How 3 trends are shaping analytics and data management Abhishek Sood
Explore how 3 current trends are shaping modern data environments and learn about the impact of non-relational databases, big data, cloud data integration, self-service analytics, and more.
Today’s online world brings new challenges to businesses, making the security of your businesses’ internal information extremely critical. As we are all connected to the Internet,
we all can become a victim of cyber-attacks.
So, what can you do to better protect your business and secure your internal data?
Alyson Murphy is the in-house Senior Data Architect at Moz. She works with stakeholders to build a data solution that help Moz make data informed business decisions. Sean Work runs the blog at KISSmetrics.com. He’s been with the team since 2010.
We consolidated key data that was routinely used for analysis onto one reporting server. We then funneled key pieces of data into our web analytics solution so that there were fewer places to have to look for data when it was time to do an analysis.
We used to use email to get and prioritize projects. We shifted to Trello which allows us to have templates to ensure request quality and to be transparent about when certain projects will be worked on.
Where to Focus 2
Then we may branch out into orange and other colors.
But that’s all it is, a series of colors.
It’s not until much later that we start to see the entire picture. Where to Focus
In reality, your ball probably looks like this.
Goal 1: Build the Minimum Viable Ball
Components of a Data System There are 6 main areas of focus for building a successful and scalable data system.
Data Infrastructure Consolidating your data sources will make analysis easier and quicker which is important when you start adding people to your team.
Data Integrity Data Infrastructure and Data Integrity are perhaps the most important places to start because decisions in these areas waterfall into the other areas of your Data System.
Data Access and Visualization Data Access and Visualization is key as your company starts to grow. The goal is to make the data as easy to access as possible for people who have the skills to fish for their own data..
Infrastructure Change Process When you are in startup mode, everyone might have access to do what they need to do quickly to implement the changes they need to make. In a small organization this works out because everyone knows what everyone else is working on.
Goal 1: Build the Minimum Viable Beach Ball
To optimize the system, you may have to sub-optimize the subsystem.
Over COMMUNICATE what sections you are working on (helps with buy-in)
Ways to get buy-in
Pre-Research Buying Decisions
Data Infrastructure Data Integrity Data Access & Visualization Components of a Data System Infrastructure Change Process People in your Org Data Utilization Process Changes
In order to re-evaluate the KPI’s we look at, we had a collaborative meeting where each of the groups came up with a dashboard. We then looked for areas where we needed to create alignment. After that, we started building.
Data Infrastructure Data Integrity Data Access & Visualization Components of a Data System Process Changes Infrastructure Change Process People in your Org Data Utilization Process
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) vs. All-in-one Do you want to ship as little as possible as soon as possible and learn and add versus shipping a totally finished product all at once.
The pioneers in the big data space have battle scars and have learnt many of the lessons in this report the hard way. But if you are a general manger & just embarking on the big data journey, you should now have what they call the 'second mover advantage’. My hope is that this report helps you better leverage your second mover advantage. The goal here is to shed some light on the people & process issues in building a central big data analytics function
How 3 trends are shaping analytics and data management Abhishek Sood
Explore how 3 current trends are shaping modern data environments and learn about the impact of non-relational databases, big data, cloud data integration, self-service analytics, and more.
Today’s online world brings new challenges to businesses, making the security of your businesses’ internal information extremely critical. As we are all connected to the Internet,
we all can become a victim of cyber-attacks.
So, what can you do to better protect your business and secure your internal data?
Alyson Murphy is the in-house Senior Data Architect at Moz. She works with stakeholders to build a data solution that help Moz make data informed business decisions. Sean Work runs the blog at KISSmetrics.com. He’s been with the team since 2010.
We consolidated key data that was routinely used for analysis onto one reporting server. We then funneled key pieces of data into our web analytics solution so that there were fewer places to have to look for data when it was time to do an analysis.
We used to use email to get and prioritize projects. We shifted to Trello which allows us to have templates to ensure request quality and to be transparent about when certain projects will be worked on.
Where to Focus 2
Then we may branch out into orange and other colors.
But that’s all it is, a series of colors.
