IT vs. Organizational Paranoia
We all know the pain of a lost piece of vital information, whether a customer proposal, document, or important e-mail. The hurt became even more acute this year, as many were forced to comb through data left behind by laid-off colleagues. That’s too bad, because the core technologies to enable federated enterprise search have existed for more than 15 years. Yet according to our InformationWeek Analytics Enterprise Search Survey of 552 business technology professionals, not even one in four organizations uses any type of enterprise search system today.
That’s not the worst of it. We dug further and asked how respondents who’ve adopted enterprise search are using their systems, and whether they provide a unified search capability across network shares, databases, applications, intranets, SharePoint, and desktops, plus consolidation of We b browsing. Of the 24% who’ve deployed enterprise search, less than 8% provide hooks into multiple silos.
That’s not quite 2% of the total. What’s tripping us up? Technology to wrap all of our enterprise data into a cohesive, searchable whole is available from major players including Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle, as well as specialists such as Autonomy, Endeca, and Vivisimo.
The problem isn’t technology. It’s the three Ps that plague many an IT initiative: politics, privacy, and perception.
Table of Contents
IT vs. Organizational Paranoia
About the Author
Mike Healey is the president of Yeoman Technology Group, an engineering and research firm focusing on maximizing technology investments for organizations, and an InformationWeek Analytics contributor. He has more than 23 years experience in technology and software integration.
Prior to founding Yeoman, Mike served as the CTO of national network integrator GreenPages. He joined GreenPages as part of the acquisition of TENCorp, where he served as president for 14 years. Prior to founding TENCorp, Mike was an international project manager for Nixdorf Computer and a Notes consultant for Sandpoint Corp.
Mike has taught courses at MIT Lowell Institute and Northeastern University and has served on the Educational Board of Advisers for several schools and universities throughout New England. He has a BA in operations management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MBA from Babson College.
He is a regular contributor for InformationWeek, focusing on the business challenges related to implementing technology. His work includes analysis of the SaaS market, green IT and operational readiness related to virtualized environments.
