+ All Categories
Home > Documents > How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

Date post: 08-Dec-2016
Category:
Upload: vutram
View: 215 times
Download: 1 times
Share this document with a friend
11
How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture to Enable Enterprise Information Integration A White Paper Prepared for Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company By Duncan Scott and Michael Pecnik September, 2003
Transcript
Page 1: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

How to Utilize Enterprise InformationArchitecture to Enable Enterprise Information IntegrationA White Paper Prepared for Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters CompanyBy Duncan Scott and Michael PecnikSeptember, 2003

Page 2: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 2

ContentsContents....................................................................................................................................................................................................2

1. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................................3

2. Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................................................................3

3. Challenges in Information Management.................................................................................................................................................4

Business Challenges ..........................................................................................................................................................................5

User Challenges ................................................................................................................................................................................6

IT Challenges.....................................................................................................................................................................................6

4. Enterprise Information Architecture Overview.........................................................................................................................................6

5. Factiva’s Roadmap to Enterprise Information Integration ........................................................................................................................6

5.1. Initial Benchmarking .......................................................................................................................................................................7

5.2. Information Audit ...........................................................................................................................................................................7

5.2.1. Workflow Analysis...................................................................................................................................................................7

5.2.2. User Properties ........................................................................................................................................................................8

5.2.3. Applications ............................................................................................................................................................................8

5.2.4. Participants .............................................................................................................................................................................8

5.3. Workflow Audit..............................................................................................................................................................................8

5.3.1. Target Group...........................................................................................................................................................................8

5.4. Content Categorization ..................................................................................................................................................................8

5.5. Enterprise Information Architecture Recommendation ....................................................................................................................9

5.5.1. Planning..................................................................................................................................................................................9

5.5.2. Implementation.......................................................................................................................................................................9

5.5.3. Initial Rollout...........................................................................................................................................................................9

5.5.4. Incremental Rollouts................................................................................................................................................................9

5.6. Final Benchmarking ......................................................................................................................................................................10

6. Business Benefits, Measuring Return on Investment (ROI).....................................................................................................................10

7. Conclusion ...........................................................................................................................................................................................10

Page 3: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 3

1. Executive SummaryThis paper provides an overview of Enterprise Information

Architecture (EIA) fundamentals. Our goal is to help Chief

Information Officers (CIOs) and other managers responsible for

corporate Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives understand

how EIA and Enterprise Information Integration (EII) create efficient

information management opportunities that were previously

unattainable in KM, despite profuse promises and expensive

investments in new technologies.

Factiva has been a pioneer in the field of EIA research and

development for more than 20 years, building information systems

that leverage relationships between people and content to deliver

relevant information. Factiva’s in-house development of a global

portal has provided our staff with real-world experience designing a

system that efficiently and effectively processes more than 140,000

documents from over 500 different systems on a daily basis. Factiva

has developed a vendor-neutral general taxonomy based upon a

hierarchical categorization system that can be used to support the

customized needs of individual companies regardless of industry.

The majority of the Global 4000 currently utilizes this taxonomy. The

high-level roadmap to achieving a successful EIA/EII solution

reviewed in this paper is the outcome of expertise gathered through

years of effort addressing KM initiatives at large and small

companies in a variety of industries.

We begin by defining EIA and EII and their objectives and benefits.

Next, we review Factiva’s approach to EII and the proprietary

methodology that allows us to help companies leverage their

existing infrastructures and fit them into new frameworks that

define how information assets are managed to achieve core

business objectives. More specifically, we address some of the key

prerequisites of EII; analysis of directories and applications;

consistent categorization and classification of information;

taxonomies; and workflows. These are the critical details that must

be carefully executed to integrate diverse stores of content and

technologies to create an information clearinghouse that truly

enables organizations to reduce costs and time-to-market for

implementing business processes that produce tangible efficiency

gains for the workforce.