It’s not until much later that we start to see the entire picture. Where to Focus
In reality, your ball probably looks like this.
Goal 1: Build the Minimum Viable Ball
Components of a Data System There are 6 main areas of focus for building a successful and scalable data system.
Data Infrastructure Consolidating your data sources will make analysis easier and quicker which is important when you start adding people to your team.
Data Integrity Data Infrastructure and Data Integrity are perhaps the most important places to start because decisions in these areas waterfall into the other areas of your Data System.
Data Access and Visualization Data Access and Visualization is key as your company starts to grow. The goal is to make the data as easy to access as possible for people who have the skills to fish for their own data..
Infrastructure Change Process When you are in startup mode, everyone might have access to do what they need to do quickly to implement the changes they need to make. In a small organization this works out because everyone knows what everyone else is working on.
Goal 1: Build the Minimum Viable Beach Ball
To optimize the system, you may have to sub-optimize the subsystem.
Over COMMUNICATE what sections you are working on (helps with buy-in)
Ways to get buy-in
Pre-Research Buying Decisions
Data Infrastructure Data Integrity Data Access & Visualization Components of a Data System Infrastructure Change Process People in your Org Data Utilization Process Changes
In order to re-evaluate the KPI’s we look at, we had a collaborative meeting where each of the groups came up with a dashboard. We then looked for areas where we needed to create alignment. After that, we started building.
Data Infrastructure Data Integrity Data Access & Visualization Components of a Data System Process Changes Infrastructure Change Process People in your Org Data Utilization Process
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) vs. All-in-one Do you want to ship as little as possible as soon as possible and learn and add versus shipping a totally finished product all at once.
The pioneers in the big data space have battle scars and have learnt many of the lessons in this report the hard way. But if you are a general manger & just embarking on the big data journey, you should now have what they call the 'second mover advantage’. My hope is that this report helps you better leverage your second mover advantage. The goal here is to shed some light on the people & process issues in building a central big data analytics function
When Worlds Collide: Intelligence, Analytics and OperationsInside Analysis
The Briefing Room with Shawn Rogers and Composite Software
Slides from the Live Webcast on May 15, 2012
Everyone wants more data these days, though often for different reasons. Business analysts, data scientists and front-line workers all know the value of having that extra piece of information. The big question remains -- how can all these needs be supported without taxing IT and without breaking the bank? And how can the worlds of traditional Business Intelligence, Big Data Analytics and Transaction Systems combine to improve business outcomes?
In this episode of The Briefing Room, veteran Analyst Shawn Rogers of Enterprise Management Associates explains what is needed to take advantage from today's hybrid data ecosystem. He'll be briefed by Bob Eve of Composite Software who will explain how innovative enterprises are using data virtualization to gain insight across these worlds and doing so with greater agility and lower costs.
For more information visit: http://www.insideanalysis.com
Watch us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5EE76E2EEEC8CF9E
Flexible Working enables both the employee and the business’ needs to be met through agility and adjustments to when, where and how both choose to work.
This is mutually beneficial to both the employer and employee and result in outcomes the reap success.
Data-Ed Online: Data Operations Management: Turning Your Challenges Into SuccessData Blueprint
This webinar aired originally on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. It is part of Data Blueprint’s ongoing webinar series on data management with Dr. Peter Aiken.
Sign up for future sessions at http://www.datablueprint.com/webinar-schedule.
Abstract
While database operations comprise the majority of the organizational data operations management focus, other data delivery options, e.g. portals and virtualization, are interacting with increasingly complex regulatory environments. This presents organizations with dense analysis challenges in order to understand reporting obligations. Using the Zachman Framework as a guide, you will learn how to understand and approach data operations challenges from tuning to real-time reconfiguration. This presentation provides you with an understanding of data operations management, including the initiation, operation, tuning, maintenance, backup/recovery, archiving and disposal of data assets in support of organizational strategies and other activities.
Information management is key to business growth. It is a competitive advantage with the same merit as product knowledge and inventory availability. These once-held corporate competitive advantages are now considered “tickets to entry” and rather indistinguishable. Regulatory protections are largely gone, and when comparing your company’s features and functions, “demo parity” is the norm, especially within the larger industries.
