Is FAST a candidate for acquisition?

Forrester Research’s 2006 Leader in Enterprise Search Platforms- FAST has come out with a Q2 result below forecasts on lower sales and higher bad debt. The analysts comment in Forbes is here. Is it a candidate for take over by large content management vendors like EMC ? EMC Documentum has been using FAST as the embedded search tool and does not have a search engine as part of its product portfolio.

In the mean time , it is interesting to see vendors providing solution to exit a FAST installation for customers concerned over its future uncertainty.

FAST has added few more search and business intelligence technology modules keeping in line with industry trend of personalization, recommendation and BI integration. They are:

• Agent Arts - personalization and recommendation engine technology
• bWise - Specialist in delivery of business intelligence services and software

Let’s FAST forward to Q3 to see where we stand !!!

Search - the key elements for organization information leverage

Recently, I received the free paper edition of the Enterprise Search Source Book. The digital edition of the book is available here.

I tried to skim through all the articles in the booklet. The essence of the articles , I would summarize in the following statements:

1. Search input needs to be more contextual while capturing user intentions

2. The search result presentation should be innovative enough to efficiently deliver what user is looking for.

3. The core search mechanism has not changed over time.

4. Making the content search-able is the core to have an effective search feature in an organization.

5. Search tools effectiveness depends on the quality of the information it searching upon.

6. Search tool should fit into the enterprise business and IT architecture .

7. Organization's business strategy, information culture and internal leadership plays a big role in making Search tool an effective approach to information leverage.

I have attempted to link these elements in an organizational context. Let me know your comments.