To address those problems, the telecommunications giant decided to look for an enterprise search system in the summer of 2006. The company found only a few possible products and conducted trials with three (she would not divulge who the vendors were).
The telco settled on Northern Light's SinglePoint solution because Verizon liked the system's indexing features and found that it did a better job of presenting relevant data to employees than the other products. Another plus was that users were able to rely on one ID to access all of the data feeds, so the company did not have to worry about password management.
A key differentiation was Northern Lights' SaaS approach to enterprise search. Few vendors now offer SaaS search solutions. The conventional wisdom has been that companies do not feel comfortable storing important corporate data off site, but Verizon took the opposite view. "We did not have the manpower to run the search system on our site," said Schemper-Carlock.
The system was up and running in early 2007 and handles tens of thousands of information requests each year. Although used by many in the firm, the portal is still making deeper inroads, averaging about 150 new clients a month. The system has not totally eliminated work for the VIRN staff; it still handles about 2,500 complex research requests a year.
Some companies are concerned about managing a SaaS system. Verizon has weekly calls with Northern Light, and the telecommunications company has found that when issues arise, the vendor addresses them quickly.
However, pricing has been an issue for Verizon. "Whenever we need customization work done, there does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to the pricing," explained Schemper-Carlock. "Sometimes it is free, but other times there is a fee - and sometimes a significant one - for the work." The company would prefer to pay a base price that includes any enhancements, but Northern Light does not seem to be moving in that direction.
