For many years now, the FT Search Manager has been presenting search results in table format, like a Notes View;
This is useful because it allows additional functionality like re-sorting results by column, then 'Jumping To' results starting with a specific string;
It also allows re-searching by Facet, as show here with a Date facet;
However some users rightly complained that they found the spacing on large screens difficult to navigate, and when we looked at common web search engines, they had a point. Those search engines all truncate result widths at 100 characters or less.
Therefore we've allowed users to (optionally) select a different result format. Like all the other options, Administrators can default it to their preference then prevent it being changed, or let users decide.
This then displays results truncated in a 'list' format, with the UI being customisable as usual;
Re-sorting results by column and facet-based searching is no longer possible, but you can still perform other functions, like selecting & processing results (and you can define your own processing options also);
For more information, demos & downloads, please visit the FT Search Manager page.
In general, mail files contain a lot of duplicated data, due to the 'Reply With History' function.
So if you search for a phrase in the first email of a thread, you'll probably receive results from ALL the other emails in the thread as well, which clogs up the result set and makes it harder to find your target.
The IONET FT Search Manager now optionally allows users to de-duplicate mail results, displaying only the latest entry in the thread, containing all information from the rest of the thread.
This makes it much easier to find target data, as you don't have to wade through a lot of very similar, repeated results. Of course you can still search normally if you're looking for a specific email.
Without De-Duplication
With De-Duplication
You can also use our 'Navigate to Query' option to automatically move to the first instance of the search term used, which speeds up the target identification process.
And seeing as email is person-person communication, specifying a name in the query (or a domain name) increases search accuracy significantly.
Try it out free of charge and with no obligation, and we think you'll be surprised at the results.
The IONET FT Search Manager - Targeted Notes searching
Earlier this month, we ran a survey with our FT Search Manager users.
We asked them how much time, per employee per week, they thought the FT Search Manager was saving them.
The average answer was 1 hour 23 minutes per person, per week. That equates to a saving of 8.3 days per person, per year, as described by the users themselves.
Note that we restricted the survey results to 'general' searching only, e.g. Mail/Archive & Application searching, because companies using the FT Search Manager for Discovery/Compliance searching have specialised search requirements, saving even more time, as shown below in the Appendix.
Saving each user over 8 days per year is a huge efficiency improvement. And because the FT Search Manager has a once-only, per-user price between $3 - $13 per user (depending on volume), it's also a fantastic ROI.
Example
A company with 1000 users implements the FT Search Manager, with a total product cost (once-only), of $7750. After 1 year, they've saved 66,400 hours, or 8300 days.
That's the equivalent of adding another 33 employees. And at an average US salary of $48,000*, well over $1,000,000 in potential productivity gains.
And the great thing is, the same gains are made year after year.
This is achieved because more efficient search tools make much better use of your existing data. In this case it's our search tool, but it could be any.
For more information, demonstrations, or to set up a trial, please visit http://www.ionetsoftware.com/search.
* source: http://www.ofm.wa.gov/trends/economy/fig102.asp
Appendix: Specialist Searching
Survey responses received from companies using the FT Search Manager for Discovery/Compliance/Specialist searching;
"Well FT Search Manager is now an absolute 'must' for XXX. Because of the volume of data we have to split it across multiple databases. And what the users are searching for is the number of times a particular device failure for a specified device from a particular manufacturer has happened in the last n months. The results will be in a minimum of 2 Notes databases - active and relatively recently completed investigations. ......So they use it every day, a lot. Anything up to 40 people use it to process 250 - 300 reports a week. If it saves them 5 minutes per report then that would be up to 1500 minutes a week."
"It can save between 20 minutes a week to many hours. It is most useful as an administrator when I get asked to perform a legal discovery search where I can search for a string of words in a date range in 3000 odd email archives. I could not do this previously."
"For us, it's about how much time it saves each time we get an open records (Discovery) request. In the past it would take often several hours per request (about 4 requests per month). Now it takes a maximum of 30 minutes per request. The other benefit is that the search is consistent across mailboxes and the criteria can be printed for future reference."
"Our Legal department request me to do a search over a number of user's databases (incl archived mail ) and export all data to an external harddisk. I have done this several times and I could not have done this without the FT Search tool."
"What it did do at the time when we used it was save us 100's of man hours sifting through mail files and collating that into results"
The latest version of the FT Search Manager allows you to 'Search Within Results' in the Notes Client.
This means that when searching your Mail & Archives, Applications, or performing Discovery/Compliance searching, you can search within the result set multiple times, and also back out each step (e.g. to change a search term, correct a typo etc).
Refining a search in this way makes it a lot easier to find target information.
For example, a search of Mail & Archives for 'IBM', initially returns 2404 results;
Then Search Within Results for 'partner*';
Total now = 1492 results
Search Within Results again for 'PWCS' (total now = 34 results)
Search Within Results again for 'signed' (total now = 9 results)
Search Within Results again for 'PSWWUA' (it's the wrong spelling, so no results)
Therefore back out 1 level via the "Undo Search Within Results", to get back to the 'Signed' query (9 results). Note you can keep backing out the Search Within Results until you're back to your original query.
Now Search Within Results again on the correct term 'PWSWUA' (total = 3 results)
Proximity Operator
We've also added a NEAR proximity operator, which can be more accurate than AND.
For example, a search for Mark AND Partner returns 90 results;
whereas a search for Mark NEAR Partner returns only 8 results;
'NEAR' is defined as being within 10 words, but you can also define that yourself, e.g. to 20 words
You can also combine the NEAR operator with Search Within Results;
To try it yourself, please just download from http://www.ionetsoftware.com/search.
