Tag Archives: X1 Search

June 8, 2015 · 5:49 PM

Using Search to Solve the Email Overload Problem

by Barry Murphy

There was an interesting article from The Information Governance Initiative about email overload and information governance. The quote that caught my eye is “in today’s fast-paced business world, the name of the game is productivity.”  X1 Search is a tool that many are using for just that – business productivity search. But, more than that, X1 Search can complement information governance efforts and help solve the email overload problem.

The IGI article states that “IG practitioners need to take a proactive approach in order to truly understand the realities of email overload and the entire scope of their organizations’ communications.”  I believe that IG is extremely important, especially in an information economy. The challenge is that it can be hard for IG to gain real traction unless companies have a senior executive with clout, power, and money who cares about it. Whether or not that executive exists at a given organization is hit or miss at best. IG programs will take time to gain traction and help employees be more productive.

But the email overload problem continues to exist. And, it is not simply about inbox management. Rather, it is across email that is on a server, or in an archive, or in a PST file. It is easy to forget that many organizations still have PST files on desktops or have moved them out to file servers. There is a customer using X1 to solve the “PSTs on file shares” problem.  What this customer does is use X1 Rapid Discovery to index the PSTs once, and then use X1 Search as the interface to that information. Users can quickly filter through years of emails to find exactly what they are looking for and to take action on it.

This customer uses X1 to complement IG processes and policies. With Rapid Discovery, those PSTs are now easily discoverable for litigation needs, instead of the previous need to forensically image desktops to get at the information. This creates a win-win and negates the need to do expensive migration of PSTs to an archive or to the cloud. At the same time, employees can deal with the email overload problem better because they are much faster at finding the right emails to do their jobs. It is an interesting use-case whereby the customer solved several problems at once and did so in a pragmatic way. The employee happiness with the X1 Search tool is the cherry on top of the sundae because it is a lasting benefit over the long-term.

IG projects can be painful and time-consuming and, if funded properly, often go nowhere. Fitting X1 into your IG program can save time, save money, and keep employees productive at the same time. For any organization seeking a quick IG win to prove the value IG brings to the company, X1 should be on the list.

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Filed under Best Practices, Business Productivity Search, Enterprise Search, Information Governance

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April 9, 2015 · 8:56 AM

Gartner Names X1 A Cool Vendor In Endpoint Computing, 2015

It is always gratifying to receive market recognition for your products.  At X1, there is major momentum around the X1 Search Virtual product that enables desktop search in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), without the need for Windows indexing (which chews up a lot of VDI resources).  Gartner_cool_venderBecause the user experience is key to broader VDI adoption, the X1 Search capabilities complement VDI technology very well.

At X1, we are extremely proud to be included in the list of “Cool Vendors” in the EndPoint Computing 2015 report by Gartner.  According to Gartner’s report, “endpoint computing vendors are trying to innovate with products that address old problems as well as products that address shortcomings of new technologies.” Platforms like VDI and DaaS hold great promise, but the user experience with VDI is often suboptimal, thereby hindering widespread adoption

Gartner makes remarks about X1 in the Key Findings and Recommendations section of the report. It is extremely gratifying to get this kind of recognition from the respected analysts at Gartner. Please read the full report to learn what Gartner has to say.

The market recognition is coming from customers, too.  Check out the compelling case study of a large Federal government DoD agency deploying X1 Search Virtual to provide users with a superior search experience.  It’s a great example of customers realizing that end-users need to be satisfied with technology in order to adopt it.

X1 Search provides users the ability to search a single, unified interface for content that may live in diverse locations – email, files, network file shares, email archives, Box and SharePoint. With X1’s single-pane-of-glass view of this content, workers can very quickly find the information no matter where it lives.

For a complimentary copy of the Cool Vendors in Endpoint Computing, 2015 report, please click here.

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March 16, 2015 · 5:59 PM

X1 Changes the Game in Hybrid Cloud Search with Box Connector

by Barry Murphy

The Enterprise File Sync and Share (EFSS) category is hot right now.  This is not a surprising fact.  In the research document Parting Enterprise Users From Consumer EFSS Solutions Will Be a Challenge, Gartner estimates that, “by 2018, 50% of an enterprise’s data will reside external to the data center.”  EFSS vendors provide enterprises with more structured ways to collaborate and share information both on-premise and in the cloud.  The Gartner document goes on to state that, “an off-premises public cloud implementation of EFSS can help an organization isolate data from its data center and simplify easy sharing of information assets to individuals outside the firewall and located across multiple regions.”  For these reasons, EFSS vendors like Box are growing rapidly and gaining large enterprise customers.

