Interaction techniques for integrated content-based enterprise search

Abstract

An enterprise employs various search systems in isolation to retrieve knowledge from its data sources. Usually, these search systems fulfill specific requirements of a department. Overall, the search systems are not efficient and do not consider a holistic view of an enterprise. To overcome the aforesaid issues, an integrated content-based enterprise search framework is envisaged. The framework employs various indexing and retrieval methods for content-based retrieval of enterprise entities like 3D models and 2D drawings. Further, to conveniently access enterprise databases and increase search effectiveness, several interaction techniques are identified as follows: (i) interaction using (alpha-) numeric properties, (ii) interaction utilizing sketches, (iii) interaction employing 3D shapes, and (iv) interaction with cluster browsing. Depending on process context and domain experts' requirements, diverse interaction techniques can be combined to identify the required knowledge from enterprises' data sources. Finally, case studies are presented to validate the envisaged framework. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.