Enterprise search has found itself at something at a juncture. Long dominated by the UK success story that is Autonomy, the rapid developments of the web and social networking mean that searching inside the ‘corporate gate’ has become more complicated than ever. Company information no longer just rests in numerous databases but across social networks too. I’m not talking about Instant Messenger (I don’t live under a rock), but the likes of tools such as Yammer which are social networking for businesses. Often if employees need an answer to something they’re much more likely to use these tools then the search engine.
The reason? The exact reason that consumer social networking has brands in such a flutter – you trust your network of work colleagues more than you do the ‘corporate machine.’ Search engines have struggled to keep pace over the years. Despite promoting business agility, much of their own technology is inflexible which has hampered progress. But a new breed of enterprise search companies, those that are built to understand language and meaning, rather than algorithms, are challenging the norm. Many have been around for a while and have struggled to cut it in a market dominated by bigger players that can throw lots of money and extras at potential customers, but they are often better and more cost effective – two very attractive qualities in the current market.
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