Obviously, if half of an enterprise’s data will reside external to the data center, then half will still live within the data center or locally on users’ machines.  No matter where data is being stored, though, the fact remains that the ability to search that data will be critically important.  Workers still demand unified access to their most important information assets, and they want a highly intuitive search experience with fast-as-you-type search results regardless of where the data lives.  In other words, users require business productivity search.  X1, with the Box connector, provides just that in a way that not only pleases users, but also gives IT a lot of flexibility.

With X1’s Box Connector, users can now add Box accounts as data sources, and search emails, files, SharePoint, and now Box content in a single-pane-of-glass.

Box screenshot

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Not only do users get a single interface in which they can search across all of their critical content, but they also get all of the benefits that simply come with X1 – fast-as-you-type search results, full-fidelity document preview, and post-search actions (PSAs).  In the case of Box content, the PSAs are valuable because they are specific to things users would normally do within Box.  For example, directly in the X1 interface, users can elect to send a document as an attachment or as a link.

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In addition, users can integrate Box more directly into their personal workflows because X1 will allow a PSA on content from other data sources (e.g. SharePoint) to Box.

This is important, as IT organizations like the flexibility that X1 provides in terms of how users can search Box content.  There is an option to index Box documents and store them in the users local index.  The content is not stored locally, but the index is, so users get immediate results.  Of course, it may not be feasible to have an index stored locally for a variety of reasons, so there is also an option for users to remotely query their Box account without the need to store each item in the local index.  IT also has fine-grained control over how indexing takes place.

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Any solution that makes both end-users and IT happy is a promising one.  In this way, X1’s hybrid cloud search capability is a game-changer. As more and more organizations systematically use EFSS vendors like Box, this federated search capability will become even more important.  And, the great news is – it’s available right now from X1.

So far, beta customers are extremely enthusiastic about the search experience that X1 provides for content in Box.  In fact, we strongly believe that no other solution provides this kind of search experience across local and Box content.  Customers tell us that they can search and filter through Box content faster than ever before.  At X1, we would respectfully challenge anyone to identify a better solution for this purpose – neither we nor our many joint X1/Box customers are currently aware of one.

We invite you to try for yourself:

X1 Search is available for sale at $49.95 per license for single users (Box connector included), with an annual support fee of $19.95. Buy now >

Silent installation of the X1 Search client and other enterprise deployment options are available for large-scale deployments. For more information about enterprise licensing and purchases, please contact info@x1.com.

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Filed under Business Productivity Search, Desktop Search, Enterprise Search, Hybrid Search, Information Access

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July 15, 2014 · 8:28 AM

The “Desktop” Of The Future

In talking with a business acquaintance recently, a question came up about the future of desktop search:  what happens when the desktop is no longer the interface of choice for business professionals?  It’s a great question, and one I clearly have a vested interest in given X1’s status as the leading desktop search engine.  The reality is that today’s workers access their information from a variety of interfaces across many devices.  What we need to do is think of the desktop less in a literal sense and more in terms of being a user interface for information.

Since the dawn of the PC, the desktop has been the user interface for most business professionals to access information and do their jobs.  The future of that desktop no longer lies in accessing it on a PC, or even a laptop or mobile device.  Given the speed of innovation, it is useless to try and forecast what the “desktop” will look like beyond a five-year timeframe.  Already, there are stories emerging about the desktop being built into things like tabletop coffee tables.  It is absolutely fun and inspiring to see developments like this and to know we are making forward progress in the tech world.  At the same time, we need to make sure that information – which will be stored in a variety of locations, too – is accessible to the business professional no matter what the desktop looks like in the future.