Outsourcing to Save IT Costs: Interview with: George Bower, President and Chi...IT Network marcus evans
Outsourcing to Save IT Costs: Interview with: George Bower, President and Chief Executive Officer, Axis Technologies, a solution provider at the marcus evans CIO Summit 2012, discusses the benefits to CIOs of outsourcing features of their enterprise software management.
HPE IDOL 10 (Intelligent Data Operating Layer)Andrey Karpov
Understand virtually all of your information with high-performance analytics: Over 500 analytical functions available for text, audio, video, and image
• Derive actionable insights: Process data in near real time to gain a competitive edge
• Maximize your information reach: Connect to over 400 systems with support for over 1000 file formats, so you can find all relevant information
• Let social media work for you: Detect emerging trends and influencers in this powerful media with sophisticated sentiment analysis and clustering technology
The digital revolution changed the way we work forever. Is your organisation keeping up? Here’s a quick guide to the four
most popular digital workers, and how IT support can help your company make the most of the tech boom.
When Worlds Collide: Intelligence, Analytics and OperationsInside Analysis
The Briefing Room with Shawn Rogers and Composite Software
Slides from the Live Webcast on May 15, 2012
Everyone wants more data these days, though often for different reasons. Business analysts, data scientists and front-line workers all know the value of having that extra piece of information. The big question remains -- how can all these needs be supported without taxing IT and without breaking the bank? And how can the worlds of traditional Business Intelligence, Big Data Analytics and Transaction Systems combine to improve business outcomes?
In this episode of The Briefing Room, veteran Analyst Shawn Rogers of Enterprise Management Associates explains what is needed to take advantage from today's hybrid data ecosystem. He'll be briefed by Bob Eve of Composite Software who will explain how innovative enterprises are using data virtualization to gain insight across these worlds and doing so with greater agility and lower costs.
For more information visit: http://www.insideanalysis.com
Watch us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5EE76E2EEEC8CF9E
Flexible Working enables both the employee and the business’ needs to be met through agility and adjustments to when, where and how both choose to work.
This is mutually beneficial to both the employer and employee and result in outcomes the reap success.
Data-Ed Online: Data Operations Management: Turning Your Challenges Into SuccessData Blueprint
This webinar aired originally on Tuesday, April 10, 2012. It is part of Data Blueprint’s ongoing webinar series on data management with Dr. Peter Aiken.
Sign up for future sessions at http://www.datablueprint.com/webinar-schedule.
Abstract
While database operations comprise the majority of the organizational data operations management focus, other data delivery options, e.g. portals and virtualization, are interacting with increasingly complex regulatory environments. This presents organizations with dense analysis challenges in order to understand reporting obligations. Using the Zachman Framework as a guide, you will learn how to understand and approach data operations challenges from tuning to real-time reconfiguration. This presentation provides you with an understanding of data operations management, including the initiation, operation, tuning, maintenance, backup/recovery, archiving and disposal of data assets in support of organizational strategies and other activities.
Information management is key to business growth. It is a competitive advantage with the same merit as product knowledge and inventory availability. These once-held corporate competitive advantages are now considered “tickets to entry” and rather indistinguishable. Regulatory protections are largely gone, and when comparing your company’s features and functions, “demo parity” is the norm, especially within the larger industries.
Outsourcing to Save IT Costs: Interview with: George Bower, President and Chi...IT Network marcus evans
Outsourcing to Save IT Costs: Interview with: George Bower, President and Chief Executive Officer, Axis Technologies, a solution provider at the marcus evans CIO Summit 2012, discusses the benefits to CIOs of outsourcing features of their enterprise software management.
HPE IDOL 10 (Intelligent Data Operating Layer)Andrey Karpov
Understand virtually all of your information with high-performance analytics: Over 500 analytical functions available for text, audio, video, and image
• Derive actionable insights: Process data in near real time to gain a competitive edge
• Maximize your information reach: Connect to over 400 systems with support for over 1000 file formats, so you can find all relevant information
• Let social media work for you: Detect emerging trends and influencers in this powerful media with sophisticated sentiment analysis and clustering technology
The digital revolution changed the way we work forever. Is your organisation keeping up? Here’s a quick guide to the four
most popular digital workers, and how IT support can help your company make the most of the tech boom.
