Earlier this week, Gartner hosted a debate to determine whether structure or search are more important to organizations data needs. Some insights I wanted to share with you from this debate are:
Gavin Tay from Singapore – Structure
Hans Galler Kuller from Germany – Search
End-users want the Google search experience inside their organizations.
Search is about having the first result being the most relevant based on context (personalization).
Enterprise Search Magic Quadrant
- 18 vendors
- and their market position
- search technologies
- key word
- structure, meta-data & taxonomy
- send you stuff based on past experience when you need it
- HAL and Knight Rider
- are there classification tools that can help categorize content / data
- ontology tools
Search challenge: finding the right stuff and relevancy = information over load
Challenge of structure: maintaining structure and the changing nature of content
combining structured data with unstructured data
to get a more complete picture
The debate ensured with more weight given to search, however it was noted that structure may be as important when considering taxonomy and ontology, as well as data retention policies.
Ultimately an organization needs to have both. My view is inline with this, and when you look at portal platforms, a common theme is how is this site laid out, how will end-users find the information or tools they need (i.e. can it be found in two or three clicks)? This applied particularly for commonly accessed information and tools. However search is also required to find adhoc information and tools, but may be used for daily processes to. It can depend on the unique nature of the work, or the individual concerned.
