Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

Best And Worst Of Times For Enterprise Search: Page 2 of 2

While the market has been pushing vendors to broaden their reach, there has also been pressure on their pricing models. Traditionally, enterprise search tools were designed to meet the needs of very large companies. In some cases, they started off as tools to help employees find information housed on company intranets, such a company policies and employee contact information. Gradually, corporations desired to use the tools to help enhance business processes. They wanted to capture information, such as internal knowledge. Because each corporation operates in a distinct manner, adding such capabilities was often significant and time consuming. Consequently, these products typically represented multi-million dollar sales, with lengthy decision processes and implementation tables.

First Google, and later Microsoft, entered the market with tools designed for the masses rather than the enterprise. "Google and Microsoft had a dramatic impact on enterprise search system pricing," stated Whit Andrews, vice president at Gartner. Companies can now find search systems for a few thousand dollars and in some cases, the products are bundled into applications or other tools. The result is mounting pressure on search specific vendors' bottom lines. The following table gives an example of the range and cost of vendor products available:

Company Product Premises or SaaS? Pricing
Coveo Coveo Expresso Premises Free for 50 users
Coveo Enterprise Desktop Search Premises Starts at $50,000
Coveo Enterprise Email Search Premises Starts at $50,000
Coveo CRM Search Premises Starts at $50,000
Coveo Extranet Search Premises Starts at $50,000
Coveo Intranet Search Premises Starts at $50,000
Coveo Enterprise Search Premises Starts at $50,000
Coveo Customer Service & Call Center Solutions Premises Starts at $100,000
Coveo Collaboration and Knowledge Continuity Premises Starts at $100,000
Coveo Investigations and Early Case Assessment Premises Starts at $100,000
Coveo Information Publishing and B2B Ecommerce Premises Starts at $100,000
Endeca Technologies Endeca for Enterprise Search Premises $100,000 to $2 million
Google Inc. Google Mini Premises $2,999 to $9,999
Isys Search Software ISYS Workgroup/ISYS Workgroup Web Premises less than $100,000
ISYS Enterprise Server/ISYS Anywhere Premises less than $100,000
Northern Light Group SinglePoint SaaS About $100,000
Recommind MindServer Search Premises Starting at $30,000
Thunderstone Software TEXIS Premises $7,500 to > $100,000
Search Appliance Premises $7,500 to > $100,000
The Webinator Premises $700 to > $10,000
Parametric Search Appliance Premises Starting at $30,000
Thunderstone Data Services SaaS $250 per month to $5,000+ per month
Vivisimo Velocity Premises Starting at $75,000
Source: Vendors