PLM Training Mandatory for Efficient Utilization
February 23, 2012
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a rapidly growing practice among companies worldwide wishing to eliminatde wasteful practices throughout the entire design and production processes. Unfortunately, PLM works only as well as those implementing it are trained. For that very reason PLM leader CIMdata offers training programs. The recent article announcing an upcoming training, CIMdata Announces Date and Location for the Next North American CIMdata PLM Certificate Program, on PR.com, explains the importance of quality training for the execution of PLM practices.
“The CIMdata PLM Certificate Program prepares PLM professionals at several levels to successfully address the challenges inherent in PLM implementations. This assessment-based certificate program includes an intimate classroom experience, individual and team-based exercises, and individual evaluations of achievement. Additionally, the program provides participants with intensive and extensive exposure to a team of CIMdata experts. Upon successful completion of the program, each participant receives a CIMdata PLM Certificate and becomes a member of CIMdata’s global PLM Leadership community.”
PLM might seem like the answer to a thousand problems facing manufacturing companies daily, but without a total system overhaul it will do no good. Data must be addressed in order for PLM to work. PLM programs that fail to take into account the desperate need of every company to find, re-use and share data between departments will inevitably be a disaster. The best advice we can give is for companies exploring PLM options to focus on those PLM providers with product data access at the core of their development.
Catherine Lamsfuss, February 23, 2012
Bearing with the Hassles of SharePoint
February 23, 2012
Forrester’s latest report on SharePoint 2010 remarks that the platform’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses, providing enough business value to overcome the hassles. Toby Ward comments on the Forrester report in, “If You Can Afford It, SharePoint May be Worth the Hassles.”
Ward disagrees, recommending each organization evaluate whether or not SharePoint is the right solution for their situation:
While the power and feature set of SP 2010 is undeniable, it turns out it is more expensive, more complicated and fails to live up to a number of key expectations. It is, however, a vast improvement over 2007, and is particularly more so for business users such as corporate communications, marketing and HR, who rely more heavily on enterprise content management, collaboration, and portal features.
In his pro/con list, Ward remarks that a major weak point of SharePoint 2010 is its mobile access problems on a variety of platforms. One solution that provides excellent mobile access is Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Read more about how their Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile solution compliments an existing enterprise infrastructure:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile makes company data available on all mobile devices . . . You can act independently and freely – yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in. Full functionality: the display of the search results is homogenous to the tried and tested web client in terms of clear design and intuitive navigation . . . Existing access rights to company-internal documents and data remain maintained in the view via the mobile client. The user only receives information for which he/she has access rights.
While some organizations may suffer through the idiosyncracies of SharePoint, there are third-party solutions that work with SharePoint to greatly improve the user experience. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is a strong contender, and a great place to start if your organization wants to improve its enterprise usability.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Oxymoron Department: Cloud Storage Appliance
February 23, 2012
This piece is not directly about search, but we think this is an interesting development which may spur more cloud-centric search solutions. Wired Cloudline reports, “Red Hat Appliance Smooths Storage on Amazon Cloud.” The application, Virtual Storage Appliance for Amazon Web Services, is intended to support cloud service providers besides Amazon sometime in the future.
The new appliance is POSIX compliant, which means data need not be modified before using it with the application. The write up informs us:
Terri McClure, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group, said in a statement, ‘Organizations are increasingly looking for cloud storage that delivers the flexibility and cost savings of the cloud without having to overhaul their entire application and storage infrastructure. This newest offering by Red Hat enables organizations to seamlessly easily extend their datacenter storage to the cloud while still receiving the performance and availability desired.’
Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, Red Hat is a premiere provider of the Linux operating system and other open source solutions. It prides itself on being “the bridge between the communities that create open source software and the enterprise customers who use it.”
Now a virtual appliance in the cloud. How does that differ from any other cloud function? Beats me.