Enterprise Search Research Article: Designing for Enterprise Search in a Glob...Findwise
Enterprise Search is used by organizations to capitalize on their internal knowledge by providing quick access to all internal information, helping users re-finding and discovering new information, as well as creating the necessary conditions for collaboration across organizational and geographical boundaries. In this large organization a search application was created to meet these goals. This paper focuses on the main design concepts of the second release of the search application, and how these were affected by experiences gained throughout the project. This design focused on simplicity and discoverability. Preliminary results show that the design is usable and that users find it easier to find the information they are looking for. A general increase in user satisfaction is also established.
Enterprise Search White Paper: Increase Your Competitiveness - Make a Knowled...Findwise
With data volumes growing by 200 percent a year, knowledge workers are spending around 30 percent of their time trying to extract useful information. Furthermore a recent U.S. study asserted that knowledge workers spend more than twice as much time re-creating already created content as they spend creating new content. In addition to this time spent on maintaining structures for storing incoming unstructured information (e.g. mail, documents etc) is increasing rapidly.
Enabling search solutions makes information easy to find, however the key is to transform this information into knowledge. This is normally not done by simple intranet search functionality, however the intranet portal can act as a portal to a knowledge management system based on advanced search functionality withadded collaborative functions. This transforms your organization into a “knowledge finding organization”, creating an even more competitive organization.
Knowledge Management systems based on an Enterprise Search Platform (ESP) can, if implemented properly, significantly improve the efficiency of an organization. IDC Research suggests in their latest report (April 2006) “Hidden cost of information Work” that the cost for wasted time on the part of professional searching, but not finding relevant information, amounts to $5.3 million annually for an enterprise with 1000 knowledge workers.
EFFICIENCY MEETS ACCURACY IN M&A DUE DILIGENCE WITH VIRTUAL DATA ROOMS.pdfHome
By eliminating the hassles of physical document handling and lengthy email chains.State-of-the-art technology, intuitive user interface, powerful data management functionalities, and automated workflows of virtual data rooms enable efficient data discovery and review. Stay organized, ensure accuracy, and expedite due diligence by saving time with DocullyVDR.
Organizations are beginning to recognize that search is not a stand-alone technology or application, but must be integrated with business processes and corporate objectives as a key infrastructure component.
Why? Providing enriched metadata to the search engine index significantly improves search applications, eDiscovery, FOIA requests, and collaboration.
In this webinar COMPU-DATA International and Concept Searching will demonstrate their combined offering that uses unique, language independent technology and integrated enterprise metadata repository management, to deliver intelligent metadata enabled search.
What you will learn about during this session:
• How our innovative technology delivers both high precision and high recall, using industry unique compound term processing
• How to accomplish federated search as content is created or ingested
• How to enable true concept based searching
• How to eliminate end user tagging
• How to integrate the combined solution with any search engine including SharePoint, the former FAST products, Google Search Appliance, IBM Vivisimo, and Solr
• How the combined solution can be extended to address records identification, protection of privacy information, migration, and text analytics with the same technology
• Benefit from industry-specific use cases:
• Developing a powerful search solution for the US Army, creating easy access to millions of records, with an integrated solution to consolidate many data sources, accessing high volumes of data
• Solving search, migration, records management, and data privacy challenges to manage the intranet for a global company which designs, manufactures, and distributes appliances to more than 70 countries
Realize Greater "Return on Information" with Google Enterprise SearchPerficient, Inc.
Google and Perficient together present this webinar about the benefits of deploying enterprise search; How search architecture solutions such as Google's Enterprise Search products aid in quicker retrieval of enterprise data and information.
Data integration and governance drive value by enabling organizations to achieve more accurate, reliable, and comprehensive insights from their data. Learn about different approaches and best practices to enhance your data integration and governance strategy.
