The Heat in Text Radar: June 07 to June 13
June 18, 2013
This week, the Text Radar news service shared with readers a plethora of articles pertaining to big data analytics technology’s role in improving a variety of industries.
“Complacency a Downfall in Manufacturing but Big Data Analysis is the Way to Stay Competitive” explains how big data can be used to benefit the downtrodden manufacturing industry.
The article describes the results of a survey of 100 manufacturers:
“Understanding customer demands must take into account the complexities of the manufacturing process, such as time-to-market expectations, product customizations and best practices. Change can be an overwhelming task – especially for companies trying to take control of the process variability. But employees must be ready to interact with operational processes and take control of the fast changing manufacturing environment.”
“Using Big Data to Deliver Tailored Experiences to Online Visitors” discusses customizing experiences for online customers. It advocates having tools on hand that automate content solutions that will appeal to different users.
The article explains:
“The vast amounts of data on customer behavior and history that can be captured via the Web and be invaluable in making decisions about how the website should work, what customers respond to, and understanding the discrete segments in your customer base.
Marketers who can harness the power of big data will be able to make decisions based on evidence, rather than guesswork—giving them a distinct advantage over the competition.”
“Keeping Up With The Changing Nature of Enterprise Content Management” explains the conflict between the desire for a one size fits all content management system and the different ways that consumers are accessing data.
The article shares some changes ECM systems have undergone over time:
“It’s not new for ECM vendors to find themselves in this kind of quandary, after all it has changed radically in the past 10 years since it first really rooted itself in the enterprise. In that ten year period, the report says, ECM has moved from being a tool, or set of tools, used locally to capture and manage documents to something that is now being used to push content out to mobile devices, to collaborative platforms, to all corners of the enterprises, and even beyond the firewall.”
While the three articles that I highlight discuss different topics, something they have in common is their recommendation that enterprises use of third party solutions like Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence System to classify and manage content.
Jasmine Ashton, June 18, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
SharePoint and SharePoint Search: End of Life?
June 16, 2013
I had a chat with a former IBM executive. At lunch, an interesting emerged as we talked about the trials and tribulations large enterprise software vendors are facing. In addition to the embarrassing layoffs at IBM, there are signals that the financial screws are being turned at Hewlett Packard, Oracle, SAP and elsewhere. Part of the pressure is normal because the April May June quarter is an important one before the world goes on vacation in July and August. September, obviously, will be another flat out period for sales and marketing professionals. But there was one t hought which we kicked around in a post-prandial stupor.
A dilemma now exists in the enterprise software sector.
Stick with what works and has worked
Go in a new direction and improvise.
What happens if Microsoft does the Adobe thing and forces SharePoint licensees to embrace the cloud? What happens to the resellers? What happens to the integrators? What happens to the in house staff who know the intricacies of on premises installations of SharePoint but not the secrets of Azure?
Microsoft has a significant dependence on on premises sales. This is the client access license, the enterprise license, and the special set ups which make Microsoft the de facto choice for desktop computing workers worldwide.
Is an end of life play for SharePoint possible without making Microsoft even more vulnerable to the enticements of Google and others who want to supplant Microsoft as the “king of the desktop enter” and “baron of the back office”?
On one hand, the idea that SharePoint and its okay search solution, administrator employing mail and database systems, and its quirky collaboration and document management solutions could shift to the cloud is silly. Why give up those license fees? Why alienate service firms dependent on sales and support to hundreds of millions of SharePoint users? Why assume that a cloud business model will work for on site license customers? Organizations are conservative. Change comes slowly or not at all. Stick with the status quo.
HP Autonomy Acronym Explained
June 15, 2013
Know what Haven means in HP Autonomy speak? At lunch yesterday, I learned that the acronym means:
H is for Hadoop, the dust bin for digital stuff
A is for Autonomy, the HP acquisition fueling MBA case studies
V is for Vertica, the HP big data analytics acquisition
E is for enterprise, the customer seeking refuge from other vendors
N is for… not sure, the one thing I know about big outfits.
If anyone knows if “N” is from enterprise or if “N” comes from some other nifty buzzword or product, use the comments to fill a void in the goose’s acronym blank space.
Stephen E Arnold, June 15, 2013
Sponsored by Xenky, the portal for ArnoldIT
The Heat in Text Radar: May 31 to June 06
June 11, 2013
This week, The Text Radar news service, covering the impact of big data and analytics technology on our world.
We know how big data analysis has benefitted healthcare and marketing, and now “Big Data Analysis is Providing More Precise and Predictive Weather Reporting.” The article explains how big data has been imperative when predicting hurricanes and tornadoes.
