Results
One shared repository for architecture
Business leaders can see system dependencies
Faster, more consistent architecture proposals
Introduction
Marex is a global financial services platform with 4,000 people across 13+ major offices. About 500 of them work in technology, and between them, they manage more than 600 systems.
We spoke with three of Marex's Enterprise Architects: Nick Pullen, Victor Popescu, and Adam Fidler. They look after how the architectural landscape fits together, and how the rest of the business understands it.
Problem
Keeping 500 people aligned across a dozen-plus offices is hard. Keeping 600+ systems documented on top of that is harder. The Marex architecture team ran into several challenges.
1. Architecture knowledge lived in people's heads
If you wanted to understand how a solution worked, you would go to an architect and talk them through it. It'd then get translated into a diagram. That didn't scale when a team of architects served a company of 4,000.
2. No common language
Each team described its systems in its own way. With that many people and that many systems, getting everyone to speak the same language was a heavy lift.
"When you have a company that is 4,000 people and when you have technology that is 500 people, that's a heavy lift, to keep everything aligned and have everybody speaking the same language."
Victor Popescu, Enterprise Architect
3. The business couldn't see dependencies
Business leaders had no easy way to see which systems they relied on or how those systems depended on one another. That context sat with the technology teams and was siloed.
"IcePanel has been a godsend because what it means is we've had a single repository of all of our architectural data."
How IcePanel helped
Marex now models its landscape in IcePanel, using the C4 model as the shared set of rules. Here's what changed.
1. A single repository for all architecture data
Every team's architecture lives in one place. When someone makes a change, everyone else sees it, so nobody is working from a stale copy.
That shared repository also made standards and patterns easier to roll out. The architecture team can point to real examples in the model, and other teams build on them.
2. C4 as a common language
The C4 model gave Marex a common set of rules that anyone can browse and update. Teams no longer need an architect to translate their solution for them.
"It solved the idea of a common tool, a common set of rules that anyone could just see, browse, alter, instead of always having to go to the architect and try to fill their head with how your solution works."
Victor Popescu, Enterprise Architect
3. Architecture open to the whole business
Marex gave the entire business access to IcePanel through SSO. Business leaders can now see which systems they have in place and how those systems depend on each other, something they couldn't do before.
4. Scaling the model with AI and the API
With 600+ systems and a backlog still to model, Marex looked for ways to speed things up:
- AI augmentation helps ensure the model has the right objects and that they're described consistently.
- IceMaker, a tool Marex built in-house, generates diagrams in IcePanel from a new proposal. The person proposing does far less work up front and can focus on the details of their own process.
- The API lets Adam query the whole model in one go, then turn the results into a list of objects to review and the owner to contact about any changes.
Full interview
Watch the full conversation with Nick, Victor, and Adam.
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