How to Utilize Enterprise Information Architecture

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A White Paper Prepared for Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company By Duncan Scott and Michael Pecnik September, 2003

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Abstract: T his 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.

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Contents Contents....................................................................................................................................................................................................2 1. Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................................3 To access this document, please return toin page 1 toweb complete the Registration This document information is open forisviewing required to your view thisbrowser. form. 2. Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................................................................3 document. Please Please switch switchto to your yourbrowser browserto toread readthis thisdocument. document. 3. Challenges in Information Management.................................................................................................................................................4

Go Back To provide orthis update youryou registration, By completing form once, will have access to all similar Business Challenges ..........................................................................................................................................................................5 documents without needing to register again. Close this document.

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 2

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1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction

This paper provides an overview of Enterprise Information

A century ago a customer at a store might ask the clerk to buy “on

Architecture (EIA) fundamentals. Our goal is to to view Chief credit.” To access this document, please return toin page 1help toweb complete the This method of obtaining credit was inconvenient for both Registration This document information is open forisviewing required your thisbrowser. form. Information (CIOs) and other to managers for the consumer and the shop owner. Customers were required to document. Please Please switch switchOfficers to toyour your browser browser toread readresponsible this thisdocument. document. corporate Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives understand

maintain individual credit accounts with vendors, and vendors had

Goefficient Back To provide orthis update youryou registration, how EIA and Enterprise Integration (EII) access create to manage accounts with many individuals. The advent of the By completing formInformation once, will have to all similar documents without needing to register again. Close information management opportunities that were previously credit card changed all that. Rather than each individual having a this document. unattainable in KM, despite profuse promises and expensive

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

investments in new technologies.

vidual carries a credit card that identifies the debtor to the vendor and provides user profile information (such as a spending limit).

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

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

development for more than 20 years, building information systems

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

that leverage relationships between people and content to deliver

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

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

relationships, the credit card saves money and time and increases

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

convenience for all involved.1

system that efficiently and effectively processes more than 140,000 documents from over 500 different systems on a daily basis. Factiva

Business executives today often find managing their information

has developed a vendor-neutral general taxonomy based upon a

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

hierarchical categorization system that can be used to support the

of a streamlined relationship with one account management tool,

customized needs of individual companies regardless of industry.

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

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

and corporate KM initiatives. Companies have invested millions in

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

technology, installing complex networks and expensive applications,

reviewed in this paper is the outcome of expertise gathered through

only to discover their investments are not efficiently utilized in

years of effort addressing KM initiatives at large and small

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

companies in a variety of industries.

possible by the very employees these systems were designed to benefit, due to lack of skill, the time it takes to get information from

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

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

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

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

methodology that allows us to help companies leverage their

enterprise with 1,000 knowledge workers loses a minimum of

existing infrastructures and fit them into new frameworks that

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

define how information assets are managed to achieve core

information needed for knowledge workers to pursue their jobs.2

business objectives. More specifically, we address some of the key prerequisites of EII; analysis of directories and applications;

Companies that remain competitive in a challenging business

consistent categorization and classification of information;

environment recognize that managing and exploiting knowledge

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

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

be carefully executed to integrate diverse stores of content and

improvements in hardware speed and functionality and fewer

technologies to create an information clearinghouse that truly

dollars being invested in products, the efficient management of

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

knowledge in an enterprise is a requirement for profitable

implementing business processes that produce tangible efficiency

business operations.

gains for the workforce.

page 3

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To address revenues lost through poor access to information, many

conductor integrates all the components (instruments) so that music

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

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

they’ve purchased standalone KM applications within a particular

users to be more productive in use of the information.

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

EII offers the following benefits:

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returns because the scope of registration, delivery is either too • Increased Go limited, Back To provide orthis update your By completing form once, you will have access to all similar applicable only to a narrow slice of workers and therefore not targeted, documents without needing to register again. Close this document. reusable, or only reusable with a great deal of time and effort; or

productivity for all users who will need filtered, and relevant content available when executing

automated business processes

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

• Reduced costs of managing content and information by

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

eliminating duplicate information, correcting inconsistencies, and

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

reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) of information

imize the value of their knowledge investments.

