How Enterprise Search Enhances Enterprise Intelligence
Organizations of all sizes today are receiving a substantial amount of data and information at a record rate. The information comes from many different locations including their mail servers, databases, and file servers, not to mention all of the data that floods in from the web. Despite the massive amount of information companies are dealing with, companies are not using this information to their advantage. They use only a fraction of what they could be gleaning from the data.
Where Are Companies Falling Short?
So, why aren’t the companies using the data effectively? It tends to break down into three reasons. Many users do not know what they should be looking for, or they don’t know where to look. In addition, they do not always know how relevant the information is to their search. It’s about far more than just having information. It’s about having the right information as well as knowing what the information means and why it is so important.
When a company doesn’t know what type of information they should be searching for, the tools they are using doesn’t really matter. Even with the best tools, they will not be able to locate content that’s needed. Before they can choose a software solution to help them find and separate data, they need to know the types of data they will be using on a regular basis. Will the company need a tool that offers natural language processing or not? Questions such as this will make it easier to find a tool that can help them in that specific area. There are actually some tools out there that can help companies find information even when they do not know all of the needed and relevant search terms at the start.
Some of the elements to look for when choosing a tool include classification, stemming, and synonym expansion. These will show information that’s related to the entered terms instead of only showing the content that contains specific keywords. Expanding the search in this manner can make it easier to find the needed information. By improving the search capability of your system, it helps to improve enterprise intelligence overall.
The Problem With Some Current Search Tools
Some organizations feel that it would simply be easier to apply some type of relational database or search engine to their content to make finding it easier. While it is true that this works well for search engines, and it’s possible to find files relatively quickly in a database by searching for a single word, it’s still problematic. These are wide searches. This means you will get a substantial number of results when you are using the search, but those results are not necessarily focused. You could be getting a large number of results, but not all of them will be relevant to what you actually need to find. You will still have to go through each of those results and look for the ones that you need, and this simply wastes time.
One of the other problems often associated with using relational database systems is the fact that they are only able to search for data that’s in the database, naturally. This means that the search will only be able to check information contained in that single data silo. This can be a problem because it means the user needs to know whether they are searching in the right data silo in the first place. If not, the search will be fruitless. Search engines can search across structured and unstructured data alike, so it is generally a good idea to have a tool that can offer multiple methods of searching. This allows the user to have control over how and where they search.
With the right search tools in place, it becomes possible for companies to narrow their results. They will not get as many results, and this is actually a good thing. It means the results tend to be more focused and relevant. Improving enterprise intelligence relies on using a search tool that can bridge the gap and work well together. Without the proper applications that have a number of capabilities for deep and wide searches across resources, the enterprise intelligence dims.
The Right Software Is Essential
When choosing enterprise search software, it is highly important to find a system that offers a full suite of search capabilities that can help the company now and into the future. Some of the elements that businesses should look for when choosing their software include text analytics functions such as faceted search, clustering, and sentiment analysis. The software should have pipeline architecture, quality security, and it should support open standards. Taking the time to look at all of the features and options available with the search tool can ensure you are getting a system that will work for you now, and that can scale with your business in the future.
When you have an enterprise search system that removes the barriers for proper search, it’s possible to access data from across silos quickly and easily. It makes it easier for users to find what they need, even when they aren’t exactly sure what they are looking for and don’t know the ideal search terms to use. They don’t have to have the right phrase to find the information they need. They are able to find the documents, names, dates, and more that they need even if they have only a small amount of information to start with during the search.
How will this help your business in the real world? It’s quite simple really. When you have better overall enterprise intelligence in your search system, it reduces the amount of wasted time users spend sorting through useless search results. This helps to increase their productivity. It is possible to complete work faster, get back to clients in a timely manner, and so much more. All you need to do is make sure you are using the proper enterprise search software. Now that you have a better idea of what you should be looking for, it should be easier to find.
