Enterprise Search: Decades of Disappointment? Yep, Yep

June 25, 2019

I stumble across allegedly accurate factoids about enterprise search once in a while. The coverage of the systems which can index and make findable data and information in an enterprise is a shadow of its former self. I noted the story in a blog which caters to the content management industry (no, I don’t know what that means). The write up was “9 Takeaways from the Digital Workplace Experience Conference 2019.” No, I don’t know what a “digital experience” is either. But hold on, there was a reference to a study by Simpler Media Group (no, I never had heard of this outfit before I read the article). That study included data. One factoid is allegedly accurate and it makes clear that the outfits selling enterprise search systems face a bit of a challenge. Here’s the passage I noted. Remember. This is an alleged factoid, not something I can verify because I no longer maintain my data and files about the fantastical world of enterprise search:

Enterprise search followed document management in the survey but, again, only 11% said it was effective. “This pattern repeated itself over and over across many tools and technologies,” Fagan [a person who is an expert in Simpler Media] said. “In each instance, the tool’s reported importance far exceeded the actual efficacy.”

Enterprise search has been around a long time. IBM STAIRS? InQuire? NetWeaver? Sophia? My all time fave Entopia. (Search apparently has some relationship to utopia I assume.) In its remarkable 40 or more year history, people cannot use a system to find the information they need within the organization for which they work.

As non text data, encrypted content, and intercepted information proliferates, finding is more difficult today than at any time in my professional career.

There’s a lot of wonky enterprise software floating around. Just read through some Capterra listings. But 11 percent. That’s special. Is the number “true”. Sure, who can doubt Simple Media and a blog about something I can’t define, content management.

After decades of disappointment, it seems that enterprise search has some opportunities for improvement. Simple? Right? Just manage the content? Make information findable? One size fits all? Sure.

Stephen E Arnold, June 25, 2019

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, News, Search

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.