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Data Silos: Why They Are Problematic and How to Fix Them

Information silos are collections of information held by a specific group that may not be accessible by other groups or individuals in the same team. Siloed data often occurs from one “segment” of a business to the next, as HR, administration, finance, and marketing teams all collect and use various pieces of data to complete their day-to-day tasks. While siloed data might not seem problematic at first, isolated data frequently leads to barriers in information sharing and collaboration in the wider business landscape. Consistent data silos damage data integrity and make it harder for your business to succeed. ✶ Share information among teams effortlessly with Unleash Defining Data Integrity: What Is Healthy Data? Information silos refer to segments of data inaccessible from one department to the next in an organization, leading to a lack of efficiency and transparency in a team. Siloed data is the opposite of “healthy” data. Companies can define healthy data as information that is accessible and easily understood across the business landscape. How Do Data Silos Occur? Information silos and siloed data issues can occur for a range of reasons. Usually, these problems emerge over time, mirroring fragmented organizational structures. Some of the most common causes of data silos include: Issues with technology Data can’t easily pass between departments in an organization if the technology used for collecting and storing data is fragmented. Integrations between high-quality applications and software solutions are essential to healthy data. Organizational change Growth or changes in the structure of an organization can often lead to problems with the management of data. There may be too many departments or team members for business leaders to keep track of the flow of data effectively. Issues with company culture Poor company culture can lead to gaps between different members of staff in a team. Sometimes, this can cause groups like marketing or sales to keep data to themselves, rather than sharing their insights with the rest of the group. ✶ Software solutions like Unleash make integrations between apps easy How Is Data Quality Affected by Data Silos? One of the major issues caused by data silos is a problem with data quality. Data is among the most valuable assets any business has, making it easier for teams to make informed and confident decisions. With data, you can understand your partners and customers and improve your chances of long-term business success. Working with data silos means you’ll have fragmented pieces of information which might not provide a complete view of your business environment. If your data isn’t in sync, you may even see conflicting insights when cross-checking information from various sources. Can Data Silos Destroy Businesses? If you’re new to dealing with data, you might wonder, “why are data silos problematic?” As mentioned above, a lack of access to consistent and accurate data is one of the most common issues associated with siloed information. However, other problems can also emerge, such as: Incomplete views of the business If you can’t consolidate your data into a comprehensive overview of all business operations, then you can’t gain a complete view of the business. Trying to manage a business with isolated data is like trying to put a puzzle back together without knowing what it should look like. Cultural issues When data silos are evident in business, teams often end up working independently, using their own data and failing to collaborate with their colleagues. This can lead to everyone in a business working with different strategies and a misaligned approach to business operations. Cultures of transparency and trust are difficult to maintain with data silos. Poor business performance Data silos make it difficult to track customer journeys and maintain a strong view of your company’s operations. This means you don’t have the insights required to optimize your company or your teams. It could also mean you end up giving your customers a less-than-perfect experience. How Can You Fix the Problem of Data Silos? Information silos often happen when companies have various sources of information isolated from one another. This means many business leaders often assume the answer to data silos is simply importing and exporting databases from one environment to another. However, the reality is that the constantly changing nature of data requires a more focused central approach to eliminating data silos. In order to do this, companies should do the following: Use integration software Using integration software and APIs to connect disparate systems in a workforce is one of the best ways to reduce data silos. Software solutions such as Unleash sync all your resources into one place, making searching for information easy. Leverage all-in-one environments Leveraging all-in-one cloud environments where you can connect multiple tools in one space can reduce the need for integrations. This also minimizes the risk of data silos by keeping information flowing in one space. Create a collaborative culture Commit to helping your team members bond and collaborate more consistently so that they’re constantly sharing information and insights. A culture with a strong focus on knowledge sharing will reduce data silos. How to Avoid Data Silos in the Future As businesses continue to become increasingly reliant on data in a digital world, healthy data is essential to improving a company’s chances of long-term success. Organizations must provide decision makers with 360-degree views of healthy data to achieve their goals. Eliminating data silos may be the key to success for many businesses.

