Content Annotation, Taxonomy and Search Findability A conversation with Lynette Ledoux, Customer Success and Search Specialist, SearchUnify

Marydee Ojala: Exactly. So how do you solve this challenge for your customers?

Lynette Ledoux: Well, we saw it happening over and over. So we created a set of content tools to help automate what would otherwise be a manual process of content managers having to apply a consistent taxonomy across multiple content sources, possibly thousands of assets. Our content tools are powered by machine learning. They work together to, again, automate the process. Admins have to go to their different content teams, stakeholders, and get agreement on a consistent taxonomy. Once they have that, they can go into the SearchUnify admin panel and enter the taxonomy. Then go into content sources and actually map the taxonomy to the various content sources, the objects within the content sources. An example of an object inside of Salesforce would be Salesforce knowledge articles, and then fields on the objects as well. They're just saying, “Hey, SearchUnify. Look at all of these different places to try to find this taxonomy label to find either a match for it or a synonym for it,” because we also give our admins the opportunity to input synonyms, and then if you find that, then tag it with that appropriate label. So once the annotation is done, they can even set the taxonomy as groups of facets or filters within their communities or support portals wherever there is surface and content.

Marydee Ojala: So from your perspective, what's the real advantage for using taxonomy as a search filter?

Lynette Ledoux: How many times have you gone into a help site and it's been this long list of inexplicable facets? I don't feel that I should have to take several seconds to decide whether selecting a facet is going to produce more relevancy within the results that I see before me. No one should have to, it's a customer ease thing. You want limiting labels makes the experience better. It makes the user interface more friendly. It makes the filtering more understandable. And worst case, if you have this long list of filters that the customers don't identify with, then they run the risk of filtering themselves out of relevant content. If it’s a product, some have acronyms, some have the updated product names, and some have legacy names. So if somebody selects, it’s like throwing a dart—OK, this acronym looks good. When they perform a search, they may not get a hit because the content that they actually need isn't within the content source that's associated with that acronym.

Marydee Ojala: What's been the reaction from your customer base, your clients, on this feature?

Lynette Ledoux: They love it! Just the prospect of saving them hours, days, weeks of doing this manual work is super exciting to them, and to be honest, and ironically, they've reported that the heaviest lift is actually getting their teams to agree on the taxonomy.

Marydee Ojala: How can our audience learn some more about this?

Lynette Ledoux: You can go to www.searchunify.com and request a demo or a free trial. You can also contact me directly, connect with me on LinkedIn, or email me at Lynette.Ledoux@grazitti.com