The article presents a practical case of using a modelling technique called Fractal Enterprise Modelling (FEM) to improve a highly regulated financial sector company in the EU. The company had the practical goals of achieving compliance and improving operations in three closely related areas - IT governance, information security management, and privacy management. The project also had an unusual constraint, as it was not possible to use visual models for communication in the project. We decided to use design science principles to investigate whether FEM could be useful within this scenario and its limitations.

It turned out that the conceptual structure of FEM fits quite well with the concepts of the three areas, and it was possible to use FEM despite the constraint on its usage. This led to the invention of a new analysis approach to go around the restriction. It included translating patterns defined with FEM into mind maps that were used for conducting interviews. FEM enabled the analyst to systematically, flexibly and quickly explore and understand the company and its state in the three areas. The paper aims to provide practically useful insights to practitioners that want to drive innovation, improve security or achieve compliance.