Information Silos: Why They Are Bad and How to Fix Them preview image

Productivity How to Rebuild Your Search Index on Microsoft Outlook 365 Is Outlook not searching emails? A simple restart or configuration in the settings often works. If it doesn't, you may have to rebuild your search index. Outlook is a powerful tool that many offices rely on for its useful features, including Mail, Task Manager, and Calendar. One of its most powerful features is the search box, which allows you to quickly find messages, contacts, tasks, and calendar items using keywords. However, when this feature malfunctions, it can be frustrating and significantly impact team productivity. Fortunately, rebuilding the search index is easy. Here’s a quick guide on how to fix indexing in Outlook. ✶ Missing the search bar in Outlook? Here's how to add it back The Need for Rebuilding Your Search Index Here are two main reasons why rebuilding your search index is so important: 1. Institutional Memory According to statistics, corporate and consumer emails were projected to hit 347.3 billion per day during 2023. Considering that the average person sends and receives 121 business emails daily, you can just imagine how many your organization collects in a year. Corporate emails often collect important information like vendor communications, price quotes, and license agreements. This is called "institutional memory," and it's what keeps all the teams and processes running smoothly. Rebuilding your search index ensures your company’s institutional knowledge is always available when needed, helping prevent data silos and facilitating knowledge management. 2. Types of Searches When searching for information, most businesses have the option of using federated search or enterprise search. While the first type of search pulls results from both internal and external sources, the second type can only pull results from a single source. Both federated and enterprise searches are usually queries. Rebuilding indexes will not only help optimize query times but will also help get rid of fragmentation, bring back lost storage space, and reorder index rows. It's worth mentioning that organizations should have secure enterprise search so that sensitive and high-value information doesn't get lost or fall into the wrong hands. ✶ Here are key features your enterprise search tool should have What Will Come From Rebuilding the Search Index? Check if you’re encountering any of these issues below: Outlook search returns 0 resultsOutlook search does not show all resultsOutlook search fails to find old or recent emailsOutlook search can’t find any matchesThe search tab is grayed out (applicable for Outlook 2016) If yes, then either you have a corrupt index, or Outlook just hasn’t finished indexing your files. This means you may need Outlook to rebuild the index. It's frustrating when you need to check up on old messages, complete an outstanding task, or find a contact, but Outlook won't help you do any of those things. In most cases, rebuilding the search catalog will re-index your data files and resolve this issue. Outlook will begin re-indexing as soon as you rebuild the database in the background. Remember that searches may not work during the rebuilding process, so wait until it's complete. When rebuilding is complete, restart your computer and reopen Outlook. When you search this time, you should get the expected results. ✶Want to make the most out of your search? Federated search can help How Long Does Rebuilding an Index on Outlook Take? There’s no specific duration for how long rebuilding your index could take. It depends on the volume of items being indexed and your system's processing power. Reports show it can last as long as 12 to 24 hours. Schedule rebuilding at a time when you won't be using your computer much, as having other applications running will lower the indexing speed. If you want to check the status, look at the top of the Indexing Options box. Once the rebuilding is complete, you can run some searches to determine the difference, if any, in terms of speed and functionality. Steps to Rebuild the Search Index on Microsoft Outlook 365 If you have an Outlook indexing issue, here's how to quickly rebuild the search index. Rebuild Index for Windows For rebuilding the search index on Windows, you'll have two possible solutions that you can use: Solution 1: Using Programs and Features Start by launching the Control Panel. Just type "control" into the Windows search box and click on it from the results.Once the window opens, select Programs > Programs & Features.Scroll down and choose Microsoft 365.Select Change from the top menu.You’ll be able to choose from Quick Repair or Online Repair. If you don’t have an internet connection, you can go with Quick Repair.Wait until it's done, and then restart your computer. Solution 2: Using the Index Repair Menu Option in Outlook Open Outlook, then select File > Options > Search.Choose Indexing Options, then click Advanced. Keep in mind that this step may require administrator access.You should find the delete and rebuild index option in the window. Click Rebuild, then OK.Restart your computer once the rebuilding is done. Rebuild Index on Mac Here is the best solution for rebuilding the search index on Mac: Go to System Preferences from the Apple menu.Select Spotlight and then click the Privacy option.Add a folder to the list of non-indexed folders by clicking the plus sign (+).Choose your Home folder (it usually has a house symbol beside it).If a confirmation window appears, choose OK.After a minute, click the item you just added and remove it with the minus symbol (-).Close Spotlight preferences. Remember that rebuilding Outlook 365 indexing can take a while, especially when you have a high volume of contacts and emails. Once it’s done, go back and do a search to check if functionality has returned. Rebuilding the Exchange Search Index If you’re using an Exchange account, you may have to do an Exchange search index rebuild. Here are three ways how you can do it: Option 1 Use the Start-MailboxAssistant command, which is available with the Exchange Server 2019 Cumulative Update (CU) 11: Start-MailboxAssistant -Identity <mailbox> -AssistName BigFunnelRetryFeederTimeBasedAssistant Find the logs for the Big Funnel with this path: C:\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\v15\Logging\MailboxAssistantsSlaReportLog Option 2 Use the two commands from Microsoft’s support website. First, run the following cmdlet to create a setting override: New-SettingOverride -Name "Big Funnel Permanent Retry" -Component "BigFunnel" -Section "BigFunnelFailedItemsQuerySettings" -Parameters @("ExcludePermanentFailures=false") -Reason "Re-Index Messages" -MinVersion "<Build Number>" -MaxVersion "<Build Number>" Then, update the configuration with the following cmdlet: Get-ExchangeDiagnosticInfo -Process Microsoft.Exchange.Directory.TopologyService -Component VariantConfiguration -Argument Refresh Option 3 The last solution is to move the mailbox to another database. Use the New-MoveRequest command: New-MoveRequest <usermailbox> -TargetDatabase <databasename> Then confirm the move from the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) was successful with the move statistics command: Get-MoveRequest <usermailbox> | Get-MoveRequestStatistics What to Do if Rebuilding Didn't Work? There are a few instances where rebuilding won’t work. One is when the search engine isn’t indexing Outlook for search. Here’s how to check: Go to Outlook, and click File > OptionsFrom the left navigation pane, click SearchGo to the Sources section > Indexing OptionsMicrosoft Outlook should appear in the Indexing Options dialog box. If Outlook isn't listed, select Modify, check Microsoft Outlook, then click OK Sometimes email indexing in Outlook fails when the filter type for email messages isn't selected. To check: Go back to Indexing Options, and click Advanced > Files tabCheck if the file extension msg is selected. Next, go to the How should this file be indexed? Section, select Index Properties and File ContentsHit OK If everything else fails, your Outlook may be outdated. To see if you are using the most recent version, check the following: Go to Outlook, and click File > Office AccountClick Update OptionsChoose Update Now from the dropdown menuIf there are updates, Outlook will inform you. Install when available Optimize Your Search With Unleash Rebuilding the search index in Microsoft Outlook is a simple but effective solution to various search-related issues. It can also help maintain your organization's institutional memory and enhance your company's search capabilities. Nevertheless, it's important to note that having a powerful enterprise search tool like Unleash in place is essential. This ensures that all your data remains secure and easily accessible. So, before rebuilding your Outlook search index, make sure to invest in a reliable search tool that can provide comprehensive and secure search solutions for your business needs.

