Microsoft Fast Posts Voice of the Customer Videos
August 4, 2009
I had not visited Microsoft’s enterprise search Web site for a month, maybe longer. I noted today (August 3, 2009) that Microsoft has added some videos that explain how Microsoft Fast Enterpriser Search Platform can perform “voice of the customer” functions. “Voice of the customer” is a buzzword that carries a wagon load of meanings. I think of “voice of the customer” as straddling customer service and self-service Web sites. Quite a few search vendors have abandoned the giant “one size fits all” type of sale that once was the basic approach of a search sales person. Now, search vendors are targeting. Attensity (once a darling of the intelligence community) has jumped into customer support and market intelligence. Other vendors are taking smaller findability problems and focusing on making a focused sale. The “boil the ocean” approach is a tough sale in today’s economic climate. You can locate the line up of videos on the Enterprise Search Web site. Happy customers include Seek, Accenture, Reed (part of Elsevier), Verizon, NEC, and Orion Pharmaceutical. What is clear to this addled goose is that Microsoft is attacking the enterprise search market with similarly small-scale, precision “packages” of search and content processing. I have no doubt that Microsoft can sell more sharply defined products. The strategy seems to be a shift away from the broad statements about Microsoft Fast technology’s ability to slice, dice, chop, and grate. The new approach strikes me as more workable, maybe more believable. Since the new version of Fast ESP is not in the channel at this time, the addled goose will have to wait and see what ships.
Stephen Arnold, August 4, 2009
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