Click here to download your eBook:
https://resources.pixentia.com/how-data-integration-and-governance-enables-hr-to-drive-value
Knowledge Management System-How i2e enabled data documentation, organization,...i2econsulting
Implementation of the Knowledge Management tool promoted transparency in research and improved research methodologies for concerned teams of Doctors and Scientists.
Article on the use of tools to enable better identification and assessment of technology trends, threats and opportunities, otherwise known as technology intelligence.
1. Simplicity and Enterprise Search
A New Model for Managing Your Enterprise Information
In today’s business environment, time and information are arguably our two most
SIX WAYS THAT POOR SEARCH precious resources. Yet most businesses squander both on a daily basis.
WASTES COMPANY TIME AND
RESOURCES:
• According to research firms IDC and Delphi Group, the average knowledge worker
1. Time lost to ineffective search
spends about a quarter of his or her day looking for information.
2. Time and money lost to • Add to that the time spent by IT personnel and various specialists to manage
administration of search systems company information – and the technologies used to store, organize, and locate it.
and data (both IT staff time and
• Figure in the time spent (or not spent) by employees to create documents that will
maintenance contracts)
match the exacting criteria of high-overhead information retrieval systems.
3. Time spent tweaking and
weighting documents to satisfy • Consider the wasted value embedded in documents that have been forgotten,
the requirements of complex mislabeled, or put where no one can find them – at least, not fast enough to do
systems what needs to be done.
4. The lost value of missing • Think of the information that stays locked in employees’ heads – or on their
company information desktops – because it’s “too much work” to publish where colleagues can find
5. The lost value of undocumented it and put it to use.
employee knowledge
• Finally, tally the lost revenue resulting from delays in time-to-market.
6. Revenue lost through delays in
time-to-market
The high costs to a company of not finding information, or of finding it too
late, include faulty decisions, duplicated efforts, lost productivity, and missed
opportunities. Their impact can cascade throughout an organization. The personal
frustrations involved are also considerable – as anyone who has tried and failed to find
a slide or a spreadsheet in time for a vital meeting can testify. The costs can be even
higher in fields such as health care, the pharmaceutical industry, and life sciences,
where up-to-date information and time-to-market are competitive essentials.
The solution: As easy as 1, 2, 3
The symptoms are complex, but the prescription is simple: Managers and
administrators need tools to connect employees with relevant information quickly and
easily. Three things are required:
1. Fast, accurate search results. To be successful, enterprise search must be
powerful enough to deliver the most relevant information, consistently and
efficiently, whenever and wherever it’s needed.
2. Minimal administrative overhead. Enterprise search must be quick enough to
deploy and easy enough to manage that the cost of installing and maintaining it
won’t exceed the benefit.
3. An intelligible user interface. Enterprise search must be simple and effective
enough that users will actually use it.
2. SIMPLICITY AND ENTERPRISE SEARCH
“Make everything as simple as Simplicity without sacrifice
possible, but not simpler.”
– Albert Einstein
Search quality: Deliver the goods
To fully realize the value of the information assets your business creates:
• Information must be readily and reliably accessible to everyone who’s entitled to
view it.
• The information delivered must be current and relevant (the user needs the right
document, usually in the most recent version).
• A clear, accurate ranking system should guide users swiftly and accurately to the
data they need.
• Your intranet search should put your whole organization on the same page,
providing a consistent view of information across your company, while keeping
sensitive documents secure.
Usability: Keep your users happy
Unless your employees actually use the search tools you provide, your search
technology – and the information assets your employees would have found and
used – are both wasted investments. To deliver the increased productivity you seek,
the solution you deploy must win acceptance; to accomplish that, it must be both
effective and easy to use. People use tools that get results and avoid tools that don’t
deliver. So you need power under the hood – even if users never open it.
As Mark Gallagher, manager of the intranet communications team at Bank One Corp.,
told InformationWeek, “If employees search for a term and don’t get what they’re
looking for right away, they write off the search engine.” In deploying the Google
Search Appliance at Bank One, Gallagher found that adoption was driven both by the
simplicity of the interface and by the relevance of the results. As the article explained:
What makes the Google appliance especially effective is that it works like the
consumer version – the Web’s most popular search engine – right down to a Google
branded search window on the company intranet. The tool’s power is clear: Since
Bank One went live with the system in September, the number of employee
searches per day rose from about 4,000 to nearly 7,000.
