Why should Organisations Govern Enterprise Search?

Enterprise search is an area of increasing importance that has not received the attention it deserves. In today’s information-rich business environment, the ability to find effectively what you are looking for is vital, and what tools to provide for enterprise search is thus a decision of strategic importance. In this exploratory study, we investigate enterprise search from an IT governance perspective. We ask to what extent management is active in shaping strategies for enterprise search and what effect this has on perceived findability and search satisfaction. Based on results from more than hundred organisations our study concludes that the existence of an explicit strategy for enterprise search is important for organisational performance and that such a strategy is more likely to be in place when there is an active IT governance function involved. We argue that organisations should take enterprise search more seriously by making it an IT governance issue