In this dynamic world, the principles of conventional IT architecture just no longer cut it. Today’s information landscape has too many applications and hardware components, and lacks the flexibility to keep up. This has contributed to a growing gulf between structured and unstructured information. While routine jobs are well supported, that just isn’t the case for knowledge workers – something that has to change.
The new information architecture (which we also refer to as Enterprise 2.0) focuses on the knowledge worker and on their network of colleagues, clients and other partners in the chain. All information, whether structured or unstructured, is available and accessible and can be shared, edited and combined anyplace, anytime. Infrastructure and application are totally decoupled. The new workplace brings together all the elements, regardless of time or place, moulding itself to particular situations.
The new architecture is modular and can be deployed according to business needs. Virtual working environments ensure all employees in an organisation are directly connected and able to cooperate spontaneously. A platform for the knowledge worker, an open IT structure linking applications together, and WorkPlace 2.0 create freedom of movement both for people and for the organisation itself. But that’s not all: the new information architecture reduces the structural costs of IT.