Radicati Group: Yet Another Quadrant
August 28, 2014
Every time I see my story about Dave Schubmehl’s surfing on my name, I think about the paucity of innovation among the low- and mid-tier consulting firms. It is not sufficient to lack creativity. Success appears to require surfing on the insights of others. For more on the Schubmehl surfing angle, please, navigate to “ “Meme of the Moment” and “IDC and Reports by Schubmehl.” For ethical issue related to some firms’ actions, see “Are HP, Google, and IDC Out of Square.”
Please review the Marketwired story “The Radicati Group Releases Enterprise Content Management – Market Quadrant, 2014.” This analysis is not like the original Boston Consulting Group’s grid analysis from the late 1970s. That method was based on such data as market share, return on investment, revenue, and other “hard” information.
This “quadrant” seems quite similar to the Gartner Group’s “quadrant” now the subject of a legal action by Netscout. For the details of the Netscout allegation, you will find Netscout’s view of the situation at http://wp.me/pf6p2-aAo.
The Radicati approach eschews dogs, stars, cows, and question markets for:
- Mature players
- Specialists
- Trail blazers
- Top players.
Are these categories connotative and subjective? Can a trail blazer be a top player or mature player? Oh, what’s a player? Hmm.
The idea is that the Radicati analysts have created a way to map enterprise content management vendors against these categories. The hope, I assume, is that a potential licensee of one of these systems will use the Radicati’s research as a guide to purchases.
I also find it interesting that the “Radicati Market Quadrants” phrase is a service mark. Like the IDC surfing on my name issue, the inspiration from BCG’s notion is not referenced. Will potential purchasers confuse low- and mid-tier consulting firm’s quadrants with those produced by blue-chip Boston Consulting?
Nah. Just another example of the challenges consulting firms face in today’s business climate. If you are interested, there is a helpful explanation of the BCG approach at http://bit.ly/1pa5m4A.
That’s what many of these “quadrants” suggest: The work of a student trying to improve a mark. In today’s environment, doing what is expedient seems to be a popular approach. Content marketing is one way to become visible I assume.
Another, more difficult path, is to craft an original question to answer and then perform research and analysis to help answer that question.
Wow. What consulting firms have time and the expertise to tackle investigations in this manner? I can name some who avoid this approach like the plague.
Stephen E Arnold, August 28, 2014
Free Law Textbooks Challenge Copyright Maximalism
August 28, 2014
The article titled Duke Professor Looking To Make Legal Texts Affordable; Kicking Off With Intellectual Property Law on Techdirt refers to the work of James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins. Both work in the Center of the Study of Public Domain at Duke Law School and hoped to mitigate the prices of textbooks for college students. They have already released their Intellectual Property Statutory Supplement (free to download, about $10 to print). They are quoted in the article,
“We are motivated in part by the outrageously steep cost of legal teaching materials, (and the increasing restrictions on those materials — such as the removal of the right of first sale). This book is intended for use with our forthcoming Intellectual Property casebook (coming in the Fall) but can also be used as a free or low cost supplement for basic Intellectual Property courses — at the college, law school or graduate school levels.”
The book that this supplement is basically equivalent costs more than $50. This may not come as a surprise to more recent college graduates, who often shell out hundreds of dollars (per semester!) for required textbooks in addition to the ever-growing rates of tuition. The article notes that this is a part of the danger of copyright maximalism, which Thomas Macaulay warned against as far back as his famous 1841 speech because it would lead to utter disregard of the law. To Jenkins and Boyle, we can only say: good luck.
Chelsea Kerwin, August 28, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data Players Line Up
August 28, 2014
Technology moves fast. The race is always one to remain on top and relevant. Big data companies especially feel the push to develop new and improved products. Datamation makes a keen observation about big data competition in the article “30 Big Data Companies Leading The Way:”
“For Big Data companies, this is a critical period for competitive jockeying. These are the early days of Big Data, which means there are still a plethora of companies – a mix of new firms and old guard Silicon Valley firms – looking to stay current. Like everything else, the Big Data market will mature and consolidate. In five years, you can bet that many of the Big Data companies on this list will be gone – either out of business or merged/acquired with a larger player.”
