Exclusive Silobreaker Interview: Mats Bjore, Silobreaker
November 25, 2013
With Google becoming more difficult to use, many professionals need a way to locate, filter, and obtain high value information that works. Silobreaker is an online service and system that delivers actionable information.
The co-founder of Silobreaker said in an exclusive interview for Search Wizards Speaks says:
I learned that in most of the organizations, information was locked in separate silos. The information in those silos was usually kept under close control by the silo manager. My insight was that if software could make available to employees the information in different silos, the organization would reap an enormous gain in productivity. So the idea was to “break” down the the information and knowledge silos that exists within companies, organizations and mindsets.
And knock down barriers the system has. Silobreaker’s popularity is surging. The most enthusiastic supporters of the system come from the intelligence community, law enforcement, analysts, and business intelligence professionals. A user’s query retrieves up-to-the-minute information from Web sources, commercial services, and open source content. The results are available as a series of summaries, full text documents, relationship maps among entities, and other report formats. The user does not have to figure out which item is an advertisement. The Silobreaker system delivers muscle, not fatty tissue.
Mr. Bjore, a former intelligence officer, adds:
Silobreaker is an Internet and a technology company that offers products and services which aggregate, analyze, contextualize and bring meaning to the ever-increasing amount of digital information.
Underscoring the difference between Silobreaker and other online systems, Mr. Bjore points out:
What sets us apart is not only the Silobreaker technology and our commitment to constant innovation. Silobreaker embodies the long term and active experience of having a team of users and developers who can understand the end user environment and challenges. Also, I want to emphasize that our technology is one integrated technology that combines access, content, and actionable outputs.
The ArnoldIT team uses Silobreaker in our intelligence-related work. We include a profile of the system in our lectures about next-generation information gathering and processing systems.
You can get more information about Silobreaker at www.silobreaker.com. A 2008 interview with Mr. Bjore is located at on the Search Wizards Speak site at http://goo.gl/f7niAH.
Stephen E Arnold, November 25, 2013
Tableau Is The Windows 95 Of Analytics
November 21, 2013
Directions Magazine notes that “Tableau Continues Its Visual Analytics Revolution” by using location analytics to improve business processes. How is Tableau making this possible? The company’s visual analytics software is the main key to advancing how users access and understand information.
“Tableau represents a new class of business intelligence (BI) software that is designed for business analytics allowing users to visualize and interact on data in new ways and does not mandate that relationships in the data be predefined. This business analytics focus is critical as it is the top ranked technology innovation in business today as identified by 39 percent of organizations as found in our research.”
Tableau wants data usage and understanding to be seamless without having to configure it to preset niches. The problem is that Tableau’s software is a dream for data scientists, but there is still a barrier for average user interaction. Tableau is making analytics software the equivalent of Microsoft Office, however. Business analysts are noting that Tableau’s software is a business intelligence solution that curb’s IT’s involvement by keeping it down to a minimum as well as demonstrating the quick value of data.
Tableau is making data software for the average user akin to what Microsoft did with Windows 95. What the company is doing needs to be monitored, not because it is alarming, but because it is going to be big.
Whitney Grace, November 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
BI Users Focus on the Superficial
October 26, 2013
Discontent about business intelligence is at hand. EnterpriseAppsToday reports, “Big Business Intelligence Vendors Not Satisfying Users.” Search by any other name still creates dissatisfaction among some, it seems. The assertion is based on research from Gartner which indicates that users care more about the user interface than what ‘s under the hood. Writer Drew Robb tells us:
“Much of Gartner’s business intelligence (BI) research focuses on customer satisfaction and usability. Two of the biggest takeaways from several Gartner reports released over the past few months are the poor satisfaction rating mobile BI received in the face of its high popularity and the poor performance of big vendors compared to their smaller counterparts.
“Users apparently are overly enamored with the latest display-type bells and whistles, while not paying enough attention to product integration. Is this a sign that BI purchasers fall into the same trap as many car buyers? That is, paying too much attention to cup holders and music systems and not enough to vehicle fundamentals?”
Robb points out that one key challenge for BI makers is to impress upon users the value of strong integration capabilities. Since integration takes place behind the scenes, users unfamiliar with the details may not understand how important it is, let alone how to discern which company is better at it. It is no surprise, then, that they judge a product’s value based on what they can see. This gives some smaller players, who focus on their UI, an advantage over larger companies that have invested years in building strong integration components. Robb makes an apt comparison:
“[Integration] is essentially plumbing, and like the pipes in one’s own home, you really don’t care about them as long as it all works correctly. The only time this comes to your attention is when a sink clogs or a pipe bursts. Similarly, vendors that focus on integration can expect little thanks from their customer base.”
