Welcome Guest. | Log In| Register | Membership Benefits
  • Email this page E-mail this page
  • |  Print Print this page
  • |   Bookmark and Share
  • |  icon
  • | 

No More Information Overload


Companies must consider how they classify data so employees can find it fast

By Pat Turocy, Jeff Phillips, and Bob Anders
InformationWeek
December 16, 2002 12:00 AM (From the December 16, 2002 issue)

In an effort to simplify their IT architectures and optimize systems companywide, many businesses are standardizing on a single content-management platform for document management, Web-content management, imaging, intranet publishing, and E-mail management.

Such a move requires that companies carefully consider the ways in which they organize information and how employees use documents. Without an accurate picture of where documents are located, users will have trouble finding what they're looking for -- and businesses run the risk of re-creating existing information, losing content, and wasting time, defeating the purpose of enterprise content management.

More Software Insights

White Papers

Reports

Videos


Saylent says its analytics software helps financial clients keep up with a 30% annual growth rate in debit card accounts, even from non-established institutions. CEO Emmet Keeffe shows how iRise's computer-aided design for software uses visualization on multiple levels to become a compliment for products like IBM Rational. Large Health Center Company Embraces SaaS Model for H
Saylent says its analytics software helps financial clients keep up with a 30% annual growth rate in debit card accounts, even from non-established institutions.
Business information exists in many forms. Along with conventional structured data from databases, huge volumes of unstructured information reside in static documents such as Microsoft Office files, PDF files, presentations, graphics, and video. Business users have no shortage of information available to them, but the data they need to do their jobs can be difficult, time consuming, and expensive to find. Some studies suggest that the process consumes up to a third of the workday.

Documents often are stored on a networked server or file system and are typically organized within a hierarchical folder system. Although this lets employees find and store information by browsing through folders, it doesn't help people who don't know the content of the documents stored in the system.

This is where a taxonomy tool can really help. A taxonomy classifies information (and its associated "metadata" -- data that further describes the information) according to a logical system. The resulting catalog may be imported into or referenced by other applications. Using a taxonomy with an enterprise content-management tool can reduce the amount of time users spend looking for data and increase the return on such an investment.

A typical collection of unstructured documents includes data on hundreds or thousands of subjects, created by many people and written for a variety of audiences. Without a defined taxonomy, if an employee searches for a "sales presentation," he or she might get an unacceptably large set of results, including presentations to customers, and sales presentations by suppliers and vendors. A taxonomy lets the same user search for "sales presentation" within a specific category, such as Customer X or Suppliers, returning a smaller and more relevant set of results.

Taxonomy-creation tools scan a group of documents and suggest logical categories based on the content or criteria defined by the company. These tools often feature the ability to match patterns of words, specify or exclude documents based on complex business rules, and extract common themes that occur across a company's data.

Taxonomy tools differ in how they collect and organize information, their flexibility, and the ways in which they integrate with a company's IT environment. Most taxonomy tools include a search-and-retrieve component, and many let the taxonomy engine integrate with a custom application or user interface.


Page 2: 
1 | 2 Next Page »


Subscribe to RSS


Advertisement

CAREER CENTER
Ready to take that job and shove it?



TechCareers

SEARCH
Function:

Keyword(s):

State:
SPONSOR
RECENT JOB POSTINGS
CAREER NEWS
10 Search Engines You Don't Know About
Go beyond Google and get vertical. These specialized search sites will help you find the business information you need -- fast.

Yahoo Profits Fall 23%, Cuts 1,000 Jobs
Ari Balogh was named to the post of chief technology officer as the companys for a "realignment" of employees.

More articles from our career center





Subscription Info
Apply for a free 52-week subscription to InformationWeek (a $199 value)

Last Name:

First Name:

Title:

Company Name:

City:

Business Address:

Zip:

State:

Email Address:

NOTE: Offer valid for U.S., U.S. possessions, & Canada only

            

Join economist Chris Cornell and 3 CIOs in an Exclusive Online Exchange for Senior IT Executives: Using IT to Drive Value in a Turbulent Economy. November 5th only.