Search, Broken, Content Management, Maybe Hopeless
July 13, 2009
I spent some time in the last three months dealing with a “search” challenge that had little to do with search. In fact, after poking around I found that the vendor (who must remain nameless according to my legal eagle) has a successful implementation in the same organization where another implementation has not worked too well.
What’s the issue?
I think the operative factor boils down to people. Yep, technology is innocent of this collision between user expectations and the top dogs’ ability to make good decisions. I am almost at the point where I can assert that search technology is not broken. It works quite well, and I have yet to find substantive variances between some free systems’ performance and some of the up market solutions.
The variable is the people. If the vendor has the right people AND the client has the right people, success is likely. When the people part of the implementation shows signs of stress, I am not sure that swapping technology will make the situation better.
Data reported by eConsultancy in its “Companies Focus on CMS Implementation” suggest that spending for new systems is flat and that ease of use is a key issue. Search is complicated, and so is CMS.
Both enterprise applications are in similar situations. CMS, as the business is described by those in the know, gained momentum when the need for Web content exploded. People who were not gifted in writing or trained to crank out usable material had to produce for Web sites, problems ensued. The fix was to develop systems that allowed anyone to plug content in a block and punch publish. The system worked up to a point, but as the Web become less brochureware and more application software, more problems developed.
CMS today are the equivalent of the editorial systems that once were found in major publishing houses. The difference is that the tradition, training, and rules of the game are different today. CMS, not surprisingly, has not been able to turn a company filled with telemarketers into Web content producers. The solution seems to be to let the customers create the content and the CMS will do the knowledge work—well, sort of do the knowledge work.
Combine the two and you have companies that are making an effort to capture the revenue from search vendors and from enterprise software firms delivering certain back office functions.
I read a news release on the Reuters about Autonomy, once a vendor of search, as the “fastest growing vendor” of enterprise content management, according to “Autonomy Gains Leader Position in Gartner Report”. I have no doubt that Autonomy is making headway against the likes of Interwoven, Vignette, and other ECM companies. The reason is that Autonomy’s management has seized an opportunity to bundle several services in one cohesive “product package”.
Autonomy offers eDiscovery (legal), CMS (Web and enterprise publishing), and IDOL content processing (analytics, search, autoindexing, etc.). I think that Microsoft wants to play in this arena as well. Google, although a slow mover in the enterprise, will probably enter the fray as well.
With these giant firms providing all-in-one services, I don’t see a significant change in the success rate for search, CMS, or bundles. None of these successful companies can control the people equation. Thus, as the market converges, unless the “people factor” is addressed, user grousing is not likely to decrease.
Stephen Arnold, July 13, 2009
Comments
2 Responses to “Search, Broken, Content Management, Maybe Hopeless”
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
Hi Stephen,
Interesting read, I entirely agree with your assessment of the people equation and the effect on technology effectiveness. Work ethic and peoples ability to operate as part of a team or organisation can be the defining factor for success in these initiatives.
One point worth noting on your reference to Autonomy being the fastest growing CMS vendor – they did acquire Interwoven recently and that is perhaps the CMS that Reuters are referring to when they say Autonomy is the fastest growing vendor in CMS. IMHO this is all a bit of nonsense really, Autonomy previously had no real footprint with CMS, they buy a CMS company, and suddenly they have the fastest growth. Go figure!
Best regards,
Adam
“Autonomy shares bombed more than 10 per cent this morning, after the software firm reported its second quarter results.”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/16/autonomy_q2/