BI Search -- Optimization and Security Issues

by Curt Hall, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium

As with all enterprise search systems, the usefulness of a BI search tool depends primarily on the relevancy of the search results returned to the user when conducting searches and the ease with which users can carry out their searches successfully.

To increase the relevancy of search results and to assist users in conducting searches with their BI search environments, vendors are employing a number of search optimization techniques. One approach is to apply dynamic ranking and categorization of search results to narrow searches. This is often performed together with guided navigation, which allows users to apply various filters to different categories. Category distribution is also used to determine which categories have the highest or lowest search results, with the results from new queries returned accordingly.

Various techniques are also applied to assist users with their BI searches. For example, contextual search helps users locate related BI information from directly within reports using contextual search prompts. Some tools also drop so-called "breadcrumbs" to show the user exactly how search results were achieved and to provide them with the ability to return to any previous search state with a single mouse click.

Some BI search vendors also offer search-driven reporting that combines search with parameterized reporting environments. Although in some sense this might seem to go against the primary purpose of BI search tools (i.e., to provide nontechnical end users with ad hoc reporting capabilities), these vendors counter that it serves to increase the level of BI capabilities available to the untrained user.

Finally, vendors are, of course, using standard search operators and techniques in their BI search offerings, including boolean logic, phrases, and word stemming to fine-tune search terms and reduce or eliminate ambiguity.

Security

Security is of utmost concern with BI search, in particular, preventing unauthorized users from accessing and viewing information they should not be able to see. For example, you obviously don't want employees to enter a search on "salaries" and return reports detailing what their coworkers earn. Likewise, you don't want users to somehow accidentally expose personal customer records, financial, and/or other sensitive company information.

The vendors are well aware of end-user organizations' paramount security concerns. Consequently, they are tightly integrating search functionality with the role-based access, single password signon, authentication, and other security capabilities inherent in their BI platforms to ensure that sensitive information is kept from those not authorized to get at it. Additionally, the vendors are also seeking to leverage the comprehensive security capabilities built into ERP, CRM, and other enterprise software applications. This is especially true with the BI vendors that have been acquired by the enterprise players, such as Cognos (by IBM) and Business Objects (by SAP AG).

I welcome your comments on this Advisor and encourage you to send your insights to chall@cutter.com.

-- Curt Hall, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium