---
title: "How much should Enterprise Search solutions cost?"
url: https://lookeen.com/blog/how-much-should-enterprise-search-solutions-cost
lang: en
description: "Don't waste resources unnecessarily! With the implementation of Enterprise Search, you save more money than you ever need to spend on it!"
author: "Eric Ebert"
published: 2012-05-20T15:32:26+00:00
modified: 2026-11-11T07:02:37+00:00
---

# How much should Enterprise Search solutions cost?

What Should Enterprise Search Solutions Cost?

The overarching goal of implementing an [Enterprise Search Tools](https://lookeen.com/blog/enterprise-search-solution-for-complex-environments) should be to find information – in a timely and efficient manner without causing paralyzing costs. The goal for every manager should be that, in the long run, using the respective search tool saves even more money than could be spent on the *installation* of the search tool. This sounds simple at first, but many companies stumble exactly over this issue.

The problem with many search tools is that [every company has its own specific needs](https://lookeen.com/blog/the-tasks-of-enterprise-search) when it comes to an enterprise search solution. Is it better for a company to be served many results and then manually filter them to find the exact information? Or does a company merely want to find out whether a document exists at all, or whether it is more cost-effective in this specific case to create it anew itself if it isn’t found? Managers must address exactly these questions. The answers to these questions will later define the character of the final enterprise search tool.

[The affordable enterprise search solution – Learn more about it here!](https://lookeen.com/pricing)

## Data Production and Value Creation

Every [modern enterprise produces data](https://lookeen.com/blog/desktop-search-helps-classify-company-data) (data creation), regardless of whether this data comes from invoices, product designs, ideas, or emails. Let’s assume a company uses a fixed amount to record this data in the system as data points; then it makes sense that every enterprise search query that finds this entry and returns it as an answer to a question adds a certain value to this data (“Added Value”). Example: An engineer receives a call from a customer who needs a spare part for a device he purchased 30 years ago. The engineer responsible at the time has, of course, long since left the company, and the new engineer has never heard of this part. However, he gets some information from the customer about what the part looks like and what it does, and develops a few search terms from this that he inputs into the enterprise search tool. The tool subsequently returns five options, one of which is a scanned drawing that helps him get the desired spare part manufactured again.

The question that now arises is how much such an enterprise search tool costs one-time (fixed costs) and how much it additionally costs to maintain and manage it (variable costs). “How much money does the company save when it saves time finding information?” How much does a company save if it doesn’t have to create duplicates because this knowledge already exists somewhere and is *rediscovered*?? It is obvious that the engineer taking the call would have cost more if he had to design, develop, and think through the spare part himself – but that didn’t happen. Enterprise search systems increase the value of existing knowledge.

Companies simply need to determine how much they are willing to invest in search functions and their management when these add new value to existing knowledge.