2. Structured content is becoming uncontrollable. Building, maintaining and managing relevant distribution pathways for one relational database is a (relatively) simple task. But today's enterprises utilize hundreds (if not thousands) of different databases. Their ensuing volume and complexity put inherent limitations on how organizations can scale the scope and depth of their distribution pathways.

As unstructured content gains structure, organizations? demand pathways are increasingly beginning to resemble distribution pathways. Faceted search, contextualized search and federated search are all examples of how information architects are increasingly ?hard-wiring? information distribution mechanisms into their demand pathways. Many enterprise search vendors are investing significant resources and developing interesting solutions for responding to this trend.

As a consequence, the analytical distribution pathways for structured data are often re-scheduled or delayed by the necessity to douse metaphorical fires elsewhere within the organization's IT infrastructure.

As information architects increasingly wrestle with the challenge of building/maintaining distribution pathways for structured data in today's complex data environment, forward-thinking architects recognize the parallels to unstructured content. In order to make uncontrollable unstructured content available to information users, architects had to establish demand pathways through the use of enterprise search. As structured data becomes increasingly uncontrollable, organizations will have to build demand pathways for structured data.

Numerical data search technology integrates the ease-of-use of enterprise search with the data-manipulation capabilities of business intelligence platforms. The result is a search engine that can automatically access any data within your organization, find on-demand information relevant to any user within your organization, and return that data to the user in an accessible and easy-to-use format.

Through a judicious combination of distribution pathways and demand pathways, information architects are able to build an IT foundation capable of supporting their organization's transformation into an innovative, insight-driven competitive powerhouse.

This article was provided by ChartSearch Inc. ChartSearch is a newly launched enterprise technology company which helps businesses maximize insight productivity through the use of a first-of-its-kind numerical and real-time business intelligence platform. With ChartSearch, businesses can find and extract statistical research data on-demand, then automatically visualize it in a readily accessible form. For more information, please visit www.chartsearch.net.