Search boom led by data explosion

Report predicts companies selling goods online will have particular need of robust search technologies

Some 20 exabytes of new digital data (20,000,000,000 gigabytes) will be created in 2006, increasing businesses’ reliance on search technologies, according to a report from Deloitte released today (Thursday).

Any companies, from consulting organisations to supermarkets, whose customers access their web sites to browse and purchase goods or services, will be in particular need of robust search technologies, says the report.

Paul Lee, head of technology research at Deloitte, says search capabilities will be an issue for some years to come, as more and more data is generated in digital form.

‘It’s frustrating right now, and every year more data is being created in digital form. But search engines are not up to the task, especially for things outside of just text search,’ he said.

And search technology could replace email as the most used digital application this year, because of rising functionality, more and more searchable data and higher speed connectivity.

Deloitte’s report, TMT Trends: Predictions, 2006, predicts that the major issues affecting technology vendors this year will include increased collaboration on research and development (R&D) and intensified use of offshore outsourcing.

As global spending on R&D soars to more than $1tn (£564bn) in 2006, companies will increasingly look to share the burden, leading to a rise in collaboration.

Organisations will also look to move more R&D work offshore, partly to reduce costs, but more crucially to gain access to a wider pool of qualified talent.

‘With regards to outsourcing, the mood has changed, from outsourcing being something that was dabbled in to something that you have to do,’ said Lee.

‘For technology companies, every customer now expects them to have outsourcing as part of the mix.’

One of the implications for technology companies will be a change in the types of skills they will seek to employ in developed countries, as the number of staff in developing countries increases, says Lee.

‘It means that staff in developed countries will focus on other tasks, such as product design and project management, which has an impact on how they recruit people,’ he said.