Enterprise Search Derby: The Winner Is Everybody
May 30, 2008
I’m digging out from what a marketer told me today was “the tsunami of information” after a few working days in the civilized city of Montréal. I heard no English clichés. But there were a few d’accords and oui ouis floating around.
To give me more work to do, a number of chipper PR wizards sent me news stories, snippets of reports, and references to leaders in enterprise search. I knew in an instant that a consulting firm had released a study of enterprise search. That’s what the world needs. Another study of enterprise search.
I scanned these news items, and I concluded that if you have an enterprise search system, attend trade shows, and make some noise via news releases, you can be declared a winner in the enterprise search derby. Two examples, and I am not being critical of either of these firms who sell pretty good software:
- Autonomy, one of the top two or three players in enterprise search, revealed that it too was singled out in the Forrester Wave: Enterprise Search Q2 2008 report. Autonomy is “a global leader”. The account of Autonomy’s triumph is here. Autonomy told me via its news release that it received “the highest scores” for current offering, strategy and market presence.
- Vivisimo, a company I tagged as one to watch in Beyond Search, is now a leader in the Forrester Wave: Enterprise Search Q2 2008 report. You can read Vivisimo’s account of the race here.
I’m not privy to the white shoe consulting firm reports like Forrester. I worked at a lesser outfit called Booz, Allen & Hamilton. After making a couple of calls, I learned that Endeca Technologies and 10 other vendors were declared winners. Obviously this “everyone wins” contest shares little with Extreme Cage Fighting where only one person is left standing after anything-goes fights in an mesh octagon. This competition was gentle like that at my wife’s bridge parties.
A real fight.
I must admit that I was surprised to hear from one informant that Fast Search & Transfer, now a unit of Microsoft was in this elite group as well. Earlier today, I posted some snippets of Fast Search’s restated financials. One highlight was that FY2007 was disappointing. Based on the data I downloaded from the Fast Search Web site, the company finished the year losing about $140 million. I assume the analysts handing out derby ribbons knew about this shortfall. As a 64-year-old, I would have down checked the Microsoft-Fast duo, but when you have lots of cash, what’s a $100 million in the context of a $1.2 billion deal. You can get these PDF documents directly from http://www.newsweb.no/index.jsp?messageId=209172. The explicit link from the Fast Search Web site with the pointer is here: http://www.fastsearch.com/news.aspx?m=329.
If I understood my telephonic source correctly, “Everyone in the report was a winner.”
That’s encouraging. Procurement teams know to send a request for proposal to every search vendor. There obviously must be little to differentiate the vendors technically. Following the award mentality a bit further, Oracle SES10g (a vendor whose strong suit is secure search anchored in the venerable Oracle relational database) will do what Recommind (a system best known in the legal market) does. InQuira, a firm formed from two other search companies and now “the glue”, delivers a solution comparable to that provided by the Google Search Appliance. No, that’s too far out. InQuira licenses a customized NLP vendor that works pretty well for customer support. It’s used by the great minds at Yahoo tool. Anyone in the search game knows that the GOOG has licensees ship boxes. Customers who want hand holding are referred to companies like the one my son runs–Adhere Solutions. InQuira is touchy feely. The GOOG is Googzilla. Not the same at all.
An approbation culture award ceremony.
The second big surprise to me was the omission of Exalead. My research revealed that Exalead is making sales, making customers happy, and pushing into new areas. Too bad, Mr. Bourdoncle. Your system is not a winner. No ribbon for you. You are a loser, at least until the next wave swings through in 12 weeks.
Each search system is distinctive based on my experience. When horses race, one crosses the line first. In a race where the horses bunch up and finish at the same time, that’s like a Kentucky Derby where some horses die or are killed. Reality is not candy-coated and honey-colored.
One thing is certain: the companies telling me that each is a winner reminds me of the T-Ball awards banquets. These are joyous affairs. Every kid leaves with a ribbon and a warm, fuzzy feeling. Search is for hardened professionals.
Congratulations to the winners. Keep in mind that you may not be one in Extreme Cage Fighting search competitions. T-Ball, well, maybe.
Stephen Arnold, May 30, 2008
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thank you for the post.