Oracle, Cisco Systems, Salesforce.com, SAS, NetSuite, Cognos, and Employease, have all announced OneBox extensions that will provide organizations with secure real-time access to data within their enterprise applications from a Google search box.
OneBox describes the ability of the Google search engine to search dynamic information such as stock prices, as well as static results such as web pages. When the OneBox for Enterprise feature is used with the Google Search Appliance, it allows dynamic information such as transactions within business applications as well as sales leads, purchase orders, or contact details, to be searched and returned in a form relevant to the user along with data from external sources such as the web.
For example, an accounts-receivable manager could speed payment by carrying out a single search using Google OneBox for Enterprise that would return all customer, entitlement, service-level, and billing details from an enterprise application such as NetSuite; product documentation from a document repository; and relevant user group postings from an external blog site.
The key features of OneBox for Enterprise are that it enables real-time business data to be included in search results, and can search different types of content and data, including dynamic, structured, and unstructured. Although Google Search Appliance could cope with structured and unstructured documents previously, it was not able to handle dynamic data such as transactions with relational databases. The real-time aspect is also important because it means data stores do not have to be indexed.
NetSuite has worked with Google to create a OneBox for Enterprise module that will allow customers to simultaneously search for data within the NetSuite application suites, the web, and other data sources using the Google search interface, searching customers, vendors, items, events, transactions, and other linked data sources. The module supports NetSuite’s security system and its role-based profiles so searches will only retrieve data from NetSuite based on the security privileges set in a NetSuite user’s role-based profile.
We are partnering with Google to embrace what they are doing in enabling searches across the enterprise, said Mimi Peiris, VP of product management at NetSuite. Inside or outside of the firewall, [organizations] can search multiple data repositories through the Google interface.
Because it is embedded within the Google Search Appliance, it ships with the hardware. Although NetSuite does not charge its customers, they have to buy the Google Search Appliance to access the functionality. There is no revenue-sharing between Google and NetSuite, and NetSuite sees OneBox for Enterprise as a value-added service for its customers.
NetSuite said it chose to partner with Google rather than one of the high-end search engine providers because of its market position and because its customer base matches NetSuite’s in that Google covers the small and medium end of the market, which remains NetSuite’s sweet spot, as well as large enterprises that NetSuite aspires to.
NetSuite is not the only vendor to offer OneBox for Enterprise extensions. Salesforce.com is offering 10 pre-configured search modules including modules for leads, opportunities, contacts, and accounts, that will allow organizations to search for data and information within Salesforce.com and AppExchange applications, alongside all their other corporate information.
For example, Salesforce.com customers searching for a sales opportunity could preview the Salesforce.com results at the top of the search results page, including information such as the deal stage and the expected close date. Having identified an opportunity, the user can click through and see the details within Salesforce.com.
Organizations that use Cisco’s Unified Communications System will be able to use the Google OneBox for Enterprise to find rich media conference information, including calendar events and missed-call logs. Cognos has unveiled the Go! Module for Cognos 8 and IBM’s OmniFind enterprise search, which will enable users to search unstructured business intelligence data and display it in graphical form. Previously, Google’s Search Appliance could index Cognos data, did not understand the business intelligence that gave context and meaning to the data.
For Google, the enterprise search capability is a significant step forward that will enable it to compete more effectively against high-end enterprise search vendors like Autonomy, Convera, Endeca, and Fast. It has an added advantage in that users are familiar with its interface and keyword search facility.
