People and Expertise Search center with WebCenter Spaces and Oracle Internet Directory

Have you ever used the LinkedIn people search? In my opinion is one of the best I have used and quite intuitive.

Oracle provides the tools necesary to build a similar search based on the WebCenter and OID stuck.

People and expertise finder

The needs vs. the challenges
In the corporate world, the need for finding people and collaboration spans many levels including: The ability for day to day colleagues to find contact details Being able to track down a person, or get hold of their details To be able to contact and collaborate instantly For workers to identify people to ask for expert opinions and perhaps collaboration To be able to get a clear picture of capabilities and areas of expertise To be able to identify the appropriate people to build teams
But we also have lots of challenges Multiple data sources (HR systems, LDAP, AD, transactional data…) Un-structured information Lack of or out of date information No processes or procedures that capture data Multiple strategies between operating companies or divisions makes difficult to select and integrate a unified platform
Rich profiles, where everything begins
In order to build a people finder application, we need to start with the “builing blocks”. Each user profile is formed from data coming from different sources (which are not editable) and data which is manually input by the user. The “self service” user interface allow users to update the details at any time

• Status
• Things to contact me about
• About me
• Personal Interest
• Skills and qualifications
• Work experience
• Location base
• Current location
• Content I’ve authored
• Alternative contact
• Company information

How does Alex – based in London and interested in engine technology find Peter – just joined the Indianapolis office with experience in building aircraft engines?

User data sources that come from different sources can be synchronized using Oracle Virtual Directory, into a unified data source. The “PES Engine” then encapsulates the complexity of all sources (including transactional data) in order to provide a unique search experience bringing back the most relevant results.
The PES engine implements a sophisticated algorithm that sorts the results by the “PES Rank”. This rank is based on the importance that the different fields have been given ensuring that the most relevant results always appear at the top.

Soundex, filters and export capabilities
When the keyword cannot be found, the engine searches for words that “sounds like” the keyword. So if you do not know how to spell someone’s name… you can still find them.
When too many results clutter the relevant information “Invenio” can narrow these down and get more specific results by using the People & Expertise Search advanced filters. Some of the filter criteria include, but are not limited to, company, location, experience, skills or job title amongst others.