Synata Unveils SAAS for the Enterprise
November 22, 2012
Synata is a San Francisco start-up that is soon to unveil as disruptive search platform for the enterprise cloud. As part of their efforts, they are seeking the opinions of major users of the following services: LinkedIn, Google Apps, and Zendesk. The San Francisco Chronicle gives the full perspective in, “San Francisco Startup Bringing Enterprise Search to the Cloud, Looking to Talk to Salesforce, LinkedIn, Zendesk, and Google Apps Users.”
Patrick White, the founder of Synata, gives his overview of the product:
‘Call it decision-point data, or real-time insight, or anything you want, but we’re going to make it insanely simple to search across your cloud data sources easily and get answers quickly.’ said Patrick White, Co-founder and CEO . . . But, the vision for Synata isn’t just about search – it’s also about giving users a really elegant way view data about a single topic or person, even when that data comes from a lot of different places. Eventually the platform will allow users to answer hard questions and find connections in their data they never knew were there.
It looks like Synata is doing two things: enterprise search and Web site search. We have not had much experience with this new product, but it seems like Fabasoft Mindbreeze might already be tackling both of these tasks. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Insite offers Cloud based maintenance-free Web site search for your public facing sites. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise offers an enterprise search solutions that works as a standalone piece or serves as a compliment to an existing Sharepoint infrastructure. Either way, service is quick, customer-oriented, and cost-efficient. New and exciting names and ideas will continue to pop up in the enterprise world, but sometimes its good to stick to the ones that you know, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 22, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Forrester 2012, Gartner 2010, and Autonomy
November 21, 2012
I don’t have much interaction with Autonomy and I have even less with Forrester or Gartner, both azure chip consultants stuffed with high IQ big thinkers about technology. How can someone residing in Harrod’s Creek hope to compare to sleek, real consultants who work in cities with electricity and running water.
However, on a recent trip to a dumpy Internet cafe near Victoria Station, I read “Hewlett’s Loss: A Folly Unfolds, by the Numbers.” In that article I noted this quote from an azure chip consultant working at the tony Forrester Research outfit. Here’s the passage that made my feathers twitch:
Autonomy, too, was facing challenges after years of fast growth but poor customer relations, according to Leslie Owens, an analyst with Forrester Research. “They didn’t invest in R&D; they didn’t have regular software releases; they weren’t transparent with a road map of where they were going; they didn’t seek customer feedback,” she said. “Customers complained, but the promise of managing all their information and making better decisions was so attractive. They bought more.” Soon after the H.P. acquisition, Ms. Owens said, Autonomy announced a new version of its core product. “We asked for a demo,” she said, and “we’re still waiting.”
Okay. I remember seeing a Boston Consulting Group dog, question mark, star, and cow type chart in 2009. Allegedly produced by another high end think tank, Gartner Group. I did not recall Autonomy getting low marks. I did some poking around and I would like to direct you, gentle reader, to this Web address: http://www.contentmanager.eu.com/graphics/gartner-wcm2010.jpg.
I am fearful of azure chip retribution, so you have to navigate to the page and look at the 2010 BCG style chart by Gartner Group experts.
What is interesting is that Gartner pegs Autonomy in the leaders quadrant for Web content management. I don’t know what that means. I do understand what it means to be a “leader”, singled out for excellence on whatever yardstick was used to size up 17 vendors of a particular type of enterprise software.
What is interesting is that two expert consulting firms have such conflicting opinions about Autonomy less than 18 to 20 months apart. Forrester “knows” that Autonomy had some issues. Gartner seems to find the company superior to such rivals as IBM and Microsoft.
Did Autonomy crash and burn between these two azure chip viewpoints? Are Forrester’s analysts more sveltish and brighter than Gartner’s high protein crowd?
Assume that each of these consulting outfits have comparable intellectual horsepower. Assume that each firm’s experts gathered information from open source and private sources. What causes two apparently superficial assessments of Autonomy.
My question: “If two blue chip consultants see Autonomy differently, won’t the truth and beauty of Autonomy will be in the eye of the beholder?”
In a legal dispute, subjective, maybe emotion, will play a larger role than dull old objective data. Little wonder so many advisors interpreted Autonomy differently. Enterprise software as an interpretation problem in 21st century business poetry. Lawyers are happy. HP and its shareholders, not so much.
