Overview
BP is one of the world's largest companies with operations in more than 100
countries employing over 96,000 staff. It has two key business segments -
exploration and production and refining and marketing - plus an alternative
energy business, and the company serves more than 15 million customers a day.
Challenge
With any organisation of BP's size, trying to ensure that
information is widely and easily accessible is a momentous task. From varying
languages and numerous document formats, through to the differing uses of
technical data between departments and brands, the breadth of information
available at BP is as diverse as its employee population and customer base.
Solution
BP recognised it needed an enterprise search system that was not only fast but also
provided access to information from the 250+ public-facing and 1,000+ intranet
websites that it uses to share information with key stakeholders.
Product
After reviewing products from a number of search engine suppliers BP chose the
Google Search Appliance, a product that supports 'Universal Search' across websites,
file systems, enterprise applications and intranets. The appliance indexes and
searches over 220 file types, presenting relevant results back to readers with the
simplicity and clarity readers expect from Google.
Benefit
The Google Search Appliance delivers more relevant results five times faster than
the previous system, making it more appealing to users. As a result internal searches
have increased by 80% and click-through rates rose by 20%. There has also been
an increase in reader searches of 80% to 90% on public-facing websites. |
BP and the Google Search Appliance
Challenge
BP is an extremely large organisation, spanning the entire globe, so the process of
information sharing between individuals and teams is very important. This is why
BP keeps much of its data online.
In theory, keeping information online should make it easier to share. However, if
readers are unable to find what they are looking for, work can become frustrating.
In addition, every week new sites are created on BP's intranet, which made it very
difficult for the previous search system to keep track, despite its sophistication.
"Despite the theoretical power of our previous search system, in practice it did not
return relevant results and was quickly abandoned by staff," explains Sébastien
Olive, Project Manager for the Information Technology & Services team at BP.
"It was very complex, expensive and time-consuming to implement and maintain
and when searching, people were faced with endless lists of results that lacked
relevancy."
Solution
The Information Technology & Services team at BP was called on to improve the
search system and an audit showed a need to consider alternative search tools.
"We had a significant investment in a search solution from a market leader,
so the initial brief was not to replace it, but to improve it. However, when we
evaluated the scope of work required to improve the system, it became evident
that a different approach could prove more effective, from a cost and functionality
perspective," says Sébastien.
As a result, BP asked vendors to create proof of concepts so that it could compare
the performance of different search systems on actual BP content.
The team tested these products with a range of keywords and pre-determined
expected results. A traffic light marking system was put in place that scored each
search by its position: the five top search results were shown in the colour green;
the five results listed on the bottom of the first page in orange; and the results
listed beyond the first search page in red. The Google Search Appliance returned
a high proportion of 'green' results straight out of the box, even before any fine
tuning took place.
"The results of the test made our decision easy. The relevance factor was
important for us and Google knows how readers think - and search. Typically,
people type in one or two keywords at most and these are usually not very precise.
What they expect the search engine to do is read their minds to find out what they
are looking for - if it does not deliver, they quickly stop using the tool," says
Sébastien. "The Google Search Appliance appears to have this 'mind reading'
skill and has the additional advantage of being a trusted brand."
"The pairing of the sophistication of the Google Search Appliance's administrative
and indexing capabilities with the fact it consistently delivered relevant results
made it a simple choice for us. In addition, readers had an understanding on how
to get the most from it from their experience of the web," continues Sébastien.
"A tertiary benefit we've seen is that the Google Search Appliance has provided
an incentive for editors to work on improving their content," points out Giles
Sutehall, Head of Corporate Reporting & Internet.
"The Google brand is trusted and editors no longer blame the search engine for
not delivering the right result. Instead, they're coming to Communications asking
for help to improve the quality of their messaging in order to improve their search
ranking," he said.
Results
As a result of the success of the internal search overhaul, BP subsequently
decided to tackle the challenge of its 250+ public-facing websites, featuring a
variety of different languages and brands that represent BP's offerings worldwide,
including ampm, Aral, Arco, Castrol, and Wild Bean Café. Each site required a
localised, appropriately branded search page in the correct language.
"We were faced with the enormous task of creating more than 250 unique,
multilingual search pages, allowing readers to search content in many languages,"
Sébastien continues.
"We decided to test the shortlisted products with the same traffic light marking
system we had used for our intranet project. While there were some attractive
features in the other products we reviewed, relevance was once again the key
factor for our readers and the area where Google came out on top," he said.
"When we went live with the external search solution, we had an 80% increase of
searches - a great testament to the fact that readers are pleased with the search
results they are receiving."
"The Google Search Appliance has worked extremely well. Not only has it been
reliable from a technology perspective, but it has brought consistency and cost
savings to both our intranet and public-facing websites while also making a
contribution to the efficacy of our messaging," Giles concludes.
About the Google Search Appliance
The Google Search Appliance is an integrated corporate search solution that extends Google's
award-winning search technology to intranets and websites. The Google Search Appliance is available
in three models: the GB-1001 for departments and mid-sized companies; the GB-5005 for dedicated,
high-priority search services such as customer-facing websites and company-wide intranet applications;
and the GB-8008 for centralised deployments supporting global business units. For more information, visit http://www.google.ie/enterprise/.
|
