A taxonomy for businesses. That's the proposal.

A taxonomy, in its simplest form, is a categorization scheme. It was created to organize things into categories according to a certain scheme.

So, why is it important to create a taxonomy for my company?

Again, in a very simple way, creating a taxonomy can help all areas of your company, but especially those related to Marketing and Sales.

I have experience using a category scheme, a taxonomy, to organize a data , one to document the creation of personas, and I've used taxonomy again in inbound marketing work.

Your company's problems and taxonomic solutions.

I chose to organize my research in two stages:

1. Describe the problems that lead to the need for a taxonomy;
2. Suggest solutions for each of the problems.

And in the end, I want you, the reader of this article, to know how to solve some of these problems (and others you may encounter) by creating a taxonomy for companies .

So, let's get to the problems...

Too much data, informational emptiness.

We all generate more data in one day than in decades, decades ago.

Over the last few decades, the amount of data generated has grown exponentially. The emergence of the Internet abruptly increased the amount of data produced, and the popularization of the Internet of Things has taken us from the terabyte to the petabyte ^{[1] [2]} . In 2015, we entered the zetabyte era ^[3] , and currently we generate more than 2.5 quintillion bytes daily ^[4] .

Wikipedia

I'm sure you find a scenario very similar to this in your company: dozens, hundreds of spreadsheets, documents, files with data from all sources and in all formats. All of this scattered across computers , the network, and different systems. This is the information void.

The problem is that generating any information from this amount of data requires a gigantic effort with little guarantee of success.

Lack of standardization and nomenclature in documents.

Using the same scenario above, I can affirm that these same documents are scattered across text files, proprietary formats like those of Office, PDFs, and many others. All incompatible with each other.

Furthermore, the nomenclature used only makes things more confusing. Things like “ document -financeiro-02” and “finanças doc-02082019” are used for the same content , or even “relatório-versao-01”, “relatorio_v03”, which were supposed to be sequential documents.

This makes it very difficult to use systems to handle this data in an automated way.

Limited search capabilities

Data generates information. Information can generate knowledge. Knowledge transforms your company. But how can you make this process happen if you can't find the information you need in the data you have?

The confusion created by a lack of standardization and organization of data leads to limitations in the search for information within that same data.

Lack of information

Information is the new gold.

Not knowing what information you have hidden on your computers is like being poor and living on land full of treasures.

Lack of knowledge business opportunities .

Lack of unified terminology across areas

In the sales department, on the quarterly results spreadsheet, we see a column called "customers," one called "sales," and another called "profit."

In marketing, a spreadsheet, also called quarterly results, has a column called subscribers, one for sales, and another for sales rate.

The two spreadsheets have the same name and relate to the same period, but they use terms for the same data.

The lack of standardization in the terminology used across departments will create serious problems when trying to unify data to generate information for the entire company.

Organizational culture

Your organization's culture is the biggest obstacle you'll need to overcome to implement any process that changes its day-to-day operations.

Whatever the change, the culture will have to change. It's even worse if that change is structural, radical. The more innovative it is, the more resistance it will have to deal with from those who have become accustomed to the current way of doing things.

A cultural shift will help you benefit from data and information, using techniques such as taxonomies .

Lack of governance

A very common scenario in companies is the lack of governance, especially related to data.

Data governance is a system that enables decision-making regarding access to and use of specific information. It is implemented using a model and methods that define the circumstances under which such access may be required.

Planning and implementing proper governance will prevent problems with agility and reliability related to data and information.

Open structure that can be modified by all users.

This item is very similar to the previous one. A lack of governance and an overly open structure without access control or write permissions generate the same problems: a lack of reliability in the information.

If your data can be altered and removed "from its place" by anyone, at any time, how can you know if it's still reliable?

Decentralization of information

Remembering what I said above, in this same post:

Dozens, hundreds of spreadsheets, documents, files with data from all sources and in all formats. All of this scattered across computers, on the network, in different systems.

Is this the situation in your company?

Changes in the company – Mergers and Acquisitions

More complicated than a company with multiple information silos and separate environments between sites is when two companies with completely different models come together.

it : either one of the two structures absorbs the other, or medium-term planning and work are needed to organize and standardize their information.

Benefits of creating taxonomies for your company.

I was able to list 10 problems related to the lack of a categorization scheme , or rather, a taxonomy for your company.

Now I'm going to try the more complex task: explaining XX benefits of using taxonomies for your organization. Shall we begin?

It structures and organizes the knowledge of organizations.

Using a taxonomy in your organization helps structure and organize knowledge so that all stakeholders can access it when they need it, increasing efficiency.

A taxonomy, being an organized way of dealing with the need to categorize data and information, is one of the simplest ways to solve this problem.

It improves organizational efficiency and lowers costs.

The costs associated with a lack of information organization in your company need to be calculated.

Your finance department would be alarmed by two metrics: wasted employee hours spent capturing, processing, and categorizing data, and low returns on the information used due to poor data quality.

Well-structured taxonomies increase organizational efficiency and reduce costs by improving the quality of information, preventing errors, and lowering costs related to the use of data in business.

It stimulates innovation.

Creating a taxonomy for companies encourages innovation simply because it provides managers with clarity on where to find the correct information, its relationship to other data, and what each piece of that information means.

Innovation is the action or act of innovating, that is, modifying old customs, habits, laws, processes, etc.; the effect of renewing or creating something new.

Modify customs and processes. If you want to do this, you will need to know very well where you need to make the changes, understanding the current scenario clearly.

To do this, you can use as many taxonomies as necessary.

Sharing through Search and Browsing

Data generates information .

Information generates knowledge .

Knowledge transforms your company.

To organize and improve the quality of information sharing through tools that allow quick access to it, you can use both taxonomies and ontologies .

Knowledge Management or Organizational Memory

Remember what I said above: Knowledge transforms your company.

To generate knowledge and keep it accessible and alive, it needs to be managed. A knowledge management process, or the creation of an organizational memory, is only possible with the correct organization, categorization, and updating of the information that generated that knowledge.

And guess who's going to help you do that? Exactly: a taxonomy for your company!

Information Reuse

You create a taxonomy for your company. You organize your data and the information generated. You create a system that facilitates the search and use of this information, generating knowledge through this information.

This describes the process of using information through the creation of a taxonomy in your company.

Reduces duplicate terms.

The lack of unified terminology across your company's departments creates a serious problem: the use of two or more terms for the same thing.

The example I gave earlier, the confusion between the sales and marketing departments, was taken from a real case.

In this company, the use of two names for the same metric caused significant losses due to a lack of alignment between departments, hindering joint action between them.

If there had been a taxonomy to standardize these terms, this could have been avoided.

Reflects the need for information.

One of the effects of creating a taxonomy within an organization is to have a very clear view of the data we have, and especially when we don't have the data .

When we start mapping the data, it enables a systemic view.

A systemic view is exactly what is created with the process I described above. By using a taxonomy, your organization can support processes with a greater understanding of the whole.

Machine learning, Chatbot

Innovation. Future.

New technologies such as Machine Learning and Chatbots deal with a large volume of data that needs to be organized and well-structured to function at its maximum potential.

Creating knowledge graphs , ontologies , and taxonomies for the data they use will structure and facilitate the work of the developers of these technologies in your company.

Now that I've convinced you that your company needs a taxonomy (I hope I've succeeded), I need to show you how to create one. For that, I'll recommend a course: Corporate Taxonomy and Business Glossary by Renata Land.

How can you use a taxonomy to solve your company's problems?

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