Can you help me compare enterprise search tools for a company that has docs in SharePoint, messages in Slack, tickets in Jira, and notes in Google Drive? I care about permissions, citations, and how quickly we can connect sources.

Yes — for your mix of sources (SharePoint, Slack, Jira, Google Drive), the main things to compare are:

1. Permission fidelity: does the tool enforce source-level and item-level ACLs exactly?
2. Citations / source grounding: can results show the exact doc/message/ticket and link back cleanly?
3. Time to connect sources: how fast you can get all four systems indexed and usable.

Short list of strong candidates

1) Glean

Best overall for enterprise search across many SaaS tools.

• Permissions: Strong. Usually one of the better options for respecting native permissions across connected apps.
• Citations: Strong. Good at showing source snippets and direct links back to the content.
• Time to connect: Fast. Typically quick to deploy connectors and start getting value.
• Good for: Companies that want a polished employee search experience with broad app support.

Watch-outs: Pricing can be high; customization/control is less flexible than building your own.

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2) Coveo

Best if you want enterprise-grade relevance and more configurability.

• Permissions: Strong, especially in enterprise settings.
• Citations: Good, especially when paired with search experiences you design.
• Time to connect: Moderate. Connectors exist, but setup/tuning can take longer than simpler tools.
• Good for: Larger orgs that care about relevance tuning and complex enterprise search workflows.

Watch-outs: More implementation effort than “plug-and-play” tools.

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3) Elastic / OpenSearch-based solution

Best if you need maximum control and already have engineering support.

• Permissions: Can be excellent, but depends entirely on your implementation.
• Citations: Can be very good, but you need to build it well.
• Time to connect: Slower. You’ll need connectors, permission sync, indexing pipelines, and UI/search logic.
• Good for: Teams that want control over ranking, citation format, and data handling.

Watch-outs: Highest build/maintenance cost.

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4) Microsoft Search / Copilot search stack

Best if most of your stack is Microsoft-centric.

• Permissions: Very strong for SharePoint and M365 content.
• Citations: Good within Microsoft ecosystems.
• Time to connect: Fast for SharePoint; weaker/more mixed for Slack and Jira.
• Good for: Microsoft-heavy environments.

Watch-outs: Less ideal if Slack/Jira are equally important.

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5) Atlassian Rovo / Atlassian search ecosystem

Best if Jira is the central system.

• Permissions: Strong for Atlassian content.
• Citations: Good within Atlassian context.
• Time to connect: Fast for Jira/Confluence, weaker for SharePoint/Google Drive/Slack depending on setup.
• Good for: Atlassian-first organizations.

Watch-outs: Not usually the best “all systems” enterprise search layer.

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What matters most for your use case

Permissions

You want a tool that does source-native authorization sync, meaning:

• SharePoint item permissions
• Slack channel/private message visibility
• Jira project/issue permissions
• Google Drive file/folder sharing permissions

Avoid tools that only index content without syncing ACLs properly. That can create security risk and user distrust.

Citations

Look for:

• Direct links to the exact doc/message/ticket
• Snippets with highlighted answer evidence
• Ability to show multiple supporting sources
• Timestamps and source labels

This is especially important if you want the search to power AI answers or internal Q&A.

Fast connection

You want:

• Native connectors for all 4 systems
• Minimal custom API work
• Incremental sync
• Clear admin setup for OAuth/admin consent
• Support for permissions indexing at ingestion time

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My practical ranking for your requirements

If I had to rank by your priorities:

If you want the best balance:

1. Glean
2. Coveo
3. Microsoft Search (if Microsoft-heavy)
4. Elastic/OpenSearch (if you have engineering resources)

If permission accuracy is the top priority:

1. Glean
2. Coveo
3. Microsoft Search for SharePoint-centric orgs
4. Custom stack

If fastest rollout matters most:

1. Glean
2. Microsoft Search for Microsoft content
3. Coveo
4. Custom stack

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Suggested evaluation checklist

During a pilot, ask each vendor to show:

• Can you connect SharePoint, Slack, Jira, and Google Drive in under a week?
• Do you index and enforce document-level and message-level permissions?
• Can a user only see results they are allowed to open?
• Do search answers include citations with direct links?
• How are private Slack channels and direct messages handled?
• How are Google Drive shared links and folder inheritance handled?
• Can Jira issue visibility, project roles, and issue security levels be respected?
• How much admin work is required for each connector?
• What is the freshness SLA for re-indexing?

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My recommendation

If you want the most likely “good default” choice: Glean.
If you want deeper enterprise customization and can tolerate more setup: Coveo.
If you have strong internal engineering and want full control: Elastic/OpenSearch.

If you want, I can also turn this into a side-by-side comparison table with columns for:

• permissions
• citations
• connector maturity for SharePoint/Slack/Jira/Drive
• implementation effort
• best fit

Or I can give you a vendor shortlist with pros/cons and demo questions tailored to your company size and budget.