Some Lessons for Enterprise Search
November 16, 2008
Manufacturing Business Technology’s “Fair Warning: 10 Signs Your ERP System Is Killing Your Business” did not seem germane to this Web log. I scanned the article by Mark Symonds, who apparently works at an outfit called Plexus Systems. The content of the story here is relevant to some enterprise search installations. The article is a listing of a self check up. I don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of his writing, so I will mention three of his 10 points, then offer a closing comment. The three points I found relevant to enterprise search were:
- The system cannot integrate with mission critical business data. That is a definite problem for some enterprise search systems. When a vendor is reluctant to explain exactly what must be done to move content from Legacy System A to the content processing subsystem of an enterprise search system, you know there is trouble. I learned last week that a certain major appliance vendor refuses to acknowledge this content acquisition and transformation problem.
- Maintenance fees are high. Another direct hit. Only a handful of search system vendors deliver a solution that won’t create a sea of red ink with engineering and technical support fees. In fact, some vendors price a device or system at a very attractive price and then try to make a profit on professional services.
- Upgrades are disruptive. I know of one major vendor who ships an update. The system must be restarted and if there is a problem, the hapless licensee must repeat the procedures. In one instance, the to get the upgrade to work, a roll back to an earlier version of the system was required because the hot fixes shipped between version upgrades did not work with the point upgrade. That was indeed exciting.
You will find that the other seven reasons may be as relevant to enterprise search as ERP. The days of massive platforms that boil the ocean are still with us, however. Apply this checklist to Microsoft SharePoint, and you will see what I mean. A happy quack to Mr. Symonds for this write up.
Stephen Arnold, November 16, 2008
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2 Responses to “Some Lessons for Enterprise Search”
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Enterprise search is one of the main part on SharePoin for organizations that want to increase productivity and reduce information overload by providing their employees, partners, and customers the ability to find relevant content in a wide range of repositories and formats.
For more information, you can visit http://www.nsynergy.com/Products/SharePoint/Pages/Enterprise_Search.aspx.
Mark,
Thanks for taking time to comment.
Stephen Arnold, November 17, 2008