Enterprise-wide Search
Date:
By: Roger Whitehead
Classification: Research Report
The market for enterprise-wide search software is small, especially in comparison with the sales of database software for example, or the income garnered from Web ‘search engines’. Nonetheless, enterprise search software is important. Not only does it give organisations access to more and better information, it boosts the contribution of other software. Business intelligence, customer management, sales analysis and product management can all become more valuable when allied with unstructured search.
This report examines the present state of supply for enterprise-wide search software. We define this as software able to work not only on an organisation’s servers and its desktop computers but also to cross the firewall and search external web sites. The report deals mainly with separately available products, not those offering unstructured search as part of a broader set of capabilities.
We include in the report a detailed explanation of how search software works and what it needs to do to meet current and future demands. The products of all the major suppliers are assessed, as well as those from several interesting small companies.