Search is important, but not viewed as a key component in Information Governance, according to the results of an annual SharePoint Metadata Survey completed by Concept Searching, a developer of semantic metadata generation, auto-classification, and taxonomy management software.

Almost 400 organisations using SharePoint were asked how they are using metadata and/or the SharePoint Term Store to manage unstructured content. The survey questions sought to solicit feedback on how, or if, organisations were using metadata to drive applications such as search, records management, protection of privacy and confidential information, migration, and to a lesser extent applications such as text analytics, collaboration, and social content. 

In response to the survey search questions, applications such as records management, and even collaboration and text analytics ranked slightly ahead of enterprise search. Yet, applications that rely heavily on search such as eDiscovery and litigation support were priority challenges faced by the respondents but were viewed as separate applications even though search forms the backbone of each application. 

In regards to the role of search as it applies to information governance, the survey found there seemed to be a lack of understanding on what exactly information governance is, let alone a view that search was critical to an information governance plan.

Martin Garland, President of Concept Searching commented “This is a trend we have been seeing for years. Search is still viewed as a point solution and not as part of an enterprise wide infrastructure framework.” 

He added “Until organisations build search and a metadata repository into their infrastructure, search applications will deliver mediocrity at best and information governance plans will continue to fail placing an increasing number of organisations at risk.”

Concept Searching believes the traditional approach to improve search continues to fail and what really matters is the ability to provide rich and meaningful contextual metadata that, when consumed by the search engine index, will deliver a more intelligent search experience for the end user.