Methodology

Cogniva is a leader in developing new information management technologies, providing clients with the most effective solutions based on our years of experience and innovative research. The best tools for managing enterprise content are those based on new ideas and cutting-edge technology, and we offer both. We focus on creating the most flexible frameworks with simple and familiar interfaces, resulting in a more efficient and comfortable working environment.

The ISIS Methodology provides our clients with the most consistent, accurate and thorough information architectures possible. We build data models based on business processes, focusing on the precise ways in which organizations interact with their underlying information and knowledge base. We do this by analyzing business processes and patterns of information flow, creating rules and taxonomies that best fit an organization’s operating context.

Metadata

ISIS models use metadata to label and categorize information objects with content and context facets. These descriptive tags greatly enhance the searchability and consistency of enterprise content, regardless of its origin or format. With a metadata-based data model, information is more reliably described and organized, which creates a more thorough and transparent framework.

Metadata for ISIS models is tagged from business processes rather than the content itself, leaving you with a model that most accurately reflects how your organization uses information. This approach provides a better formal representation of an organization, which ensures the consistent application of records management rules and provides the basis for the creation of knowledge maps. By focusing on processes instead of specific content, ISIS creates a more dynamic information architecture, one that evolves alongside an organization as it changes without sacrificing functionality or consistency.

Controlled vocabularies

We use controlled vocabularies in our data models, which provide an interpretive layer of semantics between search-entry terms and an organization’s database content. This helps search engines to better “understand” the intent of the end user, improving their ability to locate targeted information regardless of its location or format. With ISIS, end users can widen the controlled vocabulary by providing synonyms (preferred terms) to the multilingual thesaurus, making searching easier while contributing to the semantic breadth of the data model.

Facet-based taxonomies

ISIS uses facet-based enterprise taxonomies to help support content storage, retrieval and searching. Information objects within the database are labelled with metadata that provides detailed descriptions of its content and context type — elements that are incorporated into a unified vocabulary that ensures consistency within the ISIS Suite. ISIS tools allow users to easily manage and edit taxonomies and nodes, giving users greater control over their content. The use of facets helps to simplify taxonomies, better describe content and allow for more powerful search queries. With facet-based enterprise taxonomies, information is more organized, accessible and accurately described than with alternative methods.

ISIS Certification Course

Through ISIS, Cogniva empowers organizations with the best IM tools and software solutions to help them tackle the issues of information management. With this goal in mind, Cogniva has created the ISIS Certification Course, a three-day instructional program that demonstrates how to use the ISIS methodology to develop an organization-specific ISIS model. Through a series of presentations, activities and in-class exercises, participants learn how to properly gather the appropriate organizational data required to create an ISIS model. Course topics include IM concepts, business process modelling, how to construct an ISIS model, as well as general governance and maintenance procedures. Upon passing a final exam, participants gain official certification in the ISIS Methodology, ready to leverage their information architecture and IM tools to better face the challenges that lay ahead.

Cogniva’s methodology and certification program empower clients with the tools and knowledge they need to optimize their approach to information management. Our focus on business processes, metadata and faceted taxonomies help organizations to create an information architecture that “understands” how they manage their enterprise content. We leave clients with better-informed information managers and a transparent data model that acknowledges and incorporates their operating contexts, needs and capabilities. By giving organizations an active role in the facet-relationship and taxonomy-building process, we provide them with the most thorough, efficient and fitting information architectures possible. Contact Cogniva today, and we will help you to unify, simplify and extend your information management capacities.