COTS User Interface and Effective Search Engine Integration
Access your enterprise search via SharePoint, quickly and reliably
Today, there are well over one hundred million licensed SharePoint users around the globe, including numerous large commercial and government organizations. Many of these SharePoint (SP) clients have also implemented enterprise search technologies such as Autonomy's IDOL Server or Microsoft's FAST engines, only to find that the power of theses high-end engines cannot be effectively accessed from the standard SP interface without extensive custom development efforts.
These users typically encounter one or more of the following problems:
- Search engine manufacturers' provide access to only basic user functions and options with their products for the SP environment
- Key capabilities, such as using and managing personal search agents, simply are not accessible through SP
- A lack of user interface customization capability for non-developers
- Costs/Delays due to need for custom UI coding
- Future product update/integration issues are encountered as a result of using one-off UI solutions
- The inability to utilize multiple search engines, a condition often found in large enterprises, is not supported
The organizations find themselves faced with a real dilemma… do they settle for such limited capabilities and suffer the impact of having inadequate information discovery tools, or do they take the plunge into a lengthy and costly UI development and software integration effort?
Discover's eXtensible Search Framework (XSF)
Today, a much more attractive option exists, one that allows organizations to accomplish their information discovery objectives while using SharePoint Server as their primary user environment. Discover Technologies introduces the eXtensible Search Framework (XSF), an off-the-shelf product that lets SharePoint clients easily access their high powered engines, such as IDOL and FAST, and realize the benefits of their technology investments.
XSF is a group of interconnected Web Parts (sets of controls) that brings powerful third-party search engine technology to the SharePoint and .Net environments. The 'framework' is an out-of-the-box solution that surfaces all key functions of the underlying search engine through SharePoint, immediately upon installation. Additionally, XSF supplements the functional capabilities of some search engines, with key functions such as the ability to create/save personal search queries.
XSF delivers the following benefits to organizations:
- The Discover Technologies' eXtensible Search Framework (XSF) provides maximum flexibility in delivering a scalable, customizable information discovery solution with quick turnaround.
- XSF provides the ability to customize, personalize, and upgrade to new SP and Search Engine releases while minimizing risks and costs.
- Can connect to a variety of search engines using the pluggable engine model.
- The ability to concurrently support multiple engines, and/or switch from one search engine to another with relative ease and speed
- A user interface that can be modified via XSLT at multiple locations allowing non developers to customize the platform.
- Conforms to SharePoint development and security guidelines and models
- Ability to access all major functions of supported search engines, such as keyword, faceted and concept searching
- Adds personalized search features including stored queries, or agents with the ability to 'retrain'
The key difference between DiscoverTechnologies' XSF and other products? Time… and money.
XSF > SharePoint + IDOLXSF > SharePoint + FASTThe eXtensible Search Framework provides an effective information discovery and collaboration environment that delivers immediate, significant results, with a measureable return on investment. It allows SharePoint and enterprise search engine users to achieve benefits that are considerably greater than the two applications running independently. It couples the strengths of these industry- leading technologies, while adding features and functions that enable organizations to accomplish their information discovery goals, become proactive and expedites the ability to make decisions based on thoroughly analyzed data.
