While planning and implementing Search, keep in mind that it should be governed and managed, even long after implementation is complete. We usually say that Search itself never can be “done.” Consider it like gardening. You set up your garden, plant the trees and flowers, water them, and enjoy a beautiful first blossoming. However, the work has not ended at all. If you do not water it regularly, if you do not prune the trees, fertilize and weed the garden, or mow the lawn, your lovely garden can rapidly turn into a barren field or a chaotic jungle.
Enterprise Search is very similar to this. You do not allocate the proper resources, don’t take care of it, neglect maintenance and updates – and it gets messy very soon. The results lose their relevancy; users do not get the experience they want, and then they stop using it. Don’t forget: as the environment changes around us, so does your business too. User needs evolve, and Search has to follow them to be and stay successful.
Of course, to be able to keep this up, we need a team. Depending on the size of your company and your needs, the size of this team can vary. The first important point is to realize the need: you have to allocate resources for these tasks. Then you can determine if it is going to be one person or ten.
Sometimes it is also necessary to have someone in a liaison role. This person acts internally to represent the interests of the customer and must understand the needs and business motivations. At the same time, he or she has to have a deep understanding of Enterprise Search and be able to serve as a liaison between your organization and external team members (in most cases, consultants and external developers).
In the next part (on June 16, 2016) we’ll see what metrics can be used to measure the success of your Enterprise Search implementation.
Want to learn more? – Check out my NEW e-book “SharePoint 2016 Search Explained“, which is available on all the major e-reader platforms! (Paper version is coming soon, too!)
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