Rethinking Enterprise Mapping: Why We Built UrbaHive
After 25 years of experience, we've realized that enterprise mapping tools are often either too complex or too simplistic. UrbaHive was born to make enterprise architecture accessible, collaborative, and truly valuable.
Frédéric Le Bris
CEO & Co-fondateur
With over 25 years of corporate experience
We’ve observed that the use of enterprise mapping tools generally falls into two distinct approaches:
• In large organizations, the adoption of complex and costly solutions is common. These tools often require one or more dedicated people to maintain and update them.
• Conversely, small and medium-sized companies tend to rely on Excel files — usually poorly maintained, if at all. The initial effort to set them up is often seen as burdensome, and it’s not uncommon to find multiple outdated versions scattered across the company network.
The challenge
Considering that the implementation and maintenance costs of such tools rarely generate a meaningful return on investment, most companies give up on enterprise mapping altogether.
As a result, knowledge remains fragmented among project managers, architects, and developers.
A tool like any other in the information system
Ultimately, an enterprise architecture mapping tool is a component of the company’s information system and should therefore be evaluated using the same decision criteria:
- What is the intended purpose?
- Who is it for, and how many people will use it?
- What is the return on investment of digitizing this activity?
Why an enterprise map matters
We firmly believe that having an up-to-date, trusted enterprise map is a valuable asset for many use cases, such as:
- Impact analysis during version upgrades
- Informed decision-making in case of cybersecurity risks
- Planning cloud migration strategies
- And more
The key lies in making this knowledge accessible and recognized as a single source of truth.
Our vision
To achieve this, we believe the tool must be collaborative, user-friendly, and affordable, so it can be adopted across the entire organization.
That’s why, after years of frustration with existing solutions, we decided to create UrbaHive — to finally offer enterprise architects a truly effective tool.
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