Project management Using Notion for Project Management: Pros, Cons, & More What is Notion? Released in 2016, Notion is an all-in-one workspace that allows users to organize their thoughts, create plans, and streamline projects. While it's popular as an efficient note-taking tool that facilitates easy knowledge management, Notion is also a powerful project management application. The solution is a freemium productivity and note-taking web application housing tools for knowledge management, task management, project tracking, to-do lists, bookmarking, and more. In other words, the same Notion for knowledge management doubles as a project management Notion as well. So, is Notion good for project management? Yes! Is Notion good for task management? Yes! Can Notion be used for both? Absolutely! Let’s take a look at how we can broaden the scope of Notion from being a knowledge management facilitator to using it as a powerful project management enabler. How to Use Notion for Project Management Notion offers several project management tools. You can easily collaborate with your team from any device and work together on projects synced in real-time. That said, does Notion work offline? Yes, in a way. While Notion does not have an offline mode, if you leave it (say, Notion Pages) open in your browser when you lose the internet connection, you can continue working on it, and the same would be synced when the connection is back on. With Notion, you can: Create roadmapsWrite to-do and task listsBuild Kanban boardsCreate a databaseCreate and store documentsBuild project plans What's impressive about Notion is that it offers these functionalities as a part of a single solution, in contrast to Google Workspace, which is a collection of several apps. You can use Notion's tools wherever you are on the app and access them through page menus. ✶ Is your Notion not syncing across devices? See the ways to fix it Project Management Tools in Notion Below is an overview of Notion's project management features and how to put them to use to make the most out of Notion for improving employee productivity. Wikis Wikis are collaborative document repositories that all project collaborators can access. It's where you can store project briefs, contracts, policies, and content, among other things. Wikis are a crucial piece of Notion content management. Here is how to go about using Wikis in Notion: Create a workspace page for your project by clicking the (+) icon in your sidebar next to WORKSPACEUse the slash (/) key to access different content options and create subpages within your workspacePopulate your workspace with relevant information related to your project, such as project briefs, contracts, policies, and contentUse columns to group related pages and make it easier to navigate your workspaceInclude information on mechanics, prizes, participants, and other useful data in subpagesCollaborate with others by giving them access to your wiki and encouraging them to contribute Project Pages In Notion, a page is essentially a document that's customizable, so you can add whatever you like—text, images, checklists, tasks, or even a Kanban board. To create a new page, just click “+ New Page” on the bottom left of your sidebar menu. From there, you can select a page type you want, be it an empty table, list, board, or calendar. ✶ Knowledge management vs. content management: the key differences Kanban Board Notion Kanban boards are an effective project management tool that can show you what tasks your team has, what tasks have been assigned to a team member, and their current status. When a team member is done with a task, they can easily drag the card from the to-do column to the completed column. This way, Notion task management is just as good as other task management solutions in the market. Roadmaps Roadmaps in Notion are great for visualizing a project plan and allowing everyone to see what steps, resources, and people are involved. Notion lets you build roadmaps and sync them with the projects or tasks you have in your databases. Moreover, you can easily create a roadmap using built-in templates as well. To start building your roadmap in Notion, create a new database (for the Roadmap) and populate it with all the necessary properties you need, such as projects, deadlines, tasks, and more. If you need to add multiple tasks, create a template to save time. Once done, you can share your roadmap with the rest of the team by providing them with workspace access. Customize Views Notion allows you the flexibility of viewing your to-dos in either a traditional to-do list format or a visual timeline. Additionally, you can view it as a table for a more structured approach, as a gallery for a visual overview, or as a calendar for easy scheduling and planning. ✶ Want to use Notion for content management? See the pros and cons Pros of Using Notion for Project Management There are multiple benefits to using Notion for project management, including the following: Cost efficient – Notion is an all-in-one workspace that eliminates the need for companies to acquire and use separate CRM, onboarding, and project management tools.User-friendly – Once you master Notion's many features, producing pages and content should be easier than on other platforms.Time-saving – Notion has many time-saving features that make it simple to create content, take notes, organize projects, automate workflows, or assign tasks. As users don't need to switch between apps, they can quickly update content from their workspace. Additionally, the many templates available and Notion shortcuts make it easy to get started right away. All these amount to great Notion productivity.Portable – Notion is compatible with many devices. Its various features are accessible to users through its web, desktops, or mobile app. ✶ Notion search sucks: see why and how to improve it Cons of Using Notion for Project Management Despite its multiple advantages, there are also some disadvantages of Notion when using the solution for project management. Overwhelming – Notion's approach to organizing content is based on using blocks for every element, which can initially feel overwhelming for new