Datamation continues the article with a list of big data companies that specialize in big data analytics. It is stressed that the list is not to be used as a buyer’s guide, but more as a rundown of the various services each of the thirty companies offers and how they try to distinguish themselves in the market. Big names like Google, Microsoft, IBM, and SAP rare among the first listed, while smaller companies are listed towards the bottom. Many of the smaller firms are ones that do not make the news often, but judging by their descriptions have comparable products.
Who will remain and who will stay in the next five years?
Whitney Grace, August 28, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Using SharePoint as a Video Platform
August 28, 2014
Video and other forms of dynamic media are an increasingly large share of the information market. This type of media has historically been a bit harder to index and make sense of in the business realm, but that is beginning to change. Read more in the TechRadar article, “Why You Should Use SharePoint as a Video Platform.”
The article begins:
“In the modern age, video is emerging as a content medium of choice, especially for the next generation worker who has grown up with video content playing a key role in their daily lives. The SharePoint platform, while not built with video in mind, can be enhanced to become a powerful and effective video content platform, catering for both live video events and on-demand video content.”
The article then goes on to explain how you can work with video content by enhancing your existing SharePoint setup. These non-traditional functions of SharePoint can really help an organization get the most bang for their buck when it comes to SharePoint. However, it can take a good bit of time and customization, and to help ease that burden, Web sites like ArnoldIT.com can be helpful. Stephen E. Arnold has made a career out of all things search and devotes a good bit of time to the best tips and tricks regarding SharePoint. Keep an eye on his SharePoint feed for more ways to help your organizations squeeze all the good out of SharePoint.
Emily Rae Aldridge, August 28, 2014
Open Sourcers Believe In Cassandra
August 27, 2014
In Homer’s Odyssey, the character Cassandra had the gift of prophesy, but she was also cursed to where no one believed her. The NoSQL database of the same name shared a similar problem when it first started, but unlike the tragic heroine it has since grown to be a popular and profitable bit of code. Wired discusses Cassandra’s history and current endeavors in “Out In the Open: The Abandoned Facebook Tech That Now Helps Power Apple.”
Cassandra is the brainchild of Jonathan Ellis and he used it to found DataStax. Facebook used Cassandra to better scale information across machines and open sourced it in 2008. It faded into the background for a while, but DataStax continued to gain traction with its proprietary software. Apple has since joined the Cassandra community and is its second largest contributor. DataStax, however, will not acknowledge that Apple is one of its clients.
The article points out that a single database product cannot reign supreme in 2014’s market. New ways to house and utilize data will continue to grow, much of it driven by open source. What does that mean for DataStax and Cassandra?
“Ellis says the strategy for Cassandra and DataStax will be ensuring that its technology can work with any new technology that can come along. For example, DataStax recently released a connector for Spark that will enable developers to easily use Spark to analyze data stored in Cassandra. ‘We’re trying to be the database that drives our application, not necessarily the analytics,’ he says. ‘There’s nothing that marries us to one of those platforms.’”
From reading this, it seems the big data push has quieted down somewhat, but companies based on open source software are trying to create products that allow people to use their data smarter and without the holdups of earlier big data pushes. One thing for sure is if DataStax truly does have Apple as a client, they can kiss success on the mouth.
Whitney Grace, August 27, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
HP Sues Autonomy…Again
August 27, 2014
We thought that HP and Autonomy had settled their differences and were moving towards building new products, but they are not. ZDNet says that “HP To Sue Former Autonomy CFP Over Bungled Acquisition Settlement.” What is HP upset about now when it comes to Autonomy? It turns out that former Autonomy chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain did not want to pony up the money HP was owed after its three lawsuits with HP were settled. The lawsuits were supposed to end the quarrels.
After HP bought Autonomy, they discovered the company was than truthful about its star product line. It was purchased for $11.7 billion, but HP had to write down $8.8 billion when they discovered the fib. Autonomy still does not want to pay for the damages and Hussain is avoiding the settlement.
“In a court filing on Monday, HP said that it was ‘ludicrous’ that he should be “permitted to intervene and challenge the substance of a settlement designed to protect the interests of the company he defrauded,” according to the Reuters news agency. But Hussain said that should a judge approve the settlement, HP would be able to ‘forever bury from disclosure the real reason for its 2012 write-down of Autonomy.’”