(InformationWeek, January 20, 2003)
Here the stereotypical “choice” between simplicity and performance turned out to
be a false dilemma: Both were essential. Simplicity, familiarity, and trust drove initial
adoption; delivering results that matched users’ high expectations kept usage high as
well.
Complex problems, simple solutions
Innovation and simplicity are often the best way to attack a complex problem.
The first Google search engine – built with 30 off-the-shelf PCs running the free Linux
operating system – is a case in point. Google’s design coupled innovative algorithms
with a clustered approach to hardware infrastructure that capitalized on the falling
prices of PCs, disk drives, memory, bandwidth, and data centers, and on the
availability of continually faster, cheaper processors. The open source Linux operating
system was chosen for similar reasons: it was well supported and reliable, could be
customized at will, and cost nothing to use. Grid computing enabled the modular,
2
scalable framework into which these elements fit.
3. SIMPLICITY AND ENTERPRISE SEARCH
This whole infrastructure provided a robust ecology in which Google’s data indexing and
THE CRITERIA FOR GOOD retrieval algorithms could thrive. The result was simple, powerful, flexible, and highly
ENTERPRISE SEARCH: scalable – as evidenced by the fact that Google’s architecture remains
essentially the same now as then, though with about 1,000 times as many machines.
Fast, accurate search results.
To be successful, enterprise
search must be powerful enough Google in a box
to deliver the most relevant To extend this search platform to the enterprise, Google once again used simple
information, consistently and solutions to address complex problems. The technology that powers Google.com was
efficiently, whenever and wherever put to work in a straightforward package: a plug-and-play search solution integrating
it’s needed.
hardware, software, and support.
Minimal administrative overhead.
Enterprise search must be quick
The Google Search Appliance crawls all platforms without distinction, capturing data
enough to deploy and easy
enough to manage that the cost of on highly distributed, heterogeneous networks in a single coherent view. Intelligent
installing and maintaining it won’t algorithms automatically detect network settings; heuristics recognize date formats,
exceed the benefit. languages, and spelling mistakes.
An intelligible user interface.
Enterprise search must be simple This innovative, automated approach achieves an important operational and financial
and effective enough that users benefit: Even as it simplifies search for end users, it takes the burden of organizing
will actually use it. information off the administrator. Optimized for compatibility and easy, rapid
deployment, “Google in a box” presents a simple face to users and administrators
alike – without sacrificing the power and sophistication of Google search technology.
Three pitfalls to avoid
“First, do no harm,” Galen advised his fellow physicians. His dictum applies equally
well when choosing an enterprise search technology. The last thing your users need is
a new set of obstacles masquerading as a solution. As you seek to expedite the flow of
information in your company, here are three ways to avoid making things worse:
• Choose a search solution that will index documents without adding
overhead, either for document creators or administrators.
• Remove obstacles to document creation wherever possible.
• Make sure you know what’s actually on your servers.
Minimize overhead with come-as-you-are indexing
A come-as-you-are approach to indexing eliminates the overhead of preparing
documents for admission to the body of searchable data. In any case, your data
shouldn’t need a laborious makeover for your search solution to provide relevant
results. Manual weighting and tweaking of indexed documents may have its place,
but effective search should not depend on it. For one thing, algorithms scale better
than humans. For another, software has no issue with boring, repetitive work; people
do, and quite often they simply won’t do it. Eliminating such requirements reduces
the chance that useful information will remain unpublished or unindexed, and thus
never become search-accessible at all.
Publish or perish
In fact, when a document is not found by a search user, it’s often because it isn’t there.
It’s therefore also crucial to remove obstacles to document creation wherever possible.
