organizational readiness for an enterprise taxonomy
DESCRIPTION
Enterprise taxonomies cross organizational, system, and distribution boundaries. Crossing these boundaries presents real challenges to the taxonomist. Any omni-channel strategy or comprehensive portal project will need to address these challenges. Unfortunately, creating and managing the taxonomy itself is usually the least of the problems. Resourcing, organizational alignment, internal politics, and technology all impact the success of a taxonomy project. Identifying the risks and the organizational readiness for a taxonomy project can be a huge factor in the project success. Using real-world examples, this presentation highlights the types of problems that can torpedo a project and provides remedies that companies have used to make the taxonomy project (or more specifically, the omni-channel experience or intranet project) successful.TRANSCRIPT
Organizational Alignment and Taxonomy Development
Gary Carlson@gc_taxonomy, @taxobc
4 November, 2014factorfirm.com
factor?
• Factor specializes enterprise-scale information and experience challenges.
• We have outside perspective that helps you gain the insight necessary to break through organizational barriers.
• Our evidence-base approach allows us to truly understand what will drive your success -and help you get there.
• Our approach is to understand your business from the perspective of both your customers and your staff.
• You need a clear vision of success – we ensure all your efforts arevalidated by research and focused on results.
Gary Carlson PRINCIPAL
Bringing over 20 years of experience as a
taxonomist, consultant, and information
strategist to every project, Gary’s current
focus is helping companies develop their
information infrastructure to deliver
business success and satisfy customer goals.
So, you want taxonomy to help you…
• Increase the number of customers who are finding and purchasing your products and services
• Connect content, publishing, and data systems to optimize the customer experience and your business processes
• Provide information your customers truly value, across your channels, in a way they can use really use
• Understand and implement the most efficient internal processes for your business
• Increase overall staff satisfaction and reduce points of frustration or inefficiency
What’s getting in your way?
• Quickly expanding online and mobile requirements -new technologies & omni-channel publishing
• People and workflows are not focused on taxonomies
• Customer expectations, needs, and goals are changing and also poorly understood
• Outdated systems that cannot be replaced or upgraded without impacting everything else
• Lack of tools to effectively model and manage taxonomies
• Conflicting goals across business units
• Lack of clarity from the executive level regarding direction
Why this is hard
• Improving system-wide processes requires coordination across business units
• Tradeoffs inherent in organizational alignment, challenge goals and values – resulting in internal disruption
• Organizations know they need to shift, but don’t know where to start, or what needs to be done to make further change possible
• Market dynamics demand strategic planning for current and future operational needs, yet these directions can change rapidly
Your your people, processes and platformsneed to be aligned to support an enterprise
taxonomy.
The Issue, is rarely the issue…
Executive Vision
Internal Alignment
Across Business Units
Tools and Technology
Understanding of the Business Goals and User Goals
People and Expertise
Enterprise Taxonomy and Information Infrastructure
Unified Information and End-User Experiences
Robust Modeling and System Integration
Well defined and targeted taxonomies
Task based taxonomies
What you have What you get
Executive Vision
Internal Alignment
Across Business Units
Tools and Technology
Understanding of the Business Goals and User Goals
People and Expertise
Enterprise Taxonomy
Unified Information and End-User Experiences
Robust Modeling and System Integration
Well defined and targeted taxonomies
Task based taxonomies
People and Expertise are the Foundation
First Steps
Build taxonomies for discrete tasks
Identify existing taxonomies
Start designing best practices
Evangelize internally
Build ad hoc alignment across groups
Look for allies
Executive Vision
Internal Alignment
Across Business Units
Tools and Technology
Understanding of the Business Goals and User Goals
People and Expertise
Enterprise Taxonomy
Unified Information and End-User Experiences
Robust Modeling and System Integration
Well defined and targeted taxonomies
Task based taxonomies
Business and User GoalsNext Steps
Build taxonomies that support larger tasks or workflows
Talk about taxonomies in business terms
User research and analytics to design and validate taxonomies
Taxonomies are built and (possibly) maintained
Success of taxonomies may be able to be measured
Start to drive system and integration requirements
Executive Vision
Internal Alignment
Across Business Units
Tools and Technology
Understanding of the Business Goals and User Goals
People and Expertise
Enterprise Taxonomy
Unified Information and End-User Experiences
Robust Modeling and System Integration
Well defined and targeted taxonomies
Task based taxonomies
Tool and Technology are in PlaceThings are getting fun
Build taxonomies to support targeted omni-channel experiences
Taxonomies are managed in something other than Excel
System integrations allow for re-use across systems (maybe)
Governance processes are talked about and put in place (maybe)
Growing pains as different groups are involved (IT, Marketing,
Analytics, Compliance etc) (definitely)
Project costs increase dramatically as new systems and
integrations are identified
Executive Vision
Internal Alignment
Across Business Units
Tools and Technology
Understanding of the Business Goals and User Goals
People and Expertise
Enterprise Taxonomy
Unified Information and End-User Experiences
Robust Modeling and System Integration
Well defined and targeted taxonomies
Task based taxonomies
Tool and Technology are in PlaceThings are getting really hard
Build taxonomies to support flexible experiences
Build taxonomies to model organizational processes
Omni-channel experiences are still difficult but are growing
Governance processes become essential
Project complexity increases dramatically
Organizational re-alignment of resources and the orgchart is
highly likely
Executive Vision
Internal Alignment
Across Business Units
Tools and Technology
Understanding of the Business Goals and User Goals
People and Expertise
Enterprise Taxonomy and Information Infrastructure
Unified Information and End-User Experiences
Robust Modeling and System Integration
Well defined and targeted taxonomies
Task based taxonomies
Executive Vision and Understanding
With unified direction at the executive level taxonomies and
information are treated as core corporate assets and their value
to the organization is understood
Systems, tools, and resources are in place to manage and utilize
the taxonomies and information
Taxonomy becomes a core competency for many roles
Things are still hard.
Where is your organization?
Assessing organizational readiness is an essential part of a comprehensive taxonomy roadmap.
Understanding where you are today identifies what you can do today.
Building the taxonomy is rarely the issue.
Questions?!?!?!
http://factorfirm.com
@factorfirm
design and modeling of information and experiences