SharePoint 2010 will not be the only new product to see when you attend the Microsoft Conference in Las Vegas. MicroLink will also take this opportunity to demonstrate the next phase of corporate information discovery. DiscoverPoint will be a new product offering from MicroLink LLC, located in Vienna, VA. This tool will help merge your company’s social and business information into a clear and concise picture.
Not Just Another Corporate Facebook
With the growth of Facebook, it was only a matter of time before other companies created a “corporate facebook”, something that was Facebook-like but only internal to your company. Great, but what did it really do to help companies know more about what was going on? Did tools like these really help co-workers connect and share knowledge about similar issues and projects, or did we just re-invent the wheel and still fail to help our business remain efficient? I would contend that most of these products really do very little for our company’s productivity as opposed to making workers feel like their company is really “hip” and “with it” when it comes to Web 2.0 technology.
DiscoverPoint provides much more than just a wall to write ideas and thoughts on. DiscoverPoint makes your wall, your blog, documents you post, your search terms, and much more the focus. With advanced search engines like FAST and Autonomy, DiscoverPoint builds a profile about you and can then suggest new contacts, documents, sites, and more that will help you “Discover” the information to make your business more efficient.
Think About
Think about how great it would be today if you maintained the document on the wear rate of the Widget XYZ. When you looked at your wall, you noticed a new suggestion, “How to extend the life of Widget XYZ”-- a blog (or a wall post) written by one of your factory line managers, someone you have never met. Now you can read what the manager said. You can connect with him and help get this information shared across the company. You just discovered information you didn’t realize you were looking for and can remain socially connected for future helpful tips.
More Than Just Another Search Engine
Most people have realized by now that SharePoint’s OTB search is ok, but not really that great. A number of companies, MicroLink included, have provided products based around other search engines (IDOL, FAST, Google, etc) to help improve the ability to search your site. These tools replace the standard SharePoint search capabilities and…well, return search results. Of course in the end you still end up with a list of documents in “relevance” order that may meet your search terms but don’t quite help you discover information about your problem.
DiscoverPoint is powered by Autonomy IDOL or Microsoft FAST, but it is much more than just a search engine. With DiscoverPoint, you can see not only the search results but also people who are searching for similar things, publishing relevant documents, or writing helpful information on their wall. Maybe the search you entered didn’t provide you the document to answer your question, but you will see who your corporate experts in the subject are, and they probably can answer your question. This is the power behind DiscoverPoint, realizing it not just about the information, but also about the people with the information and the need to connect with them.
Think About
As a software developer, think about how great it would be today to search for “Workflow” and the millions of links to blogs, MSDN, college classes, etc., and actually see and choose to connect with people like David Mann, Microsoft MVP and a leading Workflow expert. With DiscoverPoint, you could run that search and find the local corporate experts, people in your company like David Mann, who have the knowledge you need and who can answer the questions. You just “Discovered” a connection you didn’t realize you were looking for, and you can remain socially connected for future helpful tips.