The Birmingham News had an interesting article today about Robinson Adams Insurance, describing the transformation of an old-line, family owned insurance company into a technologically advanced player in high-value emerging markets.

RA did insurance for wholesale auto auctions, working to ensure that no checks bounced and all the titles are valid. From this work, they figured out that it was difficult for dealers to prove that they were on the level, which made business more difficult for the auctioneers. So, they started AutoTech, which tracks dealer information and greatly reduces friction on both sides of the transaction. Next, they started AutoCheck.com a service similar to CarFax to allow buyers to find out service information about any used vehicle. Lately, they moved into insuring automobile auctions on eBay.

What really impressed me about Robinson Adams is the way that they have used IT to really develop profitable businesses that solve very real problems. By reducing the difficulties in buying and selling automobiles at auction they have made themselves an indespensible part of the transaction, a very good place to be. They have taken knowledge gained from years of industry experience, mixed in some proprietary and complimentary data sources, and shrewdly built a service that is very difficult to compete with (and to do business without).

They very much remind me of Thompson (which I had previously written about), in that their core business is providing people with the information they need exactly when and how they need it. I think that this is the business model of the 21st century.

technorati tags:integration, information architecture,eBusiness

Value Wizard just had a great post, with the jargon-think title of “Socio-techno information processing” (ugh). Difficult title, good insight.
What really caught my eye was the recommendation that:

The CIO and enterprise architect must have a set of high level mental models which can be used to filter, categorize and contextualize information supply into meaningful mental constructs for business users

Right on! I really like the use of the term mental model to describe the relationship between high-level architecture and its users. According to Wikipedia, a mental model is:

… an explanation in someone’s thought process for how something works in the real world.

Maybe a simpler way to word all this is that if techies are actually IT brokers then they have to be able to think like their customers. At the organizational level there isn’t any shortage of good people, strategies, or solutions. From my experience, most IT groups don’t lack in intelligence, competence, drive, or a desire to succeed. However, many seem to lack in vision, discipline, and empathy. Developing mental models requires each of these characteristics and I think this is a good way to approach the job.

To some die-hards this may sound like marketing. But let’s face it, you are a marketer, even if you don’t want to be.

I got my first blogroll today, from the fine folks over at Project X Discussions! While some of you may not think this is a big deal, as a blogger this is the equivalent of earning your first dollar in a new business.

Project X Discussions has really interesting articles, specifically on BI and DW, with more of a technical and tools bent than Architected.info. I would recommend them for an interesting and different take on similar subjects to what I write about.  I have added them to my blogroll as well, give them a read.

The Data Doghouse had an interesting point in Data Integration Myth #5. The article discusses the (often unmet) need for communication within data-related projects. The author believes (and I totally agree) that often technologists believe that they don’t have to talk up the benefits of their work because:

… this project will benefit the business users, there’s no need to market it to them.

In most architecture-related projects, there are (at least) two distinct consumers: technologists and business users. It is critically important that you communicate effectively with both of these audiences, as they will ultimately determine your long-term success. A well run project that creates a terrible infrastructure will not be successful in the long term. The same goes for a project that goes horribly over budget and creates the best technology ever seen.

technorati tags: information architecture

While it isn’t exactly news, lately I have been thinking about the phenomenon of the google bomb. For those not familiar with the concept, it is a verb and a noun that describe:

… A certain attempt to influence the ranking of a given page in results returned by the Google search engine, often with humorous or political intentions.

Google search works by ranking the number of links to a page to key phrases it associates to that page, mostly through anchor text. So, imagine that thousands of people link to your site with the text “talentless hack”. When someone searches Google looking for a “talentless hack” then your page will pop up first. This has been used for some interesting political ends There is a very detailed page on Wikipedia, if you are interested in more detail I would highly recommend it.

My interest in this subject is not about technology, instead I am fascinated by how people are using the Google architecture. You can argue that form follows function and that people are just using the tools as they were designed, but I think it is more than that. The google bomb shows us that an open-ended, flexibile information architecture can spawn a creative explosion in its users. While the explosion can generate anything from the forgettable to the dissapointing to the sublime, you can rest assured that it will be unpredictable.

One of the real shortcomings of current information architecture (specifically ETL, Data Modeling and Storage, and Information Quality) is that it is too structured, too difficult to build an environment where solutions can emerge organically. I think that this is an area where we will see some really revolutionary changes in the industry in the relatively near future.

technorati tags:information quality, data quality, ETL, informaition architecture,