Check out the article for its take on several specific companies and how their approaches have helped or hurt them. The takeaway is this: platforms that actually perform the best, by far, are getting passed over for ones that look pretty. Robb points out that many of these solutions from what he calls the “little guys” meet their real tests when faced with deployment in large enterprise environments. How much trial and error will it take for users to grasp the importance of strong integration?
Cynthia Murrell, October 26, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Microsoft Business Intelligence Added
October 14, 2013
SharePoint 2013 has arrived with a bundle of additional add-ons and trinkets, so to speak. However, some may say that these small pieces are in many ways more impressive than SharePoint itself. TechRepublic covers the story in their article, “SharePoint 2013 Adds Better In-memory Analytics.”
“In its quest to never be outdone in the features wars, Microsoft has drifted into the habit of bundling its most impressive new capabilities as peripheral trinkets. But in the case of SharePoint 2013, they’ve set a new record for understatement. Yes, SharePoint 2013 is feature-rich almost to a fault, and yes, most of the new stuff is big-banner game-changing (Social computing! SharePoint-in-the-cloud!). But some of the most powerful items are geeky little widgets that barely get a mention on TechNet, and when it comes to SharePoint 2013, the In-Memory BI Engine tops the list.”
But while the business intelligence add-on might be noteworthy, many are saying that SharePoint 2013 is not. Most organizations still have to customize their way into efficiency, using multiple add-ons to compile a complete solution. Stephen E. Arnold, of ArnoldIT, is a longtime expert in search and a longstanding critic of SharePoint. In a recent article, Arnold finds that the latest version of SharePoint is structurally sound, but relatively ineffective, particularly for its search components. Microsoft continues to innovate, yet seems to keep missing the mark with basic features.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 14, 2013
Centrifuge Hires Chief Product Officer
October 7, 2013
According to the recent PR Web news release “Centrifuge Systems Names Stan Dushko as Chief Product Officer” the business intelligence software provider known as Centrifuge has announced that Stan Dushko, an industry veteran, will join their team as Chief Product Officer.
Dushko brings over 20 years of experience managing and marketing innovative software solutions that will make him an excellent asset to the company.
The article states:
“We are excited to have Stan join the Centrifuge Systems management team,” said Simita Bose, CEO of Centrifuge Systems. “Stan’s extensive product experience in the areas of enterprise software, business intelligence and performance management solutions across industries will be a great compliment to our team. His depth of expertise will help Centrifuge expand the presence of our groundbreaking technology in the data analytics market space.”
We are looking forward to seeing what new and exciting ideas Dushko brings to the Centrifuge team.
Jasmine Ashton, October 07, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
A Lesson from the Movies
October 1, 2013
Most movies these days are full of special effects with very little story, but sometimes a movie will defy the current trends and actually teach the viewers something. Clear CI learned not one, but many lessons from the new movie Jobs staring Ashton Kutcher. They discuss their findings in the article, “Four Competitive Intelligence Tips Learned From the Movie ‘JOBS.’” Frankly, I have never heard much about competitive intelligence until reading this post, but it is used to predict future consumer trends and what products they will want. This leads into tip number one about figuring out what people want before they know they want it.
Tip number two advises to do something new and original. Competitive intelligence gives people the edge they need top figure out what that “something new is.” Number three corresponds with the previous tip, because it deals with solving problems. New ideas are usually inspired to solve a problem, but other companies may have the same idea. Using competitive intelligence gives a company the opportunity to gather insights about rivals and get their message into the market.
The last tip is about changing the future and whatnot:
“Peter Drucker once said, ‘The best way to predict the future is to create it’” Who wants to copy or react based on information from the past, when organizations can use competitive intelligence software to disrupt markets and potentially change the world with revolutionary products. In the movie, Jobs was taken by surprised when Woz, his friend and partner, told him he had created an operating system. Job saw it as the “’industrial revolution.’ He said: ‘This changes everything…Your big, evolved brain wanted something that didn’t exist, so you just willed it into existence.’ Competitive intelligence provides valuable information for organizations to develop revolutionary products.”
Perfect advice from the great mind of Steve Jobs. Watch the movie and see how JOBS can inspire you as well as learn a bit more about competitive intelligence.
Whitney Grace, October 01, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Avoid Being Red Queened: How to Run Ahead of Social Media Competition
September 10, 2013
The article Using Social Analytics and BI to be a Smarter Social Business on Don’t Mind Rick builds an elaborate metaphor between Social Analytics and Alice in Wonderland. The Red Queen Effect, as the article discusses, refers to those companies that are simply running to keep in the same place. The article encourages companies to avoid this.
