Real World Challenges
in Enterprise Search
Agnes Molnar
Founder, Managing Consultant,
Search Explained

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Introduction – Agnes Molnar
7 years SharePoint Server MVP
Enterprise Search, Information Architecture
Founder & Managing Consultant
Worldwide Consultancy, Guidance, Trainings,
Workshops
Web: http://SearchExplained.com
Yammer: http://yammer.com/SearchExplained
Twitter: @molnaragnes
E-mail: agnes.molnar@SearchExplained.com

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Agenda
The Paradox of Enterprise Search
The Paradox of Information Architecture
Requirements Gathering
Search Team
Hybrid
The Future of Enterprise Search
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Enterprise Search
Connects people to the information
they need to get their jobs done.

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Enterprise Search
Search Technology
that your organization owns and controls

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The Paradox of
Enterprise Search
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Search is Easy!?

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Find is the REAL Challenge!

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I want “Google-like” Search in my Enterprise
How many dedicated resources do you have?
• Google has 3000+ employees working on
ranking only…
Do you really want to get millions of results?
• Or just the relevant ones?
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I want “Google-like” Search in my Enterprise
Do your users care of Enterprise SEO?
• Or they just want to get their jobs done?
• Can you motivate them more/differently?
(Do they know what it is at all?...)
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I want “Google-like” Search in my Enterprise
How about security?
• Enterprise Search has to provide security
trimmed results.
How about User Experience?
• You really cannot imagine anything better
than Google?!...
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Source: http://www.domorewithsearch.com
Search as an Application

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Search as an Application
Main goal: to help decision making
Search is no longer the white box + “10 blue lines”
Content lives in disparate locations
Structured and unstructured content lives in different
locations
Need to aggregate content according to
 Process
 Context
 Customer
 Goal
 Program
 Combination of any of these

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The Paradox of
Information Architecture
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The Paradox of Content
Less Content – Less Value
More Content – More Garbage
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Information Overload
The average person
receives 63,000 words of
new information every day.
Average length of a
novel: 64.531 words
If you wanted to read
everything you’ve got in 2013,
it would take you the first
three months of 2014!

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What we give to the search engine… What the search engine sees…
Title Author Created Date Modified Date File Type …
Overview of SharePoint 2013 Preview Installation and Configuration Alex Yarrow 06/21/2012 10/16/2012 docx …
The Complexity of Enterprise Information

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Metadata is Essential

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Requirements
Gathering
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Planning Search
Enterprise Search
 Much more than IT Project
 Business Process
 Search is NOT “One Size Fits for All”
Plan & Budget
 Implementation
 Maintenance
 Governance
 Analyze & Improve
 “Gardening”

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Requirements
Business goals
Scenarios & use
cases
Application Lifecycle
Systems to integrate User Experience Metrics
Milestones Resources
Experts
• Internal
• External
• “Liaison”

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Be Agile…
Start Small
• Department
• Project
• Use Case
Grow Incremental
“Showcase”
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…but be Planned and Organized
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SEARCH

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Search Team
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Typical Search Team
Team Members
Internal External Liaison
Business Sponsors
Stakeholders
Project Management
IT
Search Admins
Developers
…
Consultants
Service Providers
Product Vendors
Developers
Act as Internal
Have Wide Search Experience
and Knowledge
Understands the Business
Well Organized
Liaise between Internal+External
Quality Management
“Active Insurance”
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Hybrid Solutions
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Scenarios
Office 365 Only – O365 Search Only
Office 365 + SharePoint on-prem
SharePoint on-prem + SharePoint on-prem
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The Future of
Enterprise Search
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The Future of Enterprise Search
Search Business Intelligence
Social Big Data
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Summary
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Conclusions
Plan – But be Agile
Search is a Business-Driven Process
(NOT a one-time IT Project only!)
Gardening
Content – Users – Context
Take an Eye on the Future
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Thank you for your attention!
This presentation will be available on the Toronto
SharePoint Summit web site a few days after the event.

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