Services > Architect > Information Architecture

You've got your data architecture down. But what about your information architecture?

Data are facts. Information is power. Let it reign with enterprise-level support.

There are trees. And then there's the forest.

So it goes in BI: there's data architecture, and then there's information architecture. Data architecture--that of your various applications like a data warehouse or CRM system--is important. They are the trees, they are everywhere, and they have to be groomed so that they don't choke each other out and fall over on you.

But what of your information architecture? It, of course, is the forest. It can be a disorganized jungle full of briars and thorns, or it can be a tended place of refuge that nurtures  bountiful activity. But if you don't ever step back from the trees to take a good, sweeping look at the forest, then briars and thorns it is.

Clarity helps you assess your information architecture, and elevate it from a collection of discrete data architectures to a strategy-driven, enterprise-wide framework that powers pervasive business intelligence. We design this framework to encompass data architecture, data governance, and master data management, and to span business units, business functions, and technologies. We establish ontologies for a common vocabulary, and taxonomies for data organization (which also support MDM).

Many organizations don't give credence to this distinction between data and information architecture. They have a solution architecture and they have their data models, and sometimes, they have a suspicion about whether "information architecture" is a redundancy. It's not.

Information architecture promotes the use of data to further corporate goals, while data architecture promotes the use of data to meet solution requirements. Every organization needs some combination of both. But we also know it's not that simple: the two can be at odds. This is where Clarity can be of even more value: we offer the objective,  technology-neutral counsel--plus the business case experience--to design an  information architecture that brings your data architectures under one umbrella: your BI strategy, and the business objectives it is designed to achieve.

For more information, contact us today.