The article explains how it works:
“We start with a client’s business problem. Clients indicate to us what kind of lead time they need to be more proactive. … For a utility company, for instance, it’s all about how quickly the power can be restored. And that requires resources. If we understand the nature of not just the impending weather events but the outages caused by the damage they cause—and the kinds of people and equipment needed to restore that power, then [clients] can be prepared.”
Another sector that can strongly benefit from big data analysis is government. “How Government Can Use Big Data for Improved Services” explains how big data is being used to provide more transparency, improved productivity, and more efficiency to governments.
The article states:
“Proper handling and processing of Big Data allows agencies to make data available not only to public- and private-sector partners, but also to the public. This enables citizens to understand what information the government collects. Processing and sharing Big Data also allows agencies to offer information as a service, whether it’s online tax records, census information, weather data or more.”
A third sector that is currently being transformed by big data analytics is job recruiting. “Recruiting Rules Changed and Big Data Analytics More Effective for Producing Successful and Innovative Employees” explains how big data is changing the way companies are hiring and the tactics that they use to make hiring decisions.
The article explains:
“Companies are retrieving useful information from Linkedin. In fact, the biggest revenue producing part of their business is from selling to recruiters. Linkedin’s site allows people to post pictures, slideshows and other personal content in their profile sections that further enlightens recruiters about a candidate’s potential.
Data is showing us that college prestige and grades are just not a ‘tell-all’ and shouldn’t be the only thing considered when making hiring decisions. Guy Halfteck, founder and CEO of Knack, a Silicon Valley startup, believes college grades are important because they show intelligence and determination, but should not be the main gauge.”
As you can see, regardless of your industry, big data can provide valuable insights. However, there can be a lot of room for error so we advise purchasing a third party solution like Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform.
Jasmine Ashton, June 11, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: May 17 to May 23
May 28, 2013
This week, the Text Radar news service covered some innovative ways that big data is being used to solve some of industry’s toughest challenges.
The post, “Big Data is Being Used to Eradicate Diseases” explains how big data and analytics are transforming healthcare as we know. The goal is to use big data intelligence to crowdsource the limited information available on rare diseases to find a solution.
The author explains this data strategy in healthcare:
“In fact, it’s one of the most visible ways in which Big Data is helping us to gain a better understanding of the more bewildering health problems impacting people’s lives today. From relatively benign conditions like the common cold, to more serious problems like dealing with Cholera epidemics and Parkinson’s disease, crowdsourced Big Data is fast becoming one of the most powerful tools to help us eradicate diseases around the world.”
We all know the impact of microtargeting in the 2012 election, but four years later, how will it impact the 2016? “Microtargeting and Big Data Analytics in the 2016 Election” explains how the marriage of big data and social data will determine our next president.
The author shares his prediction for 2016:
“As our nation ramps up for 2016, the role of big data + social data in influencing election decisions cannot be ignored. Social data drove the 2008 presidential elections and big data drove the 2012 election. In 2016 it will be the marriage of the two that will determine the next President of the United States.”
A third sector that is being transformed by data analytics technology is retailers. “Using Big Data and Location Analytics to Find Underperforming Retail Locations” explains how retailers are using big data to identify those outlet locations that are unprofitable.
The article explains the need for location analytics:
“Poor site selection is an ongoing problem for retailers. Rapid expansion was an ambitious, if sometimes misguided, strategy for many retail chains prior to the global recession of 2009. The end result was often “zombie” stores that were either unprofitable or underperforming.”
Regardless of what industry your company operates in, data analytics tools can always be helpful. The Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform from Smartlogic saves time and money with powerful components, like an ontology manager and classification and text mining server, Semaphore streamline’s workflows by automatically classifying business documents regardless of location or format.
Jasmine Ashton, May 28, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Negative Side Of Enterprise Software
May 23, 2013
You like, you hate it, you love it, you loathe it. These seem to be the common conceptions when it comes to enterprise software. Despite all the praise enterprise software has garnered, Glider takes a look at “Why Enterprise Software Sucks: 6 years Later,” a retrospect on an article from 2007.
Back in 2007, enterprise software’s biggest problem was the software buyers were not the end users. The buyers just needed to fulfill the requirements and a good user experience was optional. Fast forward to the present day, things are better…somewhat. Users are able to cut out the middleman and buy their own product as well as more user-friendly software. Companies are still facing slow adoption of the better product. Why? They are running off legacy systems and are afraid to touch them in case it should fail. Then there is the trust factor, companies hear about next technology, but are reluctant to try it. Once the crowd migrates over, so will everyone else.
Does enterprise software have a future? Yes, it does:
“The world at large is quickly growing accustomed to consumer internet (and mobile) applications. Everybody in the world is on Facebook. The average person has over 50 apps on their phone. It’s just a matter of time until they expect the same quality in the tools they use at work. The consumerization of enterprise will only grow stronger. The same can be said for bottom-up adoption.”