users. To take advantage of Notion's extensive range of features and templates, users will need to invest some time in learning how to use the interface effectively. Once they become familiar with the platform, they will be able to leverage its full potential. This is particularly true when it comes to Notion search. No goal tracking – Large projects are often broken down into phases or important milestones so that project managers can keep track of what's been accomplished and what's pending. However, there's no way to set benchmarks or monitor your progress toward targets, as all you have to work with are checklists.No reporting tool – Without a built-in reporting tool, you’ll need a third-party reporting app to track your team's performance.Lack of communication features – While everyone can edit and comment on the same pages, there isn't really a way to talk to other team members on the platform. Despite these Notion disadvantages, the solution continues to be highly sought-after. Supercharge Project Management With Unleash Notion is an excellent tool for improving collaboration, task management, document management, and project tracking. It is an exceptional content and project management tool for individuals and organizations. However, it may not be the most suitable option for large enterprises with complex project management needs. To optimize project management in such cases, a robust search tool like Unleash can be beneficial. After all, in today’s day and age of burgeoning data, search is more important than ever.

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Productivity How Enterprise Search Improves Sales Productivity In The Team Ever wondered what is the biggest productivity obstacle for sales teams? Forrester's sales activity studies have consistently shown that "finding content and information is a significant productivity obstacle for sales teams." Sales reps have built their lives around the excitement and the energy of the office environment. In a viral blink of an eye, the world took a hiatus, everyone went remote, and sales leaders and teams had to develop new ways to be productive outside of their natural working environment. By transitioning from a world of paper files to a world of digital tools, each carrying out a different function in their everyday task, sales reps struggled to fully find all the information they needed to understand and close a prospect. Before sending that first email to launch a sales cycle, sales reps would have had to switch between a plethora of tools first. However, you can get rid of this barrier and compress your sales cycle with fast searching across your company. You can improve your sales team's productivity by making it easier for them to access all the content on these tools to cut down the process of diving deep into a lot of apps to find information. Eliminate Content Silos With a Unified Access Point One of the blockers hindering the sales team's productivity is the inability to easily access important information and content that their marketing counterparts create. 81% of sales leaders mentioned "content search and utilization" as the top area for improving productivity. Only 46% of sales reps believe that they have enough data and insight into a prospect's intent. Data silos frustrate employees by creating multiple bottlenecks. Sales reps often struggle with putting in their very best because they don't know the information available to them and how to find it in the company's shared database. It's even worse when another department, like product or marketing, creates and stores the content. Content silos refer to the practice of storing information or data in isolated systems or applications that are not easily accessible or shareable with other systems or applications. This can lead to inefficiencies and difficulties in collaboration, and missed opportunities for leveraging data across the organization. Adopting an enterprise search tool makes it easy for sales reps to access data and other forms of content. It serves as a single, searchable home for all your content assets. It's not enough to organize content by factors such as sales stage, industry, persona, or segment. Having a single point of access to all prospect and customer data can heavily contribute to the productivity of your sales team. With one click, they should be able to access all the information they need on: Accounts, Leads, Product updates, Etc. For example, HubSpot's implementation of a sales enablement platform resulted in a 32% increase in closed deals. A unified access point eliminates content silos by providing a centralized platform for all relevant content, which increases productivity and efficiency. Having quick access to all necessary information, results in faster sales cycles and increased revenue. When it becomes easier for sales reps to find relevant content and data to use in their everyday activities, it saves time and money. They can stop spending time on repetitive tasks, like constantly scrolling through the company's database. Instead, they can spend that time focusing on creating pitches, drafting follow-up messages, and building winning sales strategies. Get a 360-View of Prospects and Clients According to another HubSpot's Sales Enablement Report, prospects' buying habits have changed in a post-pandemic world, and sales reps now have to close deals virtually instead of in person. Transitioning to a remote operation model came with incorporating even more tools to understand the prospect and their behaviors. In fact, 72% of salespeople say they need to have at least three screens with multiple tabs open to get that 360-view of their prospects and leads. A 360-degree view of prospects means having a complete understanding of a potential customer by considering all available data and information about them, which helps sales teams to personalize their outreach better and increase sales. A unified search platform can provide a centralized location for all relevant data, helping sales reps find the information they need to personalize their outreach and increase conversion rates for prospects and clients. With businesses already using