Following on from our recent takeaways post we share further insights from the recent Taxonomy BootCamp event held in Washington DC.
Joseph Busch of Project Performance Corporation (PPC) delivered a practical presentation that aimed to help people understand objective criteria for evaluating the capabilities of current taxonomy software tools.
PPC is a leading management consultancy with a growing taxonomy practice. Busch analysed editorial functionality, degrees of sophistication, database definition, import and export options, and workflow and governance. Busch then gave detailed descriptions for four specific products and summarized the results in a product vector with two axes: ease of implementation and completeness of vision.
Microsoft Excel scored top on ease of implementation but low on vision (functionality). While MultiTes did not score high on either scale it was selected as a notable tool because its simplicity and low price point have established it as a prominent entry-level tool. The three tools closest to the top-right quadrant were SmartLogic, Synaptica and TopBraid. In Busch’s assessment these three tools are very close together, with each one having some distinguishing selling points.
The full presentation is available online at Taxonomy Strategies.
In addition we also heard from Zach Wahl of PPC who argued that the average taxonomy application is deeper and more complex than five years ago, and so the need for more sophisticated taxonomy software tools is becoming widely recognized. Wahl’s comments drew upon observations of the evolution of RFP requirements over the last few years. Zach’s presentation is also available online.
