Unified Access to Information: Less Seeking, More Finding

Authored by Susan Feldman and Hadley Reynolds, IDC

Unified information access platforms provide a single point of access to multiple heterogeneous sources of information.

These platforms are highly scalable and are built to accommodate quickly changing information through real-time or near-real-time updating and analytics. These platforms combine elements of database, business intelligence, and search technologies to make information access dynamic and ad hoc for business users.

They are capable of indexing and integrating large volumes of unstructured, semistructured, and structured information into a unified environment for information gathering, analysis, and decision support. Like portals and search applications, they offer rich and interactive user interface designs.

Like BI applications, they integrate visual analysis tools. These platforms promise to boost information worker productivity because they enable ad hoc queries and quick, easy access to both data and content for business decision makers as well as trained data analysts. Unified information access platforms provide the infrastructure for building search-based applications.