Considerations for SharePoint Career Development
March 28, 2012
Over at the ShareMuch Blog, Yaroslav Pentsarskyy looks at SharePoint career development in, “How Come Joe-the-SharePoint-Guy Doesn’t Know? SharePoint Career Evolution.” As SharePoint continues to expand and develop, IT employees have to keep up with continuing education and an evolving skill set. Pentsarskyy shares his subjective suggestion:
1. Pick your discipline area (Infrastructure, Technical BA, Developer, User Interface Developer etc.). Something you`re prepared to be an expert in;
2. Be clear on deliverables you are going to have to produce as a part of your area focus (Design Document? DR plan? Code? Governance Plan? etc.). Deliverables will outline your role on projects (usually your title is too vague, everyone wants to know what you`re actually going to produce);
3. Pick a few but not too many product areas (BI, Collab, Publishing etc) and be good at those.
Pentsarskyy warns that trying to keep up with everything may leave you as an expert in nothing. Honing in on a development area may be beneficial to many IT employees that feel stretched too thin across growing collaboration products.
SharePoint is a ubiquitous platform that continues to grow. To add rich value to your system while also providing an easier experience for your users, consider an intuitive solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Their out-of-the-box solution gives you information pairing, mobility, and a more powerful search in a user-centered environment:
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or more precisely understands exactly what the most important information is for you at any given moment. It’s a center of excellence and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud together.”
Consider the full suite of products and solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, March 28, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Ikea Italy Selects Autonomy
March 28, 2012
Ikea Italy is giving its business to Autonomy: Market Watch informs us that “Autonomy Powers Intelligent Document Management and Process Automation at IKEA Italy.” It seems the deal cincher was the system’s single platform to be deployed across the enterprise. The write up reveals:
IKEA Italy needed a single, centralized repository where employees could quickly and efficiently access relevant business documents and improve the automation of its internal and customer-facing business processes. Furthermore, it needed to improve collaboration between different departments. IKEA Italy selected Autonomy WorkSite and TeleForm to fulfill these requirements. Autonomy’s solutions, built on the Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL), provide IKEA Italy with a single platform for document management and business process automation across the company’s multiple repositories.
Other benefits for Ikea Italy include robust document management functionality; adequate scalability; and multi-language search capabilities. That last facet should prove very valuable; the company’s internal documents are in several languages.
HP bought Autonomy in 2011. The company, originally founded in 1996, is a leader in meaning-based information technology. They take great pride building tools that efficiently extract meaning from unwieldy tangles of unstructured data.
Originally founded in Switzerland, Ikea’s quality, customer-assembled furniture business now spans the globe. It arrived in Italy in 1989. Ikea arrived at Autonomy in 2012. What took so long?
Cynthia Murrell, March 28, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
New Alert Feature for Clarabridge Social Media Analytics
March 28, 2012
Social functions are refining their role in the business intelligence niche. The BrainYard reports, “Clarabridge Adds Alerts to Social Media Analytics.”
So what do you do with all that information your business collects from social media? A backlog in the analysis of time-sensitive data could cost a company in lost opportunities. Clarabridge now addresses this problem with automatic alerts. Writer David F. Carr explains:
Clarabridge 5.0 provides tools for collaborating around an analysis. By configuring more proactive notifications, Clarabridge users might also configure the system to automatically send alerts to the correct regional manager–or product manager, or department head–making it more likely that the organization will take action immediately after detecting a specific problem or opportunity. . . . ‘If somebody just tweeted, “I went into Kohl’s and slipped and fell, so now I’m going to sue,” if you’re Kohl’s you want to know that,’ [Clarabridge VP Sidra] Berman said.
Collaboration is the focus of Clarabridge 5.0, formally released March 20, 2012. After all, much of this data points to challenges that require action from multiple departments. Though the alert function is a useful tool, it is important to remember that it will take skillful action to make the most of the new feature.
