Information Architecture and Findability Consulting




Information Architected’s consultants have assisted many of the world’s largest organizations in developing Information Architectures with specific, targeted user interfaces that solve real world business problems for their business users and managers. The end result? Streamlined business, greater personal and organizational effectiveness, reduced costs in locating and acting on electronic content, and improved re-use and intelligent distribution of enterprise content – creating orders of magnitude greater operational efficiencies in their business.

Our Information Architecture and Findability Consulting Services Include:

  • Content Inventory
  • Needs Assessment
  • Information Architecture Definition
  • Search Engine Feature Specification
  • Taxonomy and Meta-tagging Feature Specification
  • Meta-tagging Schemes
  • Taxonomy Development
  • Positioning of Social Computing and Social Tagging
  • Corporate Information Governance Development
  • User Interface Design
  • ROI
  • Solution Definition and Implementation Plan

Why Our Advisory Services are so Critical

No organization is immune from the rapidly growing volume of enterprise content. From e-mails to spreadsheets; blogs and wikis to presentations; text files in various formats to multimedia content, there is valuable information potentially housed in each of these files. But content without effective access is worthless. Unmanaged content is a rotting corpse of content – digging through the digital garbage heap is not only frustrating, but likely to hide smoking guns when it comes to modern day litigation, not to mention the lost business opportunities from not having an active management strategy for content, and a sound Information Architecture strategy.

Applying simple search to the situation does not solve the problem.  There  is no such thing as a search engine that is right for your organization – “out of the box”.  Far too many organizations do not have an appreciation for the difference between applying a search engine to an online collection of content, versus applying “findability”, via a strategically designed and deployed information architecture.

So what is Findability, if not simply search?

Succinctly put, Findability is the art and science of making content findable.

A Findability strategy should include a level of understanding of the language and format of the content, the users and authors of the content, and the business reasons that drive the users to the content.  Findability is not a single technology but  a genre of technologies that can be integrated and deployed in an orchestrated fashion to provide a point of interaction between the user and content.

The challenge of establishing an enterprise Information Architecture and Findability strategy is two fold.

While the business side must determine the right levels of functionality required, IT must develop approaches that simplify the delivery of it and minimize the number of front-ends. Understanding myriad sources of content requires the orchestration and coordination of multiple disciplines and technologies working in concert.

Our Consultants Can Provide Targeted Advice on How You Can:

  • Establish a corporate information architecture
  • Define and manage a corporate taxonomy strategy
  • Specify the most effective approach to relevancy ranking for your community
  • Increase information accessibility
  • Support and accelerate collaboration through better information access
  • Maximize the effectiveness of your intranet and internet user interfaces


Call 617-933-2584 or submit a request for a free 30 minute consultation

Our Information Architecture and Findability Consulting Services Are Time and Cost-Effective

We work with your team to develop a customized strategy and implementation plan for Information Architecture, Search, Taxonomy and Findability.  Our consulting is cost and time effective, because we apply a set of time-proven methodologies that provide focus and velocity to each client engagement. These include:

Information Architecture and Taxonomy Design Methodology

This methodology is a 5-phase structured methodology for assessing user and business needs and requirements for content access within a business setting. It sets the stage at an enterprise level for interface requirements and technology issues and standards.

Content Inventory

These series of spreadsheets facilitate the inventory of your organization’s pertinent content resources, and relevant facets for each source, including ownership,relevant document attributes, such as size, frequency of creation and access, and security access restrictions.

BizTech Grid

This methodology is used to track the degrees of complexity associated with Information Architecture and Search  component technologies (e.g., taxonomy, folskonomy, faceted search, parametric search, full-text indexing, relevancy ranking, faceted navigation, etc.), across your business.  It  illustrates the overlap in technology solutions and the cost/needs requirements across the organization.  We can then map your technology needs to the solutions we track.

Meta-tagging and Taxonomy Relevancy Filters

This is a IAI developed process for reviewing the merits and value of each candidate metatag and facet against 7 separate thresholds.

Enterprise Content Governance Document Template

The Enterprise Content Governance Document Template is a framework for establishing a comprehensive, (or updating an existing) Corporate Information Governance Document. The Governance Document is  the culmination of the analysis. A major component of the Corporate Information Governance Document is specification of the Information Architecture, its scope and reach, as well as assumptions, rules and requirements.

Information Architecture, Search and Taxonomy Functionality RFP Template

The Information Architecture, Search and Taxonomy Functionality RFP Template is an IAI developed best practice for translating user needs into an effective request for proposal.  We will ensure that the RFP gets shopped to all the relevant solution providers we track.

Though no two implementations will be exactly the same, there are critical best practices to implementation that should be followed. Information Architected provides the guidance and methodologies necessary to ensure the success of your ECM initiative.

Call 617-933-2584 or submit a request for a free 30 minute consultation

Can We Help You?

  • Baffled why search on the internet is more effective than search inside your firewall?  by best of breed component?
  • Need a strategy to configure and customize an enterprise information architecture and centralized strategy for search and taxonomy?
  • Not sure what relevancy ranking is and/or its value to your corporate search experience?
  • Do you need to migrate legacy search and navigation platforms and interfaces?
  • Need to reconcile information access with information security?
  • Unsure of the differences between, and value of meta-tags, taxonomy, ontology, thesaurus and controlled vocabulary?
  • Do you need to better leverage the potential value of enterprise content and increase collaboration and knowledge sharing?
  • Do you need to establish content management as a corporate asset, and provide a documented Information Governance Plan?

If You answer Yes to any of these questions – then Information Architected can provide the assistance you need.

If you are tired of the unapproachable, expensive, “ivory tower” consultants and analysts of the world, or the integrators who only promote the solution they resell, we are the antidote to provide realistic, affordable and relevant strategic solutions for your business needs.

Next Steps? Schedule a Free 30-Minute Consultation


Call 617-933-2584 or submit a request for a free 30 minute consultation

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Testimonials

“On behalf of the CNO's Strategic Studies Group, thank you for leading our exceptionally informative and enjoyable Innovation Workshop. Your contagious enthusiasm and clear command of the subject helped us learn more about the process of innovation and about ourselves as members of this newly formed team.”
by James R. Hogg, Admiral, U.S. Navy (Ret)

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