Optimizing SharePoint 2010 with Powershell
March 21, 2012
For SharePoint developers who need to customize their infrastructure, Powershell can be a powerful appliance to achieve set goals. Craig Pilkenton offers his suggestions for maximizing the tool in, “Using Powershell to… Upload Documents in SharePoint 2010.”
Powershell is the tool for getting things done in all versions of SharePoint (and your servers/desktops too!). It has the capability to automate, monitor, notify, and even ‘react’ to results. Not only does it have custom compiled ‘activities’ to get work done, it has the ability to call any command-line executable or pull in .NET library’s to handle anything not already given to us by Microsoft (or even our own cmdlets). In this article we’ll go over how to use some of the new “manage content” SharePoint cmdlets to interact with the platform just as a user would.
Pilkenton is a Senior Microsoft Consultant at CDW, so his advice is credible and valuable. He even lists a couple of items for consideration before using Powershell, and breaks down the internal structure line by line.
But for those who are not Senior Microsoft Consultants, and even those who may be intimidated by a command line driven program, there are other options. Many third party solutions exist to make customization more intuitive, with less technical skill required.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers an entire suite of enterprise solutions to work alongside, or in place of, SharePoint. Read more about their quick, service-oriented, and cost-effective offerings:
The award-winning high-tech product is your personal assistant. 24/7, 365 days a year. Regardless of which data you are looking for and with which system you are working with – Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise answers your questions with pinpoint accuracy.
SharePoint is a powerful and ubiquitous tool in the world of search, but for those who cannot devote the time and attention to such a large infrastructure, a smaller more intuitive solution may be just the fit.
Emily Rae Aldridge, March 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Service Finally Jumping on the PLM Bandwagon
March 21, 2012
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) has long been used in manufacturing and engineering as a cost-cutting method of speeding up production times. Recently though, as more non-traditional industries have turned to PLM providers to help save money from design to finished product PLM has been introduced to a new market – service. As a recent article, “PLM Syncs Up With Service”, on Design News, explains introducing PLM at the service end of production has its benefits.
It would appear that as companies get better at utilizing PLM in the engineering and production phases they begin to see the value extending PLM to service would have. As the article explains,
“Service, in particular, is one of the more compelling extensions of PLM as it fosters improvement in two key business processes critical to a company’s success: improving its overall service performance for customers; and providing invaluable information and feedback to engineering that can help advance the development and quality of existing and future products.”
As the name implies product lifecycle management has always been intended to work through the entire lifecycle of a product including service. PLM providers dedicated to working with clients in new data management solutions like utilizing cloud technology have long been working with companies in the service area. Perhaps now that PLM as it relates to service is getting some press more providers will jump on board.
Catherine Lamsfuss, March 20, 2012
Competitive Intelligence for Pharmaceutical Companies
March 20, 2012
Big pharma has been the leader in the use of machine-centric systems to keep revenues flowing. Between the worldwide economic crisis and the growing costs of developing new drugs, pharmaceutical companies need strategic software now like never before. Digimind’s blog reports on “CI in Pharma—Maximizing Success for Clinical Trials.”
By the time a drug approaches market, its parent company has typically sunk several years and many, many dollars into research and development, initial clinical testing, and clinical trials with human subjects. After all that, the company must get an accurate picture of its competitors’ progress before moving into the product launch phase. Failure to get it right at this stage can doom an entire project.
At this juncture, accurate data analysis is crucial. Digimind is one company offering competitive intelligence solutions for pharmaceutical companies. Writer Orlaith Finnegan describes her company’s offering:
“Digimind’s clinical trials dashboard provides some of the leading global Pharma companies with comprehensive real-time monitoring of clinical trials, gathering information from over 120,000 active trials in 178 countries. Digimind’s clients can easily identify what trials are being conducted in each geographical region of the world, the current stage of the trial, the estimated enrolment number, estimated completion date, what disease the drug aims to treat, any reported outcomes and lists of participating laboratories. In addition, Digimind’s interactive timeline enables our clients to see up to 50 clinical trials at a glance.”
Digimind works to save its clients time and money by automating and streamlining the collection, analysis, and sharing of data. Its global client list includes organizations from a broad range of industries. The company boasts of having turned a profit from day one, and of growing by 50% annually. As a side note, as of this writing their Web site says they are hiring.
Stephen E. Arnold, March 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SoSlang Crowdsources a Dictionary
March 20, 2012
Here’s a surprising and interesting approach to dictionaries: have users build their own. SoSlang allows anyone to add a slang term and its definition. Beware, though, this site is not for everyone. Entries can be salty. R-rated, even. You’ve been warned.
The site’s About page presents this description:
“So Slang is an un-complicated online slang dictionary which is contributed and edited by thousands of people online just like you. Unlike formal dictionaries, you can add your own meaning to millions of words.
“With more than 6 million definitions, So Slang is the biggest hub for street definitions of each and every word in the dictionary. These definitions are added by people all over the world wide web. If you’d like to add a definition, click here.”
Providing easy-to-understand definitions and lots of examples are emphasized. As users add definitions, though, the old ones are not removed; this means some entries have a long list of conflicting definitions. I suppose that’s the nature of slang, though.
