Customer CasesThe Challenge
Ferring Pharmaceuticals uses SharePoint to enable their document-based business processes. As the number of documents grows, the challenge of finding specific information rapidly becomes next to impossible. While using a stringent site structure can offset some of this difficulty, there is a point of diminishing returns at which users can simply no longer remember all the places to look.
Ferring’s legal department faced this challenge when looking for case documents. The specific challenge was to find documents with containing case numbers in the document title. Standard Search in SharePoint 2007 was unable to meet this challenge, because the numbers being searched for were often fragments located in the middle of long titles.
Previously, Ferring had been able to locate these files using their legacy document management system, but the migration to SharePoint had made these much harder to find, and the viability of the SharePoint migration was called into question.
The Ontolica Solution
By using Ontolica, Ferring was able to search for numbers in filenames. With a few minor tweaks to their search templates, they were able to deploy a solution for their legal department that would quickly and effectively locate numbered case documents. Since Ontolica is simple to customize, Ferring was able to deploy an interface that closely matches the legacy system prior to the migration, to improve user satisfaction, minimize retraining, and maximize usage of the new SharePoint portal.
When combined with Ontolica’s other powerful navigation features, such as refiners and quick filters, the solution provides the ability to locate documents, and navigate large result sets quickly and flexibly. Relying on SharePoint to implement strong workflows, support group collaboration and scale to millions of documents, and Ontolica’s ability to deploy a rich search interface and result navigation allows Ferring to achieve search that truly supplements their work processes.
About Ferring Pharmaceuticals
Ferring Pharmaceuticals is a research-driven biopharmaceutical company devoted to identifying, developing and marketing innovative products in the fields of tailored medical treatments that that work on the body’s own terms to enable doctors to combat numerous diseases and medical conditions. With operations across the world from Europe, to South America, China and the Middle East, Ferring is committed to a future where it will continue to provide new and innovative medicines by utilising existing and acquired skills and the development of pioneering technologies and, where necessary, through partnerships with academic institutes and other companies.
About SurfRay
Founded in 2000, SurfRay is one of the leading developers and distributors of intelligent search and cutting-edge document-navigation and preview technology. Providing search solutions for SharePoint since 2003, SurfRay delivers fully scaling-out-of-the-box solutions to SharePoint search pains.
Users find what they need, cutting time-wastage in critical knowledge-driven situations. Administrators understand what users are looking for, improving the search experience and SharePoint infrastructure and multiplying investments.
SurfRay is a privately held company with offices in Denmark, the United States, England and Holland. We have provided search solutions to customers from public to private sectors, and in every conceivable industry.