Triumph Motorbikes Adopts PLM Solutions
March 2, 2012
As the need for Product Lifecycle Management has moved to the forefront of the package management industries in the last few years due to its efficient strategies at reducing costs and improving production time as well as communication between departments many forget that PLM solutions are also best for many other industries as well. A recent article, Triumph Motorbikes Selects PTC(R) for Enterprise PLM, on MarketWatch, brings to light the need for PLM in many overlooked industries such as automobile production.
Triumph Motorbikes, a world leader in motorcycles, has recently adopted the use of PLM because of its ability to minimize production time and streamline the overall production process. The article quotes Sin Min Yap, VP of Market Strategy at PTC, the PLM provider adopted by Triumph, as for the need for PLM solutions within the automobile industry:
“’The automotive market is ultra-competitive and the stakes are high,’ said Sin Min Yap, vice president, Market Strategy at PTC. ‘Designing and engineering a motorcycle from the ground up is a complex process that must keep pace with the ever-changing requirements of customers. These companies require superior technology to overcome the industry’s most daunting challenges.’”
The media is quick to point out the hardships the automobile industry is facing in large part due to the economy, but there are many other industries grasping PLM solutions as a way to save money and keep their companies afloat. Any company considering the adoption of PLM should consider only those providers specializing in product data access and offering innovative ways to find, share and reuse data to accomplish goals. Although many PLM providers seem similar not all PLM solutions are cloud-based and able to deliver the results so dearly desired.
Catherine Lamsfuss, March 2, 2012
SharePoint for your Public Facing Site: Key Points
March 2, 2012
Rapid changes in technology have also brought along changes in web expectations. Users more and more want informative, aesthetically pleasing sites that are consistently functioning with real-time data, which can be challenging to achieve. Eric Riz outlines four considerations to keep in mind before you begin building your external site in, “SharePoint: Should You Use it for Your Public Website?”
Some may be unaware that SharePoint can support a public facing site. Some SharePoint sites also integrate content with collaboration. All these features sound good, but Riz discusses four key points to keep in mind before jumping in headfirst. As with most complex information undertakings, a good plan cannot be underestimated.
Riz explains:
It’s important that you plan sufficiently for your site; don’t underestimate the amount of planning required getting your SharePoint website together. We recommend that companies realize the importance of putting their content online and plan accordingly. Begin by defining your branding strategy and the basic layout of your page template; this is where you’ll need to decide whether you want an “off-the-rack” look and feel, or something customized. The latter will require additional time and budget consideration.
Riz also covers considerations in licensing, ensuring the development team is well-versed in extending SharePoint capabilities to the Internet, and staging the deployment.
To give your Web site a powerful search feature with a user-friendly experience, consider a third party solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite. MindBreeze InSite understands that an attractive web site is a company’s digital business card – your shop window.
InSite turns your website into a user-friendly knowledge portal for your customers. Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite recognizes correlations and links through semantic and dynamic search processes. This delivers pinpoint accurate and precise ‘finding experiences’.
With no installation or configuration required, InSite can save you valuable resources that would otherwise be spent on development and training. Navigate to www.mindbreeze.com to read more about web site architect solutions from Mindbreeze.
Philip West, March 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Know Before You Buy
March 2, 2012
Most people agree that before making a big ticket item such as a car it is a good idea to do a little research before making your final choice. The same goes for the business world. Market Publishers offers customers a Market Report Database where they can gain valuable information on companies and their business analytics products. The detailed reports are available for customers to purchase. “The profile has been compiled by GlobalData to bring to you a clear and an unbiased view of the company’s key strengths and weaknesses and the potential opportunities and threats. The profile helps you formulate strategies that augment your business by enabling you to understand your partners, customers and competitors better.” An unbiased review with such detailed information could be very important to companies especially those new to the business analytics world. It has already been proven that these tools can give companies and edge so it helps to “know before you buy.” This is one more example of search giving away to findability.
