ISYS Enterprise Search Insights
The evolution of embedded search, information access and enterprise search infrastructure.
Posts Tagged ‘criminal intelligence’
01: “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?