• Elimination of revenue lost through time wasted by highly paid knowledge workers searching for information

EIA (Enterprise Information Architecture) can be defined as all

• Increased revenues as sales people are more aware of critical

components involved with providing any kind of information to a

sales support information (for example: best practices, similar

multitude of end users. Components can be either hardware or

deals in other territories, support issues, etc.)

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

• Elimination of wasteful spending by improving the value of

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

existing system

(audience).

• Streamlined shopping list for new technology based on clearly defined needs and demonstrated benchmarks

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

• Scalable infrastructure with reduced deployment, training and

KM approaches. Rather than recommending the implementation

maintenance costs for any new applications, as well as reduced

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

time-to-market

leverage the existing infrastructure and applications, tying them into

smaller software applications can be added to complement what’s

3. Challenges in Information Management

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

The biggest challenge today is the same simple one as it has

same paradigm that has successfully achieved a new level of

always been: increase sales while controlling costs.

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

functionality in network engineering. Just as organizations have consolidated networks, hardware, and applications by putting

Infrastructure such as standalone KM applications, centralized

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

Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), and sophisticated search

step have to consolidate their information assets and deliver

engines and Web portals have all enhanced information delivery to

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

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

creating an enterprise knowledge network. This framework is EIA.

Each of these approaches has flaws.

The fundamental goal of an EIA is to deliver EII. Standalone KM applications are problematic because the information they contain may not be accessible to all of the

EII (Enterprise Information Integration) EII can be defined as

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

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

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

types of information housed in the architecture. Whereas EIA can

a knowledge worker in another part of the organization in an

be likened to an orchestra, EII is analogous to a “conductor.” A page 4

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appropriate format or context. Hence, time is wasted sifting

•

Inaccurate or missing information: Search engines may

through irrelevant data to find the valuable information that can be

not return all available information. Security rules and

cut and pasted into the relevant format.

firewalls can prevent access to content repositories or

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servers. Information may be stored in formats that are

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

not read or accessed by search engine “crawlers.”

dynamic nature of the enterprise environment and the speed with

Examples of such files typically include non-text files,

Go Back To provide orthis update youryou registration, By completing form once, access all similar which the needs of workers must be will met. have A central KMS to would documents without needing to register again. Close havethis document. difficulty meeting the diverse business needs of individual

such as rich media files, including video and audio files, as well as any data stored in relational databases (client

departments and result in unacceptable compromises. A company’s

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

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

into different applications at different times by different

scattered media often are inaccessible to these centralized systems.3

people may contradict itself, due to input errors or

The initial goals of portal development were very fundamental and

different methods of extrapolation. Information may be

sought to provide a simplified user interface that would facilitate

stored on laptops, in hard copy or other media

access to information and applications. This technical architecture

unattached to the network, or it may not be properly

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

indexed and therefore not available to be searched.

to multiple applications and automated delivery of information that a user has subscribed to or had been pre-determined based on a

To achieve successful EII, numerous challenges in information

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

management must be addressed from the business, user, and

experience improvement but failed in its attempt to deliver radical

Information Technology (IT) perspectives, including:

productivity gains, due to issues of interoperability, customization needs, and other problems related to a lack of standardization. A

Business Challenges

business that limits its EII strategy to deploying a portal without

The main challenges are to maintain cost efficiencies while

addressing the fundamental architecture of the contributing

increasing revenue. Specific challenges include: •

applications creates a better way to access applications and

Make employees proactive, not reactive, by providing them with access to the right information at the right

information but provides little productivity gains beyond that.

time so they can make intelligent business decisions that Search

engines

also

have

drawbacks

that

positively impact the bottom line

diminish •

productivity, including: •

Leverage investments and maximize utilization of existing

Information overload or irrelevant content: A search may

systems, such as Customer Relationship Management4

return too much irrelevant information or information

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

that is not targeted toward the knowledge worker’s

Systems5 (HRMS), and financial systems •

immediate problem. This can happen because workers,

Enhance consistency and quality of information/data

though well-educated and highly skilled, are neither

entered into systems so that employees use and archive

journalists nor librarians. Even the brightest may not know

correct information •

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. page 5

Reduce new employee training costs

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4. Enterprise Information Architecture Overview

User Challenges The main challenge is to reduce time and increase productivity, specifically:

