As organizations mature architecturally, they typically progress through four stages that impact flexibility: (1) local applications with high local flexibility and low global flexibility, (2) enterprise systems with increased standardization and some loss of local flexibility, (3) shared infrastructure with further standardization and optimization of core business processes, and (4) shared data with the highest level of global flexibility but lowest local flexibility as technical standards are enforced across the organization. The percentages of IT investments also shift across these stages.