Among other things, that means that users should be able to create a document
without doing extra work to make it searchable. Otherwise, a large amount of the
intellectual value that your organization generated will remain locked in the heads of
3
4. SIMPLICITY AND ENTERPRISE SEARCH
employees, where no currently available algorithm can touch it. Most organizations
Your data shouldn’t need a are plagued by this problem to one degree or another — as they discover when
laborious makeover for your search
solution to provide relevant results.
someone in a key role gets sick, goes on vacation, leaves the organization, or is simply
unavailable when crucial data is needed.
Making it simple to publish information where others can find it is a great way of
making sure that it’s accessible when it matters most. With rare exceptions, good
search shouldn’t depend on knowledge workers to make their work system-friendly.
They should be free to focus on creating useful information and putting it where
colleagues can realize its value. Workers whose work has to match stringent indexing
criteria are far more likely to publish nothing at all. It’s consequently important to
choose an intranet search solution that lowers the bar to publication rather than
raising it.
Know what’s on your servers
Here’s a message for your CIO: You need a clear and comprehensive view of the
documents on your company websites. If you don’t know what’s there, you have three
important problems beyond the obvious question of productivity:
• Potential liability. For instance, inappropriate content on your network can trigger
complaints – or even litigation – by employees with “hostile workplace” concerns.
Similarly, material on your servers in violation of intellectual property laws can
expose your company to liability.
• Security. You can’t control access to information if you don’t know where it is, or
whether you have it at all. In a number of instances, companies implementing the
Google Search Appliance have discovered hundreds of sensitive documents on
their servers of which they were totally unaware.
• Policy. Inaccurate or anachronistic information can hurt your business. But to
keep obsolete product data and outdated price lists out of your customers’ hands,
you need accountability. And you can’t delegate authority – or insist on follow-
through from your team – until you (and they) know what’s actually on
your servers.
Besides putting information into users’ hands at the moment they need it, effective
search gives you a detailed record of what’s on your system – enabling you to monitor
the information available and ensure that sensitive information is only available to
those who should see it. An effective search solution will make your documents fully
searchable, while restricting the delivery of sensitive search results to those with
appropriate permissions.
Administration
Simplicity doesn’t only benefit end users. Complex systems, by their nature, are costly
and time-consuming to maintain and reduce administrative flexibility through the
limitations they impose (often through their incompatibilities with other systems).
In addition, the upfront costs of implementing a new technology can be staggering
– encompassing, as they usually do, three kinds of overhead:
• Installing, configuring, and testing the system itself
• Preparing data and other resources for use by the new system
• Training users and evangelizing adoption
4
5. SIMPLICITY AND ENTERPRISE SEARCH
To be cost-effective, it’s essential that initial overhead be minimized; that
HOW MUCH DOES SEARCH TIME administration and maintenance be automated to the greatest extent possible; and
COST YOUR COMPANY? that the system be modular and scalable to avoid elaborate redesign and retrofitting as
objectives change, volumes of data increase, and the user base expands.
Multiply your number of users by
the figure below that best represents
your current level of search: Usability
• $3,042 per employee – least
usable intranet Usable search increases adoption
• $2,069 per employee – average You can spend a fortune on technology that purports to optimize the flow of
usable intranet information in your organization. But how can you be sure that employees and other
• $1,563 per employee – most end users will actually use the systems and processes you put into place? If a system
usable intranet goes unused – or, worse, presents an obstacle to the effective flow of information
– your investment is wasted at best.
Usable search boosts ROI
To work as effectively as possible, information workers – and at this point, that means
almost everyone – need fast, easy, accurate access to existing data.
“Search is one of the most important functions on any intranet,” says Designing
Usable Intranets, a November 2002 report by the Nielsen Norman Group based on
intranet usability studies of fourteen corporate intranets. “Finding information through
the navigation should be simple, but when it is cumbersome or fails entirely, users
turn to search. It should be easy for users to find the search capabilities, construct a
search query, search in the right places, and deal with the results.”
The report underscores the importance of effective search by noting what
happens in its absence. Poor search, it observes, was the single greatest cause of
reduced usability across the intranets studied. “Search usability accounted for an
estimated 43 percent of the difference in employee productivity between the best and
worst intranets.”