To access this document, please return to page 1 toweb complete the defines EIA in its simplest form as a three-tier architecture Registration This document information is open isviewing required to your view thisbrowser. Factiva • Shift time spent for from proceduralintasks to valueform. document. Please Pleaseswitch switchto toyour yourbrowser browserto toread readthis thisdocument. document. infrastructure, processing and presentation: creating tasks

• Reduce time involved in prolific manual “copy-and-paste” Go Back To provide orthis update youryou registration, By completing form once, will have access to all similar • Tier 1 - (Infrastructure) - Consists of “back-office” applications, • Reduce number of procedures and time it takes to documents without needing to register again. Close thisprovide document. information repositories and directories that contain relevant 360-degree view of entities information about the users

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

The main challenge is to effectively use technology to maximize

which

revenue and improve productivity, as detailed below: •

post-processing

components

for

the user profile to provide a “match” to users information needs. The area of post-processing content is a key area where

employees more productive

categorization, entity extraction, common key creation, text

Establish transparent and relevant connection of users to

mining and the dynamic relationships between users and

information •

the

supplementing the intelligence of the information and utilizes

Enhance integration between existing systems thus providing transparent access to all data sources, making

•

includes

information is created

Dynamically update users’ needs based upon continuously updated directory information

•

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

Position back office systems as back office systems, allow-

area that is designed to support the delivery demands of the

ing users to gain access and utilize those systems through

current paradigm, and supports future workflows

intuitive user interfaces •

Implement a portable architecture that facilitates and

5. Factiva’s Roadmap to Enterprise Information Integration

supports ever changing worker interfaces

Historically, companies have addressed these challenges by purchasEnterprise Information Integration is the key deliverable that is

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

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

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

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

Successes have been somewhat limited due to employee adoption,

captured and documented. Once we understand user workflows,

cost of data integration and maintenance, and ultimately because

and what applications and information they use with them –

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

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

same time, the infrastructure became more complex and discon-

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

nected as more relationships were created between information,

ing an EIA:

applications and users, hence making any new IT initiative in the future more costly and complex, as more data and relationships

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

have to be supported, migrated and connected.

and get a high-level understanding of workflows. Quantify the scope of the initiative so that the appropriate components are

Today, companies are searching for decision driving intelligence.

reviewed

However, without beginning with the right Enterprise Information Architecture, this can be hard to achieve. page 6

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• Step 2 - Prototype and Test: Ideal workflows are

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

prototyped. Evaluate the capabilities of the Tier 1 components for

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

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

initiative to measure improvements and success in gained

To access return page 1 toweb complete the Registration This document information is improved openplease for isviewing required in to your view thisbrowser. productivity, morale and hard dollars. thatthis will document, lead to productivity in to the workflow. Make form. document. Please Pleaseswitch switchto toyour yourbrowser browserto toread readthis thisdocument. document. recommendations on how to maximize the contribution of

existing components that will remain part of the EIA. A

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

intangible gains that might not be empirically measurable

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

Go Back To provide orthis update youryou registration, By completing form once, access to all similar understanding of workflows. This understanding aids in designing a benchmarking process will list all will the have tangible comparisons documents without needing to register again. Close between this document. project scope that is attainable. It is important to define a focus for existing and recommended workflows and assess the decision is made whether to alter initiatives . • Step 3 - System Design Phase: Capture all of the functional and technical requirements. Ensure the architecture works within

5.2. Information Audit

the constraints of the organization’s IT standards (including

An Information Audit (IA) follows initial benchmarking. The IA

security) and that it will be maintainable and scalable.

creates a baseline for existing external and internal content and

Develop project plans and budgeting for the implementation

associated technologies - search, categorization, taxonomy, Document Management System (DMS), Content Management

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

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

developed and new workflows must be implemented. The archi-

the ability to:

tecture must also be fully supported and maintained. Other tasks

•

associated with deployment include documenting new business

understand how information is utilized – its value and ongoing costs of information assets including applications

processes, building taxonomies, training staff, implementing

•

identify redundancies and inefficiencies

change management and ensuring successful adoption

•

make future deployments faster and cheaper due to easier maintenance — and re-use of existing infrastructure

Some key tasks involved in developing an EIA are as follows: 1. Initial Benchmarking

5.2.1. Workflow Analysis

2. Information Audit

To gain a complete understanding of the existing type of

3. Workflow Audit

information flows and how information is used across the

4. Content Categorization

organization, interviews, workshops, surveys and document reviews

5. Deployment of EIA

are used to assess key dimensions of the information

6. Final Benchmarking

environment, focusing on What, Who, How and Why. Basic questions include:

5.1. Initial Benchmarking

•

What type of content exists? What is the quality, consistency, cost and value?