Clarabridge aims to delve deeper into the meaning behind each piece of content than the competition. Having spent years developing its sentiment and text analytics technology, the company boasts that it is uniquely positioned to support enterprise-scale customer feedback initiatives.
Cynthia Murrell, March 28, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Texprocess Americas Stage for PLM Demonstration
March 28, 2012
Gerber Technology, one of the largest providers of all aspects of production and manufacturing software, has recently announced they will wow audience members at Texprocess Americas show in Atlanta, Georgia in April 2012 with new solutions to common problems. The article, Gerber Technology Adopts Modern-Day Approach to Showcasing New Product Offerings at Texprocess Americas Show, on newstimes.com, explains how Gerber is preparing to show how automation will solve all potential clients’ problems.
In response to the challenge, ‘Getting the right product to market, on time and at the right cost’ the article gives the answer,
“The solution: Gerber’s award-winning YuniquePLM™ system tracks responsibilities and workflows, provides a comprehensive view of the business and facilitates communication with global partners. Designers love YuniquePLM because it’s easy to use – even on mobile devices. Managers rely on it for clear visibility into the details surrounding a product’s journey to market. IT professionals welcome it because it integrates seamlessly with existing enterprise-wide business systems and scales to fit the needs of any size business.”
Gerber definitely has the marketing budget to put on a display like the one planned at Texprocess Americas in late April but that doesn’t mean they are the only PLM providers providing solutions. Inforbix, a data management solutions provider, is our recommendation for small to mid-sized businesses looking for cloud based PLM. Unlike some other providers Inforbix sees data as the key making their goal to help clients find, reuse and share data and in that process simplifying data accessibility.
Catherine Lamsfuss, March 28, 2012
Evil, Search, and the Real World
March 27, 2012
I am not into theodicy, and I surmise the author of “Why “Don’t Be Evil” Is Evil, and Why Google Isn’t So Bad” is possibly less fascinated than I. I won’t say “informed” because after my year in the Jesuit strong hold of Duquesne University, I appreciate “evil.” I also am not going into poetry mode and drag in John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained.” The Puritan dude had a Googley amanuensis who knocked out a killer poem with the fantastic peach metaphor. But let’s put John Milton, Andrew Marvell, and epistemology aside.
Let’s consider this passage by a writer more capable, in my opinion, than either Milton or Marvell when it comes to explicating evil’s cone of connotation:
I’m not convinced by Honan’s larger argument that Google’s recent actions should earn it our deep distrust. That’s mainly because nothing that Google has done is really so bad when compared to others in the tech industry. I’ve gone on record as hating Search Plus Your World. But I also hate the iOS App Store’s capricious, unfriendly restrictions, the ridiculous way that Apple went after rival advertising networks, the whole stupid business about in-app purchases, and the fact that I have to jump through hoops to use Google Voice on my iPhone. Similarly, I threw a tantrum when Facebook declared its social network to be a roach motel for your social graph—Mark Zuckerberg will let you import your contacts from Gmail, but don’t bother trying to get your contacts out. (And let’s all forget Beacon, shall we?) Meanwhile, how about the time Amazon deleted 1984 from people’s Kindles? And when I search for an iPad case on Amazon, why does Amazon show me a big ad for its Kindle app—how is that a relevant shopping result?
In other words Honan might be right that Google has violated its own definition of evil, but doesn’t it matter that every one of its rivals also routinely violates Google’s definition of evil? Wouldn’t that suggest that it’s the definition of “evil” that needs updating, rather than Google’s own behavior, which seems perfectly in line with that of its rivals? If you’re going to knock Google for its ethics, you’d have a hard time conducting transactions with any tech entity other than Wikipedia and Craigslist. You’d have an especially hard time explaining people’s crazy love for Apple.
The real problem that Honan has with Google isn’t that it has started to do stuff that bothers its users. It’s that Google has started to do stuff that bothers users in a way we aren’t used to—in a way that Don’t Be Evil falsely suggested it was above doing. By never claiming to be above evil, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon are free to act like normal companies whose efforts to optimize their own self-interest don’t arouse much suspicion. We expect Apple to play rough with others; we’d be surprised if it didn’t. But we don’t expect sharp elbows from Google. And now that it’s acting in new ways, we don’t know what to expect at all.