many apps to document prospect information and behavior, sales reps have to know the exact location of every piece of information if they want to get to it quickly. Before picking up the phone to make that sales call, they need to conduct an appropriate amount of research, and searching for this information can take more time than expected. With a better search tool, they can quickly type in one keyword, e.g., the prospect's name, and get all the necessary information. For example, a B2B sales rep can type in the name of the company they're trying to close and get a full view of them and how they've interacted with the brand. Quickly Find Answers to Urgent Questions Marketing, customer success, product, and sales teams work cross-functionally to convert prospects to retained customers. In most cases, the prospect doesn't interact with the sales team until much later in the buying funnel, after having multiple interactions with the brand. When a sales rep is on the phone with a prospect, it is important that they have all the information relating to that prospect in front of them to make the call go smoothly. The rep can get questions that only the product team can answer on a sales call, but the prospect wants an immediate answer. If the sales rep can't immediately do a quick search and get answers to a prospect's questions, it reduces the confidence in the product, and the company can lose that lead. Using a unified search platform provides sales reps with easy access to relevant information from different systems and departments. With efficient and effective contextual search, sales reps can instantly find answers to urgent questions. Contextual search helps sales reps search for data without having to remember the exact title of a document to locate it. For example, a sales rep wrote a prospecting email template in one of their monthly reports. With contextual search, they don't have to remember the exact report; they can easily search for some words in the template to find it. Unleash Your Sales Productivity One productivity problem facing sales teams stands out above the rest: fast, easy access to all the resources and data they need. Thankfully, this is a situation you can solve with a better company-wide search tool! With a one-click intranet search tool like Unleash, your sales team can change how they approach the information they need. Instead of navigating many tools and apps to find different bits of information, they can easily download one tool and search their entire tech stack at once. Unleash provides a Google-like search solution that enables everyone in the organization to find every piece of information in one spot. It connects with more than 30 apps and quickly brings you the data and content you need. Learn more about how Unleash can significantly improve your sales team's productivity problems.

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Enterprise search 7 Best Enterprise Search Engines for Navigating the Data Maze An organization that cannot efficiently handle its data will not be able to reach its peak potential. Office workers can spend as much as 19% of their total work week just looking for the information needed to do their jobs, according to a McKinsey report. Enterprise search engines are the solution for this productivity bottleneck. An organization’s body of knowledge comprises data in different formats and media. Tables, reports, emails, spreadsheets, videos, and images—the list goes on. It can be exhausting to navigate all of this manually. Luckily, enterprise search software makes indexing, searching, and displaying specific content to authorized users in the organization possible. The advantages of using enterprise search solutions include improved productivity, greater efficiency, and employee satisfaction. ✶ Find out how enterprise search improves internal communication A Quick Look at the Best Enterprise Search Engines for Navigating the Data Maze Don’t let mountains of data overwhelm your business. There are enterprise search tools that make knowledge management and navigating the data maze a convenient exercise. Let’s look at the most popular and useful ones. Best Overall Enterprise Search Engine: UnleashBest for Lightning-Fast Search: AlgoliaBest for Open-Source Scalability: Apache SolrBest for Distributed Search and Analytics: ElasticBest for AI-Led Relevance: CoveoBest for Digital Knowledge Management: YextBest for Integrations With Minimal Development: Addsearch 1. Unleash: Best Overall Enterprise Search Engine What is Unleash? Unleash is a cloud-based enterprise search platform that allows you to search across all of your organization’s apps and knowledge library and find all the information in one place. How Does Unleash work? Unleash works by connecting to your company’s entire knowledge database. Its enhanced information findability means all your searches will have quick results and data silos are broken down. With the power of AI and semantic search, the Unleash search engine is smart enough to consider synonyms and related concepts to deliver relevant information. It also works on various platforms: Embedded in the company portalThrough a fully kitted web and desktop appAs a browser extensionVia a Slackbot ProsCan perform a semantic search for related keywords and synonymsSeamlessly integrates with the company portalsSaves workers’ time and energyConsRequires a subscription FAQ 2. Algolia: Best for Lightning-Fast Search What is Algolia Search? Algolia is software that allows anybody to create intuitive and dynamic digital search and discovery experiences. So why Algolia? Its flexibility means it can be used for both customer- and employee-facing websites or applications. How Algolia Search Works To use Algolia search, you don’t need to be a tech wizard. This cloud-based software has free and paid versions, and both are easy to set up. You may be wondering if Algolia is open-source, and it's not, but it is available under a commercial SaaS license. The chief selling point is adaptive learning with AI, called NeuralSearch. This, along with the natural language understanding functionality, means Algolia is used to deliver search