Abstract

Enterprise Architecture - EA encompasses the core business processes, Information Technology infrastructure (IT), systems, and technologies, as well as the level of integration and standardization of data and processes. Companies that develop EA tend to migrate from local applications to systems that share infrastructure and data. In this context, the aim of this study is to identify how the SMEs –Small Enterprises from Southern Brazil are positioned in maturity levels of EA set out by their IT investments. The sample comprised 152 small businesses and the methodology employed included cluster analysis with average link between groups as linkage method and Euclidean distance as similarity measure. After the identification of eight main EA maturity stages, non-parametric tests such as Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney were employed to identify significant differences among the stages regarding their age and the number of employees. The results indicate that the average number of employees is low from stages zero to four, grows significantly in stage five and decreases moderately in the final stages, where the decrease from stage six to seven is also significant statistically. Moreover, the study suggests that small companies use less EA because they have fewer activities. On the other hand, larger companies use more EA because they are more complex and need more employees. However, after a certain point, the more they increase their EA level, the more efficient they become and the fewer employees are needed.

Key words: Information technology, infrastructure investments, small and medium enterprise SME, maturity model.