Choosing A Search Partner
Five Questions That Vendors Don’t Want to Answer
The process of identifying, evaluating and outlining your information management needs is a tough task as it is; conducting an extremely thorough vendor review can turn an already sizable project into a six-month affair. When it comes to search and information access, the lack of industry standards and common pricing models means the average corporation spends a significant chunk of time educating itself.
It all adds up to a complex engagement that no one can afford in this day and age.
To reduce the amount of time trying to learn the industry landscape and vendor tendencies, we present the following "questions that your search vendors don’t want to answer." Try them out on a few of your short-listed suppliers and gauge their reactions.
1. Can I request a proof of concept?. When you pose that question, you’ll notice a handful of information access vendors "umming and uhhing," doing their best to either dissuade you from a POC or convince you it’s not necessary. Some will even say, "Sure. Just sign this NDA, fill out this 50-page Statement of Work and hand over your first born to pay for the POC."
Would you buy a luxury car without insisting on a test drive? Whatever happened to the concept of try it before you buy it? The bottom line is search technology isn’t a one-size fits-all play, so it’s imperative to review how a given solution will perform in your environment. Canned demos can only tell you so much.
2. How long will it take for us to be up and running? For any business to determine a potential return on investment, they must first determine license fees and implementation costs. The duration of the latter is quite significant, since services often double or triple the original license costs. Part of this is just the nature of complex deployments, but a good portion of this is also highly dependent on the vendor’s ability to offer a rapid and/or staged rollout.
Rolling out a search project in phases ensures you begin earning a return early on, while other aspects of the implementation continue developing. Some vendors can offer this, while others cannot. Regardless, information access projects don’t get a free pass when it comes to providing standard deployment roadmaps, hard commit dates and service-level agreements.
3. Can I talk with a live person on support issues? You’ll be shocked to find some search vendors are remarkably quiet and inaccessible even BEFORE you purchase their software. Imagine what life will be like AFTER you make a purchase.
The nature of search and the myriad variables that affect the performance and efficacy of the technology mean that most customers will have a question at some point. Some will be routine, and some will require personalized attention and support. Making an early determination on support availability and live assistance (either via phone or in person) will save you a lot of time, money and heartache down the road.
4. Can I talk with your customers?. We all know that references are the key to covering your bets, but this is one that actually requires a bit more effort. It’s not enough to ask your vendor to rattle off the standard list of references. You’ll want to put them to the test and ask for:
- A customer they’ve signed in the last nine to 12 months;
- A customer they’ve had for four years or more (in other words, customers who have renewed their licenses multiple times); and
- A customer with a history of expanding its use of the vendor’s technology.
How your vendor responds to this request will tell you a lot about its customer satisfaction and reliability as an enduring partner. It’s only one of many "sniff tests" you’ll do as you review your short list of potential solution providers, but it’s a key step to ensuring you find the right match.
5. Will you be in business next year?. As a final question, it’s imperative to determine the financial viability of a given vendor, particularly in this market. Search and information access is evolving rapidly, which has resulted in some of the standard events you’ll find in any market cycle—bankruptcy and liquidation, mergers and acquisitions. Some vendors have only been in the enterprise search market for five years or less, which is hardly enough time to establish a steady install base or sufficient experience in any particular area of the market. How confident are you that your investment today won’t blow up in the next 12 to 24 months?
Navigating implementations like these doesn’t have to be an impossible task. Making your vendors squirm by asking the right questions not only helps you pare down your list rather quickly, but it also provides you with the peace of mind that you’re making the best choices for your organization.
Established in 1988, ISYS Search Software is a global supplier of information access and discovery solutions for mining intelligence and corporate knowledge. The company’s award-winning software suite offers a broad range of search, navigation and discovery solutions for desktop search, intranet search, SharePoint search and embedded search applications. ISYS has been deployed by thousands of organizations operating in a variety of industries, including government, legal, law enforcement, financial services, healthcare and recruitment.
Rapidly innovating and expanding its channel in Europe and enterprise sales in Asia Pacific and North America, ISYS recently launched two new embedded solutions for search and discovery—ISYS:sdk 9 and the ISYS File Readers, which compete with similar document filter products from Oracle and Autonomy.