The Honan reference points to a essay called “The Case against Google.” I have put in bold face the words and phrases which interested me in the response to the chap named Honan. I don’t pretend to have the insight nor the perspective of these two commentators and their respective publications. I almost used my personal shorthand and inserted “poobah, failed Web master, or former “real” journalist, but I did not. Gadget analysts and contributors to a start up root system do not fit into my personal controlled vocabulary. I will have to do something about that some day soon, maybe.
Let me hold forth on the four bold faced items in the quoted segment:
First, the notion of determining evil by comparing one company’s actions to another group of companies is interesting. The technology industry warranted an entire book by Jacques Ellul. Although Ellul had a passing familiarity with evil, he tackled the technology industry from the angle that technologists solve problems with technology. As there is more technology, there are more problems to solve. Technology does not seem to be in remediate mode. Thus, for an approach which a learned observer like Ellul was pushing the pedal to metal in the race to Armageddon, I think Ellul is spot on. As a consequence, evil in the context of creating more and more problems which exacerbate a number of life conditions does not make me rest easy. The comparison does not work for me, but it may work just fine for you, gentle reader. Let’s try that argument when your progeny commit an “evil” act and respond, “But I did not kill anyone on the drive home like Trent did. I had less to drink at Amy’s sweet 16 party and anyone else. Don’t be mad at me. Don’t ground me. That’s not fair.”
Second, yep, I agree. Let’s do the health care thing and update the definition of evil. After all, everyone knows that “meaningful use” means electronic medical records, right? Redefining or the use of invented words to connote one thing yet main, in actual practice, quite another. Yes, that works quite well, and I will leave it to you to reflect on some of the marketing concepts which make figuring out what a technology product or service does quite challenging.
Third, the idea that Wikipedia and Craigslist are different from other technology companies is a method of argument that does not convince me. I recall reading that Wikipedia’s method permitted false entries. Someone in Kentucky actually accomplished this rare feat. I am certain the messages about unsubstantiated information in Wikipedia are little more than advisories on a tiny fraction of the information in the crowd sourced encyclopedia. I think it is admirable that some of my colleagues believe that Wikipedia put the loaded gun in Encyclopedia Britannica’s capable hands. I can imagine the verbal support for killing its untenable print product. Craigslist is fascinating as well. There was an spat with eBay, which was little more than a misunderstanding. Chatter about adult information and squelching of metasearch over listing is just that, chatter. No evil, just examples of prudent technology behavior and, therefore, appropriate for use as a way to measure evil of other outfits. I like that. No, I won’t give an example ask you, gentle reader, to imagine such behavior by one of your children or possibly by one of your parents. Unthinkable.
Finally, we come to the notion of “expecting.” Now the world has taught countries that unexpected events are routine. The companies which I admire fire employees who expected to float toward retirement without a pimple on their smooth, wrinkle free foreheads. In a world with unknown interdependencies, the unexpected is the norm. Whether it is bank failures or clueless students signing up for student loans, the unexpected strikes the uninformed. My hunch is that those with technological savvy know more about protecting themselves. Caveat emptor: The motto, in my book, whether I sign up for an exercise club or a free online service.
To wrap up, epistemology, eschatology, and heuristics are well served by a close analysis of the meaning of Google’s actions, the writings of experts, and a search for relevant information on a free Web search system. Information, like human action, wants to be free. Ethics, honor, integrity—redefine them. Well, let the experts redefine them by word and deed.
Stephen E Arnold, March 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Connotate Acquires Fetch Technologies
March 27, 2012
I know, “Who? Bought what?”
Connotate is a data fusion company which uses software bots (agents) to harvest information. Fetch Technologies, founded more than a decade ago, processes structured data. The deal comes on the heels of some executive ball room dancing. Connotate snagged a new CEO, Keith Cooper, according to New Jersey Tech Week. Fetch also uses agent technology.
