March 6, 2024
Data is one of the most critical assets for businesses today, but data is only as good as the insights you can derive from it. The problem is most data is unstructured or not structured properly and hard to extract value from. This is the case for most data surrounding an organizations’ IT solutions, leading to limited tech stack visibility.
This is why Entrio created and maintains a detailed, proprietary taxonomy for enterprise IT solutions. Let’s dive into what sets Entrio’s taxonomy apart.
Having a robust taxonomy is critical to organize, search, and derive insights from data. When you categorize data using a taxonomy, you are making sure that the data is properly stored next to similar and relevant data. Data that is clearly marked is easier to search and, in this case, find solutions for a specific domain or functionality. And once everything is neatly classified, the data can be visualized and provide the insights needed.
When creating a taxonomy, it’s crucial to understand the domain at hand. It requires a lot of research and past experience to know the specific steps and technologies that rule a domain. For example, to create a taxonomy about software development, one must be familiar with the different stages of the development lifecycle and also the various tools that are available for developers to use. But a domain such as software development is vast and deep, so you also have to balance granularity with effectiveness. If the taxonomy is too deep and specific, it will not be useful for clients to view, understand, and categorize their solutions. The main goal of a taxonomy is to provide users with the best combination of granular categorisation that is also easy to understand and maintain.
Entrio’s taxonomy currently consists of 1,600+ nodes and continues to grow based on new technological advancements and customer needs. Our nodes consist of four levels marked as the Business Unit, Category, Product, and Feature. It can be thought of as a tree whereby each level is connected to a higher level and a lower level (with the exception of the highest and lowest levels). The Business Unit is the highest level and the Feature is the lowest level.
Our taxonomy includes categories, such as the Technology Division, which includes all the technological tools that are industry/process agnostic such as Software Development, Document Management, Cybersecurity, etc. It also includes broader Corporate Functions for the common business needs of an organization that ensures its smooth running, like Human Resources, Legal, Marketing, etc.
In the beginning, Entrio’s taxonomy was purely banking focused. So for our banking clients, it mimics the actual departments and processes of a bank, where each first level is a main division of a banking institution; such as Personal Banking, Corporate Banking, and Investment Banking, etc. Within those, each level breaks down to the end processes like “Fixed Income Trading” or “Loan Origination.”
Most recently, we added an Insurance specific taxonomy to reflect our expansion into the insurance industry. The insurance taxonomy, similar to the banking taxonomy, breaks down the different departments/functions of a common insurance organization into its end processes. This allows clients to clearly find what they are looking for by their line of work.
When in use, a taxonomy can look like either example in the image below. Which do you find more useful?
Each solution should ideally contain multiple taxonomy nodes in various domains to showcase all of its capabilities. Among the nodes, 1-3 should reflect the core capabilities of the solution, which is generally how it would be described in only one sentence. The rest of the taxonomy nodes provide information about the other various features that the solution has.
Solutions also are changing constantly, so Entrio’s taxonomy is dynamic, we consider it a living organism that constantly evolves with the market. Today the number is ~1,600. In three months, this number will have changed to reflect the continuous expansion of the tech world and the specific needs of our clients. For example, as Generative AI came about, so did a lot of new and different offerings and the taxonomy had to grow to be able to cover them. When clients mentioned that Market Data was important to them, the taxonomy expanded to reflect this information as well.
With the right IT taxonomy and solutions catalog, you have clear visibility over your entire tech stack and the broader market. You need to know what solutions you have, how you’re using them, how much you’re paying, where your risks are, and what new solutions or alternative solutions exist. Entrio makes this all possible.
With Entrio, it’s easy to see vendor consolidation opportunities and take the appropriate action. The categories you’re spending the most on are already pretty apparent, but the more niche solutions, that are easier to remove, become highly visible too. This has saved clients $10s of millions.
If you’re in the market for a new solution, look to your peers for validation or find the rising stars. Onboard them with up-to-date market intelligence. Incorporate Entrio into your permit to buy process and check if the new solution overlaps with a solution already engaged with the organization. Get alerts about corporate actions, vulnerabilities, and other updates to stay informed.
Ultimately, the Entrio taxonomy is unique and can fulfill many use cases. If you’re curious about the taxonomy and see that it could be beneficial in your organization, reach out to us for a demo.
