Your Search system isn’t working

Our team is often told: ‘We don’t have a problem with Search’. The thing is, we know that you do. But many people in many different types of organisations have become used to inefficient processes and simply accept this as ‘the way it is’.

There’s a really easy way to test whether or not your Search processes are working well, or slowing you down: ask a colleague to find a document for you. Responses along the lines of: "Was it sent in an email?", "Is it a client document?" or even "Where should I look?" are key symptoms of a broken search process.

These responses show that you have a number of information silos and so your searches are done on a silo-by-silo basis. In comparison, imagine having a single search box that is capable of searching any and all of the company's systems. An information management solution with a federated search capability would show the combined results from email, the CRM system, document management systems, and other systems.

With this approach, it doesn’t matter where the document you need is located. Your colleague could find it quickly and efficiently with one single search, no questions asked.

There’s a really easy way to test whether or not your Search processes are working well, or slowing you down: ask a colleague to find a document for you.

Inefficient search is a hidden issue because, as we mentioned, many of us just get used to things as they are. However it is a constant drag on companies. Past research from the IDC has identified that people spend between 18-20% of their day simply trying to find information.

Inefficiency is not the only symptom though. There are many others and one of the most worrying ones we hear about are the tales of documents being recreated because they couldn't be found or, worse, the wrong versions of documents being found and used as a template.

This was the case for a large UK-based telecoms company. A member of staff was searching for a proposal document to use as the base for a new proposal; they found the document, replaced the company name and other details to create and send the document to the prospective client.

The deal was in the process of being finalised before it became apparent that the original proposal document was not the right version and didn't include contractual and price changes that had been made over a year before.

Why and how do we mask the problem for so long though? How do we even function as a business when our information is siloed and searches are fragmented?

So, when you start to look at it like this and pick apart the problems that come as a result of your search processes, it becomes clearer to see that they are, in fact, broken. Why and how do we mask the problem for so long though? How do we even function as a business when our information is siloed and searches are fragmented? We’ll take a look at that in tomorrow’s post.