“If you are using Social Media data just for history based predictions you are doing yourself a disservice. You now can know what your customer is thinking since they share their thoughts on social media. What your customer is doing, since they share their activities on social media. And you can know what your customer wants, since he is also sharing this on social media”
Of course, this dredges up the inevitable fear of being creepy. For example, Target sending out catalogues to a pregnant woman based on purchase patterns before the woman even told her family. The article also brings up the buzzword web care, or companies responding mainly to negative feedback on social media. Instead of this, the article suggests allowing trial runs of products, since what is a better test of whether you like something than trying it out yourself? At the least, the article is a remarkable collection of social media and business buzzwords.
Chelsea Kerwin, September 10, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Rich Data Integration Empowers Semantic Search
August 29, 2013
An author of a recent post on data integration shared his perspective on the unsung heroes of enterprise IT in his Informatica article “Data Integration and Enterprise Success, A Winning Combination.” Storing, processing, analyzing and sharing data with those who need it in real time is a challenge for many companies as they aim to match their knowledge management process with their business process.
The article discusses an organization recognized with the Ventana Research Leadership Award, awarded to a company that has achieved excellence with Informatica technology. UMASS Memorial Health Care is a recipient who undertook the Cornerstone initiative to transform the way data is used across its medical center, four community hospitals, more than 60 outpatient clinics, and the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
According to the article:
UMASS Memorial Health Care used Informatica to establish a data integration and data quality initiative to incorporate data from its clinical, financial and administrative sources and targets. Using the Informatica technology, they are able to place volatility into the domain of the integration technology, in this case, Informatica. This allows the integration administrator to add or delete systems as needed, and brings the concept of agility to a rapidly growing hospital system.
Data integration is a key step in the process towards enabling the true power behind semantic search. For this reason, it is a clever move to implement business intelligence solutions that can draw from a myriad of content types and source applications — like Cogito from Expert System.
Megan Feil, August 29, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Business Intelligence Integrates Customer Support and Social Media
August 22, 2013
Search encompasses a myriad of different components used by businesses in day-to-day operations. An article we spotted on ICMI, “Best Practice: Use Business Intelligence to Optimize Customer Service,” delves into the world of Interactive Voice Response (IVR). Unfortunately, as the article describes, many companies see IVR as an operation that can run itself once turned on.
Michael Flores, CEO of Bretton Woods published a research paper commissioned by Contact Solutions on the role and importance of properly optimized IVR systems. We learned more about the research in the referenced article:
According to the research, IVR is the first touch-point most consumers have with a company. It either facilitates a positive self-service experience, or drives consumers to opt for a more costly live agent. Unfortunately, many companies overlook the improvement potential in their IVR systems, and generally tend to consider it a “set it and forget it” technology. However, optimized IVR provides excellent, cost-effective customer service. Optimized IVR is built to increase goal completion within the automated system, but not necessarily solely to automate more customer service interactions.
Ultimately, optimizing this technology to provide a greater ROI will also benefit brand management by placing customers first. There is a company that we have been watching as they take semantic technologies into new arenas, Expert System. Their solutions poise companies who place emphasis on excellent customer service in the right direction for brand security through holistic social media monitoring and business intelligence that is semantically charged.
Megan Feil, August 22, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Developer Side of the Efficiency and Security Conversation
July 25, 2013
The ongoing conversation about efficiency in the enterprise can trace roots to several departments. It is a ubiquitous issue that every department has a vested interest in. A recent article, “Enhancing Enterprise Efficiency with IT Operations and Analytics,” discusses addressing productivity and efficiency from the perspective of IT.
The article describes a recent independent review that explained how Tulsa’s Information Technology Department had numerous inefficiencies. These bottlenecks ultimately prevented their department from providing acceptable service.
The article referenced above expounds on the issues mentioned in the review on Tulsa’s IT department:
The department is tasked with overseeing all electronic and communication systems for the municipal government, as well as managing its computing, mobile software and networking needs. Officials discovered that the 141-member agency had been woefully underfunded, inhibiting employees’ ability to monitor important tasks and properly identify potential issues. According to the news outlet, some of the software systems being deployed by the government included a 30-year-old police and courts record management system.
It takes collaboration between the business side and IT and developers to select, implement and deploy the right solution for any particular organization. Developers have the insight into nuanced semantic features in analytics solutions currently on the market; that knowledge is necessary for knowing if the expected use cases will pan out as expected. One solution we have been keeping tabs on is Cogito API, which offers government, intelligence, and corporate security clients oversight by extracting intelligence from data.
Megan Feil, July 25, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
