Search and Data-Starved Case Studies
July 19, 2014
LinkedIn discussions fielded a question about positive search and content processing case studies. I posted a link to a recent paper from Italy (you can find the url at this link).
My Overflight system spit out another case study. The publisher is Hewlett Packard and the example involves Autonomy. The problem concerns the UK’s National Health Service” and its paperless future. You can download the four page document at http://bit.ly/1wIsifS.
The Italian case study focuses on cheerleading for the Google Search Appliance. The HP case study promotes the Autonomy IDOL system applied to medical records.
the HP Autonomy document caught my attention because it uses a buzzword I first heard at Booz, Allen & Hamilton in 1978. Harvey Poppel, then a BAH partner, coined the phrase. The idea caught on. Mr. Poppel, who built a piano, snagged some ink in Business Week. That was a big deal in the late 1970s. Years later I met Alan Siegel, a partner at a New York design firm. He was working on promotion of the Federal government’s paperless initiative. About 10 years ago, I spent some time with Forrest (Woody) Horton, who was a prominent authority on the paperless office. Across the decades, talk about paperless offices generated considerable interest. These interactions about paperless environments have spanned 36 years. Paper seems to be prevalent wherever I go.
When I read the HP Autonomy case study, I thought about the efforts of some quite bright individuals directed at eliminating hard copy documents. There are reports, studies, and analyses about the problems of finding information in paper. I expected a reference to hard data or some hard data. The context for the paperless argument would have captured my attention.
The HP Autonomy case study talks about an integrator’s engineers using IDOL to build a solution. The product is called Evolve and:
It sued 28 years of information management expertise to improve efficiency, productivity and regulatory compliance. The IDOL analytics engine was co-opted into Evolve because it automatically ingests and segments medical records and documents according to their content and concepts, making it easier to find and analyze specific information.
The wrap up of the case study is a quote that is positive about the Kainos Evolve system. No big surprise.
After reading the white paper, three thoughts crossed my mind.
First, the LinkedIn member seeking positive search and content processing case studies might not find the IDOL case study particularly useful. The information is more of an essay from an ad agency generated in-house magazine.
Second, the LinkedIn person wondered why there were so few positive case studies about successful search and content processing installations. I think there are quite a few white papers, case studies, and sponsored content marketing articles crafted along the lines of the HP Autonomy case study. The desire to give the impression that the product encounters no potholes scrubs out the details so useful to a potential licensee.
Third, the case study describes a mandated implementation. So the Evolve product is in marketing low gear. The enthusiasm for implementing a new product shines brightly. Does the glare from the polish obscure a closer look.
At a minimum, I would have found the following information helpful even if presented in bullet points or tabular form:
- What was the implementation time? What days, weeks, or months of professional work were required to get the system up and running?
- What was the project’s initial budget? Was the project completed within the budget parameters?
- What is the computing infrastructure required for the installation? Was the infrastructure on premises, cloud, or hybrid?
- What is the latency in indexing and query processing?
- What connectors were used “as is”? Were new connectors required? If yes, how long did it take to craft a functioning connector?
- What training did users of the system require?
Information at this level of detail is difficult to obtain. In my experience, most search and content processing systems require considerable attention to detail. Take a short cut, and the likelihood of an issue rises sharply.
Obviously neither the vendor nor the licensee want information about schedule shifts, cost over or under- runs and triage expenses to become widely known. The consequence of this jointly enforced fact void helps create case studies that are little more than MBA jargon.
Little wonder the LinkedIn member’s plea went mostly ignored. Paper is unlikely to disappear because lawyers thrive on hard copies. When litigation ensues, the paperless office and the paperless medical practice becomes a challenge.
Stephen E Arnold, July 19, 2014
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