Last time I talked about the IT side of information architecture in a Business Intelligence perspective. Business people are the citizens of the corporation. They are the stakeholders, and consumers of the IT and Business Intelligence products. These people are constantly astounded by how hard to use our information systems are. With all the technological advances we have made, we still have not mastered the computer/user interface – with an exception now with “apps” and tablet computing. The transition from traditional application development to an agile app prototype/beta/production development cycle will be good for both IT and the business people in an organization.
So why is information architecture so important to business people? Because if the information isn’t captured or monitored from an outside source, it cannot be reported on or used in analysis. Depending on what is important to the organization, this will be a substantial amount of data, hence the emerging fields of Big Data and Cloud Computing. Combine that with the need to incorporate social media information, your traditional, on-premise, legacy information systems are not going to keep up to the demand for information. How will your organization address this?
How important is information to your organization? Is it treated as an asset? Do IT people “get” what the business is about, or are they techies that have their own culture? Does the organization overall have an analytic organizational culture? (check out Analytics at Work, Davenport, Harris and Morison). These answers will lead to an understanding of what information architecture will best support the organization, and the best way to deliver that information to the business people on demand.
How business is conducted in our country continues to evolve. New products and apps are available every day. Information systems must support that burgeoning economic and business development by providing a way to capture and analyze important, interesting information and ignore the rest. New versions of Microsoft products are on the horizon: SQL Server 2012 recently, Windows8 is scheduled for release October 26th, Office 2013 and SharePoint 2013 aren’t far behind. How will these new versions impact your existing systems, information architecture and information strategy?
One thing is certain, as evidenced by the explosion of the iPads and tablets (consumerization of IT), and many organizations tribulations over Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). Information consumers are getting more sophisticated, and this is raising their expectations of internal IT systems. Now is the time to review your information systems architecture and ensure there is a plan for incorporating the coming changes. Until next time, keep thinking good BI thoughts.
Tricia Wilcox Almas 