If your job revolves around information and data, you know how frustrating it is to not be able to find that document or message you just had in front of you five minutes ago.

But, as we all know, it happens.

(In fact, we spend upwards of 3.6 hours a day searching for the info we need to do our jobs.)

And it’s not just a matter of having the information on-hand, either:

As your organizational knowledge grows in size and depth, finding a single file amongst even the most organized system can become nearly impossible.

That is, unless you’ve enlisted the help of a comprehensive enterprise search tool.

What is Enterprise Search?

Enterprise search is the multi-step process of searching for and surfacing documents within internal data sources by an employee or other stakeholder within an organization.

(These internal sources include your internal knowledge base, wiki, intranet, and more.)

Facilitated by enterprise search software, the process typically goes as follows:

  • Content Awareness: Source data is integrated with the tool, allowing the software to crawl all identified sources either in real-time or on-demand.
  • Content Processing and Analysis: Information from various sources and file types is converted to plaintext and otherwise normalized to ensure proper recall of all relevant info.
  • Content Indexing: Content is stored in such a way that allows for entire documents to be indexed without fully replicating each document in full.
  • Query Processing: The user submits a search query, potentially any using filters and faceted search commands supported by the tool.
  • Content Matching: Results are collected and provided to the user, along with links to the appropriate documentation.

While the process looks relatively similar for most enterprise search tools on the market, each offers a variety of features and functions that cater to the needs of specific small businesses and other organizations. More on this in a bit.

Why Effective Enterprise Search Software is Essential

By today’s standards, a comprehensive enterprise search system is a requirement for even the smallest of businesses.

(Does anyone take a manual-first approach to locating documents and files anymore?)

But there are a number of deeper, more far-reaching benefits that the right enterprise search software can bring to your organization that are worth taking a closer look at.

Boosts Productivity

Effective enterprise search tools allow your team to become more productive when looking for essential information or data.

Most obviously, they provide instant access to relevant information and organizational knowledge at the click of a button. Modern AI-powered tools use natural language processing technology to further understand search intent and provide suggestions in real-time — making it even easier to surface the necessary info.

With employees sometimes spending so much time searching for information, saving time here — and investing it elsewhere — can be game-changing for growing small businesses like yours.

Helps Knowledge Workers

As vital as strategic knowledge management is to your team’s operations, you want to be sure your knowledge workers are equipped to move effectively and efficiently.

In addition to the above, enterprise search software empowers your knowledge workers by:

  • Ensuring internal search results reflect the most accurate and current information available
  • Systematically crawling all available data sources for accuracy, uniformity, and completeness — and providing automated suggestions for improvement
  • Facilitating cross-team knowledge sharing and providing open, cross-team access to departmental data

With these processes all but taken care of, your knowledge team will have more time and energy to focus on the more strategic aspects of their work.

Improves Decision-Making

With the ability to quickly call up any and all organizational data in real-time, every decision made — by your executive staff down to your ground-level employees — will be as informed as possible.

For your hands-on employees, this is crucial for avoiding everything from minor mistakes to major accidents. Zooming out, your managers and executives will be able to take a more objective and comprehensive approach to operational improvement.

Some AI-powered enterprise search can even assist in the decision-making process by melding data from multiple sources — then providing automated analyses and suggestions for how to proceed.

Enhances Employee Onboarding & Training

Enterprise search tools allow new and existing employees to help themselves throughout every training session they attend.

Think of all the info employees need during training:

Again, it’s all available with a simple AI-powered search to keep your trainees focused on their development.

Reduces Employee Burnout

Going back to the report by Coveo, the full story is that those hours spent searching for information inevitably leads to major employee burnout — and, potentially, resignation.

In other words, something as simple as streamlining your search processes can save you from losing some of your best employees.

The stakes are that high.

And, your employees will have more time and energy to spend on more important and resource-intensive tasks — and won’t end up spreading themselves too thin in the process. When your employees can do their very best work, both they and your organization win out.

Empowers Customers

While enterprise search is used internally, it can still end up benefiting your customers in two key ways.

For one, it enables your service and support staff to deliver laser-fast service to your users. Since all the information they’ll need is just a click away, it means less downtime and backtracking for both them and your customers — and a faster path to a solution for every issue faced.

And, since your marketing and sales teams will be able to better surface info as needed, the customer-facing content they create will become more comprehensive, cohesive, and useful to your audience. On top of being more attractive and engaging, it will be more informative — ultimately leading to quicker and easier conversions.

