Civil and Uncivil Cloud Contents: Google and Microsoft
November 23, 2011
I recently read two articles discussing the competition that’s heating up between Google’s cloud services app and Microsoft.
According to a Wired Enterprise story “Google Vs. Microsoft: Not All Clouds are Created Equal” Google’s cloud technology has caused companies like Oracle and Microsoft, that have historically been on-premise companies to begin to change their ways. This is due to the fact that some of their chief officers have left to join Google and the company spent two days pitching its ever-growing collection of enterprise services to 350 businesses that were interested in adopting their business model.
In addition to this, the article states:
Google is now offering round-the-clock phone support for all issues involving the core services in its Google Apps suite, and then David Girouard — the man who essentially founded Google’s enterprise operation — unveiled some new tools for managing smart phones that use Google Apps. But these additions served Google’s larger message: that its web-based services are more flexible and reliable than traditional “on-premise” software — or even the cloud services now offered by the likes of Microsoft and Oracle.
While this article makes Google’s cloud technology look like it’s on the cutting edge, Microsoft is trying its darndest to compete with the search giant.
According to “Microsoft Take a Fight to Google Over Cloud App Defections” Microsoft has come out with a team called “Google Compete” to try and convince people to stay with office and not deflect to Google cloud apps.
Tony Tai, a senior program manager at Microsoft said:
In the case of Google, we find it quite common that their consumer-oriented approach falls short of meeting enterprise customers’ needs, thus providing an opportunity for us to win the customer. The wise words of Benjamin Franklin often apply: ‘The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
Ouch! when did things get so ugly? and where has the civility gone? I suppose when a company like Microsoft loses the General Motors’ account, patience wears thin. But is Google a search vendor reliant on advertising or is Google an enterprise player intent on capturing licensing and subscription fees from organizations. Can one company be both? Microsoft may work harder to prevent Google’s becoming a two-trick pony.
Jasmine Ashton, November 23, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Facebook Still Tops Google Plus
November 23, 2011
Tech Crunch reported on social media news this week in the article “Report: 61 Percent of Top Brands Have Created Google+ Pages, But No One is Following.”
It appears that in the competition between Facebook and Google+, Facebook is staying in the lead. The SEO firm BrightEdge found that since the release of Google+ pages last week 61 percent of the world’s top 100 brands have signed up for pages, however, few people seem to be following them.
Despite the fact that Google+ pages on average appeared in the top 12 Google search results for the corresponding brand, while the brand’s Facebook pages on average appeared in the top 13 or 14 listed results, the article states:
Ninety four percent of the Top 100 brands have a presence on Facebook. BrightEdge says that only 12 percent of the brands that created these pages displayed a link to them on their home page. About 53 percent of the Top 100 brands display a link on their home page to their Facebook page. And brands appear to be having mixed success at building social networks around their Google+ presence. In fact, Google had the largest fan contingent of any brand on Google+, having attracted more than 65,000 fans.
If Google+ doesn’t gain a significant following soon, and Google+ becomes the “new” Google, we can most likely expect a big shift coming in usage patterns. Maybe the “old” Google should not have been thrown under the bus.
Jasmine Ashton, November 23, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
What’s Hot: SharePoint Semantics Nov 11 – Nov 18
November 22, 2011
One way to combat SharePoint issues is to properly staff your agency. “Plan Your Staffing to Ensure Success With SharePoint Server 2010” states that significant resources should be invested in SharePoint staff. The types of staffing you may need include: a SharePoint Architect, a SharePoint Administrator(s), an SQL Server Administrator, an Active Directory Administrator, Support Staff, and Development Staff.
It’s not often that SharePoint Semantics is able to report on SharePoint success stories, but this week we have one. In “SharePoint Used Successfully In Three Different Installations At Huge U.S College” Ken Toth highlight’s an article discussing the use of SharePoint at Rio Salado College. The article describes three different installations of SharePoint that the institution uses and the very different ways in which all three fulfill different functions for their 70,000 students.
Finally, organization can always be a challenge when it comes to any aspect of managing a business. In “Some Basic Guidelines for Working With Documents In Microsoft SharePoint” shares five ways to organize your SharePoint documents. These include: giving short file names for each document, not using spacing in your file names, and using built-in versioning functionality.
Toth states:
“We agree that metadata is one of the keys to effective and efficient use of SharePoint, but leaving it up to the user to assign metadata is not the most accurate method. The Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform from Smartlogic uses natural language processing and a rules-based classification process to suggest tags to the user automatically.”
Jasmine Ashton, November 22, 2011
Overcoming SharePoint Infrastructure Woes
November 22, 2011
The IT blogosphere has no lack of discussion of SharePoint and its implementation. What is SharePoint and how is it best used? One thing is certain – SharePoint is no out-of-the-box solution. Without careful planning, implementation, and customization, a company will fail to reap any benefit from SharePoint, and may even suffer confusion and frustration in the process. Symon Garfield defines SharePoint as an infrastructure, expounding on its strengths and weaknesses in, “The Art of SharePoint Success: Strategy – What Is SharePoint?”
