New document-management solutions incorporate collections of technologies that reduce information overload.

One of the biggest draws for document-management solutions is the ability to quickly search electronic storehouses using key words and phrases to locate desired information. But as these storehouses grow in size, solution providers need to add another word, "findability," to their technical lexicon and their sales messaging.

The content-management association AIIM describes the growing importance of findability and offers implementation strategies in a new, no-cost research report, Findability: The Art and Science of Making Content Easy to Find.

Traditional search engines deliver all the instances of a term like "sales," which may result in information overload from perhaps scores of results. By contrast, a collection of technology components and methodologies tailored for findabilty use semantic analyses, context matching, and other strategies to narrow the results to a precise shortlist of relevant documents.

Although findability is still on the leading edge of document-management strategies, end users are increasingly becoming convinced of its importance, AIIM says. Its research found that 62 percent of respondents considered findability critical to their overall business goals and success.

However, there remains widespread confusion among end users over the difference between search and findability. Solutions for the latter add tools for information tagging, indexing, free-text searching, and others to basic search functions, AIIM says.

AIIM adds that a findability solution isn't a turn-key application, but a group of integrated technologies "orchestrated fashion to provide a point of interaction between the user and content."

Best Practices

The organization points out that solution providers often hone findability implementations to specific applications, such as business intelligence, e-Discovery, and compliance. Although this approach can be successful, AIIM warns there's a danger of that it creates a series of "fractured and non-integrated" solutions. By contrast, a centralized approach can promote increased collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

"It behooves the organization to address the design of findability holistically," the AIIM report says. "A top-down and inter-application approach to strategy development best serves the universal requirement for Findability across the organization. If specific tools or features are needed for particular applications, these may be supported (potentially) by a specialized tool. But that does not necessarily infer that the Findability for that application area should be implemented and presented as a separate and distinct capability."

Other best practices for successful findability strategies outlined in the report include:

• First determine the features and functions required for the enterprise, select the smallest number of products that meet all of those needs, and then combine those products under a single interface;
• Avoid applying search tools in an ad hoc manner, which often doesn't result in effective findability;
• Understand that a well-executed findability strategy is the antithesis of approaches that link multiple sets of search and management tools with individual repositories;
• A single, navigational front end and search tool that together aggregate disparate content resources offers a simple, single access point desired by most end users;
• The solution requires a rigorous needs assessment and strategy, as well as coordination by the business and IT departments.