April Holmes, March 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Working Towards a Budget Friendly Military
March 2, 2012
There is no shortage of military supporters, and articles that applaud these men and women for their sacrifices to protect the United States and its interest. However, according to the WAND Action Center article “WAND and the Military Budget – What We Are Up Against” the United States military desperately needs a budget overhaul. “There is only one way to get the changes WAND believes are necessary: an informed citizenry. U.S. citizens are deeply disturbed about our economic problems, rising inequalities, and the perception that our country is falling behind, yet haven’t made the link between that and the devastating costs of our military.”
WAND believes that being a major military power and protecting other nations is of little importance if we cannot handle our own problems at home. This is a somewhat unusual yet interesting view of the military and politics and the battle lines that some groups have drawn. It seems that some believe even the US Military needs an allowance.
Interesting approach to marketing taxonomies.
April Holmes,March 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Old New Fast
March 2, 2012
The Fast Search & Transfer story continues to unfold. I think the approach is closer to one of those 1950 motion picture serials or chapter plays. Just when I thought Don of Don Daredevil Rides Again as a goner, he would survive. Wow, I need some popcorn.
With the sale of Fast Search & transfer to Microsoft in 2008, the subsequent hassle over Fast Search revenues and the activities of its Board of Directors, the search system morphed into FS4SP (great name!). The former Fast Search wizards and mavens scattered to the four winds.
Some remain at Microsoft. Others set up new companies which have moved beyond the Fast Search technology like Attivio. Consulting and service firms have flowered. A great example is Comperio which describes itself with this tagline: Search Matters.
Comperio is venturing outside of the Home of the Vikings with a new seminar series in conjunction with Microsoft (the world’s leader in search because there are more than 100 million SharePoint installations and an equal number of findability challenges) and BA Insight. You can read about the seminars here, but the details are sketchy. My hunch is that the content will praise SharePoint and then explain why one should license tools from the hosts, but that’s the way Microsoft’s ecosystem works.
The Comperio Web site ran an interesting interview with a former Fast Search wizard, Bjørn Olstad in “Hard Job Keeping Search Technology in Norway.” The interview summary contained some “search gems,” which I wanted to capture. So, check out the original and here are the points which I noted. My observations to myself appear in italics and in blood red, almost the color of financial red ink, but a tad darker:
- The demand for enterprise search has been increasing. The cause is the increase in unstructured data. Okay, great insight. I was only partially aware of the growth in digital information.
- Comperio has 50 employees and is a system integrator, Microsoft Partner of the Year, and specializes in the use of search technology to integrate disparate sources of information. Comperio is thriving like other SharePoint solution providers. I think this is because SharePoint and FS4SP needs quite a lot of love and care, diaper changing, baby oil, and spoon feeding. If the system worked, not so much effort would be needed, but that’s just my opinion.
- Comperio is hiring for its Oslo and London offices. The more SharePoint, the greater the need for mechanics to fix the system. Another opinion, maybe a hypothesis.
We cover a number of articles about SharePoint. It is clear that SharePoint business is booming, and I think a company which understands the old Fast can make a lot of new money because the issues which contributed to the Fast revenue shortfall may lurk in the dark corners of a SharePoint implementation.
So the old new Fast is back and generating significant revenue for the former Fast specialists who are now focused on SharePoint and the new Fast. Makes sense, right?
Stephen E Arnold, March 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Ikanow: Creating Pathways through Information
March 1, 2012
Protected: SharePoint Content Can Be Saved as a Wiki
March 1, 2012
Plan for Scalability with SharePoint
March 1, 2012
Brett Kovatch, “The SharePoint Dude,” takes an non-traditional approach to the common issue of SharePoint and its long list of things to do and things not to do. Kovatch gives his offerings in the article, “Five SharePoint Don’t-Dos.”