“The benefits are derived from the services that are implemented on the infrastructure rather than from the infrastructure itself and so it is with SharePoint. This is one contributing factor to the difficulties that many organizations face in creating a business case for SharePoint . . . Often the first SharePoint project in an organization has to bear the costs of implementing the infrastructure, even though the benefits are spread across the multiple solutions it enables.”
This initial report does not sound promising. With the furious and indiscriminate adoption of SharePoint since its 2010 update, one has to wonder if most people are making the most of their enterprise search infrastructure. Probably not. So what is to be done? How do we optimize the “benefits derived from the services that are implemented on the infrastructure?”
One solution that we have found is Fabasoft Mindbreeze, a substantive suite of information management solutions. Where SharePoint offers only an empty infrastructure, Mindbreeze provides meaning and context.
“Highly efficient enterprise search and specific connectors link together data sources in companies and organizations. They integrate the knowledge of different sections of a company into a uniform, linked whole. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise finds every scrap of information within a very short time, whether document, contract, note, e-mail or calendar entry, in intranet or internet, person- or text-related. The software solution finds all required information, regardless of source, for its users.”
Enterprise search, when done well, is an essential business tool for managing the information storage and retrieval needs of the modern day. But finding a solution that makes sense, and produces benefits without the hassle of tricky implementation, is paramount. We think Mindbreeze is worth a second look.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 22, 2011
Concept Searching: The Webinar King
November 22, 2011
Attivio relies on white paper marketing. Concept Searching historically markets via webinars. Now here’s a different approach: a press release.
PRLog posts, “Concept Searching’s conceptClassifier for SharePoint Improving Search Outcomes.” There’s no new study to cite or startling development to report; the company is simply issuing a proclamation on the benefits if its services:
Relying on end users to accurately and consistently determine the metadata to be applied has been unsuccessful and directly impacts the ability to retrieve relevant information during the search process. Metadata generation, classification, and taxonomies go hand-in-hand with improving search and this more comprehensive approach is rapidly being understood and adopted. conceptClassifier for SharePoint effectively addresses the problem and delivers relevant and precise results based on concepts within the content.
Founded in 2002,Concept Searching has been around for nearly a decade now. It partners with Microsoft to integrate its products with the SharePoint suite and Office applications. The company is proud to have grown rapidly without debt or outside investment.
Search and content processing vendors are looking for creative ways to generate sales in 2012.
Cynthia Murrell, November 22, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Recommind Wins Raves from Consultant
November 22, 2011
After being highlighted in IDC’s “MarketScape: The Worldwide Standalone Early Case Assessment Applications Report” in September, Recommind, the leader in predictive information management software, is hitting early case assessment hard by working to make eDiscovery more speedy and cost effective.
Recommind has created a new eDiscovery document review solution called Axcelerate Review & Analysis . Axcelerate Review & Analysis uses predictive analytics to pinpoint key documents quickly while automatically assessing document responsiveness, privilege and issue relation before the review process begins.
The Above The Law blog post “Recommind: The Leader In Fast, Accurate Early Case Assessment” states:
Axcelerate ECA & Collection is the first half of Recommind’s fully integrated, end-to-end Axcelerate eDiscovery platform. The patented search-and-categorization platform can identify and analyze data faster and more accurately than any appliance or point solution. And since Axcelerate ECA & Collection works seamlessly with Recommind’s review product, it’s a natural choice for enterprises that want control over eDiscovery costs.
We wonder if this new solution represents the company going back to its roots or if it’s simply complementing its enterprise search initiative. We have noticed a number of white papers, “objective reports”, and analyses running under the banner of some consulting firms. Interesting.
Jasmine Ashton, November 21, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SharePoint Taxonomy Management Myths
November 22, 2011
Taxodiary reported this week on taxonomy management in the first article of the series “Five Myths About Taxonomy and SharePoint.”
Each myth will be reported on separately but the first one that the article tackles is a big one. Myth: SharePoint now has taxonomy management capabilities. The article states:
“SharePoint has certainly made a major step up by embedding the taxonomy capability within SharePoint however it is missing most of the critical features which make taxonomies so useful. No related terms, management within the term store is so painful even Microsoft employees use an outside tool. The set of taxonomy attributes allowed is very meager, tracking of term changes is nearly no existent, synonyms are not allowed, display space is limited to ten lines of the taxonomy at a time, etc.”
In order to avoid SharePoint’s taxonomy limitations, the article recommends that end users utilize a third party tool to help fill in the gaps as well as get feedback from user groups like the SLA Taxonomy Division.
We think that Taxodiary hit the nail on the head with this post. The bottom line is that too much jabber about taxonomies and controlled vocabularies are uninformed. You should attend to the experts, not the self appointed poobahs.
