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Why Search Initiatives Fail - Part III
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I just finished a webcast for MSD2D called MOSS Search 2007 - Crossing the Chasm to User Adoption. The webcast covers much of what I'm discussing in my latest posts regarding the challenge of successful search deployments. If you're interested here's the link (no registration required).
Cheers!
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Why Search Initiatives Often Fail - Part II
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One of the reasons most companies struggle when deploying Enterprise Search solutions is that these types of projects rarely have a business sponsor. Search, like email, is seen as core infrastructure so the project is typically tasked and budgeted to the IT group. IT naturally approaches the project as they would any other, and this is where the problem starts. The issue is that search is very different than other types of infrastructure.
One important difference between search and other types of infrastructure technology like Active Directory or Email, for example, is in defining the success criteria for the project. My experience in working on both traditional infrastructure projects and Enterprise Search is that on the former success is measured by deployment. Deploying the project on time and on budget is the focus of the initiative. This makes perfect sense when you consider the fact that users will use Active Directory or the Email system whether they like or not. Search is different in this regard.
I've seen many SharePoint Search initiatives that were successful from a deployment perspective, but very few people in the company adopted the technology and use it on a regular basis. This is the key difference. Users don't have to use the technology if they don't like it. The point here is that in Enterprise Search initiatives, deployment does not equal success. This is only the first step. User adoption should be the key success metric. Regardless of how you calculate the ROI of a tecnology investment, the more employees that use the technology on a regular basis, the higher the return. In search initiatives, the focus should be on driving user adoption to maximzie ROI.
More on this in the next post.
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Why Search Initiatives Often Fail
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I think that any company contemplating an investment in enterprise search technologies would be suprised to hear that the majority of search initiatives fail. If this is the first time you've heard this, i wouldn't be suprised. Search vendors would be the last to publicize this.
In the next few posts, I'll explain why this is the case. But first, some data to substantiate the claim above. Take a look at the following graph produced by a study from Gilbane Group published last year. 200 companies participated in the study. The question posed by Gilbane was what do you think of the Enterprise Search solutions deployed in your company today?
The response was disappointing by any measure. 25% of the respondents wanted search to be completely redone. 30% indicated they often have trouble finding information. Only 3% responded that they loved the search technology. I think you would agree that you would not want to be sitting in front of your boss arguing how successful your search inititative was, with these kind of numbers!
We'll flesh this out in the next few posts.
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Perspectives on Information Access
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Prior to the 18th Century, one of the greatest technical challenges facing man was to accurately measure Longitude. Many lives and fortunes were lost at sea when ships would lose track of their location and either crashed ashore, or the crew would perish from disease when they ran out of supplies.
The greatest minds of the time - Newton, Galileo, and many others were certain the answer would finally be found through astronomical observation. The problem of Longitude was not solved by these giants, but rather by a British clock maker and lone maverick, John Harrison.
Arguably, today Information Access is one of the most challenging problems in computer science. With data doubling every twelve to eighteen months, Companies are literally lost in a sea of information. In the spirit of John Harrison, BA-Insight intends to solve this problem. This blog will communicate our unique perspective, which we hope one day will be shared by all.
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