With Google selling an Enterprise Search solution called the Google Mini for $1,995, and IBM and Yahoo partnered to deliver IBM Omnifind Yahoo! Edition for free, it's not surprising that many believe Enterprise Search will be the next category of technology to become a commodity. In addition to this, the big infrastructure vendors are moving aggressively in this space. Oracle has recently released Oracle SES, Microsoft has announced that search is strategic to them and released a much improved version of it's search technology in SharePoint. Then there's IBM who open sourced the UIMA platform, which is excellent, but has failed to gain the momentum and mind share that Google seems to have.
So with all of this smoke, is there fire? Not if your Boston based Endeca Technologies. According to Don Dodge, Director of Business Development for Microsoft's Emerging Business Team, "Endeca is going to be the next billion-dollar company in Boston." If search is becoming a commodity, how is it that Steve Papa, the founder of Endeca, was recently quoted saying that "seven-figures deals for more complex jobs are becoming more common." Who in their right mind would pay a million dollars for a commodity?
Geoffrey Moore argues in the classic Crossing the Chasm that technology gains wide spread adoption after a product can address the functionality requirements in the mainstream market. It's only then that commoditization can occur. In a few of my prior posts, I present recent data that suggests companies are terribly dissatisfied with the search technologies that they have deployed. Users continue to spend hours a week fruitlessly search for information. And these are companies that deployed best of breed solutions. With all due respect to some of the lower priced solutions in the market place. These are fine desktop tools, but they can hardly be considered Enterprise class.
A second point to consider, is that companies like Endeca aren't standing still. Search technology has evolved to the point were structured content from ERP, CRM, and custom applications can be indexed and searched as easily as document based content. Enterprises have invested millions in these systems. By enabling employees to access this data through a simple search interface, a new level of productivity can be achieved. SAP recognizes this and is working on developing a search engine that will enable users to retrieve ERP data with the related document data in a single view. The latest word is it will be officially released in the 1st half of 2008. I'm pretty sure, they won't be giving it away for free.
Gartner has recognized this shift and has appropriately changed the name of the space from Enterprise Search to Information Access. In my view this space is changing rapidly and is wide open. Search will become the intersection of Composite Applications, Business Intelligence, Document Assembly, and Search itself. Commoditization isn't even on the horizon.
UPDATE - Please add to the above Autonomy's record earnings announcement