Free search technology has definitely got a role to play in business intelligence. In fact, most experts believe that a free search technology could very much be the more important facet of the next generation business intelligence platform. However, companies are mixing caution with aggression when they try to incorporate powerful features like free search technology in business intelligence tools.

The impact could be studied by first understanding business intelligence which is actually a way user groups are provided with all the data in the form of reports and other integrated formats, so they can look at the structure, analytic and strategy, plan and monitor business activities.

Adding free search technology would be moving away from a model where business user gets data after proper integration, so it could be used for tracking business, the rise and fall in sales and the strengths and weaknesses of supply chains by performance management. Free search would be disrupting this system by exposing the user to a vast world of unstructured data that can confuse the user. A way to utilize the data and information dug out by a free search technology is by having a platform or tool which could tell the user how to assimilate, collate and squeeze value out of the unstructured tons of data that free search pulls out.

Another ideology revolves around the fact that if data is structured perfectly, one doesn’t need a search technology. Although search could offer more choices and bits of data than is required, it is a tricky situation and depends on how much business intelligence should be automated in reports, user interfaces and databases and how much should be left to the strategical and planning committees to interpret from the available data.

With the increasing demand for data transparency and higher collaboration of divisions, being able to fetch data from across the boards and try to make sense of it could be an initial uphill task but could prove effective in the longer run.

A good way of optimizing the effort by getting the best of both worlds is by having a platform that will help and enable the user make better use of all the information that is accessible yet useless given the form that it is in. At the end of the day, business intelligence tools should strive to help user make the best decisions by pulling out whatever could influence that decision.