As “enterprise content management” (ECM) transitions from a buzzphrase to reality, what becomes of enterprise search? Search remains absolutely critical to the efficacy of content management systems, but while bulging document repositories put new demands on enterprise search, the two disciplines remain quite separate. Tony Byrne looks at the two marketplaces and interprets what is going on behind the scenes. Where are ECM vendors partnering with search suppliers, and when and why are they rolling their own? How are large enterprises integrating search and content management strategies? Are there discernable patterns that might guide your planning in the year ahead?

Standardizing search strategies and implementing complex cross-repository searching are driving fundamental changes to business processes and database designs at the FDA. This session defines and describes search technology requirements when high numbers of end users and extremely large amounts of data are involved, and it outlines best practices for standardizing search strategies, metadata, and searches across diverse repositories. Helen Mitchell is chairperson of a workgroup responsible for developing a simplified interface and federated, integrated search architecture for the agency.

Learn how Web services can be used on a large scale to derive and enhance search metadata. Peter Campbell describes how MassMutual used Web services to search static file content and also retrieve additional metadata from metadata-unfriendly files such as PDFs or Word documents. Garth Grimm implemented a single Web-services-based technical solution to the problem of metatagging content from diverse publishing groups, with different target audiences who want various types of categorization and
filtering and a separate centralized search group.

Linking information from multiple sources to provide more context about each element, including people, projects, and documents, led to an innovative form of enterprise search at Morrison & Foerster. Oz Benamram describes a unique approach to mapping knowledge in a legal services environment and a search-based solution that leverages context as well as uses auto-profiling, faceted search, and entity extraction. At HP, a customerfacing project leverages the integration of three separate systems to do entity extraction of product names, supply content, and display results on the HP Web site. Users get structured links specific to a product model in addition to relevancy-ranked search results.

It is not just enough to deploy your search capability, and add a taxonomy or integrate it with your content management system, if your end users are still not finding what they want. Tuning or enhancing search is an arduous process, but some best practices are rapidly emerging. Avi Rappoport and the case studies following this session offer powerful examples of how search logs, metrics, and analytics can open a window into your users’ behavior and allow you to improve search to meet their expectations.

Practical tips on using search reports to improve navigation and how to determine content gaps, how to learn and then mirror users’ vocabulary, and how to use feedback links.

Practical steps, processes, and tools that Cisco uses to manage the creation, metrics, and obsoletion of best bets and synonyms, plus governance, guidelines, and recommendations for maintenance.

Configuring a search engine to respond to the structure of the content, such as ranking results according to semantic issues including the proximity and location of search terms within the content.

Linking a small set of popular terms to recommended pages on the HP Web site radically simplifies the search process for most users and is based on intense studies of search logs, rigorous use of metrics and automated reports, plus careful attention to design and usability and coordination with content publishers.

As past Summit attendees know, Steve Arnold knows the enterprise search engine industry inside and out, and he doesn’t hesitate to say what he thinks! Count on him to call it like he sees it as he describes which companies are doing great work right now. He’ll identify the “hot search systems” and have them on hand for comments. Come prepared to drill down and get Steve’s scoop on the enterprise search landscape for 2006.