People are finding it easier to search for information on the Internet than to find files within their organisation, says Cyril Belikoff, information worker executive at Microsoft SA.
"After talking to clients, it is clear that there is still a differential between how people search the Internet and how people look for data within an enterprise situation," says Belikoff. "And this needs to change."
For most organisations, it should be easier to locate and use information that was created by users, because there should be some idea of where that information was stored. "Microsoft Enterprise Search was developed specifically to tackle this issue," he says.
Four trends
In a white paper, titled New World of Work, created by Microsoft a few years ago, the company discussed the four basic trends, which Belikoff believes companies are now facing. The global trend of "one world of business" refers to the globalisation of business and the need for business to share information.
"The second trend is 'always on, always connected', which requires companies to find better ways to prioritise, leverage and consume information," says Belikoff. According to the paper, a typical information worker in North America has seen the daily volume of business-related e-mail increase by a factor of 10 since 1997, and Belikoff says this is what business needs to address.
The white paper describes the third trend as "transparent organisations", and Belikoff says this tendency is forcing people to run businesses differently. "People need software to ensure that all compliance standards and regulations are met," he says.
The last trend includes cost, which Belikoff says is not new, but will probably always drive business needs.
Not competing
A functional search system is becoming a layer for business intelligence, Belikoff says: "With Enterprise Search integrated into Vista and Office, users will use it as another layer to increase productivity.
"And Enterprise Search is not competition for Google Desktop," he says, adding that Microsoft's product tackles a different problem.
"Where Google searches the Internet and the desktop, Enterprise Search is looking for information across the enterprise, which is a more difficult problem," he says.
The current version of the software can search unstructured and structured data, such as a company's ERP systems. "The system will also integrate with other systems through plug-ins."
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