Guide your employees to the right information with Microsoft Search

"How do I place an internal order?", "Where can I find the staff handbook?", "Where can I see how many vacation days I have left?". There are many questions that an employee may need answers to in their daily work. As companies accumulate more and more information, it becomes more difficult to find it.

The basic idea is that the information should reside with the department responsible for the issue in question. The staff handbook is probably in the HR workspace, and if you need a form to order new computer equipment, the IT department is where you should look. So far, this may not be a problem, but in large organizations with many workspaces, complex folder structures arise that require a lot from the user. As soon as a user gives up and starts verbally asking around the organization, a failure has occurred.

Microsoft Search - A new way to find information

Making it easier for users to navigate their IT environment and reach relevant information in an intuitive way is a difficult nut to crack for many companies today. By thinking beyond the classic folder structure, it is possible to find new ways to connect the information with the user.

Microsoft has launched the Search tool as part of Microsoft 365. A new search function may not sound exciting - but it is. Microsoft Search is a unified search function that you can access from anywhere in your Microsoft 365 environment. The search is done across all channels in the ecosystem and the results are the same everywhere, whether you're working in Office 365, in Sharepoint, in Edge, or in a mobile app. New technologies like AI and Machine Learning are used to guide the user, while advanced indexing makes files and documents fully searchable.

The right information at the right time

In the right hands, Microsoft Search is an extremely powerful tool. If Microsoft Search is used, an administrator should be appointed, often the IT manager but can also be, for example, an HR administrator. As an administrator, you can access detailed information about what users are searching for, see what results they get and control what is presented to them.

For example, an employee asking about sick leave can be sent directly to an app or form. The person searching for the staff handbook will be directed to the right place, instead of having to search through 200 pages that mention the word "staff handbook".

The results generated by the keywords are similar to sponsored ads in a search engine and appear in a similar way at the top of the search results. Results can be directed to internal pages as well as apps, flows, checklists and external resources.

Linking questions and answers

While Microsoft Search is a very powerful tool, it's a tool that requires maintenance, but not as much as you might think, and spending time really connecting the right answers to the different searches pays off in the long run. In addition, the continuous work of keeping the system updated does not have to be very extensive.

As a first step, you need to start a process in your company to identify what employees often search for (a large part of the searches are usually the same regardless of the company). Since statistics are then generated on the most frequent searches, it is a good idea to appoint an editor who regularly reviews the statistics. Each department can then check that the users end up where they should. Since the information often already exists, it is mainly a matter of linking the right search query with the right result.

We have already identified the most common questions

At WeSafe, we have the expertise to help you set up modern IT environments with Microsoft 365. If you need help getting started with the new features in Microsoft Search, we've already identified the most common questions that employees tend to want answers to and have developed ready-made templates in different areas. Of course, you can also get help if something is missing from the answers page, such as apps, checklists, policies, and employee handbooks.

Want to know more about how to fully exploit the potential of Microsoft Search? Contact us and we will help you!