“The MENTOR is the key technology for our portal. We are fully convinced of its abilities and efficiency.“

– Gerhard Peter, Project Manager at Festo AG

Festo AG & CO. KG is a global player that specializes in the automation of pneumatic and electrical components and systems. Training in industry automation is another important part of the company‘s service portfolio. Festo employs more than 11,500 people worldwide and offers its products and services in 176 countries around the globe.

Slow search routines and imprecise results were the main reasons why Festo decided to redesign its Web-based search routines. CONET realized a fast, target-oriented search application by using their CONET Mentor (Repository Manager) for Lotus Domino and proven SAP standard portal components. Now the user can find the information he needs for fulfilling his tasks, including additional information related to his query quickly, significantly increasing the efficiency of his work.

The Situation

• An inefficient search routine took a lot of time and generally provided imprecise results
• The use of a single search engine across Internet and intranet was not supported, nor were multiple languages
• Increased data volume led to prolonged waiting and response times

On their Web sites, Festo used the Domain Search provided by Lotus. The data volume for a search spans 50 gigabytes and is spread across 160 different databases. Each month more than one million queries were executed, leading to inacceptable response times of up to 20 seconds.

Additional value-added services, like the automatic provision of related information, links to similar documents, or a search that spanned the whole Web could not be realized with this solution.

The Solution

• A single application searches the Internet as well as the intranet
• The query results are easily customizable to different languages and highlight the search terms
• Content comparison and detailed definition of searched fields improves the quality of search results

Within the course of three months, CONET implemented an all-new search routine. It is based on SAP standard components and MENTOR (Repository Manager) and offers high reliability due to its redundant system architecture.

A specially-delevoped search iView reduces response times to four or five seconds. The content comparison of fields takes different semantic structures of databases into account, and allows flexible language settings and an individual selection of fields to be searched through.

The Benefit

• The new search function allows for direct access to Festo‘s complete knowledge base and improves the service offered to the Web user considerably
• It reduces search times by up to 80%
• It provides clear, reliable and complete information

The elimination of semantic and country-specific language barriers satisfies and motivates the portal users significantly.

The low set-up and maintenance costs guarantee a minimum TCO. There are no additional licensing fees since the SAP standard search used is already part of the portal environment.

The powerful, flexible, state-of-the-art infrastructure, which is highly reliable and scalable, forms a secure long-term investment.

CONET Contact:

Simon Vieth
Company Spokesman
CONET Technologie AG

Theodor-Heuss-Allee 19
D-53773 Hennef

Phone.: +49 2242 939-246
Fax: +49 2242 939-333
E-Mail: presse@conet.de