Enterprise Search Management Maturity : - A model for the assessment of an organization’s maturity level within enterprise search management

Abstract:

As organizations grow larger, so does the information base of the organization, and the need to findimportant information increases along with it. However, many organizations are neglecting theimportance of information. Enterprise search lets users search for information in multiple informationrepositories from one single application, without having to know where the information resides. The focalfirm of this research, Findwise AB, is a Swedish IT consultancy firm specialized in delivering searchsolutions to its customers. It has been shown that not many organizations have a strategy for their internalwork with enterprise search. Therefore, Findwise wants to be able to deliver enterprise search strategies toits customers. Such a strategy would facilitate the customers’ development of their internal enterprisesearch management. However, this requires the ability to define an organization’s current and future statewith regard to enterprise search management, something that, up until now has not been possible.Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop an enterprise search management maturity (ESMM)model, which Findwise’s consultants can use for assessing an organization’s current state, as well aspossible future state within enterprise search management. Through an extensive literature study, incombination with an empirical study consisting of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews, theESMM model was developed. The themes of the identified maturity levels of enterprise searchmanagement are; knowledge, management, priority, standardization, and sustainability. It is concludedthat the parameters to evaluate on each of these maturity levels are the three parameters information,technology, and user. Each of these parameters consists of three specific factors to evaluate, providingguidelines for what to look at in an assessment. This will enable Findwise to define an organization’scurrent and future state within enterprise search management, as well as enable organizations to gain themost benefit out of their enterprise search solution.