2. IntroductionA century ago a customer at a store might ask the clerk to buy “on

credit.” This method of obtaining credit was inconvenient for both

the consumer and the shop owner. Customers were required to

maintain individual credit accounts with vendors, and vendors had

to manage accounts with many individuals. The advent of the

credit card changed all that. Rather than each individual having a

direct relationship and debt allowance with each vendor, each indi-

vidual carries a credit card that identifies the debtor to the vendor

and provides user profile information (such as a spending limit).

Today, when you buy something from a new vendor, rather than

filling out a form to establish a line of credit, all you do is present

your card, and the purchase is complete. By reducing the number of

relationships, the credit card saves money and time and increases

convenience for all involved.1

Business executives today often find managing their information

assets is a lot like operating in a world without credit cards. Instead

of a streamlined relationship with one account management tool,

they are struggling to juggle multiple applications, tools, databases,

and corporate KM initiatives. Companies have invested millions in

technology, installing complex networks and expensive applications,

only to discover their investments are not efficiently utilized in

day-to-day operations, or, worse yet, are circumvented whenever

possible by the very employees these systems were designed to

benefit, due to lack of skill, the time it takes to get information from

a system or application, or lack of awareness that the knowledge

they are seeking is even available. It has been estimated that an

enterprise with 1,000 knowledge workers loses a minimum of

$6 million a year in time spent searching and not finding the

information needed for knowledge workers to pursue their jobs.2

Companies that remain competitive in a challenging business

environment recognize that managing and exploiting knowledge

through technology is a critical success factor. Today, with marginal

improvements in hardware speed and functionality and fewer

dollars being invested in products, the efficient management of

knowledge in an enterprise is a requirement for profitable

business operations.

Page 4: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 4

To address revenues lost through poor access to information, many

companies have invested in some type of KM initiative. Typically,

they’ve purchased standalone KM applications within a particular

department or implemented a sophisticated search engine or Web

portal. None of these solutions, however, deliver the promised

returns because the scope of delivery is either too limited,

applicable only to a narrow slice of workers and therefore not

reusable, or only reusable with a great deal of time and effort; or

because the scope is too broad, delivering too much information or

information that is not relevant to a specific worker’s need (business

process or activity) at that time. Companies need a strategy to max-

imize the value of their knowledge investments.

EIA (Enterprise Information Architecture) can be defined as all

components involved with providing any kind of information to a

multitude of end users. Components can be either hardware or

software. It’s analogous to an orchestra - different components

(instruments) involved in providing information (music) to end users

(audience).

EIA offers a solution to the failures and limitations of the traditional

KM approaches. Rather than recommending the implementation

of a new system application to solve the problem, it proposes to

leverage the existing infrastructure and applications, tying them into

a new framework. In the case where there are areas with gaps, then

smaller software applications can be added to complement what’s

already in place. In focusing on integration, EIA makes use of the

same paradigm that has successfully achieved a new level of

functionality in network engineering. Just as organizations have

consolidated networks, hardware, and applications by putting

frameworks or enterprise architectures into place, they will as a next

step have to consolidate their information assets and deliver

KM to diverse user groups through a common framework, in effect

creating an enterprise knowledge network. This framework is EIA.

The fundamental goal of an EIA is to deliver EII.

EII (Enterprise Information Integration) EII can be defined as

what is done to organize the information so that it integrates all

types of information housed in the architecture. Whereas EIA can

be likened to an orchestra, EII is analogous to a “conductor.” A

conductor integrates all the components (instruments) so that music

can be played. EII integrates all the information in the EIA to enable

users to be more productive in use of the information.

EII offers the following benefits:

• Increased productivity for all users who will need filtered,

targeted, and relevant content available when executing

automated business processes

• Reduced costs of managing content and information by

eliminating duplicate information, correcting inconsistencies, and

reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) of information

• Elimination of revenue lost through time wasted by highly paid

knowledge workers searching for information

• Increased revenues as sales people are more aware of critical

sales support information (for example: best practices, similar

deals in other territories, support issues, etc.)

