Outlook 2011 and Spotlight search not working

outlook 2011 14.2.3

have tried pretty much tried every suggestion i've found in this forum, and numerous others.

i've rebuilt indexes a dozen times, triple-checked spotlight config, checked permissions, verified disk, reinstalled office 2011, checked for the MS mdimport plugin, reinstalled mountain lion from scratch (aka. re-partition and install). same result.

last known working config: latest Lion (not Mountain Lion) version, Outlook 2011 14.2.2.

HDD crashed, replaced HDD and OS (to mountain lion), restored MUD from backup and problem has existed since.

my IT dept (who i've found friendly but unable to help) have only indicated that they've "seen a few cases of this problem since ML was released, and that a rebuild from scratch is the only way to fix it".

the problem is, as i've stated, i did the rebuild and that hasn't changed anything, just wasted another day.

must be a bug is what i'm thinking. unless someone far better than me has found the cure?

how do we know if MS is working on a bug fix?

awesome-est part? i partially trashed my exchange inbox mucking around with outlook exports n imports n stuff. 

but anyway, i'll be happy just to get my search mojo back. its not till its gone do you realise just how much you use it.

gurus, heeelp!!!!