Craig Carpenter, vice president of eDiscovery solutions and general counsel at Recommind, explains how search and categorisation technologies are becoming a crucial component of today’s business.

As data reserves grow by the day, the ability to effectively locate relevant information is fast becoming an essential component of any modern business – no matter how knowledge-rich a company may be, its information will be rendered useless if it cannot be easily found. 

Whereas information searches through paper documents stored in file cabinets are now a thing of the past, businesses have simply moved this process to the desktop. However, the challenges remain the same (if not worse) as the amount of information now being searched can be overwhelming to the people and technology involved.    

The volume of information companies have to contend with is merely the first factor when considering the problem of how to achieve effective knowledge management. Not only is the amount of information growing rapidly but due to the very nature of modern, global business, data is increasingly spread over multiple locations and various sources, both internal and external. Businesses not only have to locate, retrieve and share structured data from relevant documents such as Word files and Excel spreadsheets, but companies must also effectively find data stored within sources such as ERP and CRM databases, email and websites.

"Managers spend up to two hours each working day searching for information and when they do eventually find the information, it is often useless."

Aside from the considerable challenges involved in managing such vast amounts of data across various locations, organisations must also cater to the intuitive habits of their users who often value ease of use above all else. A new ‘Google generation’ of users accustomed to finding web search results within two clicks has entered the workplace and its presence has raised the bar for enterprise search solutions. Yet, due to the aforementioned complexities comparatively simple keyword search techniques which work fairly well on the internet are insufficient for the enterprise.

There is now simply too much data to trawl through effectively: a recent survey from Accenture revealed that managers spend up to two hours each working day searching for information and when they do eventually find the information, it is often useless. Such fruitless and time-consuming practices can seriously impact both staff productivity and the bottom line, which has led many businesses to look to sophisticated search and categorisation systems to solve the problem.

One of the most receptive sectors to the advantages of these technologies to date has been the legal sector, where by its very nature and the demands of the ‘billable hour’, the timely access of relevant information can be crucial to a company’s success. For other industries, the need to adhere to various compliance directives is also playing a part in the drive towards better knowledge management across multiple sectors as stringent regulations stipulate that any electronic documentation or correspondence be ‘discoverable’, essentially meaning that it can be used as evidence in a legal proceeding and, therefore, may need to be located quickly, regardless of where it has been stored.

Due to these significant issues, organisations across the board are becoming increasingly accountable for the management of their information and are beginning to wise up to the many advantages of automated categorisation and search solutions.

The technology

In order to address this great data challenge, companies are turning to sophisticated yet easy-to-use search and categorisation technology to manage the knowledge and information within their organisations. By effectively organising data, these organisations address their business needs while giving their knowledge workers instant access to relevant information, making them more productive in their day-to-day tasks.

Data categorisation is essential to both capture additional knowledge as the data is produced and to identify information for later preservation or disposal. One of the most innovative ways of tagging data consists of assigning numerical codes to each individual piece of information – often called a “hash” value – which automatically identifies each distinct piece of data within the organisation. The benefits that such self-educating systems can have in terms of time saved and productivity can be huge.

In addition to all internal business data, many companies also wish to extract and collate information from trusted external sources, such as online libraries, catalogues and government documents, which is typically referred to as “federated” search. It is essential, therefore, to choose a solution that can combine information from all of these disparate sources, while providing secure access to it all at the same time.

Search and categorisation technologies are no longer a nice to have; rather they are becoming a crucial component of today’s business. Organisations are beginning to wise up to this, understanding that better management of both knowledge and expertise not only aids in compliance but also gives them a competitive advantage. 

And, with knowledge fast becoming a vital business currency across many industries, the demand for sophisticated software solutions that effectively utilise this tool will only continue to grow.