• Elimination of wasteful spending by improving the value of

existing system

• Streamlined shopping list for new technology based on clearly

defined needs and demonstrated benchmarks

• Scalable infrastructure with reduced deployment, training and

maintenance costs for any new applications, as well as reduced

time-to-market

3. Challenges in InformationManagementThe biggest challenge today is the same simple one as it has

always been: increase sales while controlling costs.

Infrastructure such as standalone KM applications, centralized

Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), and sophisticated search

engines and Web portals have all enhanced information delivery to

workers, but they have not delivered productivity and cost savings.

Each of these approaches has flaws.

Standalone KM applications are problematic because the

information they contain may not be accessible to all of the

workers who could use the information, and, if access to the system

is available to all workers, the information may not be delivered to

a knowledge worker in another part of the organization in an

Page 5: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 5

appropriate format or context. Hence, time is wasted sifting

through irrelevant data to find the valuable information that can be

cut and pasted into the relevant format.

It’s not practical to create a single, centralized KMS given the

dynamic nature of the enterprise environment and the speed with

which the needs of workers must be met. A central KMS would

have difficulty meeting the diverse business needs of individual

departments and result in unacceptable compromises. A company’s

e-mail archives, file drawers, department servers and other

scattered media often are inaccessible to these centralized systems.3

The initial goals of portal development were very fundamental and

sought to provide a simplified user interface that would facilitate

access to information and applications. This technical architecture

targeted unified directories that would enable single-sign-on (SSO)

to multiple applications and automated delivery of information that

a user has subscribed to or had been pre-determined based on a

user’s directory attributes. This approach yielded a tangible user

experience improvement but failed in its attempt to deliver radical

productivity gains, due to issues of interoperability, customization

needs, and other problems related to a lack of standardization. A

business that limits its EII strategy to deploying a portal without

addressing the fundamental architecture of the contributing

applications creates a better way to access applications and

information but provides little productivity gains beyond that.

Search engines also have drawbacks that diminish

productivity, including:

• Information overload or irrelevant content: A search may

return too much irrelevant information or information

that is not targeted toward the knowledge worker’s

immediate problem. This can happen because workers,

though well-educated and highly skilled, are neither

journalists nor librarians. Even the brightest may not know

how to ask the right questions or figure out how the

information returned is ordered. The search engine may

not have access to the data or may lack the capability to

respond accurately to the worker’s questions or to allow

enough feedback so the worker can appropriately narrow

the context of the query.

• Inaccurate or missing information: Search engines may

not return all available information. Security rules and

firewalls can prevent access to content repositories or

servers. Information may be stored in formats that are

not read or accessed by search engine “crawlers.”

Examples of such files typically include non-text files,

such as rich media files, including video and audio files,

as well as any data stored in relational databases (client

records, financial data, etc.). The “same” data entered

into different applications at different times by different

people may contradict itself, due to input errors or

different methods of extrapolation. Information may be

stored on laptops, in hard copy or other media

unattached to the network, or it may not be properly

indexed and therefore not available to be searched.

To achieve successful EII, numerous challenges in information

management must be addressed from the business, user, and

Information Technology (IT) perspectives, including:

Business ChallengesThe main challenges are to maintain cost efficiencies while

increasing revenue. Specific challenges include:

• Make employees proactive, not reactive, by providing

them with access to the right information at the right

time so they can make intelligent business decisions that

positively impact the bottom line

• Leverage investments and maximize utilization of existing

systems, such as Customer Relationship Management4

(CRM) system(s), portals, Human Resource Management

Systems5 (HRMS), and financial systems

• Enhance consistency and quality of information/data

entered into systems so that employees use and archive

correct information

• Reduce new employee training costs

Page 6: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

User ChallengesThe main challenge is to reduce time and increase productivity,

specifically:

• Shift time spent from procedural tasks to value-

creating tasks

• Reduce time involved in prolific manual “copy-and-paste”

• Reduce number of procedures and time it takes to

provide 360-degree view of entities

IT ChallengesThe main challenge is to effectively use technology to maximize

revenue and improve productivity, as detailed below:

• Enhance integration between existing systems thus

providing transparent access to all data sources, making

employees more productive

• Establish transparent and relevant connection of users to

information

• Dynamically update users’ needs based upon continuously

updated directory information

• Position back office systems as back office systems, allow-

ing users to gain access and utilize those systems through

intuitive user interfaces

• Implement a portable architecture that facilitates and

supports ever changing worker interfaces

Historically, companies have addressed these challenges by purchas-

ing and customizing new applications that are added to the infra-

structure to solve a specific problem (for example, a sales portal).

Successes have been somewhat limited due to employee adoption,

cost of data integration and maintenance, and ultimately because

they are not the one-stop shop that they are expected to be. At the

same time, the infrastructure became more complex and discon-

nected as more relationships were created between information,

applications and users, hence making any new IT initiative in the

future more costly and complex, as more data and relationships

have to be supported, migrated and connected.

Today, companies are searching for decision driving intelligence.

However, without beginning with the right Enterprise Information

Architecture, this can be hard to achieve.

4. Enterprise InformationArchitecture OverviewFactiva defines EIA in its simplest form as a three-tier architecture -

infrastructure, processing and presentation:

• Tier 1 - (Infrastructure) - Consists of “back-office” applications,

information repositories and directories that contain relevant

information about the users

• Tier 2 - (Processing) - Contains the “brains” of the architecture

which includes the post-processing components for

supplementing the intelligence of the information and utilizes

the user profile to provide a “match” to users information

needs. The area of post-processing content is a key area where

categorization, entity extraction, common key creation, text

mining and the dynamic relationships between users and

information is created

• Tier 3 - (Presentation) - Contains the presentation and workflow

area that is designed to support the delivery demands of the

current paradigm, and supports future workflows

5. Factiva’s Roadmap to EnterpriseInformation IntegrationEnterprise Information Integration is the key deliverable that is

gained from EIA. Before an EIA can be implemented, an inventory

of all information, applications, user profiles and workflows must be

captured and documented. Once we understand user workflows,

and what applications and information they use with them –

regardless of what technologies are in place – we can apply best

practices. This methodology maps to a four-step approach to build-

ing an EIA:

• Step 1 - Take Inventory: Inventory all Tier 1 components

and get a high-level understanding of workflows. Quantify the

scope of the initiative so that the appropriate components are

reviewed

www.factiva.com

page 6

Page 7: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 7

• Step 2 - Prototype and Test: Ideal workflows are

prototyped. Evaluate the capabilities of the Tier 1 components for

“fit” and make “best of breed” component recommendations

that will lead to improved productivity in the workflow. Make

recommendations on how to maximize the contribution of

existing components that will remain part of the EIA. A

benchmarking process will list all the tangible comparisons

between existing and recommended workflows and assess

intangible gains that might not be empirically measurable

• Step 3 - System Design Phase: Capture all of the functional

and technical requirements. Ensure the architecture works within

the constraints of the organization’s IT standards (including

security) and that it will be maintainable and scalable.

Develop project plans and budgeting for the implementation

• Step 4 - Planning and Deployment: New applications must be

developed and new workflows must be implemented. The archi-

tecture must also be fully supported and maintained. Other tasks

associated with deployment include documenting new business

processes, building taxonomies, training staff, implementing

change management and ensuring successful adoption

Some key tasks involved in developing an EIA are as follows:

1. Initial Benchmarking

2. Information Audit

3. Workflow Audit

4. Content Categorization

5. Deployment of EIA

6. Final Benchmarking

5.1. Initial BenchmarkingIn order to establish a roadmap of the EII initiative for a specific

organization, it is important to analyze the status quo and collect

honest feedback from knowledge workers on how effectively

existing systems and available information support their job

responsibilities. (Honest feedback is effectively and anonymously

achieved through use of an independent interviewer). This

information will be compared to management’s perceived

effectiveness of the infrastructure and can potentially highlight

areas for more in-depth focus. The end result of this phase will be a

benchmark study, which will be used at the completion of the

initiative to measure improvements and success in gained

productivity, morale and hard dollars.

