1. What can Carto-SI do for me?

Within modern IS, information is difficult to access due to:

• the complexity of these IS
• the difficulty of mapping them
• the difficulty of sharing this cartography
• the difficulty of keeping this map up to date

Carto-SI responds to this problem by:

• a cartography that is built in collaborative mode
• accessibility via the Web / Intranet which facilitates the sharing of the cartography
• notifications that prompt managers to update the map

Carto-SI provides you with clear and up-to-date information that allows you to make strategic decisions, to plan, to communicate, to target, to anticipate, to save time and to be more serene in the face of change.

Carto-SI makes it possible to take advantage of the full extent of its power. And as often, it is at the initialization that many things are played…

2. How to adapt the semantics of Carto-SI to that of my company?

Each Group (or Company) has its own vocabulary and semantics.
Our experience, rich in our interventions and our immersion in the IS of very heterogeneous groups, has enabled us to see this very often.

Carto-SI therefore adapts to your Users, allowing the customization of all of its terminology to the jargon of your company.

3. How to use Carto-SI correctly?

Your priority is to determine the level of granularity in your mapping.

Carto-SI allows you to map your IS via an Application approach.

However, the concept of “application” in an information system can have several meanings and tends to change.

Applications are more and more complex and polymorphic, so it is necessary to finely define the level of the basic element that makes up your IS mapping.
Indeed, what was traditionally called “application” can, within modern IS, be more likened to a service component.

Thus, the ideal granularity is to represent in Carto-SI “each IS service brick that can be put into production independently of the others”

4. What should I map?

Your defined level of granularity, the different components and options of Carto-SI, will help you to represent all the elements that make up your IS.

Some elements may seem difficult to represent within the scope you have defined in Carto-SI: Do not hesitate to contact us.
Experience shows that this is often a way of approaching the question.

As Enstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with the way of thinking that created it.”

Our informed outside view can be of great help to you.

5. What does a link represent within Carto-SI?

In Carto-SI, links represent Dependencies between Applications.
These Dependencies are represented by arrows.

Thus, an arrow going from an Application A towards an Application B means that A is dependent on B.

6. How can I track the data exchanged between Applications?

The notion of Application Object in Carto-SI defines the data that passes through your IS.

Concretely, a Dependency link arrowed on the map from A to B must be understood as follows:
“Application A consumes the Application object M exposed to it by Application B”.

This notion establishes, in fact, a dependency link between the Applications within your IS.

7. How to segment my IS?

The notion of Domain allows you to group your Applications by families.

Thus, by creating these Domains (HR, Administrative, Finance, Technical, etc.), you will be able to characterize each of your Applications in the domain to which it relates.

8. Who can access Carto-SI?

Carto-SI is deployed in your Intranet or available in Saas.

Several types of access (Administrator, Responsible, Reader) can be configured and whose rights are managed by one (or more) Administrator(s).

Starting from there, the Application(s) Managers feed the mapping on the scope that concerns them.
Thus, all the contributions lead to an overall cartography of the information system.

All IS actors must have a vision of it:
CIO, Project Owner or Project Manager, Company Architect, Urban Planner, Project Manager, Project Director, Developer, Operator…

“Winners will be those who restructure the way information flows through their business” – Bill Gates.

9. How does Carto-SI give me relevant information about my IS?

Key figures: Summary dashboards provide key figures and breakdown in terms of Number of Applications and Dependencies, as well as breakdown by domain
Cartography: A visual, dynamic and interactive cartography is available

Filters and Searches: An intelligent module is available, allowing you to filter and carry out searches by criteria, to target and facilitate the reading of your IS. (Consult the most frequent USE CASES)

10. How do I add personalized information?

Any information system has its own characteristics.

For business needs or for other reasons that you deem relevant, we have developed a metadata mechanism (Custom Fields) that allows you to add personalized information to the Tasks, Applications, Technical Components, Dependencies of your IS.

Note that search filters can apply to these Custom Fields.

11. How to represent inter-application interactions?

Inter-application interactions are represented by links between each application.

These links make it possible to identify direct and indirect interactions between applications.

The restitution of the entire cartography does not really make sense from an operational or project point of view.

Carto-SI’s filters thus make it possible to isolate one or more applications and to expose the interactions with other IS applications.

It is also possible to identify impacted or impacting applications according to a predefined depth (direct or indirect impact)

12. How can I communicate with Application Managers?

Carto-Si has an integrated e-mailing module, allowing communication with all identified interlocutors.

The user can therefore decide to communicate to:

• all the interlocutors identified in the tool (mass communication)
• the managers of the Applications resulting from its filter by criteria (with the possibility of adjusting this list)

Example :

Application A is unavailable.

In order to target the Owners of the Impacted Applications, you just need to display Application A.

A single click lets you view Applications that share Dependencies with it.

Another click on the “Communicate” button will allow you to write your message to the preselected interlocutors concerned, and thus notify them.

13. Glossary

Here is the definition of the terms used by default in Carto-SI:

• Application : a service component of your information system that appears on the map
• Application Object : information that passes through your IS
• Dependency : a link that characterizes the Dependency of one Application on another Application (most often for a given Application Object)
• Domain : the scope of attachment of one or more Applications (e.g. Accounting, HR)
• Manager : a manager is attached to one or more Applications
• Custom Field : this is a Key/Value pair that applies to an Application and provides enormous flexibility of use. It allows in particular to define and group several Applications sharing common characteristics