I have been awarded a contract by the Institute of Prospective Technological Studies, Joint Research Centre, European Commission to prepare a report on the current state and future of enterprise search in Europe.  The IPTS have been studying the techno-economics of search solutions for several years and they have already published reports on prospects for mobile search and on economic trends in enterprise search solutions.

The overall objective of this is study is to

• Update the knowledge base in relation to Enterprise Search Solutions in view of related policy options.
• Collect, via desk research, the relevant techno-economic data to describe and assess the status of the ecosystem of Enterprise Search Solutions in Europe and globally;
• Analyse and describe current and emerging business models, value chains and revenue streams in the enterprise search area;
• Identify current and emerging technologies which are likely to shape the future development and deployment of enterprise solutions and services;
• Investigate the future prospects of enterprise search solutions for the European Union (EU27) in the timeframe 2011-15;
• Develop a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis of the implications of current and (likely) future enterprise search engines and services for the European economy and society;
• Formulate policy recommendations based on this analysis

The project has just started, and continues until the end of September. The report that I will be writing, together with other findings, will be presented to a workshop of invited enterprise search experts in Seville in mid-October.  An element of the project will be a Delphi study of future developments in search technology.

If you have experience of implementing enterprise search, or work for a search vendor (commercial or open source) and have views on how the European market will develop please contact me at martin.white@intranetfocus.com.  The IPTS and I are especially interested in identifying barriers to the growth of the market.

The project manager, Dr. Stavri Nikolov, will be presenting a paper based on the work of the IPTS at  Enterprise Search Europe.

Martin White