Briefing Papers

A History of Enterprise Search 1938-2022 (October 2022)

A chronological history of the development of enterprise search applications on a decade – by – decade basis from 1938 – 2022 starting with the use of punched cards to search through enterprise collections of scientific information and ending with the transition to the integration of artificial intelligence models into search applications.

Managing Enterprise Information (July 2020)

This report sets out 50 ways in which your organisation can improve the way in which it manages information to the benefit of individual employees and to the organisation’s performance and reputation.

Time spent searching – a chronology of the myth and some recent research (June 2020)

In 2001 IDC published a briefing paper that used an estimate that the time spent searching by a knowledge worker was 2.5 hours a day. This report reviews research undertaken since 2002 that indicates that this is not a reliable number. 

Achieving Enterprise Search Satisfaction (October 2018)

This report sets out eight ways in which the performance of search application can be enhanced with a minimum of additional investment, and suggests a number of ways in which search satisfaction can be assessed.

People and expertise search (May 2017)

Research indicates that over 60% of all searches are to find people in the organisation. This report sets out good practice in name search management and also considers finding people with specific expertise.

Making search work (April 2017)

This report shows that the critical success factor in achieving high levels of search satisfaction is the scale of the investment in a search support team and not the technology investment.