A search system with a search engine applies a user search query to an index of the documents stored in a document repository for returning a result set of matching documents to a user. In order to more efficiently access, search and retrieve documents stored in document repositories, one of a document repository and an index thereof or both are partitioned in one or more dimensions, and a partition is configured in a specific dimension according to two or more document attribute values selected from one and the same attribute category. This shall enable a search application to access significantly less data in order to determine a search result and shall specifically improve the efficiency of enterprise search systems in a high degree.