FAST Search for SharePoint Implementation Dramatically Improves Research Capabilities for Global Law Firm
Project At a Glance
RDA architected and developed a platform leveraging FAST for SharePoint that serves as the foundation for global enterprise search for an international law firm. The solution increases personnel productivity, enabling the firm to service more clients per attorney, allows for the re-use of intellectual assets, and also improves the accuracy of search results.
About Our Client
Our client is an international law firm with over 700 attorneys covering the practice areas of corporate, finance, litigation, public law and real estate.
Background
Our client was looking to create a comprehensive system for searching their internal content database that includes approximately 60 million documents, records, and emails. The solution would benefit its partners, senior attorneys and legal research teams who rely on this data as part of their daily research for clients.
Prior to this project, they utilized the built-in search tool that came with their document management system, but attorneys and research associates were dissatisfied with the antiquated, hard to maintain system that delivered inadequate search results. The Interwoven/Autonomy product that they relied on is expensive,difficult to maintain and did not integrate results from e-mail, intranet or records management systems. It was challenging to gather accurate statistics for the Autonomy search system and there was no document preview capability. The firm was also dissatisfied with the search relevancy and the inability to tune the system to improve relevancy.
The firm also needed to perform searches outside of the document management system. Researchers searched email using Outlook, and relied on the standard search feature for any documents located on their Microsoft SharePoint Server repositories. These methods lacked efficiency and accuracy. In addition, they weren’t able to search their records management system at all.
Solution Detail
RDA architected and developed a search platform that serves as the foundation for global enterprise search throughout the firm. We managed the design, configuration and development of a search environment leveraging the FAST for SharePoint platform. This system provides attorneys with the ability to search their email, SharePoint sites and records in the Interwoven and CA Records Manager repositories using a single intuitive interface with a user-centric conversational experience.
RDA’s solution provides a vastly superior vehicle for partners, senior attorneys and research associates to locate data housed within over 60 million internal documents, with the ability to scale indefinitely. From a single interface, researchers are able to search content firmwide and no longer need to jump from one application to another. Search results are more accurate and comprehensive and the process is far more efficient.
The solution leverages BA Insights’ Longitude tool, which enables users to preview content without opening documents. Longitude also displays occurrence hits for search terms. Results are delivered through a SharePoint interface.
Benefits
RDA’s search solution:
- provides a single, global-scale application for searching all internal documents for the firm – over 60 million at this point, with the ability to scale indefinitely.
- improves research team efficiency through its superior user interface and the ability to enter advanced search criteria
- enables researchers to preview content without opening documents
- increases personnel productivity, enabling the firm to service more clients per attorney
- improves accuracy of search results
- allows for the re-use of intellectual assets
Technically Speaking
The solution leverages FAST Search for SharePoint as well as the Longitude product developed by BA Insights.
There are six servers in the cluster, searched by all users domestically as well as some internationally.