The interviewing process is critical in creating an accurate, high-level

understanding of workflows. This understanding aids in designing a

project scope that is attainable. It is important to define a focus for

all projects in order to deliver quality. After the initial benchmarking,

the decision is made whether to alter initiatives .

5.2. Information AuditAn Information Audit (IA) follows initial benchmarking. The IA

creates a baseline for existing external and internal content and

associated technologies - search, categorization, taxonomy,

Document Management System (DMS), Content Management

System6 (CMS), portal, etc. Benefits of this inventory process include

the ability to:

• understand how information is utilized – its value and ongoing

costs of information assets including applications

• identify redundancies and inefficiencies

• make future deployments faster and cheaper due to

easier maintenance — and re-use of existing infrastructure

5.2.1. Workflow AnalysisTo gain a complete understanding of the existing type of

information flows and how information is used across the

organization, interviews, workshops, surveys and document reviews

are used to assess key dimensions of the information

environment, focusing on What, Who, How and Why. Basic

questions include:

• What type of content exists? What is the quality,

consistency, cost and value?

• Who uses the applications and how are the

relationships connected?

• How is the information used and is it creating

maximum productivity?

• Why is this information used, and what business value

is being recognized?

• What is the relationship and flow of information to related

complimentary information?

Page 8: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 8

5.2.2. User PropertiesUser profiles providing information about a user’s position, function,

geography and interests (whether explicitly selected by the user or

obtained implicitly). These profiles are tools used to determine the

relevant directory attributes that drive information for that user.

Properties can also be assigned to the user to make search functions

more meaningful and more applicable to the user’s work context.

5.2.3. ApplicationsWe use interviews, surveys, document reviews, and use process

analysis to assess existing applications for: application use, flow,

tasks and goals.

5.2.4. ParticipantsTo ensure buy-in and success, the following groups are involved:

• IT

• Information professional/library

• Sales and Marketing

• Operations

• Finance

5.3. Workflow AuditIdeally, workflow consists of the procedures by which information in

its various formats and tasks are routed (distributed and retrieved)

within and outside a company in order to accomplish a business

objective. Because workflow is driven by business needs, it is ideally

based on predefined business rules and processes. The reality is that

workflow often does not follow established procedures or rules and

therefore, does not work for the person completing the specific

task. The goal of EIA/EII is to streamline the workflow so that

business objectives can be clearly defined and their related tasks

performed expeditiously. During the workflow audit, management

must identify the ideal workflow (as well as the perceived one) and

compare these to the actual workflow as employees get their work

done. A variety of assessment methods can yield an accurate, three-

dimensional view of workflow; the most important method is the

interview.

5.3.1. Target GroupUltimately, success depends on user adoption. In order to provide

users with effective workflow applications, it is important to

understand existing user behavior, ideas and complaints qualified by

the source – e.g. management, top performers and other perform-

ers. While usage data is objective, it can provide the wrong infor-

mation unless it is backed up by interviews (for example, some

applications might have high usage because they’re slow or require

many steps, while others have low usage because nobody uses

them). Other applications might have low usage because they are

extremely effective, or because nobody knows they exist or how to

use them. The best way to understand user behavior, therefore, is

by interviewing management, top performers and poor performers

to identify best practices and areas for improvement. Because of the

sensitivity of the subject matter, it’s critical that the interviews are

performed by an independent party who can ensure the anonymity

necessary for high-quality feedback.

