Case 10: Education Institution – Campus Blueprint or IT Integration?
- Sunil Dutt Jha
- Jul 5
- 4 min read
What was delivered: IT integration across select services.
What was missing: a structural model of how teaching, research, and administration interconnect.
Industry Context & Claimed EA Success
A large public university in Saudi Arabia declared its Enterprise Architecture (EA) initiative a success — claiming to have unified academic and administrative processes across colleges, research centers, and support departments.
The claims:
IT systems were integrated (SIS, LMS, HR, Finance)
Data-driven decision-making was improved
A “single architecture” now connects academic, research, and operational domains
Student experience and service delivery became more efficient
EA, they said, was the driver behind this institutional transformation.
What Was Really Done
Yes, progress happened — but only in patches:
A student portal was launched for registration, payments, and grades
Finance and HR were brought onto a single ERP
Some data unification occurred across colleges
Service interfaces (e.g. admissions, scheduling) were digitized
But…
-No structural modeling of core academic workflows
-No integrated enterprise view of how research, teaching, student life, and admin connect
-No redesign of governance, rules, or decision paths
-No coordinated strategy-to-execution mapping
EA was framed as transformation. But in reality, it was IT modernization, labeled as EA.
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