If you are even somewhat easily offended, stay away. However, if you’re boggled by a slang expression you overheard, this may be the place to turn.
Stephen E. Arnold, March 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Cost Angle in the Social Media Monitoring Craze
March 20, 2012
Search Engine Journal offers good advice in the very detailed article “Think Before You Pay Too Much for Social Media Monitoring.” Writer Jen Carroll explains:
“Paid tools run the gamut, from blessedly affordable (for solopreneurs and small businesses) to outrageously expensive (only the big guys can even hope to afford them)
“Just like Web analytics tools, social media reporting systems can provide a wealth of data. But, is all that data necessary? How much of it is even useful? For most small and even medium-sized organizations, I would argue that only a small slice of what most reporting tools spit out is actionable.”
Carroll follows up with specific advice under several headings: Track Only the Social Media Metrics That Matter; Try Free Social Media Monitoring Options First; and Carefully Evaluate Paid Social Media Monitoring Tools Before Purchase.
Sample advice: figure out what you need first, so you don’t pay for what you won’t use. Also this tip: pay attention to ease of use; you’ll use the tools more often if you actually like using them.
See the article for more words of wisdom on getting the best value out of social media monitoring.
Stephen E. Arnold, March 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: What SharePoint is All About
March 20, 2012
IBM Watson Still Chasing Health Care
March 20, 2012
WillQuitSmoking.com recently shared a video on a new analytics system being used at a healthcare facility in Austin, Texas that is using this technology to save lives by manages large amount of unstructured data.
According to the article, “Seton Healthcare Uses IBM Content and Predictive Analytics to Improve Care & Lower CHF Readmissions,” Seton Healthcare relies on IBM Content and Predictive Analytics to identify high-risk congestive heart failure (CHF) patients for interventive care and to avoid preventable readmissions.
The article states:
Natural language processing enables analysis of both structured (ie lab results) and unstructured data (ie physician notes, discharge summaries), opening the door to rich clinical and operational insights that were hidden in inaccessible free text files. Seton can now identify trends and patterns in patient care and outcomes, uncovering sometimes obscure correlations or disparities buried in years of medical records; these can dramatically improve diagnosis and treatment.
One of the reasons that this article is really cool is because you can learn by watching a video, not using a live, online demo of the technology. Yep, we think movies are much better than live systems. Are videos easier to control than a game show? Yep. Yep. Yep.
Jasmine Ashton, March 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
How to Improve SharePoint Information Architecture
March 20, 2012
Over at the SharePoint Pro Blog, Robert Bogue recently posted, “5 Steps to Making SharePoint Information Architecture Work for You.” Information architecture can be an extensive process, creating the structure and tools for your information such that it can be stored, retrieved, and managed in the most efficient way. In the article, Bogue covers some productive steps to take toward creating better information architecture. First on Bogue’s list is to identify attributes:
Identifying the attributes is typically a process of identifying all of the content in your organization that people want to store and find. This might include invoices, purchase orders, time sheets, et cetera. Each of these has a series of attributes such as the invoice date, customer ID, or vendor ID. These may be valuable for organizing the information for retrieval.
Identifying attribute values and creating ranges and groups are also discussed. Of course, you cannot leave out designing a powerful search and navigation experience when discussing an organization’s custom architecture.
This light read is a good introduction to Information Architecture and provides some basic ways to beef up your existing system. But to strengthen your SharePoint system while spending less time on training and configuring add-ons, consider Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Part of the full suite of solutions is the Fabasoft Folio Connector, which provides uniform, reliable management of your digital content. Here is a highlight:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is able to search all data sources connected to the platform simultaneously. In addition to data from, for example, Microsoft Exchange or the file system, the Fabasoft Folio Connector allows to query information objects and documents from Fabasoft Folio, too.
Learn more about connecting your enterprise-wide information assets at Mindbreeze, where they seem to have the benefits of a proper installation down pat.
Philip West, March 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Go Green with Cloud Based PLM
March 20, 2012
The green movement has now permeated into manufacturing as more and more customers are demanding green and clean manufacturing practices and willing to put their money where their mouth is. In the article, It is Easy Being Green!, on Supply & Demand Chain Executive, the role of product lifecycle management (PLM) in producing the clean and green manufacturing processes is discussed in length, along with examples of companies attempting to use PLM to bolster sales from green thinking customers.
As to how PLM can help companies receive the desired results, the article explains:
“Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) can play a vital role in driving the sustainability benchmarks in Request for Application (RFA) environments. By design, PLM provides an excellent platform to collaborate important information related to the materials used, packaging and compliance that can be integrated in product development. PLM also can be effectively used to monitor and improve the green governing factors in the product development phase, especially those that directly impact our environment.”
Many outside the PLM industry do not realize that established PLM providers have been helping businesses of all sizes streamline manufacturing thus creating clean and green practices as a by-product for years. Inforbix, a PLM solutions provider is large enough to offer clients cloud based services yet is still small enough to offer a customized solution with excellent customer service. By helping clients move to the cloud and by creating efficient product data access Inforbix users are able to find, use and share data with the minimal amount of waste possible.
