ISYS Enterprise Search Insights
The evolution of embedded search, information access and enterprise search infrastructure.
Archive for the ‘Government Intelligence’ Category
01: Early Warning Systems
As a mother of three, I read about the case of Angela Gordon recently and wondered how we could miss key warning signs in our social services work. In my field, I see the obstacles companies face every day when it comes to leveraging their content, so I can understand, in part, the challenges of social services work. But when information is this critical, I have to question why we appear to be banging our heads against the wall with half-solutions.
Since Sarah Payne’s abduction and murder (yet another high-profile failure), UK police forces have been trying to find ways to enable better access to all information that may be relevant, whether checking on someone applying for a job or investigating a crime.
The collection of various reported stories of neglect and abuse in children’s own homes has UK councils struggling to determine why social workers don’t have the information they need to pinpoint situations requiring intervention.
To address the problem, some are building data warehouses with BI capability on the front end. But this is a huge undertaking, expensive, lengthy and very difficult to get right. What’s more, it doesn’t provide a short-term solution.
Given our experience in working with police forces, we’ve seen search technology deliver immediate improvements in intelligence work, often serving as an early warning system for investigators. In the very least, we should be looking as these capabilities in the interim to help stem the tide of costly missed warning signs.
02: “Need to Have” Profile in Enterprise Search
I ran across an August 2008 press release that seemed rather relevant given recent terrorist events. Published by the House Science and Technology Committee’s Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee, the release focused on failures and mismanagement in one of our country’s most important counter terrorism programs. Analysts from 16 agencies were supposed to have access to intelligence information intended to help them predict and prevent future attacks, but through program mismanagement they were left dead in the water. One congressman commented at the time that “the program not only can’t connect the dots, it can’t find the dots.”
Being the good salesman that I am, I immediately got on the phone with his office, because of our longstanding experience with providing an important function in “connecting dots.” Namely, we find the dots and you connect them. I have worked with dozens if not hundreds of crime analysts and investigators over the years, and it seems every successful investigation begins with a skilled investigator following up on a hunch that prompts a search that uncovers a dot … and another dot … and another … and so on, ad infinitum.
My fellow industry colleagues and I are always trying to relay the “need to have” aspects of our technology, and I’d be hard pressed to find a better example than this. Am I just too close to the market, or are we as enterprise search professionals just not doing a good enough job of communicating the “so what” factor?