Enterprise Architecture

Systems have accumulated faster than anyone has mapped them. Nobody can say with confidence what depends on what, so every change carries hidden risk, and every new initiative starts with an argument about where it fits. Or a target architecture exists on paper, drawn by people who have since moved on, and the organisation is quietly not following it.

Mapping the estate as it actually is, not as the last diagram claimed. Identifying where complexity is earning its keep and where it is simply cost. We work with the technology team and the people who run the business functions at the same table, because architecture decisions only technologists have signed off rarely survive the next reorganisation.

A current-state view the organisation can trust, because it was tested against the systems rather than assumed. A target architecture sized to what the organisation actually needs — not a reference model imported from elsewhere. A sequenced plan for closing the gap, with the trade-offs named rather than hidden in the diagram's white space.

Change requests get evaluated against a real picture of dependency and risk, not guesswork. Complexity stops being invisible, so it stops being free.

Neil Catton, GCG's Chief Technology Officer, leads this work. Enterprise architecture across public sector, health, finance, telecoms and retail, over 38 years from computer operator to Group CTO — including Director of Digital, Data and Integration Architecture at BT and Chief Global Digital Architect at Wipro, and architecture practices of more than a hundred people.