Brainware jumps to Version 5.2
November 4, 2010
Short honk: My in box overflowed with a news release about Brainware’s Version 5.2 of its enterprise search system. The news release provides some publicity for a trade show at which Brainware has an exhibit. In addition to helping out the trade show outfit, Brainware called my attention to new features in Version 5.2. These include:
- More flexible security for processed documents
- Enhanced indexing of content in relational databases
- More control over what’s displayed in response to a query.
Brainware’s approach to content processing relies on trigrams for which the firm has a patent. For more information about Brainware, navigate to the firm’s Web site at www.brainware.com. No licensing fee details are available to me at this time. I did see a demo of the new system and I think the firm will give you a peek as well. I had been watching to see if Oracle would acquire Brainware. The database giant seems happy with Brainware’s content acquisition components. Oracle, however, moved in a different direction. I will keep my ear to the shoreline here at the goose pond.
Stephen E Arnold, November 4, 2010
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Funnelback Version 10
November 4, 2010
“Funnelback Version 10 Unveiled at International Conference” reported that the Australian subsidiary of Squiz, an open source content management system vendor, has added functions to the search system. Among the new features is a “hybrid security model.” The news release added:
Another new innovation that attracted attention at the conference was a multi-faceted search and browse interface for event information that visually groups search results by the dates on which events occur. The key benefit of this is to enable end-users to intuitively explore the list of events on each date of interest. Combining this with Funnelback’s faceted navigation technology enables customers to create sophisticated event oriented web sites without the need for complex event publishing software. Funnelback 10 is available as both a software package and as a cloud service.
The nosing of open source search into the enterprise is a increasingly common feature of the information retrieval landscape. I need a scorecard to keep track of this open source boomlet. For more information about Funnelback, navigate to http://www.funnelback.com/.
Stephen E Arnold, November 4, 2010
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Oracle ATG Deal Leaves Other eCommerce Vendors at the Alter
November 4, 2010
Who is getting the bride’s bouquet? Endeca, one of the pioneers in faceted search for eCommerce? EasyAsk, one of the hidden gems in eCommerce? Exorbyte, a company run with an intentionally low profile and a “can do” attitude?
Nope. No one caught the bouquet. Oracle’s vision was articulated in the deal write up “Oracle and ATG”:
Driven by the convergence of online and traditional commerce and the need to increase revenue and improve customer loyalty—organizations across many industries are seeking a unified cross-channel commerce and customer relationship management platform to deliver a cohesive customer experience across all commerce channels.
Assumptions, assertions, and wordsmithing entertain me. I think the key to the deal appears in the news release “Oracle Buys ATG”:
More than 1,000 global enterprises rely on ATG’s solutions to help increase the value of their online customer interactions,” said Bob Burke, President and CEO, ATG. “This combination will enhance the ability to bring all their commerce activities together – creating a more consistent and relevant experience for their customers across all interaction channels, including online, in stores, via mobile devices and with call centers.”
See the hook? More customers, more than 1,000. Pay $1 billion, get 1,000 customers. Oh, Oracle also gets Endeca, a partner of ATG.
With organic growth getting more and more difficult, litigation and acquisition become the two draft horses of revenue or at least that’s how I see the deal.
What about search? What these outfits have is good enough. Maybe? Maybe not?
Stephen E Arnold, November 4, 2010
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What Does Microsoft Look Like? Geriatric, Old?
November 3, 2010
I read “Microsoft Looking Like An End-Stage Company” and laughed. No, really. The publishing and consulting giant responsible for this analysis is usually close, but this write up is not going to make horse shoe players happy. Clang. The shoe just hit the rabbi’s new Ford Edge. Oy!
Microsoft is a value stock. Microsoft is a monopoly. Microsoft is big collection of sail boats that once in a while head in the same direction. Microsoft is overwhelmed with opportunities, strapped by legal decisions, and dealing with a dysfunctional product management systems.
But it is making money. And it is a monopoly. Yep, if you can’t use PowerPoint, you can’t get promoted in the military. If you can’t use PowerPoint, you can’t get an MBA. If you can’t work Excel, you can’t pull off a Bernie Madoff. That’s reality, gentle reader.
Now navigate to this techno-journalistic write up. Consider this passage:
Where does all this [Microsoft's screw ups] leave Microsoft? Out in the cold within just the next few years unless big changes are made—and those changes need to start at the top. The best thing Ballmer can do to preserve his legacy and ensure he’s not Microsoft’s last CEO is to start assembling a new management team that can build a foundation for real change–and rid the company of its PC-centric focus.