Key Features of Top-Tier Enterprise Search Tools

While each enterprise search tool we’ll discuss is unique in its own right, most software available today offers the following features in at least some way, shape or form.

AI-Powered Search

AI-powered search revolutionizes the way employees find information by understanding and interpreting queries in natural language, providing more accurate and context-aware results to end-users. 

Coveo Relevance Cloud, for example, uses machine learning to analyze user behavior and adapt search results in real-time, ensuring the most pertinent information is delivered. This conversational and intuitive search approach allows users to interact with the search engine as they would with a human assistant, making information retrieval faster and more efficient.

Integrations and Data Connectors

Integrations and data connectors enable enterprise search tools to extract and index data from various sources like file storage systems, knowledge bases, and web apps. 

This capability ensures that users can access and retrieve information from all relevant data repositories within the organization through a single interface. Lucidworks Fusion excels in this area, seamlessly connecting with a wide range of data sources, including cloud storage systems, enterprise databases, and SaaS applications. 

By centralizing access to information, enterprise search tools eliminate the need to switch between multiple platforms, in turn streamlining the search process and enhancing efficiency.

Real-Time Updated Index

Modern enterprise search tools are designed to update search indexes either in real-time, or at frequent intervals as determined by administrators.

This ensures users are always accessing the most current information available, reducing the chances of outdated data appearing in search results. Guru, for instance, continuously updates its index with the latest information from various integrated tools and channels, even crawling communication channels in real-time to catch updates and push them to its search tool.

Tailored Analytics

Tailored analytics track and provide accessible insights on popular queries, app usage, not-found terms, and team-specific searches. 

These analytics tools allow administrators to gain insights into how employees are using the search function, identify gaps in the available information, and understand which types of queries are most common. This data-driven approach helps to continuously improve the search functionality and ensure it meets the evolving needs of the organization.

Security and Privacy

Enterprise search tools must adhere to industry standards for data privacy and encryption, such as SOC 2 Type II, and include features like Single Sign-On (SSO) and access governance. 

These security measures ensure that sensitive company information is protected from unauthorized access and breaches. Implementing role-based access control (RBAC) and detailed audit logs allows the search tool to restrict access to specific data based on user roles and provide visibility into search activities. 

To ensure users remain HIPAA compliant, IBM Watson Discovery offers robust encryption for data at rest and in transit, along with comprehensive access control mechanisms to ensure only authorized personnel can access specific patient information.

Scalability

Scalability is crucial for enterprise search tools to handle large, ever-growing data volumes, high user traffic, and frequent information changes without lag. 

These tools include fault-tolerant infrastructure that ensures continuous operation even in the event of hardware failures. Scalable solutions can grow with your company, accommodating increased data and user demands without compromising performance. 

They often offer tiered solutions, allowing businesses to scale their search capabilities as needed, avoiding the necessity of a complete overhaul as the company grows. Elastic’s recently-debuted Search AI Lake functionality delivers low-latency querying at scale for data lakes of all sizes.

12 (+ 1 Bonus) Best Enterprise Search Tools for 2024

Now, without further ado, let’s dig into the best enterprise search tools available for small businesses today.

Guru

Guru is an all-in-one platform that combines enterprise AI search, intranet, and wiki functionalities while integrating seamlessly with the rest of your tech stack.

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Guru allows users to find information across various apps, ensuring uniformity of all info on all channels. The software also continuously monitors these channels for incorrect information and duplicate content — along with any informational gaps to fill. 

Guru supports multilingual capabilities, translating information into 100 languages, making it a smart companion for businesses aiming to streamline their knowledge management and search processes.

Guru Pros

  • Easy to create and share knowledge cards
  • Proactively refreshes content, identifies knowledge gaps, and reports duplicate information
  • Seamless integration allows for centralized access to information without the need for context switching

Guru Cons

  • Content can be difficult to locate as document library grows
  • Initial setup can be complex for larger teams with existing content libraries

Algolia

Algolia is a powerful API platform designed to enhance the speed and relevance of search and discovery experiences for businesses. 

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Algolia is particularly effective for e-commerce and digital applications, offering both search and recommendation functionalities. The software’s proprietary NeuralSearch technology combines natural language processing with keyword matching to provide fast and accurate search results. 

