Got Search?

Its about that time when the ESG Analyst Team commences discussions on what to expect from the IT marketplace in the next twelve months.  With the current economic conditions, we are centering our conversations on certain trends that are not necessarily tied to IT but will impact what companies will budget for in terms of technology solutions in 2009.  For example, many companies are beginning to 'right-size' their operating expenses by consolidating office space.  For some organizations, that may mean taking multiple remote offices in one geographic and centralizing those employees.  With more people located at one remote office, there may be bandwidth issues when accessing core data center applications.  Instead of building a local data center at the remote office, IT can use WAN Optimization solutions.  This will reduce the amount of data to be sent between the bigger remote office and the central corporate data center. 

Another situation that I believe organizations will need to address is the reduction in knowledge workers that accompany any 'downsizing' event.  Layoffs are not great for anyone and rarely does anyone have sympathy for those that keep their jobs - but think about the amount of work they have to pick up.  Yes, its better to have too much work, than not to have any at all - but the pressure of getting all that work done can be overwhelming.  I believe that knowledge workers are going to need better tools to make more informed decisions which is why I believe 2009 will be a good year for enterprise search products.  Currently, most search solutions are used for ad-hoc processes like business intelligence and electronic discovery.  Think about it, if there are fewer business analysis and attorneys to do these tasks the same will hold true for other decision support functions.  The employees that are left will need to analyze more data and will need search tools to help.  When you are cutting lawns with two other people using regular mowers and suddenly the two helpers have to stop, the lone individual either has to work a lot longer or get a riding mower to get the job done.  Enterprise search tools can be the riding mower for employees that must find ways to do more with less.  Luckily, there are more companies offering enterprise search that there are offering lawn mowers these days, so I am bulletizing a list of these vendors.  The reason I am using the bullets solely on vendor names is because I think people will need to make decisions sooner rather than later unfortunately.  (This list includes companies that I have met with and I believe can help any organization)

• X1
• Recommind
• Kazeon (eDiscovery focus)
• Clearwell (eDiscovery focus)
• Exalead
• Google
• Brainware
• Vivismo
• Kruegle (R&D focus)
• Equivio
• Microsoft FAST (SharePoint focus)
• FTI Attenex (eDiscovery focus)
• Attivio
• StoredIQ (eDiscovery focus)

Comments

[Rob Robinson]

Excellent post Brian - and in taking your comments one step further - if I might be so bold - I might suggest that when considering eDiscovery focused vendors such as those you mention above - it is incredibly important to consider an offering's complete capability (i.e. analytics, processing, and review), its interoperability flexibility (i.e. platform integration, application integration, and task integration), its delivery model (software/hardware/appliance/managed service/SaaS)and its affordability (cost for service/investment flexibility for change). As Geoffrey Moore of "Crossing the Chasm" fame might say - "its about the whole product", not just the core (generic) offering.

Again - excellent post and thanks for sharing.

Rob Robinson
Orange Legal Technologies

[Dave Haucke]

Don't forget your friends at ISYS Search Software. In business for 20 years, keeping the big boys awake at night. :) Focus on OEMs (embedded search), government, legal, criminal intelligence and SharePoint. Let's catch up via a briefing.

[sge]

Thanks, Brian.
About enterprise search on Microsoft SharePoint, anyone who are interested in this can visit http://www.nsynergy.com/Products/SharePoint/Pages/Enterprise_Search.aspx for more informaiton.