Enterprise Architecture at ACTIA Automotive with myCarto

Case Study: Actia Automotive - Industrial Specialist in Embedded Electronic Systems

ACTIA Automotive is…

The mobility-focused entity within an international group originating from Toulouse, with 29 subsidiaries
700 employees across 4 sites
An IT department structured into 4 divisions
Governance based on ITIL V4 principles
A large application portfolio shared between IT and OT, supporting over 60 key processes

Goal : Manage a complex Information System

Discover how ACTIA Automotive leverages IT mapping to support its enterprise architecture. With a layered approach, from business processes to infrastructure, ACTIA’s IT department uses IT mapping to support ITIL practices, strengthen collaboration with business teams, streamline its Information System, and address key transformation challenges.

ACTIA Automotive is an industrial player specializing in embedded electronics for demanding environments (buses, construction equipment, aircraft, satellites). The company is also expanding into the SDV (Software-Defined Vehicle) sector, and architecture is part of its DNA. While the IT department is mature and has a strong ITIL culture, it must now manage an increasingly complex Information System, with challenges such as:

Scattered documentation and the need to preserve institutional knowledge
A large fleet of virtual machines with no clear view of criticality or dependencies
Legacy applications and systems
The need for rapid impact analysis and technical audits
The need to streamline communication between business teams and IT

In response, and inspired by the CIGREF nomenclature, the company decided to create a dedicated Enterprise Architect role.

The challenges of enterprise architecture revolve around structuring complexity and achieving transparency, which involves addressing the following issues:

Fragmented documentation: Dispersed Visio diagrams, non centralized Word procedures
Lack of visibility: “People had this information scribbled on bits of paper”
Reactive management: “When the person who set up an application leaves, we’re left scrambling”
Operational risks: No way to anticipate impacts when changes are made

Gathering all knowledge about the IS is one thing…
But organizing and structuring it sustainably requires both a tool and a clear methodology.

That’s how myCarto became a new application within ACTIA Automotive’s Information System.

“Together with the CIO, we agreed that doing enterprise architecture with Excel was a dead end. We immediately decided to adopt the approach with the right tool.”
Thomas DELAUX
Enterprise Architect – IT Department

An IT mapping solution serving enterprise architecture

Choosing the IT Mapping Solution

After evaluating three solutions, ACTIA chose myCarto for the following reasons:

Best price-to-feature ratio: “The offer was the best compromise.”
Partnership potential: “AB+ is a French company we could see ourselves working with.”
Customer references: “I had attended user testimonials where everyone seemed genuinely satisfied.”

A pragmatic, gradual implementation focused on automation

Deployment in Three Phases with a Bottom-Up Approach:

Infrastructure & Hardware: Imported from the CMDB and optimized the asset inventory
Applications & Flows: Mapped numerous applications and their interactions
Business Processes: Integrated processes aligned with business strategy using BPMN features

For each domain, Actia places automation at the heart of the approach:

“ITIL and automation go hand in hand,” notes Thomas DELAUX

The implementation of myCarto relied on maximum automation of data collection and integration, using:

ETL for data extraction and transformation
APIs for integration with myCarto
Automatic synchronization with the CMDB, Active Directory, HRIS, and virtualization systems
Centralized orchestrator to manage and sequence data flows

“With myCarto, our main focus is on the links and flows between assets. Unlike the static view provided by our CMDB, myCarto gives us a dynamic perspective and shows the connections between the different layers of the Information System.”

Thomas DELAUX – Enterprise Architect – IT Department

The key success factors of the enterprise architecture approach

According to Thomas Delaux, the key success factors behind Actia’s enterprise architecture approach are:

An “opportunistic” approach: “Enterprise architects need to be opportunistic. We seize opportunities as they arise, when we sense that people are willing to engage with the approach.”

Processes at the heart of enterprise architecture: “I can’t imagine enterprise architecture without the process layer. Managing applications and infrastructure layers is urbanization. True enterprise architecture begins when you tackle the process layer.”

Integration into ITIL routines and practices: “We integrate mapping into our processes and routines like the CAB (Change Advisory Board), IT steering committees, and recurring enterprise architecture meetings.”

Choosing SaaS for resilience: “Hosting myCarto externally is aligned with our IT risk management strategy. In the event of a major crisis, we retain access to our entire architecture map.”

A "Work-in-Progress" Best Practice

We follow a core principle: only one application is the master of any given data.
This means identifying the data source, modeling the data flows, and documenting everything — especially the rules governing how the data is updated.

Results of the Enterprise Architecture Approach

Immediate and Measurable ROI

Since enterprise architecture is a new initiative, seeking quick wins is part of the deployment strategy. Mapping the technical and infrastructure layers immediately helped rationalize assets:

“We reduced our virtual machine fleet by 30%. This generated substantial savings on licenses and maintenance, aligned with our CSR approach. We identified and removed a redundant LDAP server. We also discovered anomalies such as switches that were supposed to be redundant but weren’t.”

Thomas DELAUX – IT Architect

Controlled IT Asset Management

Beyond these optimizations during the implementation phase, myCarto mapping now documents all applications, machines, flows, and processes, …

Transformation of IT-Business Relationship

Relying on graphical representations changes interactions with business teams, whether in support functions or on production sites.

This applies to projects around ERP, providing traceability information for financial audits, or ensuring GDPR compliance.

Improved Operational Efficiency

IT mapping also supports:

Incident management: Immediate identification of impacted systems
Change management: “It allows us to perform very simple impact analyses”
Audit support: Always up-to-date documentation, especially for ISO certifications
Enhanced security: Identification of assets and potential vulnerabilities

It’s the “Wow” effect! When the HR manager said to me, “I don’t understand where the data is used,” and I sent her the flow map around the application, she told me: “I no longer need to search for the information, it’s already available!”

Thomas DELAUX – Enterprise Architect within ACTIA Automotive’s IT Department

Transform your IT system with myCarto, just like ACTIA

Like ACTIA Automotive, give your organization the visibility it needs to:

Optimize and rationalize your IT assets – from applications to virtual machines
Document your Information System – from business processes to switch connections
Facilitate your transformation projects – from organizational charts to data flows
Improve your operational efficiency – from incident management to ISO audits
Ease IT-business collaboration – turning IS complexity into a clear, dynamic graphical representation