Recommind recently commissioned a survey delving into the issues facing healthcare and public sector professionals in the UK.  The study generated some surprising and thought provoking results:

• 94% of healthcare IT directors and a further 73% of public sector institutions cite data security fears as a key concern when providing employees with the information required for their day to day jobs
• Using first or second-generation enterprise search tools, professionals could search basic data such as documents, emails and intranets; however, only 27% of public sector and 39% of healthcare respondents were able to search individual expertise and experience
• 70% of respondents from both these sectors wanted the ability to locate expertise in order to help employees perform their daily jobs
• Approximately 80% of respondents wanted to be able to search external information sources such as reference websites; however, less than 50% could successfully achieve this with current search systems
• Nearly 40 % of healthcare respondents stated that their employees spend half a day or more each week fruitlessly looking for information they need without finding it – revealing the inadequacy of existing search solutions

Simon Price, Recommind’s European director, summed up the findings by observing “These alarmingly low figures suggest that inadequate first and second-generation search systems can make day-to-day researching a very time-consuming task for employees. These findings clearly show that legacy, ‘one-size-fits-all’ enterprise search systems have proven to be woefully inadequate.”

With such poor user experiences, we wonder how providers of first and second-generation search tools were able to grow to such dizzying heights, and continue to grow through acquisition.  Are customers benefitting?  We welcome your thoughts, comments and experiences.