Best Practices for Your Enterprise Search Proof of Concept (POC)

Running an enterprise search proof of concept the right way separates a fast, confident decision from months of uncertainty. Here’s how to do it right.

Why an Enterprise Search POC Matters

Before committing to an enterprise search platform, the only question that matters is simple: does it actually work for your organization? An enterprise search proof of concept (POC) is a time-bound evaluation that tests how a platform performs against your real organizational data, real users, and real permission structures — not a sanitized demo environment.

That said, a formal POC isn’t the right starting point for every team. If you’re earlier in your evaluation or working with a smaller organization, GoSearch offers Free and Pro plans that let you get hands-on with the platform immediately — no structured evaluation required. It’s the fastest way to experience GoSearch on your own terms.

For organizations that need a more rigorous, stakeholder-driven evaluation before a broader rollout, a structured enterprise search POC is the right path. At GoSearch, our standard POC runs two weeks — long enough to generate meaningful signal, short enough to keep momentum.

A well-run enterprise search proof of concept reduces procurement risk, accelerates adoption, and lays the groundwork for long-term ROI and AI readiness. The steps below will help you get the most out of it.

Step 1: Schedule Your Onboarding and Integration Call with GoSearch

Before connectors are configured, before test users are recruited, before success criteria are written down — the first move is scheduling your onboarding and integration call with the GoSearch team.

This call does more than cover logistics. It surfaces integration questions before they become blockers, aligns your team on what the POC will and won’t cover, and ensures the evaluation starts clean rather than course-correcting in week one.

It’s also where you’ll define what success actually looks like. Rather than arriving at your POC with a vague sense of “good,” you’ll leave with a scorecard tied to real business outcomes:

• Search relevance and accuracy — Are users finding the right results, in the right context, on the first try?
• Time-to-answer improvements — Is the platform reducing the time employees spend hunting for information?
• User adoption and engagement — Are POC participants actually using the tool, or reverting to old habits?
• Security and permission accuracy — Is the platform respecting existing access controls across every connected system?

Getting aligned on these metrics before the POC starts means your two weeks generate evidence, not just impressions.

Step 2: Identify Stakeholders and Integrations

With your onboarding call complete and success criteria defined, the next step is getting the right people and systems in scope.

On the integrations side: Decide which tools and data sources are most critical to evaluate. Your POC should reflect the systems your employees actually use — because that’s the only way to get a true read on search quality and relevance.

On the stakeholder side: Identify your internal POC owners and recruit test users who represent a cross-section of your organization. These are the people whose feedback will matter most when it comes time to make a decision.

Step 3: Prepare Your Data Connectors

The quality of your enterprise search POC results is directly tied to the quality of your connector setup. Incomplete configuration is the fastest way to get misleading results.

Before the POC begins, confirm:

• Who owns admin access to each tool you’re connecting? Service accounts are the preferred approach, but admin accounts work just as well.
• Are your connectors scoped to your evaluation goals? Connect the systems that matter most to your POC users — not every system you own.

GoSearch supports a broad range of workspace and personal connectors. View the full integrations library to confirm your key systems are covered before the POC begins.

Getting connectors right before the POC starts means your two weeks are spent evaluating search quality — not troubleshooting setup issues.

Step 4: Understand What a POC Can (and Can’t) Prove

An enterprise search proof of concept is a powerful evaluation tool — but it’s not a full deployment. Setting realistic expectations protects the integrity of your evaluation.

A POC can realistically validate:

• Search relevance and ranking quality
• Permission and access control accuracy
• User experience and interface usability
• Integration reliability across selected connectors

A POC has inherent constraints:

• Limited data volume — You’re indexing a subset of your environment, not all of it
• Short evaluation timelines — Two weeks captures meaningful signal, but not every edge case
• Incomplete workflow coverage — Some use cases may not surface in a compressed window

Knowing these constraints doesn’t diminish the value of the POC — it makes the results more trustworthy, because you know exactly what was tested and what wasn’t.

Step 5: Stay in Touch to Stay on Track

The difference between a productive enterprise search POC and one that drifts is consistent communication. Regular check-ins with your GoSearch team keep issues from compounding and ensure feedback gets actioned before it becomes a problem.

Throughout the POC, keep track of

• Open issues and blockers
• Search quality feedback from POC users
• Feature questions and edge cases worth investigating

Your GoSearch team is available to help triage issues, interpret search behavior, and prioritize what needs attention — whenever it comes up, not just at scheduled checkpoints.

This is also where GoSearch differs meaningfully from other enterprise search vendors. We stay with you through the entire evaluation. Our team is an active partner — not a vendor who hands over credentials and goes quiet.

Step 6: Evaluate Results and Decide Your Path Forward

At the close of your two-week enterprise search proof of concept, your GoSearch team will schedule a wrap-up sync to review what was tested, share platform-side insights, and help interpret results in context.

The goal isn’t just to reach a decision — it’s to reach a confident one, backed by real evidence from your own environment.

Turning a POC Into a Scalable Enterprise Search Rollout

A well-run enterprise search proof of concept doesn’t end when the evaluation closes — it becomes the blueprint for your enterprise-wide rollout.

The connectors you tested become the foundation of your production deployment. The success criteria you defined become your adoption KPIs. The user feedback you collected becomes your change management playbook.

Organizations that run structured POCs move faster to full deployment, see higher user adoption, and get more out of their enterprise search investment from day one.

The GoSearch Difference

Not all enterprise search vendors treat POCs the same way — and the difference is stark.

When one 175-person company explored their options, Glean declined to offer a proof of concept at all. Their alternative: send us your data and we’ll run searches for you over a screen share. No hands-on access. No real evaluation.

GoSearch is built on a different philosophy. Customers consistently describe the POC process as genuinely collaborative — structured, supported, and designed to give you the confidence to make a real decision. We bring the expertise, the process, and the partnership to ensure your evaluation generates the signal you need.

Not ready for a full POC? Start with a Free or Pro plan and get hands-on with GoSearch today. When you’re ready for an enterprise evaluation, we’ll be ready too.

Talk to the GoSearch team →