This enterprise search strategy is a translation of the work I, Kristian Norling and some peer-reviewers worked with for Region Västra Götaland.
Executive summary
This is a summary of Region Västra Götaland’s strategy for enterprise search. Discussing the overall points for orientation of the strategy’s contents and be able to take a decision on its establishment.
Vision and mission statement
The vision is that search “will deliver the right information when it is needed.” Not necessarily is the user forced to seek to find, but also to receive feeds and be notified if anything of importance occurs. The information need to become more intelligent. The business goal for search is primarily to avoid the risk of someone acting on outdated knowledge. Secondarily to offer a complete picture to the information, not to unnecessarily develop or purchase information or things that already exists somewhere within the organisation. We should strive to make the benefits of search known and the platform well-used to realise these goals.
Application requirements and usability
We will focus on user experience and work user-oriented. This is because search is there to help finding information and knowledge – even when there to the user’s not obvious where to find it, or that it exists. Two fundamental challenges to adhere to is that users have varying digital maturity and varying expertise in the material they are seeking. Therefore, search has to take advantage of both the novice and the expert way to express themselves, but also support the usage pattern that distinguishes the digital novice from the digital savvy. Search has to live up to high standards of accessibility and usability, both from a desktop computer and a more mobile scenario.
Management and organisation
Search should be continuously improved. By reflecting on operational goals, feedback from the users as well as by insights gained working with search analytics. In addition, the organisation shall have annual priorities of the activities to be carried out and follow up on the efforts made. The organisation intends to gradually move towards a more structured information architecture which naturally affects the curation of information sources. Also, it is important to provide opportunities for personalised search results, which, when appropriate, is also displaying access-restricted material. Continue reading “Example: Strategy for Enterprise Search”