Autonomy WorkSite 8.5: When Should Your Firm Upgrade? Part 2

By Mike Ferrara (@mikecferrara) Jul 12, 2010

4 comments

Moving from Autonomy (news, site) Worksite 8.x to Worksite 8.5 is no small matter. With so many changes to this 8.5 release, you may wonder why it wasn't called 9.0.

In part 1 I focused on new features and considerations for some of the backend components of WorkSite 8.5 including the DMS server, Communications server and Web server. For part 2, I’ll discuss what you need to know for the client components as well as the new IDOL indexer and 3rd party add-ins for WorkSite. At the end, I’ll answer the question posed in these articles with my bottom line recommendations.

Read: Autonomy WorkSite 8.5: When Should Your Firm Upgrade? Part 1

FileSite/DeskSite/OffSite

Strangely enough, FileSite and DeskSite have received little in regards to graphical enhancements. The major changes to functionality are really only to support new features in the server products. But the jump to 8.5 is still significant, as the overall experience for the user is different.

Because the new IDOL indexer returns more refined searches, a user will blame this on the new FileSite client being different. But in reality this is a product of the revamped backend. The same goes for DeskSite, which most firms are only using for administrative purposes in new installs.

A couple of things that the user will notice is that the menu now says WorkSite instead of MailSite/FileSite, and they will also see different icons in the FileSite tree in Outlook. One new notable feature is WorkSite Miner being accessible on the context menus in the FileSite tree. It is now installed automatically with FileSite and DeskSite 8.5.

OffSite did actually get a face-lift, however. It was completely rewritten with a new interface, and it runs locally off of SQL Express. In my experience the product works a lot better than 8.2, if you have a stable internet connection.

Unfortunately, many firms utilize VPN connections over air cards, and that’s when it can get ugly. When a connection drops, OffSite will occasionally not know how to handle it, and you can very easily get corrupted local databases. This renders OffSite useless in many cases. But as I will stress throughout the entire process of upgrading to 8.5, you have got to test this out for yourself. Every firm and situation is going to be different.

IDOL Indexer

If you’re a frequent CMSWire reader, then you’ve no doubt at least heard of Autonomy’s IDOL software. IDOL is the only product featured here that didn’t come over in the acquisition of Interwoven in 2009. IDOL replaces the old Verity indexer that WorkSite formerly used for indexing, although you can still couple the 8.2/8.3 WorkSite indexer with WorkSite Server 8.5.

There are two significant differences between IDOL for WorkSite 8.5 and WorkSite Indexer 8.2. The former is a java-based application that requires the latest Java runtimes, and a lot of TLC to tailor it to your firm’s needs. You’ll probably need to invest in new hardware and spend significant time learning the new architecture, but it will pay off in the end.

I’ve seen the IDOL indexer crunch documents as high as 300,000 an hour on an initial crawl, as opposed to about 20,000 with Verity. It will deliver much more relevant search results to end-users, and it is highly customizable depending on your specific needs.