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Summary
We hear a lot of talk about “digital transformation.” But isn’t that what we’ve been doing since the Web emerged in the late 1990s? Why is this still so aspirational for so many organizations? In his consulting practice with Factor, Bram Wessel sees first-hand how enterprise-scale organizations are awakening to the reality that the information itself that drives experiences and gets implemented in technologies —the Information Layer, if you will— is increasingly a tangible organizational asset. As such, it’s as critical as any other kind of infrastructure. Bram joins Lou to ponder where we’ve been and where we might be headed in the realm of enterprise information architecture.
Key Insights
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The history of information architecture spans three eras: technology era, experience era, and the emerging information era.
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Many early CMS implementations assumed technology alone could solve information problems, which was naive.
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The experience era centered around UX, smartphones, and social media placing user experience at the forefront.
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We are entering an information era where information itself is recognized as a critical organizational asset with fiscal and organizational value.
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Successful enterprise information architecture requires both grassroots practitioners and executive sponsors for organizational alignment.
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Governance and evolving taxonomies are essential as information models must stay current and grow with organizational needs.
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Ecommerce mistakes often come from directly reusing merchandising taxonomies for customer navigation without proper crosswalks.
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An information architecture maturity model helps organizations assess and plan their progression from siloed to mastery stages.
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Taxonomy and ontology management tools like Synaptica, PoolParty, and Semaphore help manage centralized and shared vocabularies.
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Digital transformation depends on instrumented, centrally governed information architecture serving as a real-time service across systems.
Notable Quotes
"There was a naive belief many organizations had that implementing content management systems would magically solve experience problems."
"Smartphones and social media shifted the focus to the experience era where UX became the center of the universe."
"Information is actually infrastructure; it’s abstract but just as important as staff or systems."
"Organizational alignment requires both bottom-up grassroots efforts and top-down mandates to succeed."
"Customers can’t buy products they can’t find, and broken navigation is often due to poor underlying taxonomy integration."
"Many organizations manage information models in spreadsheets and then export to systems, highlighting the challenge of tooling."
"You don’t have to agree on every term but you do need governance that defines drivers, approvers, contributors, and those informed."
"Information mastery means your organization owns your domain and is seen as an authority with continuously improving information practices."
"Agile environments must include parallel tracks for sustaining production while building information layer capabilities."
"Information becomes the medium through which all transactions and functions in an organization occur at full digital transformation."
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