At last year’s Microsoft Executive Partner Summit in Cannes, Q-go’s CEO Marcel Smit was inspired by a statement made by Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer. Steve was explaining the vision of enterprise search and enthused that someday a person could get an answer to simple, natural language queries like: “Who is the account executive for Michelin?”. Of course, getting the answer is not simple given the fractured nature of enterprise information stores, database, legacy systems, etc. But Marcel said: We can do that! And Q-go have since gone ahead to prove it too!
Q-go are a fast-growing software company based in the Netherlands. Their core IP is a unique Natural Language Search technology. The next step was to integrate it with Microsoft’s enterprise server offerings. So Q-go worked with the UK Microsoft Technology Centre team (based in Reading, UK) to integrate their Natural Language Search technologies into Microsoft’s premier information storage and enterprise search platform Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and a human resources management application. Outcomes of the proof of concept proved 12 commonly asked questions such as “How many days holidays do I have?” or “What is John Smith’s mobile number?”.
In the process of developing our partnership, Q-go have also switched their technology stack from Linux/Oracle to Windows/SQL (you can read more in this published MSPP Case Study). Their commitment and enthusiasm for working with Microsoft has been outstanding. In turn, we are doing as much as we can to keep them moving in terms of platform and sales. After all, our success depends on theirs too!
