The ability to search and find information is critical to every large enterprise. Have you spent money on search engines or KM tools like SharePoint and found that your employees won’t use the tool because they cannot find anything? More importantly when they find the information is it useful and current? EK developed the Action Oriented Search Workshop to give organizations a framework to solve their most common search problems.
EK’s Action Oriented Search Workshop was developed by consultants who have worked on over a hundred search projects for companies around the world. We’ve taken the knowledge gained from these projects to identify a better approach to designing and implementing enterprise search solutions. We call this new approach Action Oriented Search and have shared this with all of our clients.
What is Action Oriented Search and Why Will it Make a Difference?
The problem with most search solutions is that they are designed only to gather information and display search results. The assumption is that as long as the information is collected, the search engine will help people find what they need. This approach does not scale. Action Oriented Search takes search design to the next level. Most searchers are looking for information that they need in order to complete a task. It is not enough to help them find this information. Effective search solutions help people complete the task they’re working on. Action Oriented Search principles are applied by leading search solutions around the world. You can see this approach in Google every time you execute one of the following searches.
| Search Term | Sample Results |
| Italian restaurants in Arlington |  |
| Microsoft |  |
| Winter Jackets |  |
The consistent feature of all of these searches is the focus on what the searchers are trying to accomplish. Google displays custom formatted results specific to what they think people will do with the information that is being displayed. People looking at restaurants want to know the location, type of food, a rating and how to contact them so that they can pick a place to eat. People searching for Microsoft may want to know about the company or quickly access specific areas of their website for help with a product. People searching for winter jackets may want to buy a jacket or compare prices on jackets.
Organizations that follow our Action Oriented Search process can create these same results with their content. Our customers have used this process to create:
- People to help find experts across the organization;
- Decisions to better communicate executive decisions; and
- Events to encourage customers to sign up for conferences.
What will your search results be?
The Workshop
The workshop is a two day session where we teach both IT and business representatives best practices around designing and implementing search solutions. We do breakout sessions with representative groups where we design action oriented search results that can be implemented immediately.
After the workshop we deliver a report that explains the new action oriented search results and provides a roadmap showing how to bring your existing or planned search solutions to the next level.
Interested in booking an Action Oriented Search Workshop for your team or organization? Contact us at info@enterprise-knowledge.com.