Oct 25, 2022

Taking Control of Search Functions Within Enterprise Sitecore’s offering — based on its acquisition of the company Reflektion last year — promises AI (or artificial intelligence) powered search that will serve hyper-relevant content and predictive, type-ahead capabilities, all making, according to its press release , for “an intelligent plug-and-play solution that can be applied to an existing website in a matter of hours.” The ability for search to plug in and seamlessly complement a content management system, application, or commerce platform is what makes it so powerful and natural for composability. In years past, search required high investment and customization to implement in a comprehensive and meaningful way. The current landscape, boasting companies who can focus profitably and solely on this domain, such as Coveo and SearchStax , has put powerful and fully featured internal search in the hands of all manner of organizations. Sameer Maggon, founder & CEO of SearchStax, says that this level of search accessibility and out-of-the-box integration for organizations is “groundbreaking.” SearchStax, which is also utilized by companies running Adobe Experience Manager, Acquia, Drupal, Moodle, and custom-built websites and applications, counts Sitecore as a key partner and one that “will continue to be for the foreseeable future.”  Learning Opportunities Maggon agrees that the Sitecore Search announcement is a further affirmation of the technology category. “Search is undergoing a resurgence as modernization needs push organizations to get better at search…Sitecore always recognized the need for better Search, which is why they had partners like Coveo and SearchStax.”  Maggon sees Sitecore’s composable pivot as a positive development. “It’s great to see Sitecore moving towards a model where it allows customers to provide optionality of software that is best suitable for their needs," he says. "It provides customers with the ability to bring the right product in for their use case without limiting their options.” Unifying Siloed Content Coveo has been another major search provider for Sitecore customers, in addition to headline integrations with Salesforce, Adobe, SAP, ServiceNow, Slack, and myriad others. Of the Sitecore Search announcement and what it means for the growing importance of the search industry, Nicolas Bordeleau, VP of Products at Coveo, asserts: “Organizations of all sizes are starting to understand the critical importance of effective search across their digital experiences. In fact, research shows that  99% of companies struggle to deliver relevant search results to their end users , meaning a direct impact on revenues, cost, and overall experience. Large organizations with siloed content, complex web management systems and multiple brand sites need a secure, scalable, and closed-loop solution that goes beyond search. They need an intelligent solution that can unify siloed content, learn from user behavior, and use AI to suggest content to users where they are, even before they have to search.” As Sitecore adds its own search product into the composable mix, questions remain — as of this writing the week of the conference — regarding pricing and the optimal use cases. But the Sitecore Search announcement makes abundantly clear the growing importance of search as a technology category. It also intimates that the focused and strategic use of search could be a defining step in the composable future of the enterprise organization. About the author Matthew McQueeny works in leadership at Konabos, focusing on relationships, marketing, community, and project management. He has worked with clients ranging from Fortune 500 to startups. Tags About CMSWire For nearly two decades CMSWire, produced by Simpler Media Group , has been the world's leading community of customer experience professionals. . Today the CMSWire community consists of over 5 million influential customer experience and custom service leaders, the majority of whom are based in North America and employed by medium to large organizations. Our sister community, Reworked gathers the world's leading employee experience and digital workplace professionals. Explore CMSWIRE Popular Articles Join the Community Not yet a CMSWire member? We serve over 5 million of the world's top customer experience practitioners. Join us today — unlock member benefits and accelerate your career, all for free. Join us