people's perspectives is really important."
