May 12, 2011 |
Using SharePoint Search Alerts to Automate Corporate Email Governance I don't use a lot of features when I'm searching on the Internet. In fact, beyond filtering a search result by a certain file type (images typically) I can't recall the last time I've used anything other than keyword search. This weekend I was reminded that there is in fact a feature that I'm always using, but took it for granted; Search Alerts.
Both Google and Bing have Search Alert capability. This features let's you save a query. What the search engine will then do is monitor for any new information it finds that matches your query. When it does, you are notified automatically by email, or an RSS feed. All of this happens automatically.
This feature has saved me countless hours. When I'm doing research for work I can waste hours searching for some obscure topic that interests me. The problem here is that obscure content can be buried deep in a search result. The magic of PageRank is less magical because fewer people are going to find and link to this type of content. Obscure content won't have a large number of users linking to it, so I spend a great deal of time wading through page after page of irrelevant hits. Search Alerts saves me tons of time, because content that I value Is delivered to my inbox automatically.
SharePoint Search Alert Use Cases
Interestingly, SharePoint has Search Alert capability. I started thinking about some of the ways it could be leveraged in an Enterprise setting and while there are many, Corporate Email Governance first that came to mind.
To be clear, neither SharePoint or FAST can index Exchange private mail out of the box. The good news is that both search platforms can be extended to index any enterprise repository including Exchange email. BA Insight's most popular connector is, in fact, Exchange. More info on that here: http://www.bainsight.com/sharepoint-exchange-connector/Pages/features.aspx
Email Governance is a Broad Topic
At a high level, there are three areas of concern:
1. Security / Threat Prevention - Protection against viruses and such.
2. Regulatory Compliance - Compliance with local, state, and federal law.
3. Corporate Governance - Prevent leakage of intellectual property and confidential data, as well as anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies, legal discovery obligations, etc.
Out of the three areas above, I think SharePoint's Search Alerts feature could be a useful tool for Corporate Governance. A couple of use cases immediately come to mind:
- Confidentiality - Company A acquiring Company B. A search alert can be set to monitor email for the use of Company B's name.
- HR Policy - The company has a strict policy against the use of foul language. A search alert will detect violations and immediately notify the appropriate HR individual.
In the simple examples above, the power of SharePoint / FAST search is fully leveraged in that both email and attachments are monitored automatically providing an effective, low cost, email governance tool.
For those of you that have never used search alerts, they can be set up in a few easy steps.
1. Navigate to a search results page.
2. Click on the email icon or RSS feed icon depending on what type of alert you wish to receive. The icons are located on the top right of the screen
3. Finally a panel will appear. Enter the name of the alert, the users who should receive the alert, notification schedules, etc.
An important final note; when you start to index email, the number of items your indexing will grow to the point that SharePoint's 100 million item limit will start to appear on the horizon. For some companies it goes without saying that indexing email should only be attempted if you standardized on FAST.
I'll actually be hosting a webcast on this very topic at the end or the month. More info on that can be found here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/558209859
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