Search Frustration: A Licensee on the Offensive
April 21, 2008
I received an email from a financial wizard on the West Coast on Friday. Here’s what I received, and I apologize for removing the names of the sender, the company, and the vendor. My attorney suggested that he needed a new BMW when I asked him about revealing details. I wisely concluded that removing the track back information would reduce my legal fees. He doesn’t need a new car, and I don’t need certified mail from the bad boys referenced in this letter.
The document redacted is:
ANYCO, Inc is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: XXXX) that helps businesses achieve a competitive advantage by delivering timely and actionable sales opportunities and information. ANYCO offers unparalleled coverage of government purchasing activity in addition to commercial and residential projects in development for markets such as architecture and engineering, IT/telecom, business consulting services, operations and maintenance, and transportation. We gather, process, categorize and deliver up to 5000 new opportunities per day, including all associated text records and documents (.doc, .pdf, .xls, etc.) to provide our clients with up to date lead and market information.
We are actively seeking vendors interested in receiving an RFP to replace our current implementation of INCUMBENT SEARCH SYSTEM. We are looking for a comprehensive, scalable, fault tolerant leading edge search solution for both internal and client facing use. We need to be able to index and search our entire database and document store, comprising over 10 years of government procurement information (almost 1 TB of data and documents), and are interested in advanced search features to enhance our customer experience and productivity.
The RFP will be distributed on April 28th, with an aggressive timeline for responses and vendor engagements. We intend to select a vendor and begin work on the project by May 26th.
If your company would be interested in participating in this RFP, please respond with a point-of-contact.
Thank you,
SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR, WEST COAST, USA
The only background I have for this letter is that it was sent to vendors of enterprise (what I call behind-the-firewall or Intranet) search systems. The letter was verified by both recipients as legitimate and not a spoof. The search vendor whose system is being replaced is a high-profile vendor. After reading this a couple of times, I concluded, perhaps incorrectly because I have battle scars inflicted by search system vendors who threaten me if I blow the whistle on some of the more exciting implementations I am paid to fix:
- The person writing this letter is not a happy camper. In fact, the writer’s naming the vendor is evidence that relationships between this licensee and the vendor have reached their nadir. Mentioning the vendor could be construed as an actionable offense.
- The timelines make obvious that the situation is in fast-cycle remediation mode. The incumbent system is getting tossed out, and a new system is coming within 30 days. That’s not much time to short list, procure, and schedule a “rip and replace” solution.
- The technical issues appear to be the ability to handle a modest amount of text and functions beyond key word retrieval.
One email from one licensee is interesting. In the context of the research data I summarize in my new study for the Gilbane Group and the Sinequa research data, more color is accreting about dissatisfaction with search and retrieval. Have you had a less than positive experience? If so, send along the details. I will anonymize them and summarize each example. As examples accumulate, the survey data may be amplified by squawks from licensees who perceive themselves as having been given search sizzle, not search steak.
Stephen Arnold, April 21, 2008
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3 Responses to “Search Frustration: A Licensee on the Offensive”
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[…] by a publicly-traded company’s intent to replace its incumbent search system. You can read the full text of this document, which I have verified as originating with a reputable company on the West Coast of the US. I […]
Not surprising; in our years working with search technologies we’ve come across a lot of dissatisfaction with incumbents. Sometimes these incumbents are large, well-respected enterprise search companies. Search is still a hard thing to get right, especially for large amounts of data.
Mr. Hull, thanks for you comment. I am not sure that it is possible to “get search right”. Wizards have been working for decades. Information is a slippery fish methinks.
Stephen Arnold, June 5, 2008