Cynthia Murrell, February 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The CIA Technology Revolution
February 22, 2012
Interesting article from Reuters, a unit of the deeply troubled Thomson Reuters organization. The “real news” story’s headline caught my attention: “CIA to Software Vendors: A Revolution Is Coming.” I thought link bait, but when I read the story I realized there was another factor in play.
The write up reports:
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency told software vendors on Tuesday that it plans to revolutionize the way it does business with them as part of a race to keep up with the blazing pace of technology advances.
So this is a contracting shift, not a fundamental adjustment of the outfit which purchases systems which all to often may not play well with others. Some folks call this characteristic of government information technology “silos” or “chimneys.” The idea, which may not apply to the folks looking to shift procurement focus, is that systems and content are “walled” off or “sealed” off from other systems which want to tap into data or information. The result is the mad scramble for information, which often involves late nights, pizza, and manual work.
According to Reuters:
Rather than stick with traditional all-you-can-eat deals known as “enterprise licensing agreements,” the CIA wants to buy software services on a “metered,” pay-as-you-go basis, Ira “Gus” Hunt, the agency’s top technology officer, told an industry conference.
The article included a quote to note:
“The big data problem is the analysis of it,” he [a government official] said. Existing tools “do not aid users … in the mission timelines.”
The headline suggested to me that the technology would shift. Nope, the story makes clear that the CIA will buy stuff on the taxi meter model. Wow. That’s a lot of vendors.
Several observations:
- Taxi meter pricing induces anxiety in budget officers. The reason is that sometimes the driver gets lost and runs up the tab floundering around. Instead of capping costs, taxi meters open the door to pricing surprises.
- Shifts in the government, not just the intelligence community, take time. When I worked in Washington for Halliburton NUS, one elected official to whom I was detailed for a year, told me, “A new president arrives and issues an order. By the time the order makes it way from the top of an agency to the bottom and back up, the president is running for another term.” Speed is not part of the bureaucratic process no matter what some assert.
- A number of agencies, maybe not the CIA, have long term relationships in place. Think in terms of a five year contract. How does one shift an existing agreement with contractual terms regarding payments to the taxi meter model. In my experience, carefully.
Worth watching this development and the Reuters’ headlines for that matter.
Stephen E Arnold, February 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Spend a Saturday in the Big Easy Discussing SharePoint
February 22, 2012
Is SharePoint Being Shunned?
February 22, 2012
SharePoint’s widespread adoption is a fact that no one contests, but The Running Librarian asks us to consider, “Are Employees Rejecting SharePoint?” SharePoint might be up and running in an organization, but is it really being used, embraced by the work force?
The Running Librarian has this to say:
Sam (Marshall) suggests that a major reason for the failure of SharePoint is that the way individuals interact with SharePoint is different from a traditional intranet. On SharePoint there is an expectation that users will be active participants rather then just passive users. Sam also points out that SharePoint is inherently complicated.
The combination of an inherently complicated infrastructure and a requirement that users be active participants is just too demanding for most users. An enterprise solution must be more easily adoptable and inherently natural to the end user in order to be successful.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze makes an effort to provide an enterprise solution that is efficient and sophisticated but also easily adoptable and intuitive for the end user. Mindbreeze routinely receives accolades for their products including, “Mindbreeze Named to KMWorld’s 100 Companies That Matter In Knowledge Management.” The press release highlighted just some of the solution’s strengths.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze enables corporate information access. Only one search query is needed to clearly display search results and related information, even for complex topics. Each item from the hit list can be opened in preview mode which, in addition to document content and the most important meta data (author, date of creation, subject and topic etc) shows all e-mail attachments. The existing access rights are checked for each query, ensuring individual adherence to corporate access restrictions.
If your organization is struggling with SharePoint, try adding Fabasoft Mindbreeze to see if both efficiency and user satisfaction can be improved.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
2012 PLM Innovation Congress Demonstrates Global Focus on New Strategies
February 22, 2012
As technology continues to grow and the world’s economies struggle to survive the need for companies around the globe to become more efficient in every stage of development increases. Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) claims to do just that by offering products and platforms that incorporate every stage of development, streamlining the process and saving significant amounts. A recent article, Aras Sponsors PLM Innovation Congress 2012, on Virtual Strategy Magazine, reports of PLM giant, Aras’, sponsorship of the 2012 PLM Innovation Congress, one of the world’s premier gatherings of PLM knowledge.
