Unified Access to Information: Content Vendors Heed the Urge to Converge

This IDC study examines developments in search and discovery applications. Organizations have discovered wide gaps in their business intelligence and require unified access to all their information - both data and content. To meet the demand, new, innovative software applications have been developed based on content technologies such as categorization, search, and text analytics. These applications break down the barriers between data and content and reach across information silos.

"The content markets took off in 2005, growing at over 35%," said Sue Feldman, IDC's VP for Content Technologies. "Organizations now realize that they must have a complete and up-to-the-minute view of the state of their business. Responding to this need, vendors of search and discovery applications have developed new approaches that unify access to both data and content. In the process, they have begun to muscle their way into the business intelligence market. It will be interesting to see who will dominate this new unified access market."