Q: How long have you been involved with The Open Group?

I am a Certified Master Architect with The Open Group since 2010. At that time, I was working with IBM as Enterprise Architect.

Some of the frameworks, tools and concepts promoted by The Open Group, I have been using for a long time, even before I got certified.

Q. What do you do, and how long have you been doing it?

I am a Process and Solution Architect at Philips Healthcare since 2012.

The focus of my work is on our business solutions to provide software licensing capabilities to meet the business needs of our customers.

At The Open Group, I am privileged to be one of the founding members of the Healthcare Forum. The forum was formed in early 2014 as a reflection of the cost and quality challenges that we face in healthcare ecosystems around the world.

It makes me feel proud to be member of this forum as we achieved a major milestone in 2014 when the United States Federal Health Architecture (FHA) asked us to review their Federal Health Information Model (FHIM). The whole team has worked hard to produce a white paper on the FHIM, which is underway, and we plan to broaden the scope of our engagement with the FHA.

Q: Why did your organization become a member and what does your involvement look like?

Philips joined The Open Group as a Gold Member in 2010. In 2013, Philips upgraded to become a Platinum Member. Initially, my company embraced The Open Group to establish TOGAF® and ArchiMate® as their Enterprise Architecture standards.

Personally, I believe that The Open Group Healthcare Forum offers to me great opportunities to shape things beyond my daily work.

Q: How has membership in The Open Group benefited you, your organization and the industry at large?

Being part of an international team helps me broaden my horizon and it allows me to take different perspectives, which is of great benefit to better understand the healthcare industry.

From the perspective of my organization, Philps, I believe that frameworks such as TOGAF® or ArchiMate®  not only are excellent tools to establish and maintain strategic objectives, but they help improve our overall performance.

Looking at the healthcare industry, I believe it is yet to harvest the benefits of Enterprise Architecture and I see the Healthcare Forum as potentially an important incubator to introduce Enterprise Architecture to Healthcare.

Q: What contributions do you hope to bring to The Open Group?

I would like to make The Open Group Healthcare Forum a great success.

We place the person at the very center of our thoughts, whether as patients or as individuals concerned with our health and wellbeing. This sets the vision Boundaryless Information Flow in a very personal context.

Q: Why is it important for other organizations to join The Open Group?

There are a number of membership benefits with The Open Group. First of all, a member organization can utilize the wealth of material and education that we offer. But even more important, we provide a platform for exchange of ideas, strategies and approaches. With the arrival of industry verticals, a member organization can even directly influence the course of direction in its  own industry. We want many more organizations to join the Healthcare Forum and The Open Group as we expand our footprint.

Q: What are your hobbies?

I do yoga quite regularly. I like swimming and cycling, but only when the weather is warm. Cooking and travelling across the world are some of my favourite free-time activities I do with my family.

Q: What book are you currently reading?

I am currently reading a mystery thriller called 'The Third Eye', a story set against the background of the history and civilization of South Asia.

Q.  What social networks do you belong to?

My job keeps me too busy at the moment to be active participants in social networks. I am active member of LinkedIn, though.

Q: Any last thoughts?

I hope I could give you some background of the vision and mission of the Healthcare Forum and the work we do. If you have any thoughts, suggestion or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact me or any other member of the forum.

Biography

Oliver Matthias Kipf is a Process and Solution Architect with Philips. Oliver, an Enterprise Architect and certified Master Architect, provides thought leadership, innovation and architecture expertise within Philips Healthcare. Prior to Philips, Oliver had worked as consultant and enterprise architect on various engagements to plan, build, design and build enterprise solutions, predominantly in Oil & Gas, Automotive and Healthcare.