Algolia Pros

  • Lightning-fast search results
  • Highly-customizable search algorithms
  • Easily integrates with both front- and back-end tools

Algolia Cons

  • Advanced customization requires deeper understanding and technical expertise
  • The pricing can be high, especially for extensive usage

Coveo

Coveo is a leading AI-powered relevance platform designed to enhance search, recommendations, personalization, and merchandising within digital experiences. 

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Coveo combines semantic search, AI recommendations, unified personalization, and generative AI answering to augment employee capabilities and drive superior business outcomes. The platform integrates seamlessly across various digital experiences, including commerce, service, website, and workplace applications.

Coveo Pros

  • AI models enhance the search experience by providing contextual and relevant search results
  • Highly configurable and customizable, allowing for tailored user experiences
  • Seamless integration with multiple platforms, including CRM, websites, and enterprise systems

Coveo Cons

  • Steep learning curve and occasional need for developer resources for sophisticated customization
  • Limited tier options for smaller businesses looking for basic search functionalities

Lucidworks Fusion

Lucidworks Fusion is a comprehensive AI-powered search and data discovery platform designed to efficiently connect users with meaningful and relevant data. 

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Fusion unifies data from various sources, addressing findability issues and breaking down information silos. Built on Apache Solr and Spark, Fusion leverages machine learning from the moment of data ingestion to extract deeper insights and context from datasets. 

It’s a scalable and flexible tool, supporting large document repositories and active user populations while providing a range of pre-built solutions and machine learning algorithms for rapid deployment of search applications.

Lucidworks Fusion Pros

  • Dynamically handles large document repositories and active user populations to reduce downtime
  • Enhances relevance and contextual search over time via machine learning
  • Provides comprehensive tools for clustering, classification, and data visualization

Lucidworks Fusion Cons

  • Initial setup and learning can be resource-heavy; advanced customization requires technical expertise
  • Lack of a free version for smaller organizations

Elastic

Elastic Enterprise Search — formerly known as Swiftype — provides a complete set of specialized tools and extensible APIs for building powerful search solutions.

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Elastic enables developers to create next-generation search experiences that support organizational technology objectives. The platform allows for the ingestion of any data source, integrates with large language models and generative AI, and offers robust analytics and visualization tools for data-driven decision-making.

Elastic Pros

  • Supports a range of search functionalities (e.g., textual, vector, hybrid, and semantic)
  • Integrates seamlessly with various data sources
  • Easy-to-use UI for non-technical teams to optimize search experiences without developer assistance

Elastic Cons

  • Lack of documentation for initial configuration and onboarding
  • Manual search refinement can be time-consuming

IBM Watson Discovery

IBM Watson Discovery is an AI-powered enterprise search software designed to help businesses unlock hidden value in their data.

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Watson Discovery identifies trends and pinpoints answers across various industries, adapting to context in real-time to ensure accuracy and usefulness of search results. The tool’s user-friendly dashboard provides actionable insights, surfacing search patterns that allow knowledge experts to spend more time on strategic work that drives business results.

IBM Watson Discovery Pros

  • Crawls and extracts data from various sources, including web pages, documents, and PDFs
  • Includes sentiment analysis, topic classification, and specific passage responses to organize unstructured text data and allow for insightful querying
  • Integrates effectively with various applications with user-friendly mobile access

IBM Watson Discovery Cons

  • Comparatively expensive, especially for lower-tier usage
  • Advanced features may be difficult for no-code users to utilize

Glean

Glean is an AI-powered platform that enhances enterprise search and knowledge discovery, helping employees quickly uncover the information they need.

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Glean automates manual accounting tasks, while also providing guidance and assistance  to finance teams via detailed insights and savings recommendations. Its easy implementation and intuitive interface ensure quick adoption and improved productivity by reducing the time spent searching for information.

By integrating seamlessly with the apps employees already use, Glean delivers highly personalized and relevant search results that fully understand the context of language as used within specific organizations.

Glean Pros

  • Streamlined features and shortcuts make enterprise search intuitive and to-the-point
  • Surfaces verified results to ensure information is accurate, relevant, and current
  • Detailed insights help companies spend smarter with vendors

Glean Cons

  • Users have reported a need for improved sorting capabilities in search results
  • Some integration issues, particularly with security-conscious organizations limiting full use of the platform

Dashworks

Dashworks is a secure AI-powered knowledge assistant designed for enterprises.

