[Sigia-l] Enterprise/Strategic IA

[Livia Labate]

> Chiara Fox wrote:
: Yes and more. By "Enterprise IA" I am referring to information
: architecture(s) that is/are embraced by the entire organization (be that a
: company, univeristy, whatever). It goes beyond just what they are doing on
: the website to include the extranet, intranet, department databases,
: advertising and print marketing, and more.

I am soooo glad to hear this talk about Enterprise IA. I totally 'get' the
idea of Enterprise IA as you are putting, though it is practically
non-existent in the 'real world', at least from my experience and research.
This idea is linked to thinking of IA as STRATEGIC - which is something I am
continuously trying to get people to understand. It is very hard to get the
idea across because:

1. People with no business background/experience do not comprehend the
implications of the word 'strategic' and do not understand that it
influences and represents long-term goals, activities, practices, etc.

2. [Generalization alert] IAs do not have business strength and influence in
decision-making at top levels of the organization. Even though strategic IA
implies modifications to structure and specially organization culture, it is
unviable if you do not have access to the channels that make it happen. We
don't have strong enough a voice to let get the message across.

3. It is a paradigm change. People are comfortable where they are and have
no motivation to change the system they are in. It is very unlikely (for
reason #2 as well) that a bottom-up revolution will make way for Enterprise
IA.

Some thoughts related to this strategic perspective:

- Weren't you listening? (illustrating how companies - those that should
know better - continue to fail at channel integration. I.e.: Costco)
http://www.iknovate.com/archives/000011.html

- The importance of Information Architecture
http://www.livlab.com/texts/importance.html


: I can't point to something and say "that's Enterprise IA" in action,
: because I don't know where they are doing it successfully. But I know it's
: coming. We aren't doing it at my company, but the longer I work here, the
: more I see a need for it. And the more I know it's going to be hard, and
: messy, and need executive approval at the highest levels to get done.

I doubt we will ever see this labeled 'Enterprise IA' or something similar,
unless it is analyzed by an IA. Nobody will perceive such strategic
integration as Information Architecture. It is coming alright - strategic IA
is the culmination of the multi-disciplinarity talk we have been hearing
since the late 90s, which has crossed the boarder between fad and fact. We
will be able to identify it through successful organizations.

With the risk of being very obvious, I could cite Amazon, which appears to
have a very good integration all of its parts. Which is only an obvious
choice because it is synonym to a business that works soundly. I don't
really know the business, but from a client perspective it looks like it is
a great sample of finely tuned Enterprise IA.

Livia Labate
_______________________________
www.livlab.com | liv at livlab.com