Clever Searching Adds Value To VERITAS Support Site

VERITAS Software customers and content authors/editors have more powerful information at their fingertips now, due to S.L.I. Systems' intelligent search technology.

VERITAS, the leading storage software company, had discovered that the initial search technology used on its support web site wasn't meeting its needs. VERITAS is constantly seeking ways to increase the value of its services in its commitment to become a "trusted advisor" to its customers and partners, and took action.

Customers having the most difficulty finding the information they needed through searching were those who lacked experience with the product or were not familiar with the technical terms used in the documents in the Knowledge Base online document resource center.

Also, support site visitors required knowledge of Boolean search techniques to unlock the power of the incumbent search technology.

As a consequence, information that was relevant to the visitors searching was not ranked high enough in search results - or was missed completely. This increased the risk that searchers would not find the technical information they needed - a waste of the resources that VERITAS invested in creating and maintaining its extensive online Knowledge Base.

VERITAS began to seek search technology that would elevate the relevance of important support site content.

Speedy demo set-up

S.L.I. Systems was able to set up a demonstration of its Learning Search technology on VERITAS' Knowledge Base online document resource center within four hours. With a trial in place, VERITAS could immediately compare the effectiveness of S.L.I. Systems' search technology with the complex, expensive solutions being presented by competing search technology providers.

VERITAS was impressed by Learning Search's ability to:

• " Learn from the search behavior of VERITAS support site visitors, promoting the most relevant documents to the top of search results. As a result, the average click rank - the position of the listing within search results that the average visitor clicks on first - has improved from the 20th result to the 9th result and continues to improve.
• " Offer visitors search suggestions based on related search terms, proactively offering terms found to be highly relevant in earlier searches on similar topics. S.L.I Systems creates search suggestions with no obvious reference to search terms - for example, they can associate the acronym OFO with the actual concept Open File Option. This is an automatic function that does not require extensive manual set-up or continuing manual maintenance, and significantly increases the odds of site visitors finding the information they seek
• " Search across a range of formats, including dynamically and statically created content, PDF documentation, download descriptions and newsgroups
• " Present the search information using VERITAS' brand and site styles.

S.L.I. Systems also included reporting tools in its Learning Search service, enabling VERITAS content editors to analyze search behavior. They could then focus on providing content most frequently searched by visitors and identify potential holes in the Knowledge Base.

S.L.I. Systems customized these tools for VERITAS so that content editors, who have responsibility on a per-product basis, can keep track of visitor behavior in their own areas of work.

Experts in search behavior at S.L.I. Systems regularly analyze the way visitors are interacting with the VERITAS support site overall, recommending improvements where appropriate.

Learning Search operates from S.L.I. Systems' own server, reducing VERITAS' cost of traffic load and ensuring quality maintenance, freeing VERITAS to focus on content rather than maintaining a search service.

S.L.I. Systems bridges the gap

VERITAS Senior Director of Technical Services, Lee Small, says S.L.I. Systems' Learning Search technology has increased the speed and ease with which VERITAS customers find relevant support information.

"By keeping relevant documents in the top rankings, visitors are most likely to see the content, and are less likely to call our support line for help. S.L.I. Systems helps bridge the gap between sophisticated product users and those without as much experience through its related search terms, so that every user can find the information they need much more quickly," Mr. Small says.

"VERITAS technical support engineers have worked very hard to create the best online Knowledge Base, but if the search engine doesn't help to deliver relevant content to our customers and partners, then the effort spent creating the content is ineffective."

Reporting tools add value

Mr. Small says content publishers and editors value S.L.I. Systems' customized reporting tools.

These tools provide insights into visitor search behavior, including the most popular documents being selected, the most popular search phrases visitors are using to find information about a particular product, and, most importantly, the search terms yielding the poorest results. This means VERITAS' authors and editors can easily identify priorities for the maintenance of their product-specific support site content.

"The authors and editors of our technical documentation are continuously updating and improving content, and the reports we gain from S.L.I. Systems help them to focus on the areas of the Knowledge Base that need the most attention. For instance, we may find that a particular search phrase is giving poor results, indicating that we may need to write a new document, or that content within the most popular documents could be improved.

"We're also able to form Frequently Asked Questions from the most popular documents. For us, the reporting tools are a significant part of the S.L.I. Systems service," Mr. Small says.

S.L.I. Systems has made VERITAS' technical information much more accessible to its customers and partners visiting the VERITAS support web site.

"S.L.I. Systems uses statistical modeling to leverage the power of human intellect and improve search results. This means that every person conducting a search using S.L.I. Systems' Learning Search technology is benefiting from the best of all past searches.

"This is a clever approach to searching that works well in the real world and helps VERITAS to become a trusted advisor to our customers and partners," Mr. Small says.

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