Interview: How do you think about Search in your Enterprise?

Welcome to another on the street interview!!!!!  While traveling in Ohio a few weeks ago,  I had a chance to sit down with James Lakes to talk about search and where does he see it fit in an enterprise.  We also talked briefly about Microsoft Search Server, look to this blog next week for some great screencasts on Search Server.

The conversation with James was a lot of fun and what surprised me is that search is just one piece of the puzzle.  You have to look at search and the results that we get in context and be able to make smart, quick decisions around the results. 

So if you think search as something that is just a crawler and indexer, then you need expand your thinking.  In addition to those two vital functions you need to view search is part of your information management infrastructure.  In reality search is 1 part of a typical 9 step process for information management:

• Input
• Recall
• Search
• Find
• Qualify
• Analyze
• Decision
• Action
• Outcome

Enjoy the interview and let me know what you think and please comment.  BTW, I also got a tri-pod so there is no need for the Dramamine for this interview.  :-)

Watch the interview here:

Search Interview: James Lakes, Enterprise Strategist, Microsoft Heartland 

If you want to see my past interview with the Cleveland Browns check it out here:

Interview- Gordon Foust, IT Director for the Cleveland Browns