Catherine Lamsfuss, March 20, 2012
Lexmark: Under Its Own Nose
March 20, 2012
I read “Lexmark Acquires Isys Search Software and Nolij (Knowledge, get it?) In 2008, Hewlett Packard acquired Lexington based Exstream Software. HP paid $350 million for the company, leaving Lexmark wondering what its arch printing enemy was doing. Now more than three years later, Lexmark is lurching through acquisitions.
On March 7, 2012, I reported that Lexmark purchased Brainware, a search, eDiscovery, and back office system. Brainware caught my attention because its finding method was based in part on tri-gram technology. I recall seeing patents on the method which were filed in 1999. I have a special report on this Brainware if anyone is interested. Brainware has a rich history. Its technology stretches back to SER Solutions (See US6772164). SER was once part of SER Systems AG. The current owners bought the search and technology and generated revenue from its back office capabilities, not the “pure” search technology. However, Brainware’s associative memory technology struck me as interesting because it partially addressed the limitations of trigram indexes. Brainware became part of Lexmark’s Perceptive Software unit.
Now, a mere two weeks later, Lexmark snags another search and retrieval company. Isys Search was started by Iain Davies in 1988. Mr. Davies was an author and an independent consultant in IBM mainframe fourth generation languages. His vision was to provide an easy-to-use search system. When I visited with him in 2009, I learned that Isys had more than 12,000 licensees worldwide. However, in the US, Isys never got the revenue traction which Autonomy achieved. Even Endeca which was roughly one-tenth the size of Autonomy was larger than Isys. The company began licensing its connectors to third parties a couple of years ago, and I did not get too many requests for analyses of the company’s technology. Like Endeca, the system processes content and generates a list of entities and other “facets’ which can help a user locate additional information for certain types of queries.
Now Lexmark, which allowed Exstream to go to HP, has purchased two companies with technology which is respectively 24 and 12 years old. I am okay with this approach to obtaining search and retrieval functionality, but I do wonder what Lexmark is going to do to leverage these technologies now that HP has Autonomy and Oracle has Endeca. Microsoft is moving forward with Fast Search and a boat load of third party search solutions from certified Microsoft partners. IBM does the Lucene Watson thing, and every math major from New York to San Francisco is jumping into the big data search and analytics sector.
Here’s a screen shot of the Isys Version 8 interface, which has been updated I have heard. You can see its principal features. I have an analysis of this system as well.
What will Lexmark do with two search vendors?
Here’s the news release lingo:
“Our recent acquisitions enable Lexmark to offer customers a differentiated, integrated system of solutions that are unique, cost effective, and deliver a rapid return on investment,” said Paul Rooke, Lexmark’s chairman and CEO. “The methodical shift in our focus and investments has strengthened our managed print services offerings and added new content and process technologies, positioning Lexmark as a key solutions provider to businesses large and small.”
Perceptive Software is now in the search and content processing business. However, unlike Exstream, these two companies do not have a repository and cross media publishing capability. I think it is unlikely that Lexmark/Perceptive will be able to shoehorn either of these two systems’ technology into its printers. Printers make money because of ink sales, not because of the next generation technology that some companies think will make smart printers more useful. Neither Brainware nor Isys has technology which meshes with the big data and Hadoop craziness now swirling around.
True, Lexmark can invest in both companies, but the cash required to update code from 1988 and methods from 1999 might stretch the Lexmark pocket book. Lexmark has been a dog paddler since the financial crisis of 2008.
Source: Google Finance
Here’s the Lane Report’s take on the deal:
Lexmark’s recent acquisitions have advanced its “capture/manage/access” strategy, enabling the company to intelligently capture content from hardcopy and electronic documents through a range of devices including the company’s award-winning smart multifunction products and mobile devices, while also managing and processing content through its enterprise content management and business process management technologies. These technologies, when combined with Lexmark’s managed print services capabilities, give the company the unique ability to help customers save time and money by managing their printing and imaging infrastructure while providing complementary and high value, end-to-end content and process management solutions.
I have a different view:
First, a more fleet footed Lexmark would have snagged the Exstream company. It was close to home, generating revenue, and packaged a solution. Exstream was not a box of Lego blocks. What Perceptive now has is an assembly job, not a product which can go head to head against Hewlett Packard. Maybe Lexmark will find a new market in Oracle installations, but Lexmark is a printer company, not a data management company.
Second, technology is moving quickly. Neither Brainware nor Isys has the components which allow the company to process content and output the type of results one gets from Digital Reasoning or Palantir. Innovative Ikanow is leagues ahead of both Brainware and Isys.
Neither Brainware nor Isys is open source centric. Based on my research and our forthcoming information services about open source technology, neither Brainware nor Isys is in that game. Because growth is exploding in the open source sector, how will Lexmark recover its modest expenditures for these two companies?
I think there may be more lift in the analytics sector than the search sector, but I live in Harrod’s Creek, not the intellectual capital of Kentucky where Lexmark is located.
Worth watching.
Stephen E Arnold, March 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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