Re-examining and re-conceptualizing enterprise search. Instead of thinking of an information system as technology (IT) centric, an alternative approach is to see the organization as THE information system. Search capability in organizations may not equal search engine capability or search Centre of Excellence (CoE) capability. Formal Information and Knowledge practices, informal behaviours, culture and mental models of staff may play a bigger role in the findability and discovery of information than is currently accepted. Taking the oil and gas industry as an example, $6Billion may be wasted annually through poorly deployed resources (caused by search). Furthermore, executives believe 20% opportunities caused by not leveraging the information asset, may cost organizations up to 20% of annual revenue. Those organizations which approach search capability with a 'systems thinking' approach, are likely to perform better than those with a traditional IT centric view of 'search'.
A3 Thinking: A Structured Approach to Problem Solving
Enterprise search - Changing the way we think about it
1. Enterprise Search
The organization is the information System:
Changing how we perceive search capability
in organizations.
Paul H. Cleverley
p.h.cleverley@rgu.ac.uk
www.paulhcleverley.com
Robert Gordon University (RGU), UK
Research in Oil and Gas and other industries
3. • Search capability may not equal search engine or IT capability.
• Search capability may not equal search Centre of Excellence (CoE) capability
• Organizational learning loops (with respect to search) may be sub-optimal
• Formal Knowledge Organization (KO) practices and standards (from an Information
and Knowledge Management strategy including taxonomies) may play a key role in
findability.
• Information behaviours - the way people actually work, can differ from what is
written down (those formal practices).
• Culture (Beliefs, attitudes and motivations) of leaders and staff may play a bigger
role in findability of information than is currently thought.
• Mental models of staff (Information Literacy) regarding the information system
and information space, may play a bigger role than is widely accepted for search.
• Search strategies can bias lookup (known item) search in the organization (80% by
volume) – “the Tyranny of the masses”. Exploratory search (remainder 20%) can
lead to leaps in value (wealth) that cannot be predicted. – Serendipity Economy.
BACKGROUND
4. Enterprise Search & Discovery issues
• 24% of a professionals time spent looking for information, 48% of
organizations feel search is unsatisfactory in some way. Equates annually,
to $6Billion of poorly deployed resources in upstream oil and gas.
• Recent research on exploratory search indicates even the most
experienced searchers can miss 73% of high value items.
• Executives indicate missed opportunities by failing to leverage their
information effectively could represent 22% of annual revenue.
BACKGROUND – MOTIVATION FOR RESEARCH
5. • Re-examine and re-conceptualize enterprise search
• Causal factors for user satisfaction
• Causal factors for search task performance
• What latent information needs are not being met
RESEARCH AIMS