Jasmine Ashton, November 22, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Search Realities: No Fun for Sure
November 22, 2011
Our Overflight service pointed us to a write up called “Enterprise Search Explained. What about Next Steps?” We agree in principle with the article because enterprise search is convoluted. We don’t think the write up goes far enough. In fact, we think that the approach is part of the “search problem,” not part of the solution. There is a sharp distinction about the use of clicks, links, and popularity via user scoring with thumbs up, like buttons, and happy faces and the enterprise.
First, most enterprise content gets one or two clicks. Once in a while a document will generate a large number of clicks, usually for the World Cup pool or a change in the benefits program. The routine enterprise content is of interest to a small number of users. Popularity is zilch. There are few inbound and outbound links in most enterprise content. Finally, the notion that “big data” will unfailingly point the user to a hot trend is silly.
Second, in an organization the notion that “all” content is indexed is also wrong and, in many cases, illegal. It would be great to peer into the employment applications to find the colleague with the exact experience one needs for a proposal. The challenge is to lever out that information without dragging salary, employment reviews, and other “personal” data along for the ride. In some firms with government contracts, colleagues are not permitted to know about the existence of a project. I have worked at one firm where the president was not cleared to review the details of a major government contract.
Third, the marketing baloney that says, “Our system can index enterprise content” is an invitation to a cost overrun. How does a “free”, “low cost”, or over-hyped search system handle drawings from an AutoCAD system, pluck data from a legacy Ironside application running on “frozen” AS/400s, and tap into price changes in a traditional database system. The fact is that transforming and processing content is an expensive task. The phrase “you don’t know what you don’t know” applies to much in the enterprise search sector.
We are okay with systems from such firms as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Polyspot when there are sufficient resources available. We know that established vendors like IBM can make “anything” work. IBM is a consulting firm as you may know. Even promising vendors like Polyspot can work wonders in an organization unable to locate information in a timely manner.
The trick is to keep ones feet on the ground and the realities firmly in mind. We know that’s not as much fun as making up crazy assertions. But a system which works is the objective in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, November 22, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
CRM Integration Finally Arrives for SharePoint
November 22, 2011
We can always expect new SharePoint products to rollout everyday and many of them aren’t newsworthy, but the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Blog has a headline that front page worthy: “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Integration with SharePoint Online is Here.” Microsoft Dynamics CRM is releasing new features for SharePoint Online, all of which will be completed at the end November.
“Most notable from a Microsoft Dynamics CRM perspective, is that Microsoft Dynamics CRM customers can now take advantage of the rich SharePoint Online document management functionality directly within the Microsoft Dynamics CRM application. This provides users the ability to create SharePoint Online Document Libraries dynamically within CRM – when and where they are needed. Companies can add Document Management capabilities to entities such as Accounts, Opportunities, Cases or even custom entities in Microsoft Dynamics CRM.”
It sounds great, doesn’t it? With the deployment of this new feature metatagging and indexing not only will get more interesting, but more intense with the new customizable options. It’s easy to access these new features, simply download the component, create an account, and then follow the steps. This is more positive proof that third party vendors are an important part of SharePoint development and they fill the niches that Microsoft cannot fill. SurfRay’s technology not only fills the gaps, but its waterproof too!
Whitney Grace November 22, 2011
SurfRay
CorasWorks Solves Mixed Content Problems for SharePoint
November 21, 2011
CorasWorks is a company that creates third party SharePoint solutions that specialize in business collaboration and project management. They combined their headlining products CorasWorks Cim for Social Business Collaboration and CorasWorks PPM for Project Portfolio Management and demonstrated how the two applications can work together to formulate robust business solutions. The features of this effort are summarized in “Drive Exceptional Results By Combining Social Business Collaboration and Project Management” from William’s Blog/CorasWorks.
CorasWorks has discovered three business scenarios in which their products are used the most: project collaboration, project initiation/approval/management, and innovation management. For a project collaboration solution, CorasWorks acts like SharePoint by providing a meeting point for users to contribute and share their projects. Project Initiation, Approval and Management Workstream is the workhorse solution for CorasWorks it combines the most prominent features of their applications.
“Our full demonstration shows an integrated workstream where you start with people entering their ideas for projects. This gives them visibility and allows for robust collaboration. Then, the projects are evaluated via the Cim Process Management site that enables management and subject matter expert collaboration. Once approved, you are ready to go into the project execution phase. The approved projects may be pushed into the PPM Program Management Office. Or, they can be pushed into a PPM Project Portfolio to kick off the project.”
The project innovation side involves project design, tasks, and approval. CorasWorks PPM acts as the intermediary network for the entire process for users to communicate their individual POVs on the project.
CorasWorks’s main claim to fame is that the company is an expert in devising mixed content solutions for SharePoint. The article also includes helpful and colorful diagrams to explain their business scenarios, which reminds me about how SurfRay is another expert in the same field. If you combine SurfRay with Smartlogic—a technology that makes project and collaborative content findable—you are arming yourself with the best third party solutions for SharePoint.
Whitney Grace, November 21, 2011
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