Founded in 1999, Fetch Technologies enables organizations to extract, aggregate and use real-time information from Web sites. Fetch’s artificial intelligence-based technology allows precise data extraction from any Web site, including the so-called Deep Web, and transforms that data into a uniform format that can be integrated into any analytics or business intelligence software.
The company’s technology originated at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute. Fetch’s founders developed the core artificial intelligence algorithms behind the Fetch Agent Platform while they were faculty members in Computer Science at USC. Fetch’s artificial intelligence solutions were further refined through years of research funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Air Force, and other U.S. Government agencies.
The Connotate news release said:
Fetch is very excited to combine our information extraction, integration, and data analytics solution with Connotate’s monitoring, collection and analysis solution,” said Ryan Mullholland, Fetch’s former CEO and now President of Connotate. Our similar product and business development histories, but differing go-to-market strategies creates an extraordinary opportunity to fast-track the creation of world-class proprietary ‘big data’ collection and management solutions.
Okay, standard stuff. But here’s the paragraph that caught my attention:
Big data, social media and cloud-based computing are major drivers of complexity for business operations in the 21st century,” said Keith Cooper, CEO of Connotate. “Connotate and Fetch are the only two companies to apply machine learning to web data extraction and can now take the best of both solutions to create a best-of-breed application that delivers inherent business value and real-time intelligence to companies of all sizes.
I am not comfortable with the assertion of “only two companies to apply machine learning to Web data extraction.” In our coverage of the business intelligence and text mining market in Inteltrax.com, we have written about many companies which have applied such technologies and generated more market traction. Examples range from Digital Reasoning to Palantir, and others.
The deal is going to deliver on a “unified vision.” That may be true; however, saying and doing are two different tasks. As I write this, unification is the focus of activities from big dogs like Autonomy, now part of Hewlett Packard, to companies which have lower profiles than Connotate or Fetch.
We think that the pressure open source business intelligence and open source search are exerting will increase. With giants like IBM (Cognos, i2 Group, SPSS) and Oracle working to protect their revenues, more mergers like the Connotate-Fetch tie up are inevitable. You can read a July 14, 2010, interview with Xoogler Mike Horowitz, Fetch Technologies at this link.
Will the combined companies rock the agent and data fusion market? We hope so.
Stephen E Arnold, March 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: You Do Not Need Hot Water to Shrink Your SharePoint Crawl Database
March 27, 2012
The Invisibility of Open Source Search
March 27, 2012
I was grinding through my files and I noticed something interesting. After I abandoned the Enterprise Search Report, I shifted my research from search and retrieval to text processing. With this blog, I tried to cover the main events in the post-search world. The coverage was more difficult than I anticipated, so we started Inteltrax, which focuses on systems, companies, and products which “find” meaning using numerical recipes. But that does not do enough, so we are contemplating two additional free information services about “findability.” I am not prepared to announce either of these at this time. We have set up a content production system with some talented professionals working on our particular approach to content. We are also producing some test articles.
Until we make the announcement, I want to reiterate a point I made in my talks in London in 2011 about open source search and content processing:
Most reports about enterprise search ignore open source search solution vendors. A quiet revolution is underway, and for many executives, the shift is all but invisible.
We think that the “invisible” nature of the open source search and content processing options is due to four factors:
Most of the poobahs, self appointed experts and former home economics majors have never installed, set up, or optimized an open source search system. Here at ArnoldIT we have that hands on experience. And we can say that open source search and content processing solutions are moving from the desks of Linux wizards to more mainstream business professionals.
Next, we see more companies embracing open source, contributing to the overall community with bug fixes and new features and functions. At the same time, the commercial enterprises are “wrapping” open source with proprietary, value-added features and functions. The leader in this movement is IBM. Yep, good old Big Blue is an adherent of open source software. Why? We will try to answer this in our new information services.
