diff --git a/entity_map_json.cpp b/entity_map_json.cpp
index db45b05..b6fc6d6 100644
--- a/entity_map_json.cpp
+++ b/entity_map_json.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #include "entity_map_json.hpp"
 
 #include <exception>
+#include <fstream>
 #include <ipmid/types.hpp>
 #include <nlohmann/json.hpp>
 #include <string>
@@ -11,6 +12,27 @@
 namespace sensor
 {
 
+EntityInfoMap buildEntityMapFromFile()
+{
+    const char* entityMapJsonFilename =
+        "/usr/share/ipmi-providers/entity-map.json";
+    EntityInfoMap builtMap;
+
+    std::ifstream mapFile(entityMapJsonFilename);
+    if (!mapFile.is_open())
+    {
+        return builtMap;
+    }
+
+    auto data = nlohmann::json::parse(mapFile, nullptr, false);
+    if (data.is_discarded())
+    {
+        return builtMap;
+    }
+
+    return buildJsonEntityMap(data);
+}
+
 EntityInfoMap buildJsonEntityMap(const nlohmann::json& data)
 {
     EntityInfoMap builtMap;
diff --git a/entity_map_json.hpp b/entity_map_json.hpp
index 0e9be01..11530bf 100644
--- a/entity_map_json.hpp
+++ b/entity_map_json.hpp
@@ -9,6 +9,14 @@
 {
 
 /**
+ * @brief Open the default entity map json file, and if present and valid json,
+ * return a built entity map.
+ *
+ * @return the map
+ */
+EntityInfoMap buildEntityMapFromFile();
+
+/**
  * @brief Given json data validate the data matches the expected format for the
  * entity map configuration and parse the data into a map of the entities.
  *