Professional Microsoft® Search: FAST Search, SharePoint® Search, and Search Server

Chapter 2. Developing a Strategy — The Business Process of Search

WHAT'S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Fundamentals of creating the search project plan

• The evaluation and acquisition process

• Gathering requirements

• How to plan a successful deployment

Search touches just about every part of your information infrastructure, and while great search can help defray expenses, sell product, or ensure regulatory compliance, bad search can have repercussions far beyond your website or intranet site.

This chapter looks at the basics of an Enterprise Search project plan. It covers the types of applications where Enterprise Search can make a difference, and a looks at how companies organize for success using search centers of excellence. Then it digs into the actual process of acquiring an enterprise platform, which is more than just the search-box application people used to associate with Enterprise Search.

We will talk about building a business case, the role external analysts and consultants can play in your success, and the process of identifying content and gathering user requirements. Next, we'll get into the actual purchasing, prototyping, deployment, and roll out. Finally we give some pointers about how you can help ensure that search will work well and provide you all the business intelligence it can.

After you read this chapter, you should be able to confidently begin the process of managing an Enterprise Search initiative and have an understanding of the real-world challenges and tasks — and some tricks ...