My view is that when one compares the Google with Microsoft, whose goofs are more egregious. Apple has been on a roll but there are demons beyond the horizon.
My view is:
- Microsoft is making money and the sheer size of the company means that it will move forward for a while
- Investment wizards could make a lot of dough chopping up Microsoft into three parts. I am not willing to offer an opinion about the speed of this banker’s fantasy.
- Mr. Ballmer is the boss, but he has kept Microsoft making money, and I am not sure who could do a much better job. Leo Apotheker and Mark Hurd are otherwise engaged. Maybe Microsoft could hire someone from a food services company? That worked for IBM.
Net net: Microsoft is looking a lot like IBM. IBM, despite its flaws, is still with us. That means that Google becomes the new Microsoft. Facebook looks like the new Google. Honk.
Stephen E Arnold, November 3, 2010
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Content Analyst Partners with TCDI
November 3, 2010
Lawyers need tools to respond to the demands of their clients. Content Analyst Company, the leader of advanced document analytics tools, helps Technology Concepts & Design, Inc. (TCDI) reduce the time required to analyze information generated by the discovery process.
[The companies] will incorporate Content Analyst Analytics Technology (CAAT) into its proprietary eDiscovery Application Suites: Discovery WorkFlow® and ClarVergence®. This partnership offers TCDI’s clients improvements in Document Review efficiencies and increased visibility into their document collections. The enhanced analytics will also reduce the time and cost associated with Document Review.
The tie up will yield improved document review and increased visibility into their document collections.” Content Analyst Company develops advanced document analytics tools, based on patented Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) technology. Content Analyst Analytical Technology (CAAT) exponentially reduces the time needed to discern relevant information from large volumes of unstructured text. For more information, navigate to www.contentanalyst.com.
Harleena Singh, November 3, 2010
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eDiscovery: Feeling Its Oats
November 3, 2010
One indication of the vigor in the eDiscovery market is the quarterly report from Epiq Systems. The story in MarketWatch makes this point: eDiscovery leads the Epiq Systems growth compared to the other segments. The MarketWatch.com press release added:
Third quarter results were highlighted by record performance of the eDiscovery segment. eDiscovery realized a 64% revenue increase, benefiting from new engagements both domestically and internationally and the 2009 launch of document review services.
Epiq Systems is a leading global provider of integrated technology solutions for the legal profession that serves law firms, bankruptcy trustees, and financial institutions with innovative technology solutions including electronic discovery. “The third quarter represents the strongest quarterly result in the history of the company’s eDiscovery business,” states the press release, mentioning that “Operating revenue for the eDiscovery segment for the third quarter of 2010 was $20.0 million, up 64% compared to $12.2 million for the year ago quarter.” This new all-time high for the eDiscovery segment is a definite sign that eDiscovery seems to be a good sector for search and content processing companies.
Lawyering could become a more active growth sector than innovating.
Harleena Singh, November 3, 2010
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Inforbix Poised to Shake Up Engineering Design Search
November 3, 2010
In an exclusive interview with ArnoldIT.com, Oleg Shilovitsky, co-founder and CEO of Inforbix, provides an in-depth look at his information retrieval system for engineering and product design. His firm Inforbix has been operating in a low profile and is now beginning to attract the attention of engineering professionals struggling with conventional data management tools for parts, components, assemblies, and other engineered pieces.
Most search systems are blind to the data locked in engineering design tools and systems. For example, in a typical manufacturing company, a traditional search system would index the content on an Exchange server, email, proposals in Word files, and maybe some of the content residing in specialized systems used for accounts payable or inventory. When these items are indexed, most are displayed in a hit list like a Google results page or in a point-and-click interface with hot links to documents that may or may not be related to the user’s immediate business information need.
But what about the specific part needed for a motor assembly? How does one locate the drawing? Where are the data about the item’s mean time before failure? The semantic relationships between bits of product data data located in multiple silos are missing. The context of information related to components in a manufacturing and production process is either ignored, not indexable, or presented as a meaningless item number and a numerical value.
That’s the problem Mr. Shilovitsky and his team of engineers has solved. With basic key word retrieval now a commodity, specialized problems exist. As Mr. Shilovitsky told me, “I think maybe we have solved a problem for the first time. We make manufacturing and production related data available in context.”
In the interview conducted on November 1, 2010, Mr. Shilovitsky said:
In my view, the most valuable characteristics of future systems will be “flexibility” and “granularity”. The diversity of data in manufacturing organization is huge. You need to be flexible to be able to crack the information retrieval. On the other side, businesses are driven by values and ROI. So, to be able to have a granular solution (don’t boil the ocean) in order to address a particular business problem is a second important thing.