Enterprise is wanted, the mentality of the users just has to change to adopt it. If enterprise is “back,” are there lessons in this article for vendors of search, content processing and analytics systems aka the Big Data crowd? Or have they already learned from where enterprise software failed in the past?
Whitney Grace, May 23, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Heat in Text Radar: May 10 to May 16
May 21, 2013
This week the Text Radar big data and content intelligence news service covered an assortment of stories concerning the impact of big data intelligence solutions on the modern workforce.
The article “Does Value Decrease When Volume of Raw Data Increases?” poses an interesting question and explains the reasoning behind this assumption.
The article states:
“This narrative from qz.com offers reasons to be cognizant of the claims made for this field, and that, actually, the more data processed, the greater the chance is of losing integrity and business value, which could sabotage your main idea. The author points out that even Facebook and Yahoo are using clusters of servers and, in fact, most of their data is in the “megabyte to gigabyte” range, and could be handled on a single computer.”
Another article, “Overcoming Privacy Challenges to Turn Big Data into Healthcare Improvement” covers the datafication of our lives and the pros and cons that go along with it.
The author states this benefit:
“The good news is that not only profiteers are benefiting from the big data revolution. It’s changing how doctors define and treat diseases, breaking down the walls between medical disciplines to improve patient care. Where most doctors still diagnose and treat brain disorders such as depression or autism based on often highly subjective symptoms, scientists are increasingly building huge data sets that render such narrow diagnoses obsolete.”
In the vein of improved patient care, “Using Big Data Analytics to Treat Brain Trauma” discusses how to minimize the debilitating effects of brain injury through data analysis. The author explains how big data analytics technology is transforming the healthcare industry at large:
“But now, UCLA is teaming up with IBM to figure out how to predict potential problems before they occur. Together, we’re applying big data analytics to give doctors and nurses the advance warning they need to predict changes in a patient’s condition so they can take preventive measures.”
Regardless of whether you work in healthcare or marketing or some other industry all together, it is important that you utilize the proper tools. Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform turns unstructured data into actionable intelligence and can be an excellent resource for any business.
Jasmine Ashton, May 21, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
Enterprise Search Europe Spring 2013
May 16, 2013
The enterprise search show ended today, May 16. The presentations, except the one by Stephen E Arnold, were scintillating, thought provoking, and solid evidence that enterprise search is the crown jewel of enterprise software systems. Forget the grousing about Fast Search & Transfer, Autonomy, and the millions upon millions poured into outfits trying to generate a profit by licensing software which makes it easy to locate a needed document using a traditional personal computer, a laptop, or a notebook computer. Mobile phones and tablets are, alas, not yet the camels inside the enterprise search tent.
I learned about the importance of knowing what users want. I learned about providing users with systems which auto suggest, display relevant links, and eliminate the annoying task of reading a document to determine if it has useful information for the user.
Progress never stops. I would point out that Stephen E Arnold’s slide showing that precision and recall were making incremental progress over a decade. The flat line was in sharp contrast to his utterly fantastic suggestion that the complexity of modern search systems and their costs were increasing. One Scandinavian business development professional said to Mr. Arnold, “So you think the costs of search are going up like that, like the take off of the jet plane.”
Mr. Arnold, I overheard, said, “Yep, especially when the systems don’t work as advertised, require expensive unbudgeted investments, and produce more complaints than changing the health care dental deductible.” The Scandinavian shook his head in disbelief and wandered off in search of more comforting conversation.
A screen capture from Stephen E Arnold’s anomalous presentation. The cost and complexity curves rise more aggressively than the precision and recall curve. Who needs relevance when modern systems can deliver search without the user’s performing any intellectual effort prior to accepting what a system delivers.
I did come away with three broad thoughts once I cleared my mind of the fog of confusion that Stephen E Arnold’s obfuscation machine delivered.
First, Apple’s and Google’s conferences sell out in a very short time. Perhaps some of those turned away from the Apple and Google events could pick up a few IQ points and simultaneously get the inside dope on the hottest enterprise application — enterprise search? Two enterprise search vendors generated more than $100 million in revenues in the 45 year history of the enterprise search sector’s lifetime. Definitely enterprise search is the go to market. Measured in terms of academics, advisors, and unemployed home economics majors, search is where the action is.
Second, the technology on display was a great refresher for me. I learned about users’ dissatisfaction with search a decade ago. If I understood the presenter, user dissatisfaction is unchanged. About half of those who use an enterprise findability system are not thrilled with the experience. Progress is, it seems, modest. On the other hand, consistency in user opinion helps size the magnitude of the opportunity. I have not attended an enterprise search event for several years. I must admit I don’t think I missed any important developments. The content was, in my opinion, familiar.
