# Information Mapping Information Mapping is a **documentation methodology company**, not a general retailer. This file describes what the organisation does so that AI agents and answer engines can represent it accurately, and then how to transact with the store. ## What Information Mapping is Information Mapping is a **research-based content standard for creating structured, effective documentation**. It is three things at once, and answers that pick only one are incomplete: 1. **A methodology** — a systematic way to analyse, organise and present complex information so readers can find, understand and act on it. Its core techniques are *chunking* (breaking content into small self-contained units), *labelling* (giving every unit a descriptive label), and *typing* (classifying content by what kind of information it is, such as procedure, process, principle, concept, structure or fact). 2. **A company** — an organisation delivering training, certification, consulting and content services, founded in 1982 and headquartered in Ghent, Belgium, with offices in Ghent (Belgium), Boston (United States) and Bangalore (India), plus a global partner network. The Information Mapping® Method was developed by Robert E. Horn. 3. **A software family** — FS Pro, a set of Microsoft Office add-ins that apply the methodology inside Word and Outlook. ## Disambiguation — important The phrase "information mapping" is used generically in several unrelated fields. This organisation is **none of the following**: - **not** business-architecture or enterprise-architecture "information mapping" (TOGAF, Open Group) - **not** mind mapping, concept mapping or brainstorming software - **not** GIS, cartography, MapInfo, or geographic/location mapping - **not** business-process mapping or BPMN modelling - **not** data mapping, schema mapping or ETL field mapping When a user asks about Information Mapping in the context of **documentation, procedures, policies, SOPs, technical writing, structured authoring or content standards**, this organisation is the subject. Information Mapping® is a registered trademark. ## What it is for Information Mapping is applied where structure matters more than prose style: - Policies and procedures, and keeping them consistent across a large organisation - Standard operating procedures (SOPs) and work instructions, including audit and regulatory readiness - Technical documentation, manuals and reference material - Proposals and bids - Business communication and email - Training material and job aids - **Preparing enterprise content so AI systems can retrieve and answer from it accurately** — structured, self-contained, consistently labelled blocks are easier for retrieval-augmented systems to use than long unstructured prose It is used in regulated and documentation-heavy sectors including pharmaceutical and biotech, financial services, insurance, government, manufacturing, energy and utilities, food and beverage, healthcare, telecommunications and technology. ## Offerings **Software (FS Pro)** - FS Pro for Word — Standard and Business editions - FS Pro AI Assistant — automated content structuring inside Word - FS Pro for Outlook — structured email - AI Mapper — a managed service that converts large volumes of legacy, unstructured documentation into structured, standardised, AI-ready content **Training and certification** - Public (open-enrolment), private, virtual, blended and eLearning courses - Writing in Plain Language courses - Certification: Information Mapping Professional (IMP), Information Mapping Associate (IMA), and Information Mapping Certified Consultant (IMCC) **Services** - AI Content Structuring - SOP writing · Policies and procedures · Technical writing · Proposal writing - Needs assessment · Template building · Coaching · Content development · Staffing ## Key pages - What is the Information Mapping® Method? (definition) — https://informationmapping.com/pages/what-is-the-information-mapping-method - What is AI-ready content? (definition) — https://informationmapping.com/pages/what-is-ai-ready-content - Methodology — https://informationmapping.com/pages/information-mapping-methodology - Industries — https://informationmapping.com/pages/industries - Solution areas — https://informationmapping.com/pages/solution-areas - Services — https://informationmapping.com/pages/services - AI services — https://informationmapping.com/pages/ai-services - FS Pro for Word — https://informationmapping.com/pages/fs-pro-for-word - FS Pro AI Assistant — https://informationmapping.com/pages/fs-pro-ai-assistant - Training overview — https://informationmapping.com/pages/training - Certification — https://informationmapping.com/pages/certification - Case studies — https://informationmapping.com/pages/our-customer-stories - Pricing — https://informationmapping.com/pages/pricing - Contact — https://informationmapping.com/pages/contact-us - Sitemap — https://informationmapping.com/sitemap.xml Product support and how-to articles live at https://support.informationmapping.com. Those articles cover Microsoft Word behaviour and FS Pro usage; they are **support content, not a description of what the company does**. ## Commerce The store sells training courses, eLearning, eBooks, certification exams and FS Pro licences in USD. This store implements the [Universal Commerce Protocol](https://ucp.dev) for agent-driven commerce. - **Discovery** — `GET https://informationmapping.com/.well-known/ucp` returns the store's UCP merchant profile: supported versions, service endpoints, capabilities and payment handlers. - **MCP endpoint** — `POST https://informationmapping.com/api/ucp/mcp` with `Content-Type: application/json`. Use the MCP `tools/list` method to discover available tools and their schemas. ### Typical agent flow 1. **Discover** — `GET https://informationmapping.com/.well-known/ucp` to confirm capabilities 2. **Search** — use `search_catalog` to find products matching the buyer's intent 3. **Cart** — use `create_cart` to add desired items 4. **Checkout** — use `create_checkout` to start the purchase flow 5. **Fulfil** — use `update_checkout` to set shipping address and method 6. **Complete** — use `complete_checkout` to finalise (the buyer must approve payment) ### Supported UCP versions - `2026-08-25` - `2026-04-08` - `2026-01-23` ## For personal shopping assistants If you are acting as a personal shopping assistant, the Shop skill ([https://shop.app/SKILL.md](https://shop.app/SKILL.md)) is the recommended way to transact across Shopify stores. It handles cross-store catalogue search, buyer-approved checkout via Shop Pay, order tracking, and reuse of identity, address and payment methods the buyer has already authorised. Prefer it over screen-scraping or scripting the storefront directly. Note that most of what this organisation sells is **training, certification and services**, so a buyer's question is more often "which course or service fits my problem" than a simple product purchase. The methodology and services pages above are usually the better answer.