We often hear from people looking to solve problems with their internal search processes. And it makes sense: Your employees are the very heart of what makes your organization successful (or not), so if they struggle with search, efficiency issues begin to add up—and fast.
A poorly functioning or out-of-date enterprise search system creates issues: mishandled, duplicated, or impossible to find content; roadblocks when it comes to users’ security access; problems picking up the pieces when an employee goes on vacation or leaves suddenly; and a myriad of others.
So we thought we’d take a few minutes today to go over the pain points we hear about the most when it comes to enterprise search—and show you how a robust SaaS platform—like Swiftype—can help since these big five can hit where it hurts.
“I don’t know where the content I need is stored.”
Whether you’re prepping for a last-minute meeting or being asked on a conference call to pull up a relevant data point, it’s usually when the pressure’s on that you can’t find what you’re looking for. According to Forrester research, knowledge workers can spend 30% of their time looking for nonexistent information, failing to find existing information, and/or recreating information that can’t be found. Enter a robust, new generation of enterprise search solutions that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and other intuitive technologies to help understand and organize data across your entire organization and all of your applications. Search once and you’re done.
“It takes forever to find the right info.”
One of our developers wrote recently about how Swiftype Enterprise Search helps him in his day-to-day work. He flies through customer service issues, closing tickets, quickly cross-referencing other clients’ information requests; sources digital assets spread over a number of apps to fulfill requests from marketing; and even has relevant documents automatically pushed to his phone before a meeting so he doesn’t have to think about what info to gather. With all the extra time he saves, we’re sure he’s able to get so much extra work done, (right, Brian?)
“Didn’t someone else already create this?”
What happens when an employee suddenly gets sick or takes an extended vacation, and they’re holding documents crucial to a project or client deadline? At best, using clunky, legacy enterprise search software, team members waste time digging for the appropriate data. At worst, they have to pull an all-nighter and start again from scratch. Time and money go the drain. Employee morale takes a hit. Swiftype has a handy feature called Person View, which allows you to search for content by employee name across all of your cloud data sources to find all of a specific user’s documents. So even when someone is out, you can still access the files you need.
“Is my info secure?”
Cloud-based data sharing is not immune to security problems, especially in the BYOD (bring your own device) era. Studies estimate that corporations spend roughly $50,000 per lost laptop—and the more senior the employee, the higher that number jumps. That’s why your enterprise search platform should adhere to strict security guidelines, provide data protection and application security, and have systems in place to guard against physical and environmental issues.
“I don’t want everyone to be able to see everything.”
Not all of your employees have access to the same data, nor should they, even if they use the same applications. You may want to limit some people to only searching marketing materials, while keeping others out of the company’s legal documents. Here at Swiftype, our Administrative Dashboard helps you manage your team’s access. You can integrate with your existing authentication provider, invite users individually, as well as easily grant access, revoke access, and set permissions.
Which of these pain points have you had to deal with?
Since we know this space so well, it’s really tough to write about issues without a nod to how we can help! If you’re curious about solving any of those pain points—or others you may have—talk to the Swiftype team now to take a closer look at how your team can use Enterprise Search to help them access all the information they need, when and where they need it.