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Autonomy Releases Second Major Technology

eWeek ran an interesting article “Autonomy Retools Search Engine to Work in Databases” on September 16, 2009. The core of the story consists of statements made by Autonomy to the eWeek writer, Chris Preimesberger, about a major enhancement to Autonomy’s technology. The gist of the innovation is that Autonomy can process structured and unstructured information. One quote that caught my attention was:

“Autonomy was built on one fundamental technology, IDOL, that brought meaning to human friendly information,” Lynch said. “IDOL SPE is our second fundamental technology and ushers the database market into the era of Meaning Based Computing. Organizations are now able to free data from rigid structures to deliver relevance and understanding that can impact literally every type of computing application.” Autonomy’s IDOL SPE is available now in limited release as a standalone product or as an add-on accelerator to existing database applications.

A battle in dataspace is looming between Autonomy and Google, whose technical papers suggest a similar functionality under development. IBM DB2, Oracle, and business intelligence companies may face severe disruption if Autonomy and others get traction in this new frontier.

Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009

Training Wheels for Business Intelligence?

Business intelligence is not like riding a bicycle. In fact, business intelligence requires quite a bit of statistical and mathematical sophistication. Some pundits and marketers believe that visualization will make the outputs of business intelligence systems “actionable”. I don’t agree. There’s another faction in business intelligence who see search as the solution to the brutal costs and complexities of business intelligence. I am on the fence about this “solution” for three reasons. First, if the underlying data are lousy, the outputs are lousy and the user is often none the wiser. Second, the notion of “search” is an interface spin. The user types a query and the system transforms the query into something the system can understand. What if the transformation goes off the tracks? The user is often none the wiser. Third, the notion of visualization combined with search is a typical marketing play: take two undefined notions which sound really good and glue them together. The result is an even more slippery term which, of course, no one defines with mathematical or financial precision.

Now read Channel Web’s “Visualization, Search, Among Emerging Trends in BI”, and you will see how the trade press creates a sense of purpose, movement, and innovation without providing any substance. The source of the article is none other than azure chip consultancy, the Gartner Group. I wrote about the firm’s assertion that no one can “copy” its information. I know at least one reason: I find quite a few of the firm’s assertions off the tracks upon this goose’s railroad runs.

Here’s the key passage in the Channel Web write up for me:

Schlegel identified seven emerging trends that will be key drivers for BI implementations, perhaps even down to the consumer level, in the future. The trends are: interactive visualization, in-memory analytics, BI integrated search, Software-as-a-Service, SOA/mash-ups, predictive modeling and social networking software. "A lot of technologies we’ll talk about to help build BI systems don’t even exist today, but some are right around the corner," he said. "Business intelligence can break out of the corporate world. Usually it’s consumer technology moving into the corporate world. I think it could be the other way around."

“Intelligence”, in my opinion, is an art or practice supported by human and machine-centric systems. Business intelligence remains a niche business because the vendors who market business intelligence systems rely on structured data, statistical routines taught in second and third year stats classes, and anchored in the programming tools from SAS and SPSS (now a unit of IBM). By the way, IBM now owns Cognos and SPSS, which seems to be a market share play, not a technology play in my opinion.)

The end of enterprise libraries caused a vacuum in some organization’s information access. The “regular” business intelligence unit focused on structured data and generating reports that look pretty much like the green bar reports I obtained from stats routines in the mid 1960s. To say that business intelligence methods are anchored in tradition is a bit of an understatement.

The surge in end user access to information on the Internet has thrown a curve to the business intelligence establishment. In response, SAS, for example, licensed the Inxight tools to process information and then purchased Teragram to obtain more of the “unstructured text goodness” that was lacking in traditional SAS installations. New vendors such as Attivio and Clarabridge have exploited this gap in the traditional Business Objects (now part of SAP and owner of Inxight), Cognos, SAS, and SPSS product offerings. I am not sure how successful these “crossover” companies will be. Clarabridge seems to have an edge because its technology plays well with MicroStrategy’s Version 9 system. Attivio is in more of a “go it alone” mode.