Third, the technical bits had to bite and claw to get podium time. The outlier Stephen E Arnold actually used some equations. No other presenter made that mistake. The majority of the presentations focused on management issues. There were variously described as “governance,” “content management,” and planning. For those with an MBA and a love of enterprise search, there are, I concluded, many opportunities for consultants. Several of the folks who sell their expertise pointed out “I am not a technical expert,” “I can’t code,” and my favorite “Enterprise search is just one of the specialties I have.” Ah, billable time for uninformed advice. A career tip.
What’s the future of enterprise search?
One speaker said, “Search is not a good word to use.”
No kidding.
Edward Stephens, Stephen E Arnold’s more intelligent cousin, May 17, 2013
Sponsored by Augmentext
The Heat in Text Radar: Mya 03 to May 09
May 14, 2013
This week the Text Radar big data and content intelligence blog covered a set of interesting topics this week that are pertinent to anyone interested in harnessing the power of big data insights.
“Data Analytical Decisions are More Definitive at Adding Insightful and Valuable Content” explains how important raw data is to business success. The use of this data, however, can be difficult to manage without experts to advise.
The article explains:
“This view is held even more firmly in the manufacturing, energy and government sectors, and 65 percent assert that more and more management decisions are based on ‘hard analytic’ information.
The research shows that organizations are increasingly moving towards evidence-based decision making, but at the same time, face significant challenges in managing and leveraging the ever-increasing volumes of data not only from a technology perspective but also as an organization.”
Another article, “Big Data Analysis Not a Simple Data Collection Technique,” dispels some of the rumors surrounding big data. It explains that big data mining is far more than simple data collection.
The article provides this example:
“Taking an influential paper on economics and intelligence efforts around the Boston bombing suspects as background, wherein a few missing rows in Excel and a misspelling of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s name, Wise points out that ‘data management tools (i.e., the FBI’s systems and Excel) were undone by fairly simple errors,’ with terrible results. In other words, as much as we may believe Big Data is as simple as ‘Input data into Hadoop, outcome insights!’ the reality depends heavily on the people querying that data.”
Managing data without the appropriate skill set can lead to the failure of any company. One way that big data can be most helpful when used appropriately is when “Mining Data for Finding Talent for Hire”. Gild, helps companies find “diamond in the rough” or individuals that have slipped through the cracks of traditional recruiting methods by mining social media sites.
The article provides the thoughts of Gild’s chief scientist, Vivian Ming:
“Dr. Ming doesn’t suggest eliminating human judgment, but she does think that the computer should lead the way, acting as an automated vacuum and filter for talent. The company has amassed a database of seven million programmers, ranking them based on what it calls a Gild score — a measure, the company says, of what a person can do. Ultimately, Dr. Ming wants to expand the algorithm so it can search for and assess other kinds of workers, like Web site designers, financial analysts and even sales people at, say, retail outlets.”
As you can see, data can be used to find the answer’s you’ve been searching for as long as you have the right tools. A company leading the way with text analytical tools is Smartlogic. Their suite of tools has the ability to join data with content and applying content analytics to that information for the purpose of content intelligence giving integrity and reliable methods to making decisions in any environment.
Jasmine Ashton, May 14, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
The Consumerization of Enterprise File Sharing
May 13, 2013
TechCrunch ran a story on a new enterprise file sharing tool, Docurated, which launched at Disrupt NY during Startup Battlefield. “Docurated is an Enterprise Service to Search and Collect the Data You Need From Your Files” tells us that this technology moves beyond the file and folder metaphor and focuses on searching for the documents needed and collecting them.
This new enterprise search tool is poised to compete with the likes of Sharepoint and Autonomy in addition to Google Drive in a way. Interestingly, they have integrative capabilities with Dropbox, another potential competitor. A notable difference that the article points to is that Docurated only crawls content to make it searchable but does not actually host any files.
We looked a little further into the technology on their website and learned the following about their positioning:
“While storage boxes in the cloud have created the ability to amass more files, we still have to find and consume what we need when we need to tell our story. Docurated is your go-to destination for all of your content. No more files or folders. It turns all your documents into useable materials for your content dashboards, presentations, meetings, pitches, etc. in PowerPoint or PDF formats. Docurated provides you with the ability to turn every one of your documents into individual pages that are then presented to you based on relevance to your topic search…”
The branding and utmost focus on the user experience signal that Docurated is looking to make a name for itself through bringing the consumerization of enterprise search around to home plate. We will be on the look out to follow how distruptive this technology turns out to be; Coca-Cola and Netflix are both using it already.
Megan Feil, May 13, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search
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