results even without keywords being used. ProsYields speedy search resultsUses AI for adaptive learningCan understand search queries even without keywordsConsRequires a level of technical proficiency FAQ 3. Apache Solr: Best for Open-Source Scalability What is Apache Solr? Apache Solr is an open-source enterprise search platform built on Apache Lucene. So why Apache Solr? It's optimized for high-volume traffic and is highly scalable and fault-tolerant. You can also use Apache Solr to navigate full-text searches on your platform, as well as additional functions like: Distributed indexingReplication and load-balanced queryingAutomated failover and recoveryCentralized configuration How Apache Solr Works It’s fairly easy to get started once you know how to install Apache Solr, which Apache Solr has an extensive guide on how to do it. It’s free to download, open source, and has a wealth of learning material. Because of its distributed indexing and filtering, it's more straightforward to identify and isolate the users and content you are searching for. Apache Solr can scan text files within its indexes in the following formats: JSONXMLCSVBinary over HTTP Results are received via JSON, XML, CSV, or binary results. ProsCommunity-supported and freeEasy to isolate users and content with search indicesOffers tutorials for new usersConsScaling up the enterprise search solution is complicatedSpecialized for text search, not multimedia search FAQ 4. Elasticsearch: Best for Distributed Search and Analytics What is Elasticsearch? Built with Java, Elasticsearch is a NoSQL database that allows stored data to be read from your disk when needed and the heap is basically used as working memory and should account for about 50% of available RAM. The popular tech stack for knowledge management is named ELK (Elastic, Logstash, Kibana) because of how pivotal Elasticsearch's software is. The Elasticsearch Relevance Engine (ESRE) uses both artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to deliver fast and reliable search results. How Does Elasticsearch Work? Elasticsearch's all-inclusive design is meant to be used for easier, more efficient searches. So, why use Elasticsearch? It enables ambitious game developers to build any kind of search application or data management program they can imagine. You can install it using their hosted site, with their various install packages, or using their Java version. The most simple would be to get an Elastic Cloud account, choose your tools, and build the optimal search experience for users. However, Elastic struggles to perform as efficiently when searching through huge datasets. ProsCompatible on every platformEasy to create backupsFlexibility of data sourcesConsLimited in terms of customization and security features Can be challenging to learn FAQ 5. Coveo: Best for AI-Led Relevance What is Coveo Search? Coveo is a cloud-based, intelligent enterprise search platform. It uses AI recommendation and personalization to increase the relevance of every user’s experience. How Does Coveo Search Work? Coveo is a secure and scalable enterprise search solution. If you're wondering if Coveo is any good, it's worth noting that it uses connectors and APIs to find results regardless of format, making it a versatile solution. The easy indexing and unified search experience mean content can be accessed no matter where it is located. Coveo’s enterprise search platform’s pricing is based on a subscription model with flexible payment plans. Cross-platform compatibility lets Coveo integrate seamlessly with your company’s tech stack and simplify searching for content. ProsYields results regardless of the content’s location or formatConnects data sources through APIs and connectorsGives AI-enhanced search results based on contextConsRequires a subscriptionDisplays unsorted results with no option to sort them FAQ 6. Yext: Best for Digital Knowledge Management What is Yext? Yext lets users create end-to-end digital experiences that result in smoother, faster enterprise search results. How Does Yext Work? Yext has many features that allow it to analyze data, organize your content, and deliver direct answers to any search queries from customers or employees, depending on your use case. This AI-powered enterprise search engine uses natural language understanding and semantic search to deliver results on your website, app, or any other platform. You can also push your structured data from Yext to third-party search engines. If you’re wondering if Yext is worth it, you can try a free trial to test if it fulfills your needs. ProsEmploys neural network to respond to keyword-based queriesOffers free trial Can build your own search networkConsExpensive enterprise search solutionLimited data analytics functionality FAQ 7. Addsearch: Best for Integrations With Minimal Development What is AddSearch? AddSearch is a dedicated enterprise search platform for companies that run a website. This smart site search solution is designed to deliver stunningly fast results on any website or application. How Does AddSearch Work? AddSearch’s site search feature uses a self-learning algorithm to learn site-visitor patterns and adjust search results accordingly. The look and feel of its multi-domain enterprise search engine can be customized according to your site’s aesthetic. Your site search results will always be current, thanks to a web crawler. This software is especially useful for those running e-commerce sites. ProsHighlights popular results from past searchesMulti-domain search platformConsThe web crawler causes difficulties in indexing content by making too many requests in a short period FAQ ✶ Want to know more? Learn the key features you need in an enterprise search tool Take Control of Your Data Maze with Enterprise Search Tools Empowering employees with a powerful enterprise search engine is a surefire way to boost productivity. Information is made easier to access, making decisions and forming strategies more straightforward. Say goodbye to time-consuming data navigation by adopting a tool like Unleash. An enterprise search engine doesn’t just deliver query results; it also delivers satisfaction and efficiency.