That is why X1’s Search 8 Virtual Edition is so exciting.  The flagship product, Search 8, represents years of experience providing a beloved user interface to a business profession’s most critical information – email, files, SharePoint, etc.  When the product first came out nearly a decade ago, most of that information was stored locally.  Thus, a local index could live on the desktop and X1 could provide fast-as-you-type search results and filtering on that local index.  Given the evolution of the desktop and the variety of devices accessing that desktop, a local index is not always a possibility.  That’s where Search 8 Virtual Edition comes in.  The client interface is decoupled from the index, which can live anywhere (typically off on a server farm).

VDI image

This allows IT teams that have invested in desktop virtualization (VDI) to turn off Windows indexing (necessary to save virtual resources) and still provide business professionals the ability to find their information.  Desktop virtualization enables many of the things that businesses value highly – especially security and mobility – and comes in its own variety of flavors.  VDI can be either on-premise and through the Cloud, as Desktop-as-a-service (DaaS).  Increasingly, DaaS offerings such as Amazon Workspaces are becoming more enterprise ready and promise to deliver desktops in a “whenever, wherever” fashion (and, as I’ve posted about before, a good search experience will be crucial to getting the most out of DaaS).

That Search 8 Virtual Edition helps enable an optimal experience with desktop virtualization and DaaS is a great thing, but the value does not stop there.  The same concept – allowing the index to be decoupled from the client interface – will enable great search experiences for mobile, which is the next big stomping ground for enterprise IT.  And, X1 is the only search vendor providing this capability.  We know that the concept of the desktop could live anywhere.  And, our customers want to be able to use X1 Search 8 even if they are unable to have a local index on their machine or device.

The term “desktop search” is already out there and meaningful to many people, so it’s not about changing what we call this market.  Rather, it’s about changing the mindset – realizing that the desktop is not just the screen on your PC, but rather the gateway to all of your important information needed to do your job.

 

 

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June 24, 2014 · 9:49 AM

With Search, What Are We Looking For?

by Barry Murphy
Needle haystack

Recently, I was contacted by an X1 user and fan and he asked me, “why isn’t X1 more famous?”  His point was that X1 Search 8 solves a problem that every company has – people can’t find their information.  They are unable to find that one email or document that they know exists, but that they just can’t remember where they put it.  This X1 fan happens to be a consultant that works with many, many companies and reported that, no matter what client he visits, all have workers that constantly complain about not being able to find what they are looking for.

It can be a marketer’s nightmare to have someone ask why your product is not more famous, but it was a question I had already been giving some thought to.  Part of the challenge when it comes to the “search market” is that most people think of Google when they think of search.  Google is easy to use and helps everyone navigate the Internet much more efficiently.  But, web search is a much different beast than search within a company.  The reality is that 80% of what business workers are looking for exists in their email, file shares, desktop folders, or SharePoint sites.  The worker knows the content exists, has an idea of what he/she is looking for, but simply doesn’t know where it is.  But, when enterprise search solutions were first rolled out, they were built like web search solutions – as if someone wasn’t really sure what they were looking for.

The misperception that the Google search paradigm can apply within the enterprise resulted in enterprise search solutions improperly conflating several search use cases.  But, web search and big data analytics – the new search du jour – are very distinct search types that require features and functions specific to their own unique workflows and use cases. Refashioning big data analytics or web search tools for enterprise search is a recipe for failure and certainly not an end-user driven requirement.

Big Data and the business intelligence (BI) tools built to address Big Data are hot topics.  And BI can deliver some very good information to workers that are managing structured processes.  Every company has deployed some kind of BI tool, but – as our consultant fan let us know – every company still has the problem of business workers not being able to find information.  That is because, when it comes to business worker search, the human brain is the most powerful analytical engine for business productivity search.  Other search solutions have sophisticated algorithms that try to predict things like document taxonomy classifications.   That can be useful at times, but not to enable search for the business worker because the interface and workflow are not designed for business productivity search.  Additionally, analytics-driven solutions require a lot of hardware to make those algorithms churn.

There is a more cost-effective way to solve the problem and ensure that business workers will stop complaining – deploy a search solution with a user-friendly interface that allows humans to use their brain to filter and sort through their information assets.  X1 Search 8 can do that – and do it in today’s virtualized and Cloud-heavy environments.  It is time to realize what business workers are really looking for when they turn to search tools – the one document they know exists that has the information necessary for them to do their jobs in any given moment.

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