With Google’s Fusion Tables and WolframAlpha’s “search” service, there is increasing pressure on business intelligence vendors to:

1. Cut prices
2. Improve return on investment
3. Handle transformation and meta metatagging of unstructured information
4. Deliver better for fee outputs that the math folks from Google and Wolfram do for free.

My hunch is that the Gartner position reflects the traditional world of business intelligence and is designed to sell consulting services, maybe a conference or two.

Much can be done to enhance the usability of business intelligence. I think that in certain situations, visualization tools can clarify certain types of data. The notion of a search interface is a more complicated challenge. My research suggests that Google’s research into converting a query into a useful query that works across fact based information is light years ahead of what’s referenced in the trade publications and most consultants’ descriptions of next generation business intelligence.

When structured and unstructured content are processed in a meaningful way, new types of queries become possible. The outputs of these new types of queries deliver useful business intelligence. My view is that much of business intelligence is going to be disrupted when Google makes available some of its innovations.

In the meantime, the comfortable world of business intelligence will cruise along with incremental improvements until the Google disruption, if it takes place, reworks the landscape. Odds are 70 – 30 for Google to surprise the business intelligence world in the next six to nine months. Fusion Tables are baby steps.

Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009

Brainware into Enterprise Content Management

Another search vendor has heard the siren call of enterprise content management. Brainware is an end-to-end content processing company. The news story “Perceptive Software, Brainware Partner to Offer Best of Breed Accounts Payable ECM Solution” talks about a tie up between two companies eager to convert content management pain into financial gain. For me, the most interesting comment in the write up was:

he partnership with Brainware allows ImageNow to integrate with one of the leading Intelligent Data Capture vendors in the accounts payable space and leverage their technologies to create an immediate return on investment (ROI). Being able to integrate with Brainware provides Perceptive Software customers and prospects with a robust document processing solution that offers data capture, extraction, validation, routing and approval, as well as archiving and posting into Lawson, Oracle, SAP and various other ERP systems. “In Brainware, we’re partnering with a company that offers powerful classification, extraction, and search capabilities on a single platform,” said Chuck Kingston, accounts payable solutions manager, Perceptive Software. “This allows us to focus on what we do best, which is providing our customers a wide breadth of ECM solutions for their needs in AP.”

I have a different view of Brainware, but I don’t monitor the company too closely. I do know that its telemarketing approach to qualifying sales and making sales has been helpful. My view is that a niche content processing player is targeting another niche with enterprise content management. Niches can payoff. Will the move work for Brainware, its scanning, workflow, and n-gram technology? I don’t know. I think that ZyLab will watch the deal closely.

Stephen Arnold, September 17, 2009

Google and Its Government Cloud Play

The Google seems to be serious about making its services and functions available to the US Federal government. Commercial outfits may get a chance too, but if the story in this morning’s San Francisco Chronicle is correct, the Feds may get first crack at the Google goodies. I have criticized Google for sitting back and letting Amazon’s “do it on a dime” approach to cloud computing captured headlines. The Google never pays attention to the addled goose, of course. The goose was interested in the assertions in “Google to Deliver ‘Government Cloud’ to Feds in 2010”. For me, the most interesting comment in the write up was:

the government cloud service will ensure that data remains in the U.S. and will be operated by technicians with appropriate government security clearances.

If true, this means that Google’s intentions are purposeful. Because clearances require months, if not years, to amass, the 2010 date is real and only three months and a fortnight away. Big deal. Three reasons:

• Despite the DoD’s Microsoft love, there’s significant interest in Google services, which I saw firsthand in the open discussion at the CENDI function for which I did the keynote
• Amazon is not thinking along this line. That company has its 1984 issue and the exciting news that a Kindle fiction title is outselling a hard copy version of the same made up story
• Google’s success in the government is going to mean that big Federal integrators have to build Google practices, something CSC began a while ago. (Keep in mind that number one son’s company is a focal point for government Google sales. Click here to read about Adhere Solutions.)

Am I happy with this long overdue announcement. Yep, timing is right too. A happy quack to the Google team that got off the Foosball table long enough to make a strong, aggressive move.