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Productivity Enterprise Search: The Missing Link for Information Silos Are information silos killing employee productivity at your organization? Chances are the answer is yes, even if you don’t realize it. Companies today are increasingly using more apps: Studies from the last three years found enterprises, on average, now use between 100 and 288 SaaS apps. Switching between so many apps makes it harder for employees to find information when they need it. But before you decide to cut back on the number of apps you use, consider using a tool that bridges your apps together by searching everything at once. You need an enterprise search tool that’s built for today’s SaaS-centric workplace. Enterprise search simplifies the process of tracking down information across many disparate information sources, reducing employee legwork, and increasing access to institutional knowledge. Information Silos Create Bottlenecks and Frustrate Employees Employees are tired of clunky software that wastes their time and makes tracking down the information they need a hassle. In fact, an Oracle survey uncovered a major problem for employee engagement and productivity when they talked to salespeople about their experience at work: “72% need to have at least three screens or windows open at once.” That’s not ideal, but it’s not the end of the world. Switching between windows could get irritating or slow employee productivity, but it’s not, in and of itself, a crisis. However, when you consider the employee experience, it’s clear many organizations have a lot of work to do. In the same survey, when Oracle asked these respondents what they would rather do than deal with the software they have to use at work, the answers revealed a major problem. Two-thirds said they would rather go to the dentist, wait in line at the DMV, or clean the bathroom (among other unpleasant tasks). It’s no wonder employees are having trouble tracking down information when the software they use each day is comparable to a root canal. If the software you provide for your employees is so frustrating to use they would rather do some of the most universally-hated chores, you need to rethink your tech stack. Sadly, this issue isn’t new. In fact, information silos have been helping companies shoot themselves in the foot since at least 2007. And the problem has made plenty of headlines over the years and has been the subject of many surveys and polls, like this poll from 2012 that found “the unnecessary replication of pre-existing work is the biggest productivity challenge among engineering and product development teams.” So if this has been a problem for a long time, why hasn’t it gotten better by now? The short answer is that the tools available to tackle this issue haven’t measured up until now. And other issues have contributed to the challenges employees face. ✶ Learn how making the most out of Dropbox search can help with knowledge hoarding Cloud Sprawl Scatters Information Across SAAS Apps Adding to the problem of information silos is cloud sprawl – the increasing number of cloud-based applications and storage options organizations of all sizes are using. Specialized apps are perfect for adding new tools and functionality for employees, but they make it even harder to find the information employees need. Cloud sprawl is making the problem of information silos worse, and tech leaders are looking for a better way: “Since the beginning of IT, there’s been a history of unused space, underutilized compute, unchecked storage growth, and limitless levels of virtual systems that weigh down organizations financially and expose them to security risks. The cloud was created, in part, to mitigate this waste, but cloud sprawl has created new challenges due to lack of governance and strategy.” If enterprises are already using hundreds of apps, what happens when employees at these organizations are looking for specific files or numbers? How long does it take them to find what they’re looking for? They have to already know which of the 100+ apps contains the data they need or search apps one by one. Unfortunately, while the general issue of cloud sprawl is increasingly being addressed, the issue of search is rarely part of the conversation. This is a big missed opportunity — the core problem is accessing and sorting information in the many SaaS apps, not the existence of the tools themselves. The Right Enterprise Search Tool Makes Information Easy to Find Most enterprises will not be able to stop using cloud-based applications altogether, nor should they. Apps provide too much value to be replaced at this point in time. Instead of attempting to restrict the number of apps and services you use, it’s more efficient to simply change the way you approach finding information. With a good enterprise search tool, organizations don’t need to perform regular tech stack audits to cull SaaS tools to prevent overwhelming their employees. They simply need to download the tool and connect their apps. Within minutes, they can search across the entire tech stack at once. This general concept isn’t new. In fact, one of the most successful brands of all time has tackled this issue in another context: Google. When they started in the late ’90s, Larry Page and Sergey Brin were on a mission to organize the world’s information through search. They recognized that even though the internet had only just reached widespread use, it was already quickly becoming cluttered with web pages and no good way to sort through them. Google is a good example of how a smart approach to search can simplify finding information. With just the internet, enterprises can quickly amass a lot of information without an easy way for people to find what they need. One well-designed tool can change everything. If you want high employee engagement and the ability to attract highly qualified applicants, make sure your systems and processes aren’t draining employee morale and productivity. ✶ Learn how to deal with GitHub issues quickly Unleash Is Your Single Source of Search With Unleash, you can give your employees a central place to search everything across the enterprise. That includes searching inside emails, documents, calendars, and more. Unleash provides a Google-like search solution that enables everyone in the organization to find every piece of information in one spot. We save each of our users about 1.5–2 hours a week searching for information because Unleash adapts to the way you already work. For a 100-person organization, Unleash could save up to 200 hours every single week. Our AI-driven search technology connects SaaS applications and isolated data silos, like Slack, Notion, Jira, G-suite, Confluence, GitHub, Salesforce, AWS, Microsoft365, and many more. Detailed search filters let you browse through your information just as quickly as searching. The comprehensive index the search engine builds, combined with our advanced relevancy and ranking algorithms, creates a seamless, personalized search experience for each employee that gets better the more they use it. Unleash also includes features outside of search to make your day even easier — you can search and then launch applications or compose a new document in just a few clicks. Unleash provides a wide variety of client experiences, from desktop to mobile, browser extensions, instant spotlight search bar, a Slack bot, intranet embedding, and more. No matter how you work, Unleash can accommodate your workflows. Learn more about how Unleash can solve the search problem at your organization.

