A taxonomy for companies. That is the proposal.
A taxonomy, put very simply, is a categorization scheme. It was created to organize items into categories according to a given structure.
So why is it important to create a taxonomy for my company?
Again, put very simply, creating a corporate 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 management project; another to document persona creation; and I have also used taxonomy in inbound marketing work.
Your company’s problems and taxonomic solutions
I chose to organize my research into two stages:
- Describe the problems that lead to the need for a taxonomy;
- Provide suggestions for solutions to each of the problems.
And in the end, I want you—if you read this article to the end—to know how to solve some of these problems (and others you may find) by creating a taxonomy for companies.
So, let’s get to the problems:
Data overload, information void
All of us generate more data in a single day than we did over decades, decades ago.
Over the last 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 moved us from the terabyte era to the petabyte[1][2]. In 2015, we entered the zettabyte era[3], and today we generate more than 2.5 quintillion bytes daily[4].
Wikipedia
I am sure that in your company you find a very similar scenario: dozens, hundreds of spreadsheets, documents, files with data from every source and in every form. All of this scattered across computers, the network, and different systems. This is the information void.
The problem is that turning that amount of data into any information requires a massive effort with little guarantee of success.
Lack of standards and naming in documents
Using the same scenario above, I can say that these same documents are scattered across text files, proprietary formats such as Office, PDFs, and many others—all incompatible with one another.
In addition, the naming conventions only make things more confusing. Things like “document-financial-02″ and “finance doc-02082019” used for the same content, or even “report-version-01”, “report_v03”, which were supposed to be sequential documents.
This makes it very difficult to use systems to handle these data in an automated way.
Limited search capabilities
Data generates information. Information can generate knowledge. Knowledge transforms your company. But how can this process happen if you cannot find the information you need within the data you have?
The confusion created by a lack of standardization and organization of data creates a scenario in which searching for information within that same data is limited.
Information unawareness
Information is the new gold.
Not knowing what information you have hidden on your computers is the same as being poor while living on land full of treasures.
A lack of information knowledge kills business opportunities.
Lack of unified terminology across areas
In the sales department, in the quarterly results spreadsheet, we see a column called customers, one called sales, and another called profit.
In Marketing, in a spreadsheet also called quarterly results, we have a column called subscribers, one called sales, and another called sales rate.
The two spreadsheets have the same name, refer to the same period, but use completely different terms for the same data.
The lack of a standard for the terms used across departments will create serious problems when it is time to unify data to generate information for the entire company.
Organizational culture
Your organization’s culture is the biggest obstacle you will need to overcome to implement any process that changes its day-to-day operations.
Whatever the change, the culture will have to change. Even worse if the change is structural and radical. The more innovative it is, the more you will have to deal with resistance from those who are already used to the current way of doing things.
A cultural change will help you benefit from data and information, using techniques such as taxonomies.
Lack of governance
A very common scenario in companies is a lack of governance, especially related to data.
Data governance is a system that enables decision-making regarding access to and use of certain information. It is carried out through a model that uses methods defining under which circumstances this access may be required.
Planning and executing proper governance will prevent problems with agility and trust related to data and information.
Open structure that can be changed by all users
This item is very close to the previous one. The lack of governance and an overly open structure without access control and write permissions create the same problems: lack of reliability in information.
If your data can be changed and moved “out of place” by anyone at any time, how can you know whether it is still reliable?
Decentralization of information
Recalling what I said above, in this same post:
dozens, hundreds of spreadsheets, documents, files with data from every source and in every form. All of this scattered across computers, the network, and different systems.
Is this your company’s scenario?
Changes in the company – Mergers and Acquisitions
More complicated than a company with multiple information silos and separate environments across the site is when two companies with two completely different models come together.
Then there is no way around it: either one of the two absorbs the other’s structure, or planning and medium-term work are required 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, that is, a taxonomy for your company.
Now I will try to do the more complex work: explain XX benefits of using taxonomies for your organization. Shall we?
Structures and organizes organizational knowledge
Using a taxonomy in your organization helps structure and organize knowledge so that all stakeholders can have the necessary access when they need it, increasing efficiency.
A taxonomy, because it is an organized way to address the need for categorization of data and information, is one of the simplest ways to solve this problem.
Improves organizational efficiency and lowers costs
The costs related to the lack of organization of information in your company need to be calculated.
Your finance department would be shocked by two metrics: hours per employee wasted on capturing, processing, and categorizing data, and the low return from the information used due to its lack of quality.
Well-structured taxonomies increase organizational efficiency and reduce costs by improving the quality of information, preventing errors and lowering costs related to using data in business.
Encourages innovation
Creating a corporate taxonomy encourages innovation simply because of the clarity it gives managers about where to find the right information, its relationship with other data, and what each piece of that information means.
Innovation is the action or act of innovating—that is, modifying old customs, habits, legislation, processes, etc.; the effect of renewal or the creation of something new.
Changing habits and processes. If you want to do that, you will need to know very clearly where changes are needed, with a clear understanding of the current scenario.
To do that, you can rely on as many taxonomies as necessary.
Sharing through Search and Navigation
Data generates information.
Information generates knowledge.
Knowledge transforms your company.
To organize and improve the sharing of information through tools that enable fast 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 must be managed. A knowledge management process or the creation of an organizational memory is only possible with the proper organization, categorization, and updating of the information that generated that knowledge.
And guess who will 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 search and the use of that information, generating knowledge through that information.
That is the process of using information through the creation of a taxonomy in your company described there.
Reduces duplicate terms
The lack of unified terminology across your company’s areas creates a serious problem: using two or more terms for the same thing.
The example I gave earlier—the confusion between the sales department and marketing—was taken from a real case.
In this company, using two names for the same metric caused significant losses due to the lack of alignment between departments, undermining a joint action between them.
If there had been a taxonomy to standardize those terms, this could have been avoided.
Reflects information needs
One of the effects of creating a id=”urn:enhancement-52″ class=”textannotation disambiguated wl-thing” itemid=”http://data.wordlift.io/wl0221/entity/taxonomia__trashed”>taxonomy within an organization is having a very clear view of the data we have and, above all, when we do not have the data.
When we begin to map data and the available information, organizing and categorizing what we find, we gain clarity about what is missing. And with that, we understand the need for information, reflected in the taxonomy we create.
Enables a systemic view
A systemic view is exactly what is created through the process I described above. By using a taxonomy, your organization can support processes with greater understanding of the whole.
Machine learning, Chatbot
Innovation. Future.
New technologies such as Machine Learning and Chatbots lincement-1″ class=”textannotation”>deal with a large volume of data that needs to be organized and well structured to operate at maximum capacity.
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 have convinced you that your company needs a taxonomy (I hope I have), I need to show you how to create a taxonomy. For that, I will 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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