Stephen Arnold, September 16, 2009

European Search Vendor Table Update 1

I received a number of emails this morning, and I want to update the European search vendor league table. Omissions obviously are my fault. I will try to make adjustments going forward, putting the updates into the base table in my Web log. I have added the following entries to the table that appears at this location in Beyond Search. This series is in reverse alphabetical order as a consequence of my cutting and pasting from the master table.

Of this group, I want to point out that I was favorably impressed with the FLAX system. I arranged with Incisive, the owner of the December international online show, to get Lemur Consulting on the program of this year’s show. The talk will be an important one, and if you are attending the show in December 2009, be sure to catch the Lemur Consulting session. The company is profitable and growing using an open source business model.

Interse is another player in the very crowded SharePoint metatagging sector. What’s interesting is that Copenhagen is home to two companies which offer products that, on the surface, share some similarities: Interse and the puzzling SurfRay. It will be interesting to see which Danish horse wins the Copenhagen SharePoint Derby. I met the management team of Interse several years ago, and that group struck me as quite adept and gifted with a laser focus. I have a contact now with InfoFinder, and I will endeavor to get more information.

One person who contacted me wanted me to include Google’s European research centers. Another wanted me to list Israeli companies. For my purposes, Hungary is about as far east as I want to go with this first list.

If a reader knows of any other systems I have inadvertently overlooked, please, write me at seaky2000 at yahoo dot com or use the comments section of this Web log. If a reader or readers want to work with me to build a more extensive list of European search and content processing vendors, please, contact me. I will post the master list in the Web log so we have a single place to see what is underway outside the myopic vision of the azure chip consulting crowd in the US.

Stephen Arnold, September 16, 2009

Is SAPIR Vapor?

eWeek ran a story that intrigued me. The title: “IBM, European Union Unite on SPIR Multimedia Search Engine”. SAPIR is an acronym for Search in Audio Visual Content Using Peer to Peer Information Retrieval. I like the acronym. It reminded me of Edward Sapir, a noted linguist, and the Latin sapere, which means wise. The question I had was sparked by this passage in the eWeek article:

SAPIR indexes the content of each image and clip using descriptors such as text, color, layout, shapes, or sounds, to help users find comparable images. For example, SAPIR scans a digitized photograph or the bit streams in an MP3 sound file, even if they haven’t been tagged or indexed with descriptive information; this is because SAPIR automatically indexes and ranks multimedia content users upload to the Web for easy retrieval. In a demo, Mass showed how a search on the keyword “dolphin” returned dolphin photos of similar colors and shot angles that users had uploaded to Flickr. After clicking the “similar” link on top of one of the photos, eWEEK saw photos that resembled the dolphin photo in color and shape but did not necessarily include dolphins.

I saw a demo of an image recognition system in Japan when I lectured at Kasai Institute of Technology many moons ago. It worked – sort of. I have also reviewed facial recognition software for a couple of outfits. Great if the person for whom I looked was stationary, looking directly at the CCD, and was not wearing a hat, sporting sunglasses, and distorting his face in a scowl, snarl, or charming grin.

The notion of a demo is very different from a system that has to process images in the wild and return useful matches. My thought is that IBM revs its public relations engine, makes a few phone calls, and sends out suitably rumpled IBM lab wizards. The result is an acronym like SAPIR, but at this point I think SAPIR rhymes with vapor from the Latin root that means steam. Example: the tea pot’s spot spewed vapor from the boiling water.

I recall reading in January 2009 that European researchers “achieved a break through by developing a power image recognition application with mass market appeal.” You can read that story on Science Daily. The technology was MOBVIS and I have lost track of the technology. I think it is easier to issue a news release than to get software to figure out that a photograph is “about” something. For example, I took a picture of Tess and Tyson for this Web log. What is the image “about”? Two dogs or the point that when we sit through a vendor’s demo, the Beyond Search team is ready for a nap. Slippery stuff matching the “image” with the “meaning” in my opinion.