A drawing of a woman with a VR interface using personalized search

Productivity 4 Alternatives to Elasticsearch That Are Powerful & Effective Managing an organization’s entire data library is a Herculean task. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found that office workers spend as much as 19% of their entire workweek just gathering the information they need for their tasks. Ultimately, employees need an effective way to navigate this expanse of data, which is where enterprise search engines come in. One of the most widely used ones is Elasticsearch. Elasticsearch has become a central component in the ELK (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) tech stack, which many companies use to search and analyze their data. But that doesn’t mean Elasticsearch is your only choice for enterprise search engines. Several Elasticsearch competitors offer products and services that make enterprise search functions a breeze. Let’s look at some paid and free alternatives to Elasticsearch. What is Elasticsearch? Elasticsearch, introduced as a tool for developers and teams, enables the creation of search-powered applications. This distributed, open, and accessible search and analytics engine is adept at handling various data types, from textual and numerical to geospatial. By setting up an Elastic Cloud account, users can choose tools and design their own implementation, optimizing search experiences and analyzing user behaviors. However, limitations in certain functionalities like customization, security, and data source support have prompted businesses to look for Elasticsearch replacements. So, why the surge in interest for alternatives? Elasticsearch has been a staple since its inception in 2010 as free, open-source software, but when it transitioned to a proprietary license in 2021. Long-standing users took this change as a signal that there's a need to explore other technologies. Our Top Picks for the Best Elasticsearch Alternatives The enterprise search market in the US is witnessing a period of growth. It was valued at $4.21 billion in 2022, and research points to compound annual growth of 8.9% annually until 2030. Here are some reliable Elasticsearch competitors as more companies recognize the importance of efficient enterprise search engines. Best Smart Enterprise Search Engine: UnleashBest Search Solution for E-Commerce: AlgoliaBest Robust Open-Source Text Search Engine: SolrBest Precision-Oriented Text Search Engine: Spinhx Unleash: Best Smart Enterprise Search Engine If you’re seeking a paid enterprise search engine better than Elasticsearch, look no further than Unleash. It streamlines productivity in your organization by making information more discoverable than ever. The Unleash search engine connects a company’s entire knowledge base across platforms and devices. Say goodbye to data silos in your organizational knowledge! By delivering quick search results, Unleash saves employees’ time and energy for more critical tasks. Some features that make Unleash stand out as better than Elasticsearch and other competitors include its semantic searchability. This means the search engine is smart enough to consider synonyms and related concepts when providing results for your queries. Enhanced with AI capabilities and the ability to integrate into company portals seamlessly, Unleash searches every folder and application, standing out as the best in its league. ProsSemantic search understandingAI-enhanced capabilitiesSeamless company integrationQuick search resultsConsPotentially costly for some organizations Algolia: Best Search Solution for E-Commerce Another popular alternative to Elasticsearch, Algolia, is an AI-powered search and discovery platform. Its powerful application programming interface (API) platform lets users quickly search for content. App developers and companies can use the Algolia API to build their own native search experiences for users. This makes it popular with software engineers and e-commerce businesses. ProsAI-powered searchRobust API for custom experiencesFast search functionalityConsExpensive for small businessesLimited customization in search parameters Solr: Best Robust Open-Source Text Search Engine If Elasticsearch’s former open-source nature was part of its appeal for you, Solr is a worthy replacement. It’s even older than Elasticsearch, first launching in 2006, and despite its age, it remains supported open-source and is still supported by a strong community today. For companies that need a robust search engine that focuses on text searches and related operations, Solr is a good fit. The only drawback is that scaling up search operations through Solr is complicated and can only be accomplished using affiliated products like SolrCloud and Zookeeper. ProsOpen-sourceStrong text search capabilitiesLong-standing supportConsComplex scalingSteep learning curve Sphinx: Best Precision-Oriented Text Search Engine Sphinx is an open-source, full-text search engine that is a notable competitor to Elasticsearch. Not only can it function as a storage engine or a standalone server, but its indexer also creates a comprehensive index on all hosted data, ensuring precise data retrieval based on its index. Sphinx has attributes linked to the data it manages, making it easy to integrate with user applications. However, while it excels in text searches, it might not be the best fit for more diverse use cases. ProsOpen-sourceComprehensive indexingEasy integration with applicationsConsLimited to text searchesCan be challenging to set up Choose the Right Enterprise Search Engine for Your Business A smooth integration with your company's infrastructure is crucial for an effective enterprise search engine. Difficulty accessing information can discourage users, both internal and external. That’s why it’s essential to find a solution that’s flexible, scalable, and reliable. If you’re looking for a speedy way to access all your company’s knowledge in one place, try Unleash. It’s an enterprise search engine built for the modern workplace and will unlock new productivity levels in your organization.