KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
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Architecting Information for Business Transformation
Information is an asset, perhaps one of the most valuable assets
any business has. It drives beer business outcomes and helps us
understand our markets, provides insight on our clients, improves the
efficiency of internal processes, and prepares us for market changes.
Information is also what we use to facilitate the direction of large-
scale business transformation activity. If we cannot harness our
information, our ability to keep up with and anticipate the pace of
relevant changes in our business is compromised.
We need to know what our information is and where it comes
from, and we need to use and reuse it to drive transformation. We
can only do that by developing an information architecture (IA)
strategy that can help enable business change by capitalizing on the
information we already have.
What Is Information Architecture?
Traditional definitions of IA focus on the structured design and
labelling of user access points, such as websites, intranets and
applications to support usability, search and information retrieval. In
recent years, definitions have evolved to beer address the clear role
information plays in an organization's ability to achieve strategic and
transformative success. The most recent definition of information
architecture from the Information Architecture Institute is simple:
"Information architecture is the practice of deciding how to
arrange the parts of something to be understandable."
Rather than a specific tool or application, IA is instead a
program of work that coordinates processes and practices to
by April Brousseau of Norton Rose Fulbright
Architecting Information for
Business Transformation