Here is to hoping the arguments settle soon, because it is really ruining the concept of enterprise search. Think about it, if Autonomy’s enterprise search products did not work as advertised, what is the value of other companies?
Whitney Grace, August 27, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Is Search Too Hard?
August 26, 2014
I find the readers who send me links to the UK Daily Mail stories helpful. Are these referrers easily fooled?
The story in question has a Google friendly headline:
‘It’s all been a big lie!’ Obama administration lawyer now admits ‘missing’ Lois Lerner emails WERE backed up but claims it’s too hard to search for them”
The US government is a busy beaver when it comes to search. You can explore USA.gov at your leisure or seek information on myriad dot Gov Web sites without my inputs.
Here’s a passage from the write up. You determine if it is on the money:
‘The Department of Justice attorney told the Judicial Watch attorney on Friday.’ Fit ton said during a Monday afternoon Fox News broadcast, ‘that it turns out the federal government backs up all computer records in case something terrible happens in Washington and there is a catastrophe, so the government can continue operating.’ The catch, he added, is that the DOJ attorney also claimed ‘it would be too hard to go and get Lois Lerner’s emails from that backup system.’
This search and retrieval stuff seems to be difficult. Perhaps these folks should turn to a real expert like Dave Schubmehl, the Arnold surfer for real insight?
Stephen E Arnold, August
Short Honk: Surveillance Database Report
August 26, 2014
I wanted to document a report that ICREACH exists. For information, see The Intercept’s report. No further comment from Beyond Search.
Stephen E Arnold, August 26, 2014
HP Autonomy: A Twist?
August 26, 2014
I read “U.S. Judge Casts Doubt on HP-Shareholder Settlement in Autonomy Lawsuit.” The write up seems to point to another chapter in the Hewlett Packard Autonomy litigation. If the article is spot on, I learned:
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the settlement contained a “potentially fatal” provision, under which HP would hire shareholder attorneys to pursue claims against ex-Autonomy executives. He said that provision may prevent his approving the deal.
Assume this is correct. HP would have to go back to the drawing board with regard to a shareholder allegation about the deal. Instead of putting Autonomy on the hot seat, HP may have to deal with shareholders who see HP management as having some flaws.
Instead of reading about Mike Lynch, we would be getting some insight into what the HP board and folks like Meg Whitman were thinking about search and content processing.
My view is that enterprise information retrieval is shadowed by a somewhat gray cloud. If search is the Big Thing, the value of these systems should be evident. Instead we learn that search is a contentious issue. I am curious about the reasoning HP used to justify buying an enterprise search and content processing system that was 15 years young? Once that decision was made, what MBA magic was at work to produce the purchase price? What was Meg Whitman’s contribution to this deal when it took place?
Do other search vendors benefit from the notoriety of this search deal? My hunch is that the flailing many search vendors’ marketing demonstrates is that search is not an Emmy winning solution.
Search is easy to misunderstand and difficult to covert into a money machine. The HP Autonomy matter is a living, breathing case study of that does call attention to the challenges search presents. For those seeking cases studies about search, the HP Autonomy matter is a headliner.
The matter is a reminder that search which everyone thinks he or she understands may not be quite so simple.
Stephen E Arnold, August 26, 2014
Endeca Wins Over Beauty Retailer
August 26, 2014
To overhaul the customer experience on their site, ULTA Beauty turned to Endeca. We learn of the move from Integrated Solutions for Retailers in, “Thanx Media’s Oracle Endeca and ULTA Beauty Take Customer Experience to the Next Level.” Thanx Media is ULTA’s integrated-search-solutions provider. The press release tells us:
“Oracle Endeca has replaced a third party search solution, now tightly integrating the browse and search navigation, resulting in a consistent guest experience with minimal maintenance. The previous lack of integration with the third party search solution caused discrepancies in product data (such as pricing and inventory levels between search and browse) resulting in product listing pages that didn’t always match and a process that lacked the flexibility required by the e-commerce business team.”
Those are indeed serious problems for a retail site. How did the switch pan out? The write-up makes it clear that the reseller is very, very happy. Less clear is how, exactly, the system paid off for ULTA. Aside from a tangential reference to “positive Q4 results,” we are given no details. Oh, well. At least the middleman is pleased.
Cynthia Murrell, August 26, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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