Sky Goes Green
June 1, 2012
British broadcaster Sky is utilizing product lifecycle management (PLM) analysis to establish the origin of the components used in its high-definition television set-top boxes in a bid to curb its use of rare earth or conflict materials in these Chinese-manufactured devices. Previous efforts by the company to reduce its environmental footprint included those focused on improving the energy efficiency of the boxes and on reusing or recycling reclaimed boxes.
In describing this latest green initiative, Jo Fox, head of Sky’s Bigger Picture program, emphasizes the broadcaster’s shift to a PLM-based solution in an article by Jessica Shankleman entitled “Sky Believes in Better Environmental Outcomes through Product Lifecycle Management” that recently appeared on BusinessGreen’s website:
“We’re [Sky] doing some lifecycle analysis on our boxes and it’s not just about rare minerals. It’s quite all-encompassing about things like conflict materials. We are not using large quantities in any box, but there will be certain minerals that we rely on, just like any other electronics. We’re looking at all of that as part of our responsible sourcing and lifecycle analysis. I’m very much moving away from just managing energy to lifecycle analysis.”
Inforbix, with its affordable, cloud-based PLM products, offers flexible solutions to companies like Sky who are hoping to organize and leverage their product data to support their corporate initiatives.
Tonya Weikel, June 1, 2012
Forward Search 2.7 Arrives
June 1, 2012
The eagerly anticipated newest version of Forward Search has finally been released. According to Release of Forward Search 2.7, extensive testing has been done over the past several weeks to ensure the functionality of new features and improvements. The company is secure in their opinion that this is the most stable, flexible and versatile Forward Search version ever.
The Highlighted Features and Improvements are as follows on the backend client:
“Facet Counted Search – Count of each found result, Faster Numerical Range Query – Returns hits within specified range, Type-ahead improvement – Support for selected fields and sorting by frequency, Improved HTML5 support – New filtering options for extended custom fields, WebService improvement – Json-returning search interface, Web Crawler – Now supports partial crawl, and Indexing – Complete re-indexing of an index. “
Some of the new Administration Clients Services are:
“New Atom-Feed News reader – relaying news from the Forward Search Partner Portal, Added support for above backend features, and improved interface for related control element editing”
Forward Search is a Microsoft Partner that offers Enterprise Search for enterprise solutions including Content Management, intranets, databases, document repositories, OEM software etc. They currently work with over 35 partners in 9 countries offering backing and support to enable corporations to handle large amounts of unstructured data and create success within their client circles by utilizing Content Management Solutions based on Microsoft technology like EPiServer, Sitecore and Umbraco.
Jennifer Shockley, June 1, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Trampoline Systems Pivoted to Social Analytics. Did It Get Dizzy?
June 1, 2012
According to Charles Armstrong, the CEO of Trampoline Systems, their company’s journey has not always been easy. They jumped into the business of network analysis technology about five years to early during a time of global economic struggles and faced some investment problems.
Facing the challenges head on, they created their own form of venture financing and ended up being the first company in the world to raise money via equity crowd funding. Now, the fruits of their labor have ripened and their moving right along with the times.
They describe their specialty on their website as;
“Trampoline Systems is an award-winning specialist in social analytic software. The company’s SONAR technology analyses business communications to map internal collaborations analyze external relationships and report on critical performance factors. Dedicated solutions are available for sales force optimization, internal reorganizations and expertise search.”
“The company grew out of Charles’ ethnographic research into social behavior underlying efficient collaboration, which saw him spend three years living in small island communities.”
“SONAR Framework provides a flexible range of modules for data aggregation, analysis, visualization and reporting.”
Charles Armstrong basically runs the show. However, Craig McMillan, CTO is the mastermind behind their technology. He is responsible for creating the overall system architecture and development of the core analytic algorithms. Their award winning Software Company gained recognition and made an impact, which has pivoted Trampoline Systems into the social analytic industry. The company has been quiet. Did the pivot disorient management and customers?
Jennifer Shockley, June 1, 2012
Attivio Finds Discover Technologies to Pursue US Government Projects
June 1, 2012
Market Watch recently reported on an exciting new strategic partnership between Attivio and Discover Technologies in the article, “Discover Technologies and Attivio Sign Strategic Partner Agreement for US Government Market.”
According to the report, Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine is the leading unified access platform that provides a level of organizational understanding and insight that is unprecedented in the field of enterprise search and data management. This partnership will allow Discover Technologies to take the data collected by Attivio and create solutions that will leverage the results.
Ali Riaz, CEO at Attivio said:
“Finding, consuming and managing a nearly endless flow of data is a challenge every organization faces. It is utmost of importance, however, in matters that involve keeping our borders safe and protecting our citizens. The team at Discover Technologies has deep experience in Government markets and knows how to deploy AIE to address complex, big data, with custom functionality, so together, we can ensure that the ground breaking features of AIE are applied to both missions.”
This is particularly important because the government will be able to utilize the technology created from this partnership to potentially eliminate threats that would have otherwise gone under the radar.
Jasmine Ashton, June 1, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Ark, Search and Social Network for a Cause?
June 1, 2012
There’s a new kid on the social network block, and ARK is promoting social engineering for a cause. The interview Ark.com: A Powerful New Social Network for Social Change gives us a look at the site via the eyes of the man who initiated the concept.
Founder of Ark Don McChesney tries to provide insight into the future of this new social networking site and his feelings on what it is about:
“We see ourselves as the dominant social network for giving to causes on the Internet. Your Ark profile will be the best representation of what you care about in the world. But perhaps most importantly, we see a huge volume of funding being generated by Ark for causes that are currently desperate for the resources they need to accomplish their goals. Naturally, we look forward to seeing many more of those important missions fulfilled and the world becoming a better place as a result of our users’ efforts.”
What happens when a parent search system blocks a federating system’s queries? Anyone remember ez2find.com, the French meta-search system. It was a killer and then ran into friction. The ARK concept is nice but it’s not completely off the ground yet. Social networking is all about hype, social engineering and marketing. We’ll have to wait till the buzz dies down to see some actual results.
Jennifer Shockley, June 1, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
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