5.4. Content CategorizationThe EIA/EII solution works because it makes technology more

responsive to human needs. Just as humans search for information

in a variety of ways, a properly implemented EIA utilizes multiple

processes for accessing information:

• Keyword search

• Exploration of a taxonomy (or hierarchical organization),

such as a tree or other structural navigational aid

• Navigating or toggling between a keyword search and a

content hierarchy

• Transparent searches (results listed without the user having

to enter a search; the search runs in the background and

is based on the context of the user’s workflow)

• Mapping of data keys between multiple sources using

discovery to normalize the content and form relationships

No matter what access method is used, the efficacy of each depends

upon document profiling utilizing appropriate content

categorization. Content categorization involves tagging articles and

other media to determine useful concepts or other attributes, such

as corporate names, dates, places or the names of individuals.

Natural language processing is then used to search, summarize, cat-

egorize, mine and display content.

Page 9: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 9

To be useful, content and user profiles must relate to each other.

Relationships are identified via logical links. For example, links

among user profiles can lead to a grouping of experts familiar with

a specific project. Alternatively, these links can be displayed as a list

or they can map to a taxonomy, enabling a navigation process. A

more sophisticated exploitation of this system can supply a more

refined context for the information, for example, certain articles

are accessed primarily by physicians while another set is more

appropriate for consumers of health care services.

5.5. Enterprise Information ArchitectureRecommendationThe information that has been collected in the first phases of the

project will now be used to recommend an EIA. Conceptually, the

EIA needs to consist of the following components:

• An inventory of information assets, plus description of

where they reside and how they can be accessed

• Documentation of workflows that need to be supported

• Taxonomy that will be applied across all information

• User information and SSO functionality

• Content categorization methods

• Naming conventions

• Formatting standards (for example, XML)

• Functional requirements for workflow applications

• Technical requirements for implementation

In order to build the EIA, a project needs to be defined. It will most

likely be tied to a specific initiative such as the implementation of a

sales portal, consisting of the following phases:

• Planning

• Implementation

• Initial rollout

• Ongoing rollout to other applications

During the planning phase, we also consider scalability of the

architecture, all security concerns and the support and

maintenance model.

5.5.1. PlanningDuring the planning phase we’ll define the technical and functional

requirements for EIA/EII. In addition to that we’ll need a project plan

that identifies milestones, estimated costs, resources, components

and tasks.

5.5.2. ImplementationBased on the requirements set out, the initial infrastructure

(hardware, software, and taxonomy) will leverage the existing

infrastructure, such as SSO and user directories. Other components

might have to be introduced to deliver the full functionality of the

architecture. The key focus of this phase is integrating all of these

systems according to the EIA that has been defined.

5.5.3. Initial RolloutIn order to maximize its effectiveness and usefulness, EIA needs to

be implemented corporate-wide; however, organizations might

want to focus initially on a department where the highest return on

investment can be achieved before rolling it out across the

enterprise. By tying the strategic initiative to a business initiative,

organizations take an approach of practical deployment and are

able to get funding from the department’s business champions. For

example, the EIA could initially be rolled out as part of the launch of

a sales portal.

5.5.4. Incremental RolloutsOnce the initial project has been completed and the EIA put into

place, subsequent projects will be defined as part of other business

initiatives. These projects will leverage EIA to allow the organization

to reduce deployment time and costs, since some components have

already been integrated into the EIA thereby reducing the number

of components to complete the new project.

Page 10: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 10

5.6. Final BenchmarkingAfter the initial EIA is deployed, we need to measure how well it has

met business objectives. During the final benchmarking task, we

identify where progress has been made and what next steps need

to be taken. Using metrics discussed in Section 6 below, we

calculate the ROI.

6. Business Benefits, MeasuringReturn on Investment (ROI)To measure the ROI of a project, we need to take into account both

qualitative and quantitative returns.

