You are working as an Enterprise Architect at a large company. The company runs many retail stores, as well as an online marketplace. The online marketplace allows hundreds of brands to partner with the company.
The company has a mature Enterprise Architecture (EA) practice and uses the TOGAF standard for its architecture development method. The EA practice is involved in all aspects of the business, with oversight provided by an Architecture Board with representatives from different parts of the business. The EA program is sponsored by the Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Many of the stores remain open all day and night. Each store uses a standard method to track sales and inventory. This involves sending accurate, timely sales data to a central AI-based inventory management system that can predict demand, adjust stock levels, and automate reordering. The central inventory management system is housed at the company's central data center.
The company has bought a major rival. The Chief Executive Officer believes that a merger will enable growth through combined offerings and cost savings. The decision has been taken to fully integrate the two organizations, including merging retail operations and systems. This means that duplicated systems will be replaced with one standard retail management system. Also, the company will reduce the number of applications that are used. The CIO expects significant savings will be achieved by implementing these changes across the newly merged company.
One improvement that the rival has successfully implemented is the use of hand-held devices within stores, for both customers and staff. This has increased both customer and staff employee satisfaction due to the time savings this has brought. The CIO has given the go-ahead to roll out the devices in all stores but has stated that training on how to use the hand-held devices should be brief because there are a lot of employees, many of whom are part-time.
The Request for Architecture Work to oversee the merger has been approved. The project has been scoped and you have been assigned to work on it. Your role includes managing the architecture for the retail stores.
Refer to the scenario:
You have been asked to confirm the most relevant architecture principles for the transformation.
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