In addition to topics like planning and governance, the author also addresses the importance of scalability:
Don’t forget to plan for growth! This is extremely critical. All too often, I’ve seen companies build a solution that works . . . Right now. In order to build a successful solution, it must be one that works now and in the future. So many companies start out small and then, because they have done some key things right, suddenly grow to an unexpected scale. This is great news (unless you failed to plan for it). If you’re not prepared for growth, you will be scrambling at a time when your business critically needs a stable solution.
Many third-party solutions can make the issue of scalability a much simpler one. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers an entire suite of enterprise search solutions. In addition to the software itself, the Fabasoft Mindbreeze Appliance meets an organization’s needs by providing swifter implementation and seamless upgrades.
The Fabasoft Mindbreeze Appliance is the optimal basis for highly efficient enterprise-wide search and easy configuration. To utilize the full potential of a software solution it is essential that hardware and software are fully aligned. Even more, the required time for deployment to the user is critical for gaining the highest ROI. The Fabasoft Mindbreeze Appliance components have been optimally synchronized in numerous tests.
The device can be simply scaled out at any time, eliminating the need for on-site scalability preparations or plans. While any enterprise solution should be implemented with care and planning, the addition of a third party solution can greatly reduce the effort that goes into preparation and customization and greatly improve the overall user experience.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 1, 2012
Sponsored by: Pandia.com
The Lady Librarian of Toronto
March 1, 2012
Ah, the good old days. Canada’s The Globe and Mail profiles a powerhouse of a librarian who recently passed away at the age of 100 in “When Lady Librarians Always Wore Skirts and You didn’t Dare Make Noise.” When Alice Moulton began her career, libraries were very different than they are today. Writer Judy Stoffman describes:
“When Alice Moulton went to work at the University of Toronto library in 1942, libraries were forbidding, restricted spaces organized around the near-sacred instrument known as the card catalogue. They were ruled by a chief librarian, always male, whose word was law. Staff usually consisted of prim maiden ladies, dressed in skirts and wearing serious glasses, like the character played by Donna Reed in It’s a Wonderful Life, in the alternate life she would have had without Jimmy Stewart.”
The article is worth reading if only as a profile of a strong woman from a bygone era, but it also paints a portrait of libraries in the 20th Century. Among other things, Stoffman reveals that, in the ‘40s and ‘50s, libraries had a locked room called the “inferno” where the banned books were kept. In the spirit of free access to information, such volumes had been released from captivity by the time Moulton retired.
With the modern-day censorship issues that have emerged online, we would not be surprised if brick-and-mortar libraries experienced a resurgence. They may be back if censorship kicks into high gear and we return to the printed word.
Cynthia Murrell, March 1, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Great Cloud Race is on!
March 1, 2012
In the mid-20th century, the world was watching as the space race evolved between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Space supremacy was at stake. Now in the 21st century, there is a new race and this time it is for the cloud. Oleg Shilovitsky, in PDM/PLM Evolution: Final Step and Cloud/On-Premise Integration, takes a look at how technology companies are competing for cloud supremacy by “actively acquiring all possible and impossible cloud assets.”
PLM heavy weights Oracle, SAP and Dassault are slugging it out. SAP acquired SuccessFactors, which is “a cloud-based human resources application” company late last year. Then, Oracle acquired Taleo which “has more than 5,000 customers, including nearly half of the Fortune 100.” Not to be outdone, Dassault acquire Netvibe which creates “personalized RSS and social media feed dashboards” All this shake-up is a direct result of the cloud and Shilovitsky says that:
“What is interesting to me is how vendors are going to support this “cloud transition”. Companies clearly won’t be able to move all in a single shot. So, we can expect a long time when cloud and on-premises application will co-exist.”
It seems that the great cloud race is in full gear and the competition is getting stiffer. However, big companies are not the only ones contending. Smaller companies like Inforbix need to be watched as well. They are creating innovative and incredible cloud based solutions that help companies find, reuse and share product data. The little guys are going to have a say in this race before it is all said and done!
Jennifer Wensink, March 1, 2012
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