As the article explains of Aras and the Innovation Congress,
“Aras, the leading enterprise open source Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software solution provider, today announced that the company will sponsor the 2012 PLM Innovation Congress in Munich, Germany. Attendees at the PLM Innovation Congress will have the opportunity to see the Aras Innovator® suite and learn first-hand about the power of Aras’s advanced PLM platform from Aras corporate community members in several presentations and exhibits.”
While PLM innovations are raining from the sky it seems to many companies forget to focus on the problem of data. PLM helps solve many problematic issues found in the design and production process but will ultimately fail if PLM does not incorporate the practice of finding, accessing and sharing data. Product data access should be the focus of any PLM platform adopted and with leaders like Inforbix companies can eliminate waste and continue to innovate.
Catherine Lamsfuss, February 22, 2012
Factoid to Remember: Apple Revenue 2012
February 22, 2012
Here’s a reminder about the sheer tonnage of money that Apple generates from premium priced products. “Apple’s iPhone Business Alone is Now Bigger than All of Microsoft,” declares Business Insider. The article reveals:
Apple’s iPhone business alone is now bigger than Microsoft. Not Windows. Not Office. Microsoft. Think about that. The iPhone did not exist five years ago. And now it’s bigger than a company that, 15 years ago, was dragged into court and threatened with forcible break-up because it had amassed an unassailable and unthinkably profitable monopoly.
Writer Henry Blodget observes that this brisk rise came from an entirely new product category, one which Microsoft could just as well have invented as Apple. But it didn’t.
Furthermore, Microsoft seems to be suffering from its obsession with fighting Google in the search engine arena (Bing.) While the company was focused on that battle, Apple has quietly leapt ahead.
I wonder though, will recent revelations about overseas iPhone factories bring Apple back down to Earth?
Cynthia Murrell, February 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Advice Inspired by Google
February 22, 2012
Gogaom has some advice for startups in “What I Learned from Teaming up with Google.” Writer Igor Faletski developed some pointers during his time at Google’s Mobilizing Mobile initiative. They are pretty basic yet good to keep in mind– worthy of checking out. The article summarizes the suggestions:
While it’s hard to imagine that your startup has much in common with a giant like Google, these four strategies should resonate with any sized-business. Think big and paint the picture before anyone else can see it. Have the resolve to focus where attention is needed. And most importantly, never lose sight of what makes you meaningful to your customers.
Faletski seems enamored with Google’s GoMo program, designed to help businesses with their mobile presence. It’s worth examining, but being Google’s pal may not be the best place to concentrate a young company’s hopes. Some of their initiatives haven’t worked out for the best, to say the least.
Cynthia Murrell, February 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Semantics Fuel Need for Analytics
February 22, 2012
Here’s a different approach to the “next big thing.” Network Computing insists, “Semantic Technology Key to Mastering Data Growth, Analysis.” The article examines the recent InformationWeek report titled Database Discontent.
It used to be that data analysis parameters were defined manually. However, says the report’s co-author David Read, that is becoming less and less feasible. Writer Chris Talbot explains:
With the significant depth and breadth of data contained inside and outside the enterprise, in addition to the high volume of transactions that are continually generating more data, there is no reasonable way for people to know where to look when seeking out actionable knowledge, Read said. Predictive analytics will likely outpace reporting and traditional business intelligence efforts in the future, and they will be used to inform SMEs [Subject Matter Experts] about where to invest their business intelligence efforts, he added.
SQL systems are fine for analyzing uniform data, he adds, but not the growing mounds of unstructured data. The report sees semantic technology as the answer to the problem. Talbot notes that these tools have both improved and come down in price over the last few years. The way things are going, that’s a very good thing.
Cynthia Murrell, February 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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