In 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

Who

uses

the

applications

and

how

are

the

relationships connected?

existing systems and available information support their job

•

responsibilities. (Honest feedback is effectively and anonymously

How is the information used and is it creating maximum productivity?

achieved through use of an independent interviewer). This

•

information will be compared to management’s perceived

Why is this information used, and what business value is being recognized?

effectiveness of the infrastructure and can potentially highlight

• page 7

What is the relationship and flow of information to related complimentary information?

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5.2.2. User Properties

5.3.1. Target Group

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

Ultimately, success depends on user adoption. In order to provide

geography and interests (whether explicitly selected by the user or

users with effective workflow applications, it is important to

To access this document, please return toin page 1 toweb complete the Registration This document information is open forisviewing required to your view this obtained implicitly). These profiles are tools used to determine thebrowser. understand existing user behavior, ideas and complaints qualified by form. document. Please Pleaseswitch switchto toyour yourbrowser browserto toread readthis thisdocument. document. relevant directory attributes that drive information for that user.

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

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

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

5.2.3. Applications

many steps, while others have low usage because nobody uses

We use interviews, surveys, document reviews, and use process

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

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

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

tasks and goals.

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

Go Back To provide orthis update youryou registration, By completing form once, will have access to all similar more meaningful and more applicable to the user’s work context. mation unless it is backed up by interviews (for example, some documents without needing to register again. Close this document. applications might have high usage because they’re slow or require

by interviewing management, top performers and poor performers

5.2.4. Participants

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

To ensure buy-in and success, the following groups are involved:

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

•

IT

performed by an independent party who can ensure the anonymity

•

Information professional/library

necessary for high-quality feedback.

•

Sales and Marketing

•

Operations

5.4. Content Categorization

•

Finance

The 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

5.3. Workflow Audit

processes for accessing information:

Ideally, 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

•

Keyword search

•

Exploration of a taxonomy (or hierarchical organization), such as a tree or other structural navigational aid

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

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

Navigating or toggling between a keyword search and a content hierarchy

workflow often does not follow established procedures or rules and •

therefore, does not work for the person completing the specific

Transparent searches (results listed without the user having to enter a search; the search runs in the background and

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

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

business objectives can be clearly defined and their related tasks •

performed expeditiously. During the workflow audit, management

Mapping of data keys between multiple sources using discovery to normalize the content and form relationships

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

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

compare these to the actual workflow as employees get their work

upon

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

document

profiling

utilizing

appropriate

content

categorization. Content categorization involves tagging articles and

dimensional view of workflow; the most important method is the

other media to determine useful concepts or other attributes, such

interview.

as corporate names, dates, places or the names of individuals. Natural language processing is then used to search, summarize, categorize, mine and display content. page 8

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

During the planning phase, we also consider scalability of the

Relationships are identified via logical links. For example, links

architecture, all security concerns and the support and

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

maintenance model.

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During the planning phase we’ll define the technical and functional

appropriate for consumers of health care services.

and tasks.

5.5. Enterprise Information Architecture Recommendation

5.5.2. Implementation

Go Back To provide orthis update once, youryou registration, By completing will have access to all similar refined context forform the information, for example, certain articles requirements for EIA/EII. In addition to that we’ll need a project plan documents without needing to register again. Close are this document. accessed primarily by physicians while another set is more that identifies milestones, estimated costs, resources, components

Based on the requirements set out, the initial infrastructure

The information that has been collected in the first phases of the

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

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

infrastructure, such as SSO and user directories. Other components

EIA needs to consist of the following components: •

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

An inventory of information assets, plus description of

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

where they reside and how they can be accessed

systems according to the EIA that has been defined.

