Agile Software delivers product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions that global corporations use to facilitate collaboration on product design, manufacturing, marketing, and distribution. To serve our thousands of customers effectively, we have a global workforce of over 700 employees. Along with our geographic distribution, each of our business functions manages and stores information differently, with no ability to search for information across systems. For example, the finance, legal and Solution Delivery teams store information in a commercial document repository, while the engineering team manages all of its information in Agile's own PLM system, ClearQuest and wikis. Customer Support uses Onyx, a web-based CRM system, and Primus to manage knowledge base articles. The company's inability to efficiently leverage company knowledge made it costly to collaborate on projects and train new workers.
With minimal customization, we integrated the Google Search Appliance with the various content sources used across the organization. We then did extended the Appliance to index content in enterprise applications. As a result, we were able to achieve unified search without overhauling the each department's systems. With the Google Search Appliance, Agile's global workforce can now leverage the work of other business functions within the company while still adhering to security measures that balance the delicate relationship between strict Sarbanes Oxley regulations and wide-spread access to information.
The Google Search Appliance's return on investment has been greatest within our customer support team. Whereas before, the support team often had to 'recreate the wheel' with each new issue, with the Google Search Appliance, the team has immediate and easy access to the engineering department's information. With one search, customer support team members can now quickly access entire work histories just by entering customer numbers. And for frequent problems and questions, the customer support team has implemented search query triggers, using Google OneBox for Enterprise, that direct team members to specific content sources for troubleshooting assistance.
The ability to give all employees secure access to our company information and the speed with which the Appliance is able to access critical customer and product information has increased both client and employee satisfaction tremendously.
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