Management Views Search as a Side Issue
June 25, 2008
Dave Valiante’s “Enterprise Search a High Priority for Most Users, But Not for Companies” is an important essay. You can read it on the Wall Street Technology Web site here. The url is a tricky one: www.wallstreetandtech.com.
He reports on a study that says “many businesses [are] unaware of the importance of findability. His write up contains a number of interesting statistics from the report based on a survey of 500 business users. The AIIM study triggered a flurry of news items about user dissatisfaction with search, but Mr. Valiante’s essay digs a bit deeper into the results.
The one finding that jumped out at me was:
The survey states that most organizations do not have a strategic approach for enterprise search and shows that 49 percent of respondents have “no formal goal” for enterprise findability within their own organizations.
What a remarkable finding. With search an essential first step in performing work today, the idea that organizations have “no formal goal” is intriguing. Let’s assume that the finding is spot on. Half of the organizations surveyed view search and retrieval as a non-issue. If true, this explains why point solutions for customer support, litigation support, and business intelligence sell throughout an organization. Licensees are neither interested in systems already installed or, even more likely, indifferent to getting a system that meets very specific needs. Silos are not aberrations. Isolated systems, often containing content already processed by another system in the organization, are standard operating procedure.
No wonder an organization’s information technology department often shows little enthusiasm for a search or content processing system. With systems flowering, existing technical resources may be stretched to the limit. Another related thought I had, again assuming the finding is accurate, is that vendors have little incentive to change their marketing and sales strategies. A vendor can jump from market sector to market sector looking for customers who have a specific problem.
My research reveals user dissatisfaction with search and retrieval. The information in Mr. Valiante’s write up tells me that dissatisfaction is likely to be the norm in many organizations until management understanding matures. Agree? Disagree? Use the comment sections to share your views.
Stephen Arnold, June 25, 3008
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