LBBW: Driving transparency and innovation with SAP LeanIX solutions
A “command bridge” for enterprise architecture
Landesbank Baden-Württemberg needed a robust overview of its IT landscape. With SAP LeanIX solutions, the bank identified significant IT savings, synchronized data collection, and enabled on-demand, business-focused analytics into IT performance. The solutions also aid digital innovation thanks to enhanced collaboration between IT and business teams.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| Banking | Stuttgart, Germany | >10,000 employees |
active monthly users of SAP LeanIX solutions
applications on which data is stored
authoritative source of architectural insights
Enterprise Architect, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg
Consolidating IT data and improving transparency
One of Thomas Wagner’s earliest tasks as an enterprise architect at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) was to connect information sources about the commercial bank’s heterogeneous IT landscape. These technologies had to be linked together to enable new functionality for the company’s digital future. With these assets mapped, the architecture team could optimize solutions—old and new—in cost-effective ways.
However, like many other organizations worldwide, LBBW’s stockpile of IT data was scattered across different teams and knowledge databases. Few applications were contextualized to business value, and performing basic maintenance tasks—let alone rearchitecting systems—required many e-mails and phone calls with stakeholders.
Wagner and his colleagues sought to replace LBBW’s form-based processes with leaner workflows. To curb IT complexity and simplify information-gathering overall, it was also clear that siloed application data (for example, technical dependencies and service lifecycles) had to be migrated to a more centralized and configurable repository. The visibility and accessibility of such a database promised LBBW’s architecture teams a faster way to model digital landscapes to the precise requirements of the bank’s partners and business departments. Transparency to support regulatory requirements could then be achieved more easily.
Creating on-demand reports and a flexible data model
After more than 20 years of architectural experience, Wagner had become familiar with enterprise architecture (EA) tools and the wider EA tool market. LBBW developed one of its own with a bespoke data model. However, as LBBW’s need for business-oriented technological insights grew, a standardized offering from a third-party vendor was required to drive further usage among IT and non-IT stakeholders alike.
Wagner consulted with others in Germany’s close-knit community of IT architects and chose SAP LeanIX solutions, software as a service used for managing EA and multicloud environments. He justified his decision based on the solutions’ user-friendly interface and configurable graphical reports. Intuitive features such as this meant enterprise architects could collaborate better with IT and business teams while accelerating data collection efforts overall. This enabled the repository in SAP LeanIX solutions to become an authoritative, single source of architectural insights—or, as Wagner refers to it, a “command bridge.”
The data model of SAP LeanIX solutions makes it possible to document and visualize business-IT landscapes in more-precise ways. Thanks to its preconfigured reporting mechanisms (for example, the application landscape “interface circle map” report), users can access information at will and analyze how IT underpins core enterprise functions. These analytics range from high-level to granular views and are contextualized through business capabilities.
With the help of SAP LeanIX solutions, Wagner and his team would achieve on-demand visibility into LBBW’s application landscape and its supporting infrastructure. Unlike other EA tools and consultant-led architectural projects, this transparency wouldn’t expire or become siloed in business units. It would be available on demand, for employees of different skill levels, and grow in tandem with the company’s digital landscape.
Achieving greater versatility for digital innovation
Shortly after adoption, LBBW succeeded in filtering data across its IT and business landscape into SAP LeanIX solutions. The bank accelerated implementation thanks to SAP LeanIX solutions’ integration API. And with the help of the solutions’ power surveys, Wagner and his teammates identified blind spots, contacted relevant stakeholders, and retrieved data as a group and individually—directly from within the solutions.
Apart from expediting outreach, rolling out SAP LeanIX solutions is helping LBBW approach digital innovation with more confidence and nuance. IT and business teams now use the solutions to jointly assess and benefit from technological opportunities, all while satisfying the demands of their highly regulated environment. Such collaboration is the golden standard in today’s age of continuous transformation, and LBBW is putting on a master class in driving versatility through architecture.
LBBW currently uses SAP LeanIX solutions to store data on more than 1,500 applications. The bank also logs more than 1,000 active monthly users from departments throughout the company.