Quantitative benefits:

• Reduced costs through eliminating duplicate information,

consolidating information assets, and achieving economies

of scale

• Reduced costs and time frames for new projects that can leverage

the EIA framework

• Ease of integration for future applications (this reduces the

costs of future IT projects)

• Reduced costs associated with changing core applications

(obtained through a review of IT budgets)

• Training

Qualitative benefits:

• Increased productivity because of reduced time spent on

copying/pasting information, looking for information and availability of

information within context

• Increased abilities to make effective decisions due to targeted

access to critical information

• Increased productivity due to portability and the ability to

deliver to multiple targeted devices (for example, to a desktop

PC via a browser, to a PDA with a mini-browser, to a frame within

a portal application, to a Blackberry) without changing the

underlying systems

• Ability to implement content categorization without touching

the core application, thereby maintaining a standard product as

opposed to a custom one, which increases productivity and thus

reduces implementation and ongoing maintenance/support costs

• Allows you to deploy best functions without being bound

to inferior functionality that comes with core applications

• Business Process Management (BPM)

• Ability to build consistent and usable user interfaces

7. ConclusionThroughout this White Paper, we have presented you with two

important points :

1.) Enterprise Information Integration is a key goal that can

be achieved as the result of deploying an Enterprise

Information Architecture.

2.) A solid Enterprise Information Architecture is critical to

the success of enterprises today. Critical because millions

of dollars are lost each year by having cumbersome

systems that produce silo objectives and don’t OPTIMIZE

the value of a platform that allows for flexible integration.

There is a way to integrate systems to get the kind of

information that increases productivity, reduces costs and

maximizes revenue.

Factiva is one of the few companies positioned to act as a trusted

advisor in deploying systems that support the EIA/EII model.

We have decades of practical experience building information

systems based on the true relationship between people, information

and related information, and understand how information systems

and editorial enrichment work together to formulate an end-to-end

system. Our expertise in content aggregation, content

normalization, editorial workflows, user processes, taxonomy

development and user interfaces are validated by numerous industry

awards.

Moreover, because Factiva is vendor-agnostic, we have no agenda

that requires us to continue providing legacy support for systems

that don’t deliver value. Factiva can help you reduce the cost of

customizing applications by shifting development to a more neutral

point in the architecture. We analyze what is needed and implement

only what is necessary.

Factiva’s roadmap to EII is the result of more than 20 years of

helping more than 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500 manage

Page 11: How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

www.factiva.com

page 11

information. Our roadmap is designed to maximize your knowledge

investments. We use strategic analysis based on existing information,

components, workflow and the needs of knowledge workers to

formulate a plan that also takes into account your respective IT and

business strategies. We define EIA’s that will power your knowledge

initiatives as they enhance decision-making and business

development across the enterprise.

“The fact is that some companies have taken technology and

used it more effectively than others. And the ones that don’t

use technologies effectively fall behind.”- Microsoft

Corporation, Chairman William H. Gates III, quoted in the

August 25, 2003 Business Week special report on the future of

technology.7

(1) “The card that started it all,” by Neil Steinberg, Chicago

Sun-Times, March 13, 2000.

(2) April 2003, IDC #29127, Volume 1 Tab: Users

(3) April 2003, IDC #29127, Volume 1 Tab: Users

(4) An integrated information system for planning, scheduling and

controlling the pre- and post-sales activities in an organization.

(5) An application that integrates many human resources

functions, including benefits administration, payroll, recruiting

and training and performance analysis.

(6) CMS initially focused on scanning, storing, and managing an

organization’s documents within an organization but today it

typically is used as a catch-all for document imaging, workflow, text

retrieval and related multimedia management. CMS is

software that provides storage, maintenance and retrieval of

documents and all related elements.

(7) ”Why Tech Will Bloom Again: The Future of Technology,” by

Robert D. Hof, Business Week, August 25, 2003.


Recommended