The founders of Search Solutions, Inc. have years of experience creating search systems with a wide variety of technologies. The main lesson is simply that the search results must align with business goals. Design and deployment of search systems tend to fall on the technology staff as opposed to business managers. Enterprise search sales people tell everyone how "easy" search is. Sadly, that is not the case, but there is a process to ensure success.

Now that search is mainstream, businesses must implement the SPIRAL methodology that works with any technology. Whether you have a high-end enterprise system to a search appliance to open source Lucene, the SPIRAL methodology will improve your search.

The SPIRAL creates a search portal built on your users' needs:

Specifications -- All systems needs detailed business specifications before work begins. IT specialists tend to choose a search system based on research or the salesmanship of a specific product.

Project Management -- A structured project management process is necessary. Search systems tend fall prey to the whims of one person inside an organization.

Interface -- The user interface on search engine results pages ("SERPs") tend to have little or no design. Web sites will put substantial thought into the flow and organization of a web site, and not carry it over into the results pages

Relevancy -- Relevancy is a subjective term, yet many search vendors vehemently defend their search relevancy as "the best." Users, not software vendors or IT administrators, determine whether or not your system is relevant.

Analysis -- Search log files will show you patterns in user behavior. While it is common for web sites to purchase web site analysis software, the search log files go ignored.

Linking / Strategic SEO -- For public facing sites the lines are blurring between site search and SEO. Once the time and effort into a search has been developed, you must put in the effort to get traffic to the new service.