The study also found dissatisfied search users turning to expensive and inefficient
alternatives (“The results are really gibberish. I’d stop now and use the phone”)
or giving up altogether – which, for such users, brings the ROI for the unused
online assets down to zero. Disappointed by the irrelevant results returned by one
company’s intranet search, “Some users had stopped using it entirely. One user said,
‘I’ve tried using the search and I think it’s terrible. I don’t think I’ve ever successfully
searched for anything and found what I’m looking for. If I tried anything now, I bet it
wouldn’t work.’”
Measuring users’ performance for 16 common tasks across the 14 intranets
studied, the report found wide variations in usability, with corresponding variations
in cost. After accounting for salaries and overhead, a company with one of the least
usable intranets in the study would spend $3,042 per employee annually to cover
time spent on the 16 tasks measured, while one of the most usable would cost only
$1,563 per year.
Extrapolating from these and other figures, the report estimates the total annual cost
of intranet use at various levels of usability for companies with 10,000 users:
• Good usability: $15.6 million annually
• Average usability: $20.7 million annually
5 • Poor usability: $30.4 million annually
6. SIMPLICITY AND ENTERPRISE SEARCH
A company with 10,000 users would need to invest about $500,000 to move from
“Search is one of the most one level to another. The report therefore calculates the ROI for improving intranet
important functions on any intranet.
It should be easy for users to find
usability as ranging from a factor of 20 for the lowest group to a factor of 10 for
the search capabilities, construct intranets of average usability. “Clearly, the biggest gains are to be had from improving
a search query, search in the right bad and horrible intranets,” the report explains. “These low-quality designs are also
places, and deal with the results.” the easiest to improve, because they are going to have some very low-hanging fruit.”
Designing Usable Intranets
Nielsen Norman Group, Nov 2002 With search usability accounting for about 43 percent of the productivity delta
between most and least usable, it’s obvious that improvements to search will generate
a significant share of that return. The report’s number one suggestion for improving
search usability: invest in a good search engine. The comforting corollary is that if you
choose the right one, it will pay for itself.
Motivate adoption
Ideally, employees will use intranet search frequently (because it’s so effective) but
briefly each time (for the same reason). Adoption will suffer if your search:
• Is unintuitive, unfamiliar, or otherwise difficult to use
• Returns poor, unreliable, or inconsistent results
Interface simplicity is a virtue – provided it really translates to ease of use and not
just obscurity. Familiarity also promotes frequent use, as the city of San Diego found
when it implemented the Google Search Appliance in place of a previous information-
retrieval system that wasn’t giving users the results they needed. Partly because city
employees were already so familiar with Google.com, reports InformationWeek,
The city opted for a single Google server with a license to search an index of up
to 150,000 documents. The result has been a welcome improvement for the
city’s 8,000 computer-equipped employees and its nearly 250,000 unique
monthly site visitors: Cull says employees are using stuff they didn’t know existed,
and citizens are sending email about the search success they’re having.
“When we saw it in action, we found that it was pulling up Documentum files, our
Sun One portal, and even database applications,” he says. Now, employees are
able to enter “GroupWise” in the search engine and find a link to their Web-based
email access and find check-stub data by typing in “E-Pay.” And the city has
been able to simplify other tasks, such as finding related documents with data
that previously would have been duplicated or populating an online calendar by
using Google to pull items from the city’s events database. All this, and the server
and software were up and running in 30 minutes. Says Cull, “It’s hard to measure
the value to the city.” (InformationWeek, January 22, 2003)
Of course, as noted above, a significant part of that value is measurable – and in
dollars and cents. Hence the evaluation by Mark Gallagher, Bank One’s intranet
communications manager, who calls the Google Search Appliance “underpriced.”
Kaiser Permanente: Usability success story
When Kaiser Permanente, America’s largest not-for-profit HMO, developed a clinical-
knowledge portal for its 50,000 doctors, nurses, and other caregivers, search was
a key part of the plan. The portal, available from anywhere in the Kaiser wide-area
network, gives medical staff access to diagnostic information, publications, and other
clinical resources. Putting the right information quickly and easily into caregivers’
6 hands is essential to the clinical portal’s success.