Case 2 : How a Major Gulf Bank Mistook IT Blueprints for Enterprise Architecture
- Sunil Dutt Jha
- Jul 1
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 4
A leading Gulf bank — well-regarded in both retail and corporate banking — announced that it had “implemented Enterprise Architecture” as part of a sweeping digital transformation.
The bank’s press releases painted a bold picture: EA was enabling a single customer view, agile product innovation, and seamless regulatory compliance. Management claimed EA had aligned IT with business strategy, modernized core banking, and streamlined operations across branches and digital channels.
EA was positioned as the backbone of transformation.
What Was Really Done
Behind the scenes, the EA initiative delivered a technical roadmap and a series of IT projects — not an enterprise-wide design.
The actual focus:
Application portfolio rationalization
Infrastructure modernization
Cloud migration plans
Setup of an enterprise repository tool
Some high-level business process catalogs
And the outputs?
Polished “future-state” diagrams, TOGAF templates, and capability maps — visually impressive, but largely superficial overlays.
Internally, it was summed up like this:
“A slide deck mapping systems and some cloud recommendations.”
Key areas covered: IT and parts of Operations.
Key areas missing: Wealth Management, Risk, Treasury, Compliance, HR, Customer Service, Branch Ops.
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