Third, we think the financial pressure on organizations is greater than ever. CNBC and the Murdoch outfitted Wall Street Journal are cheering for the new economic recovery. We think that most organizations are struggling to make sales, maintain margins, and generate new opportunities. Open source search and content solutions promise some operating efficiencies. We want to cover some of the business angles of the open source search and content processing shift. Yep, open source means money.
Finally, the big solutions vendors are under a unique type of pressure. Some of it comes from licensees who are not happy with the cost of “traditional” solutions. Other comes from the data environment itself. Let’s face it. Certain search systems such as your old and dusty version of IBM STAIRS or Fulcrum won’t do the job in today’s data and information rich environment. New tools are needed. Why not solve a new information problem without dragging the costs, methods, and license restrictions of traditional enterprise software along for the ride? We think change is in the wind just like the smell of sweating horses a couple of months before the Kentucky Derby.
Our approach to information in our new services will be similar to that taken in Beyond Search. We want to provide pointers to useful write ups and offer some comments which put certain actions and events in a slightly different light. Will you agree with the information in our new services? We hope not.
Stephen E Arnold, March 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Harnessing a Strong ROI for your SharePoint Investments
March 27, 2012
Return on Investment (ROI) is no doubt a main focus for both IT and financial officers in the organization. Technology investments can be heavy on the front end and hard to measure as the system develops. The topic is addressed in, “Why is Measuring a Hard ROI for SharePoint Just so Hard?”
The author explains the issue,
“The reality is that all businesses have soft costs such as turnover, lost productivity, low morale, lost sales and missed opportunities. And any combination of those might drive soft cost dollars in your organization which can have big impact on your bottom line — sometimes just as much as the hard costs and other times even more. Many organizations simply don’t measure these types of costs because they don’t understand it or simply don’t have the capability to measure them. Or perhaps people are just focused on meeting deadlines without questioning the value or impact to the customer. Meanwhile, project management within many organizations seems like chaos, deadlines get missed, decisions are delayed, tiger teams get formed, and the insanity of our day to day work life continues.”
Budgets are tight and the economy has been shaky for a while. Everyone is taking a close look at dollars coming in and out of the business. The brief article may be worth a read to help you develop a roadmap for measuring ROI. The piece is part of a larger series of articles on measuring ROI that you may want to check out.
To boost your ROI now without the need for training and studying, consider adding an intuitive third party solution, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Here is a highlight:
“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 hard- 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 Fabasoft Search Appliance cuts down the time-to-user dramatically.”
A strong ROI is imperative for the sustainability of your enterprise search investments. Learn more about the Fabasoft Mindbreeze solution at http://www.mindbreeze.com/.
Philip West, March 27, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PLM Appeal Growing Daily
March 27, 2012
Now that product lifecycle management (PLM) is moving beyond the traditional borders of engineering the allure of integrating PLM into production is growing. Although many plant managers are initially skeptical of PLM there are many benefits to adopting it on a universal level within a company, including the manufacturing floor. A recent article, Five Reasons Why Plant Managers Should Care about PLM, on Plant Engineering, gives thoughtful and compelling reasons why plant managers should remain open minded when it comes to PLM.
After a lengthy explanation listing many benefits for PLM, the article summarizes its argument by saying,
“With the capabilities available in today’s PLM solutions and the depth and breadth of information that plant managers can access within a central location, it only makes sense to take a closer look. The more automated and streamlined an organization is, the more efficient. Key improvements such as eliminating paper printouts, guaranteeing plant personnel have accurate documentation, and accessing reports to properly identify bottlenecks and issues are just some of the benefits a plant manager can realize with PLM.”
It’s understandable that many outside of the world of engineering would fear PLM as traditionally it has served only to aid engineers and IT staff. That has changed, though, in the last decade and many leading PLM providers pride themselves for providing data management solutions created with an entire facility in mind. We agree with the points made in this article and hope that more plant managers will take the time to discover all PLM can do for them.
Catherine Lamsfuss, March 27, 2012
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