•

Documentation of workflows that need to be supported

•

Taxonomy that will be applied across all information

5.5.3. Initial Rollout

•

User information and SSO functionality

In order to maximize its effectiveness and usefulness, EIA needs to

•

Content categorization methods

be implemented corporate-wide; however, organizations might

•

Naming conventions

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

•

Formatting standards (for example, XML)

investment can be achieved before rolling it out across the

•

Functional requirements for workflow applications

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

•

Technical requirements for implementation

organizations take an approach of practical deployment and are able to get funding from the department’s business champions. For

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

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

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

a sales portal.

sales portal, consisting of the following phases: •

Planning

5.5.4. Incremental Rollouts

•

Implementation

Once the initial project has been completed and the EIA put into

•

Initial rollout

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

•

Ongoing rollout to other applications

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 9

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5.6. Final Benchmarking

to inferior functionality that comes with core applications

After the initial EIA is deployed, we need to measure how well it has

• Business Process Management (BPM)

met business objectives. During the final benchmarking task, we

• Ability to build consistent and usable user interfaces

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Throughout this White Paper, we have presented you with two

calculate the ROI. Go Back To provide orthis update youryou registration, By completing form once, will have access to all similar important points : documents without needing to register again. Close document.Benefits, Measuring 1.) Enterprise Information Integration is a key goal that can 6. this Business

Return on Investment (ROI)

be achieved as the result of deploying an Enterprise

To measure the ROI of a project, we need to take into account both

Information Architecture. 2.)

qualitative and quantitative returns.

A solid Enterprise Information Architecture is critical to the success of enterprises today. Critical because millions

Quantitative benefits:

of dollars are lost each year by having cumbersome

• Reduced costs through eliminating duplicate information,

systems that produce silo objectives and don’t OPTIMIZE

consolidating information assets, and achieving economies

the value of a platform that allows for flexible integration.

of scale

There is a way to integrate systems to get the kind of information that increases productivity, reduces costs and

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

maximizes revenue.

the EIA framework • Ease of integration for future applications (this reduces the

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

costs of future IT projects) • Reduced costs associated with changing core applications

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

(obtained through a review of IT budgets) We have decades of practical experience building information

• Training

systems based on the true relationship between people, information Qualitative benefits:

and related information, and understand how information systems

• Increased productivity because of reduced time spent on

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

copying/pasting information, looking for information and availability of

system.

information within context

normalization, editorial workflows, user processes, taxonomy

• Increased abilities to make effective decisions due to targeted

Our

expertise

in

content

aggregation,

content

development and user interfaces are validated by numerous industry awards.

access to critical information • Increased productivity due to portability and the ability to deliver to multiple targeted devices (for example, to a desktop

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

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

that requires us to continue providing legacy support for systems

a portal application, to a Blackberry) without changing the

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

underlying systems

customizing applications by shifting development to a more neutral

• Ability to implement content categorization without touching the core application, thereby maintaining a standard product as

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

opposed to a custom one, which increases productivity and thus reduces implementation and ongoing maintenance/support costs

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

• Allows you to deploy best functions without being bound

helping more than 80 percent of the Fortune Global 500 manage

page 10

www.factiva.com

information. Our roadmap is designed to maximize your knowledge

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

investments. We use strategic analysis based on existing information, components, workflow and the needs of knowledge workers to

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

To access thisadocument, return page 1 toweb complete the Registration This document information isthatopen foris viewing required in to your view this formulate plan also please takes into accountto your respective IT andbrowser. controlling the pre- and post-sales activities in an organization. form. document. Please Pleaseswitch switchto toyour yourbrowser browserto toread readthis thisdocument. document. business strategies. We define EIA’s that will power your knowledge initiatives as they enhance decision-making and business

(5) An application that integrates many human resources

Go Back To provide orthis update youryou registration, By completing form once, will have access to all similar development across the enterprise. functions, including benefits administration, payroll, recruiting documents without needing to register again. Close this document. and training and performance analysis. “The fact is that some companies have taken technology and used it more effectively than others. And the ones that don’t

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

use technologies effectively fall behind.”- Microsoft

organization’s documents within an organization but today it

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

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

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

retrieval

technology.

software that provides storage, maintenance and retrieval of

7

and

related

multimedia

management.

CMS

is

documents and all related elements. (1) “The card that started it all,” by Neil Steinberg, Chicago Sun-Times, March 13, 2000.

(7) ”Why Tech Will Bloom Again: The Future of Technology,” by Robert D. Hof, Business Week, August 25, 2003.

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

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