He added:
Our system foundation combines flexibility and granularity with a deep understanding of product data in engineering and manufacturing. One of the problems of product development is a uniqueness of organizational processes. Every organization runs their engineering and development shop differently. They are using the same tools (CAD, CAM, CAE, data management tools, or an ERP system), but the combination is unique.
To read the full text of this exclusive interview, navigate to this link. For more information about this ground-breaking approach to a tough information problem, point your browser to www.inforbix.com.
Stephen E Arnold, November 3, 2010
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Intel Stream Number 3: An Interview with Mats Bjore, Silobreaker
November 3, 2010
Our third podcast in the Intel Stream series is now available. In addition to five news stories, you can listen to Mats Bjore, founder of Silobreaker, explain his firm’s next=generation information platform. A former McKinsey consultant, Mr. Bjore developed Silobreaker to make a wide range of information available in an easy-to-use discovery system. The news stories for this week cover open source business intelligence, a Coplink sale by i2 Ltd. to the San Antonio police, CNN’s surprising assertion that Microsoft has lost its consumer appeal, and more. You can access the podcast at this link or by navigating to the ArnoldIT.com rich media index page.
Stephen E Arnold, November 3, 2010
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Vivisimo Generates Revenue from Recycler.com
November 2, 2010
Short honk: We learned that Vivisimo has been selected to provide search and content processing for Recycler.com. The service, owned by Target Media Partners, has created a single Recycler.com Web site for its three score print publications. Target Media wants to go after a market once dominated by newspapers and now mostly in the death grip of Craigslist. To differentiate itself from Craigslist, Target Media wants to follow Steve Jobs’s path and eliminate the nasty stuff from the firm’s new service. The Los Angeles Business Journal has a useful profile of Target Media in “Rival Reborn”.
The news item “Recycler.com Selects Vivisimo’s Velocity Platform” said [Data Monitor links can go dead so you may have to hunt around]:
Recycler.com chose Velocity for its handling of bins and facets, federated searches, and ability to customize ranking methodologies to ensure the relevant ads are displayed to users.
Our perception of Vivisimo was the company was providing federated search and integration services. The use of Velocity in an application that we associated with functions from Endeca, Exalead, Intelligenx, and other vendors surprised us. For more information about Vivisimo, navigate to www.vivisimo.com.
Stephen E Arnold, November 2, 2010
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Search or Apps?
November 2, 2010
A lot of 20 somethings, MBAs, and English majors working as consultants are darned excited about apps. Apps are applications and closely associated with smartphones and Apple’s iPads. The idea is that a really busy person can use an app to accomplish a task without knowing much more than one learns getting an automated teller machine to report that one’s checking account balance is running low. (Quick. Invent a new buzzword and sell some expertise!)
Apps are okay. Search sucks. Which does one pursue in order to generate vast amounts of money?
According to “Mobile Commerce: Ten Reasons to Choose the Web over Apps”, smart money bets on the Web. Yep. Now I won’t list the entire 10 reasons offered by eConsultancy.com, but I can point out four reasons and make some comments from the goose pond. For the other six reasons hie thee to eConsultancy. Yep, a rhyme.
The Web kicks Apps for these selected reasons:
- Findability, which is New Wave hip-speak for information retrieval. I agree. Finding an app is tough. I just look at the “charts” showing what’s popular or new. This works for me, but I think the eConsultancy crowd wants to keep folks keying search terms. Okay for some, but not for the 20 somethings, MBAs, and English majors working as consultants
- Marketing. You know marketing is a problem on both the Web, mobile platforms, and real life. I am not sure the Web offers particular advantages, but it does allow consultants to explain how to get traffic to a Web site. Keep in mind that 99.5 percent of Web sites get lousy traffic.
- Links. The Web allows links. Yep, but the links that count are backlinks from high traffic sites or sites that have an elephant like PageRank score. The Web sprawls and apps, at least for the iPhone and iPad, serve a somewhat more narrow audience.
- No approval. An app for Apple requires approval. An app for Android can be pretty much whatever one wants. I am not sure about the BlackBerry app store. I used it once and the store did not work, then the app did not work. Maybe curation is good? Brute force is expensive and Google may have to clean up its 100,000 apps someday anyway.
Are you convinced to go Web? I am not. This list reminded me of the editorial process for some of Ziff Communications’ consumer print magazines. Pass the soy sauce.
Stephen E Arnold, November 2, 2010
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