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Dashworks unifies company apps and knowledge bases to provide accurate, AI-driven answers to business questions. With its cloud-based platform, Dashworks connects seamlessly with various tools like Slack, G-suite, Asana and more — helping users access and summarize content, including documents, emails, and repositories.

Dashworks Pros

  • Intuitive interface that allows users to find information quickly and easily
  • Powerful natural language search capabilities that understand user intent and deliver relevant information
  • Provides a unified search across all company applications, enhancing efficiency

Dashworks Cons

  • Some integration issues with proprietary systems
  • High charges may be a barrier for some organizations

Korra

Korra is an advanced knowledge discovery platform designed for businesses of all sizes.

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Utilizing natural language understanding, Korra delivers direct-to-answer search results across documents, videos, PDFs, DOCs, and PPTs. Its conversational semantic engine, automated topic generation, and integrated content viewers enhance the search experience by providing relevant and accurate results quickly. 

Korra is a cost-effective, user-friendly SaaS solution aimed at improving digital presence with state-of-the-art search capabilities.

Korra Pros

  • Highlights answers within documents, making it easier to find specific information
  • Features an embedded document viewer for comfortable viewing
  • Intuitive interface and simple integrations with minimal setup time

Korra Cons

  • Users desire more control over certain features (e.g., number of results displayed)
  • Advanced features may be unnecessary for smaller teams

AddSearch

AddSearch is an enterprise-level, customizable site search solution designed for websites and online stores. 

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AddSearch offers instant, effortless, and personalized search capabilities via AI-based features like Progressive Ranking and Automated Synonyms Suggestion. The software’s crawler and indexing API keep information accurate and up-to-date in real-time — and provides detailed analytics to help teams effectively manage essential documentation.

AddSearch Pros

  • Offers advanced AI-based features like smart results ranking, autocomplete, and personalized search
  • Provides detailed analytics to track search performance and user behavior
  • Excellent customer support, with responsive and knowledgeable staff

AddSearch Cons

  • Some users find image handling and PDF content indexing costly
  • Limited customizations available in lower-tier plans, and certain features may require regular tweaking

Moveworks

Moveworks is an AI-powered enterprise search and automation platform that centralizes the search across all business systems. 

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Moveworks supports natural language processing for conversational search, ensuring accurate and context-aware results while maintaining strict adherence to data permissions. The tool’s AI-driven summaries and recommendations help employees find answers quickly and efficiently — and allow them to easily dive deeper into documentation as needed.

Moveworks Pros

  • Easy to implement with minimal development requirements or technical know-how
  • AI-powered search enhances productivity by resolving support tickets, automating workflows, and offering concise AI summarization
  • Seamlessly integrates with applications like Workday, Salesforce, and SAP, supporting specific search needs and workflows

Moveworks Cons

  • Advanced customization can be rather intensive and require IT support
  • Managing access control and data security can be challenging, with potential risks of sensitive data leaks

Yext

Yext is an AI-powered enterprise search platform that leverages a multi-algorithm approach and natural language understanding to deliver relevant answers across various digital touchpoints.

 

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Yext is designed to enhance user experience by centralizing control of business information and optimizing content-driven interactions at scale. The user-friendly interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, and can be customized for various internal use cases.

Yext Pros

  • AI-powered search provides relevant answers and automates information updates
  • Analytics and insights surface important issues to your team — allowing you to update knowledge content as needed
  • In-line snippets provide Google-like search results with quick answers for busy employees

Yext Cons

  • Initial setup can be complex, requiring practice to navigate features
  • Some users report issues with tech and customer support

Helpjuice and Enterprise Search Software: A Winning Combo

Knowledge management and enterprise search go hand-in-hand.

It’s a symbiotic relationship, really:

While enterprise search software makes surfacing documentation quick and easy, strategic knowledge management ensures these tools are able to do their job by:

  • Centralizing data within a single source of truth
  • Organizing data for both automated crawling and manual browsing
  • Continuously improving internal data and documentation for better findability

That said, investing in your knowledge management efforts is crucial to getting the most out of your enterprise search software of choice.

This is where Helpjuice comes in.

With Helpjuice’s knowledge base software, your teams can collaborate in real-time to create engaging knowledge content — then format and organize it for immediate searchability.

(And your enterprise search software can take it from there.)

Want to learn more about how Helpjuice fits into your workflows?

Schedule a demo with our team today!