New

The new use case Advanced Data Management focuses on business data as the key asset to understand where data is stored, how it is transferred, and how it is used so that your company can ensure compliance with data protection regulations and enforce data governance policies.

As an alternative to the Basic Data Management use case, which describes the transfer of data via business objects, Advanced Data Management includes the class Business Data which is added at the leaf level of the hierarchy Business Object Category > Business Object > Business Data. The business data are concrete, logical instances of business objects, which represent an abstract entity such as a customer or employee. For example, the high-level business object Employee might have two different business data Employee HR and Employee Reporting, whereby Employee HR includes sensitive data like salary and gender whereas Employee Reportingincludes global reporting dashboards have only access to aggregated data. Data usage and CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations are maintained directly on the business data.

When the use case Advanced Data Management is activated, the new Business Data node is available in the navigation panel. Business data can be captured in the Business Data data workbench where it can be assigned to a parent business object and its data protection requirements specified. The business data content area provides views to capture evaluations such as the DPIA rating, the attributes of the business data, and CRUD usage.

Additionally, with the activation of Advanced Data Management, the business object content area will display a Business Data data workbench to specify the business data assigned to the business object and a Business Data Governance view that shows all business data associated with the business object, the compliance of the data, and analysis of its attributes. Additionally, the information flow content area will show a Transferred Business Data view where transferred data can be captured from the perspective of the incoming or outgoing information flow.

You can use the Advanced Data Management use case with either the license IT Transformation Server - FastLane or IT Transformation Server - Enterprise. The use cases Basic Data Management and Advanced Data Management are mutually exclusive and only one may be enabled.

The following has been added for more sophisticated reporting on the information portfolio. All business questions are available with the base package IT Transformation Server - Enterprise. The use case Information Portfolio Governance must be activated.

New business question What is our data landscape?The business question What is our data landscape? is available in the Transparency section of the navigation panel and supports you to understand your data landscape in the context of business needs. The report displays a nested matrix that shows the business capability model with information about the business objects that the business capabilities use. The top 2 levels of business capabilities in the business capability hierarchy are displayed, whereby each second-level business capability displays the business objects used by the second-level business capability and its subordinate business capabilities.

Analyze the business objects based on their assignment to business capabilities. Understand the exposure of personal data in the data landscape by focusing on the DPIA (data protection impact assessment) classification of the data. This business question supports the enterprise to understand and mitigate potential risk by knowing which business capabilities deal with personal data and their compliance with data regulations such as GDPR.

New business question Where is our data processed? The business question Where is our data processed? is available in the Risk section of the navigation panel. The data flow diagram that visualizes how selected data is generated, transformed, transmitted and used across applications over time. Upstream and downstream applications are mapped with directional arrows. By visualizing CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations alongside information flow details such as connection frequency, data format, and transferred business data, the data lineage report makes complex flows easy to understand.

Users can easily trace where business data is used, spot overlaps or inconsistencies, and uncover opportunities for optimization. Assess the business data at any point in time to ensure transparency and control across the enterprise. Understand the data flows across applications and the vital operations they perform to support the business.

Note that if the Basic Data Management use case is activated, the business question will showcase a selected business object that is transferred by information flows. If the Advanced Data Management use case is activated, the business question will focus on a selected business data transferred by information flows.

New business question What are our middleware integrations?The business question What are our middleware integrations? is available in the Transparency section of the navigation panel. The flow diagram offers a comprehensive overview of middleware systems and the technical implementation of information flows across connected applications. It illustrates how applications and components function as middleware to enable the exchange of information between source and target systems.

This visualization clarifies the integration landscape and highlights opportunities to optimize data flows by leveraging middleware systems. Serving as a technical reference, it supports stakeholders in maintaining governance and oversight of middleware integrations. By focusing on end-to-end information flows, the diagram enables effective management and control of planned changes. It provides the necessary context to understand and anticipate the impacts of change initiatives at any point in time, ensuring informed decision-making and sustainable integration practices.

Extended middleware specification.A middleware system can now be specified so that applications as well as components can function as middleware to enable the exchange of information between the source and target applications. To this end, the selector to specify the Middleware attribute in the information flow content area has been extended to specify either one application or one component. As a result of the revised middleware concept, the class Interface System has become obsolete and is no longer implemented in the solution configuration.

The business question Where do we have functional redundancies? is available in the Rationalization section of the navigation panel. The dataset shows which business capabilities use the same applications. Ideally each application supports a business capability. The report highlights the total number of business capabilities that two applications support as well as the percentage of business capabilities that the two applications have in common. A deeper understanding about the redundant application support is available in an additional matrix report that shows all business capabilities that both applications support as well as which business capabilities each application exclusively supports.

This visualization helps reduce functional redundancy and decreases risk due to too many applications supporting multiple organizational needs. The report also helps identify replacement candidates in case an application will be rationalized.

The business question Where do we have functional redundancies? is available with the base package IT Transformation Server - Enterprise. The use case Application Portfolio Governance must be activated.