What does a Business Systems Architect do?

short answer: A Business Systems Architect designs the systems a business actually runs on — connecting finance, operations, people and customers into one coherent, adoptable platform.

A Business Systems Architect designs the systems a business actually runs on: not one app, but the connected whole — finance, field operations, HR, compliance and customer experience working as a single platform. The job sits between engineering and the P&L: choosing what to build, what to integrate, and what to leave alone.

Cole's version of the discipline follows four rules, written up on the changelog: adoption is the deliverable (training and change management are designed alongside the architecture); every build carries a business case measured after launch; integrate before you replace; and AI output needs a human review gate before it touches a system of record.

See it in practice: the 8 platforms he's shipped and the measured results.