The Evolution of Enterprise Search

the right search platform or specialized search application for each type of problem is the preferred approach. In order to address all contradicting requirements that are needed for different search applications, speed and agility are now the focus.

Free search—the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. Another consideration needs to be mentioned: the broad availability of free personal and open-source enterprise search tools that can perform an array of serviceable tasks for many users. Buyers and vendors know that enterprise search platform providers are going to struggle in a market where the good enough part of many solutions is free.

Think back to the enormous impact the Windows NT free search engine had when it was introduced in 1993. Many vendors have gone out of business since then, except for the ones that adapted to the changing marketplace.

The dawning of the new species—an era of agility and environmental segmentation. Vendors who survived and will continue to survive must operate in specific technological niches or focus on search-driven applications in which specialized search capabilities are integrated within applied business activities (contract management, e-discovery and e-disclosure, litigation support, email management for compliance, historical archives, and so on).

The market evolution will be one of continual, rapid segmentation. The surviving players will be the ones embracing one or both of the following approaches:

• Actual search-driven applications that provide specialized (and integrated) functionality in specific business-process contexts; and
• Applications that introduce full-text search capabilities into new contexts or new media (such as mobile networks). Here, search-engine technology outperforms traditional database search or performs better than searches in which the amount of data is so large that traditional database technology is too slow.
  

Other vendors will disappear, be acquired, or transition to providing services based on their existing search technology (as some already do). For vendors who insist on offering huge, expensive “all-in-one” solutions, IDC predicts that only a handful of companies have the resources required to purchase these types of solutions. Costs are further compounded because these large solutions have very long integration periods.

Segmentation—survival through “species” specialization. Given that all indications point to significant segmentation in the search market, what types of segments are appearing or will appear? Forrester has predicted that the search market will consist of the following search solution categories:

• Corporate search (e.g. intranets, KM);
• Intelligence systems (e.g. market intelligence, fraud detection);
• Database offloading (e.g. data warehousing, application logs);
• Commerce systems (e.g. merchandise search, customer analytics); and
• Media systems (e.g. multimedia search, libraries).

For each segment, a need clearly exists for unique basic technologies. Tight integration with existing (corporate) security systems has to be taken into account at indexing time for certain applications. Storing word co-occurrences, hits, navigation information and so on at indexing time (for fast navigation) is important for some applications, such as
corporate search and law enforcement. In some instances, fast indexing is key (such as database offloading, Internet and intranet indexing and commerce systems).

Another consideration is federation. Here, search results can be consolidated (“federated”) by exchanging them as XML. This type of function is common with many research libraries, because it enables them to standardize based on distributed searches with the information used to share and federate result lists rather than having to standardize on one search platform. A user can then use the best-suited search engine for every application and federate search results in a transparent manner. 

ZyLAB’s Approach to the Search Market

Having long recognized the coming segmentation of the search marketplace, ZyLAB has worked hard to create a broad array of sophisticated, yet context-specific, search solutions. Our experience in the corporate, intelligence and research markets has enabled us to adapt specific searching capabilities for the most common activities found in these segments. ZyLAB offers unique, fine-tuned search functionalities in all of the following ZyIMAGE applications:

• e-Discovery and eDisclosure;
• SOX-compliant contract management;
• Case management and litigation support;
• Datarooms;
• Back-office management for organizations facing legal risk, such as construction, medical or HRM environments;
• Federal and local government records management; and
• Historical files.

The ZyIMAGE Information Access Platform is optimized for these applications due to a unique combination of search technology, security and business-focused content-management functionality. ZyLAB can quickly deploy even the most complex installations of specialist solutions and provide all the necessary training, documentation, support and maintenance. Effectively focusing on niches has enabled ZyLAB to offer its 7,500 installations worldwide a cost-effective, long-term solution for their search requirements that is fully embedded in their daily business processes and easy to deploy and to maintain.

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ZyLAB (www.zylab.com) has more than two decades of experience developing advanced search-driven solutions for
numerous applications that require high recall, such as law enforcement, intelligence, (corporate) legal, compliance, project management and related applications. ZyLAB’s analysis has indicated that the need for search always resulted in the need for an entire application to optimize a particular business process.

The combination of cutting-edge search and text mining technology for paper, email and electronic files, in
combination with content management technology such as eDiscovery and eDisclosure management, redaction, workflow, federation and compliant records management has continually positioned ZyLAB as a leader for these types of applications. Effectively focusing on niches has enabled ZyLAB to offer its 7,500 installations worldwide a cost-effective, long-term solution for their search requirements that is fully embedded in their daily business processes and easy to deploy and to maintain.

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