Stephen Arnold, September 16, 2009

Aardvark Help Engine for the iPhone

The iPhone continues to add bells and whistles, and a new app for search is pretty interesting. It’s called Aardvark, and it’s a “help engine.” You can post a question from your phone and get a live answer from any of your social networks, like Facebook Connect, Twitter, etc. It works like an IM. You post, and Aardvark detects your location, looks for someone to answer the question, and notifies you of the results. You can also make yourself available to answer questions. See details at http://blog.vark.com/?p=188. You can download it at http://tinyurl.com/ng74m7.

Jessica Bratcher, September 16, 2009

SharePoint Search Architecture

A happy quack to the reader who alerted me to a site called SharePointSearch.com. I explored a few of the many interesting links. The article that jumped out at me was “SharePoint 2007 Enterprise Search Information”, which contained this interesting diagram.

I also found a link to a July 13, 2009, article by Natalya Voskresenskaya interesting in EndUserSharePoint.com. Its title was “SharePoint and the FAST Enterprise Search Platform”. My recollection was that I had seen a similar article by her elsewhere, but I found the information useful. You may want to bookmark both sites. Will the architecture change with the roll out of the Fast ESP solution? We will know soon.

Stephen Arnold, September 16, 2009

Search Vendors Turn to Telemarketing

I wish I could reveal the name of this Washington, DC area company, but, alas, I cannot. What I can do is call attention to a growing interest in hammer dialing to sell content processing, search, and business intelligence services. The reason for this trend is rooted in three industry realities:

First, face to face sales (including the qualification, scheduling and transporttion costs) are sky rocketing. Even worse, the pay off from face to face sales means that vendors have to find ways to cover these costs, generate revenue, and pay for the goodies that informatoin retrieval requires. When vendors are slashing prices or suggesting that an open source solution is the path forward, the heat is on the sales force. In the UK, one vendor functions as the industry training program. When a sales professional fails to meet the demanding targets, another sales person is on the look out for a job. Only the producers survive. Telemarketing is an easy way to control costs and quantify most aspects of selling a license or professional services.

Second, the number of tire kickers for search is increasing. The number of companies willing to take a chance on a little known company is decreasing. That’s why the roll out of Microsoft Fast ESP exponentiates the impact of the Google Search Appliance. Microsoft cannot afford to lose the market, so a six figure search system can be had for less. How much depends on those with whom one speaks. Google, on the other hand, offers a very expensive solution when one measures the per document cost. When elephants fight, the grass gets tramled.

Third, telemarketing in my opinon works when combined with an effective, professional sales force. When telemarketing operates in a vacuum, the shift to telemarketing triggers my radar. I ask, “Is the company in trouble?” When an enterprise software company turns to contract telemarketing such as Generatoin Sales Group, I think that content processing company may be on the brink. Just my opinion.

Stephen Arnold, September 16, 2009

European Search Vendor Round Up

Updated at 8 29 am, September 17, 2009, to 23 vendors

I received a call from a very energetic, quite important investment wizard from a “big” financial firm yesterday. Based in Europe, the caller was having a bad hair day, and he seemed pushy, almost angry. I couldn’t figure out why he was out of sorts and why he was calling me. I asked him. He said, “I read your Web log and you annoy me with your poor coverage of European search vendors.”

I had to admit that I was baffled. I mentioned the companies that I tracked. But he wanted me to do more. I pointed out that the Web log is a marketing vehicle and he can pay me to cover his favorite investment in search. That really set him off. He wanted me to be a journalist (whatever that meant) and provide more detailed information about European vendors. And for free.

Right.

After the call, I took a moment and went through my files to see which European vendors I have mentioned and the general impression I have of each of these companies. The table below summarizes the companies I have either profiled in my for fee studies or the companies I have mentioned in this diary / marketing Web log. You may disagree with my opinions. I know that the azure chip consultants at Gartner, Ovum, Forrester, and others certainly do. But that’s understandable. The addled geese here in Harrod’s Creek actually install systems and test them, a step that most of the azure chip crowd just don’t have time because of their exciting work to generate enough revenue to keep the lights on, advise clients, and conduct social network marketing events. Just my opinion, folks. I am entitled to those despite the wide spread belief that I should be in the Happy Geese Retirement Home.

Updated at 8 29 am Eastern, September 17, 2009

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  Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.

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