Stephen E Arnold, November 21, 2012
Search and the Poetic Giant Stinking Mess
November 21, 2012
I did not craft that elegant phrase “giant stinking mess.” I am not Shakespeare of software. Turn to “It’s Not Just HP And Autonomy, The Enterprise Software Space Is A Giant Stinking Mess.” The article is a good example of a meta-play. One takes a newsy item like Hewlett Packard’s realization that it may have overpaid for Autonomy, watched the founders exit, and then figured out that enterprise search is not quite what it seems. The idea is that enterprise software is going “social” and that the data science behind workflow is the future. The article told me:
Berkholz’s [an expert at RedMonk] post reflects how not all is rotten in the enterprise world. EMC is taking steps to adapt to the new collaborative market. It’s also evident at SAP, VMware and even in some quarters at HP. But the cult of sales still looms over these big companies. Breaking down that culture means creating a new dynamic that embraces modern social and collaborative practices.
Okay, I agree that looking at a particular issue from a different elevation is useful. Let’s assume that social and a collaborative market is the future.
I just wrapped up 13 or 14 reports for IDC. I focused on open source enterprise search. What I learned was that it is getting tough to figure out where an open source search company and an proprietary search company differ. The most successful of the open source vendors look quite a bit like traditional software vendors. One open source vendor in my report—IBM—is a proprietary outfit which uses open source search technology. More interesting is that IBM keeps its arms around its traditional business model. The “new” IBM is not much different from the “old” IBM. Open source software allows IBM to shave off some costs and deploy expensive engineers in what seems to be higher value work.
The question is, “Why do open source search vendors drift toward the traditional business models?” My opinion is that these business models produce revenue and yield margins when they work. What are the elements of a traditional software business model for the enterprise? Those which come to mind include:
- License fees for something—software, upgrades, support
- Variable fees for some other things—engineering services, specialized code widgets, access to previews at a slick looking lab
- Box office tickets for training, webinars, etc.
- Premier services so that the best engineers respond right away to a problem
- A surcharge for working with a pre-eminent firm
- Options like cloud services, appliances, remote optimization
A software company has to produce revenue and my hunch is that this line up of options for a business model exist because customers want these services. When a software company has to generate revenue, the traditional business model is something that investors and stakeholders understand.
One can pop up a level and invoke social, collaboration, and even open sourciness. At the half time news break, the talk turns to booking revenue. Deals will be crafted which meet the resources the client has available. Are these deals convoluted and opaque? Do accountants write haikus? Not too often. Enterprise software, even when delivered from something as wonderful as the Amazon cloud, can become hideously complex and fraught with Byzantine pricing.
I like popping up a level. Revenue generation has a way of bringing some of these viewpoints down to the ground zero.
Stephen E Arnold, November 21, 2012
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Web Site Redesign Important for Many Reasons
November 21, 2012
When organizations want to redesign their Web presence, reasons like updating content or refreshing the look and feel are often tops. But with the increased news and controversy surrounding the Google algorithm, usability and search engine optimization should be reasons that make that list as well. Search Engine Watch adds SEO considerations to the topic of Web site redesign in, “Website Redesign? Get Some SEO Consultation Before You Launch.”
The author writes that organizations often get to the topic of SEO long after those initial discussions of color, content, and other cosmetics:
It’s typically not until launch is around the corner that folks start asking about SEO. ‘Sometimes’ they have serious discussions about usability . . . Usability and SEO go hand-in-hand. Search engines want to rank websites that provide a quality user experience for the searcher. How that’s defined can be somewhat subjective (every website is unique and its target audience will also be unique).
One way to increase usability and the overall user experience is to incorporate effective search. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Insite offers a cloud-based search service that requires no installation or maintenance and recognizes the semantics that are important to you and your user. Fabasoft Mindbreeze as a company has been an important and growing leader in enterprise services, offering a wide range of enterprise solutions. Consider adding Insite to your Web redesign plans, ensuring the SEO and usability are addressed just as thoroughly as look and feel.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 21, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
No Industry Escapes the Big Data Revolution
November 20, 2012
Those seeking objective and statistically produced facts know that big data is a major fuel source of such information. Every so often it is refreshing to take a peek at how big data influences many key fields of study and industry. The Guardian article “Big Data: Revolution by Numbers” outlines each of these areas and discusses the impact big data has had on each.
Everything from sports to medicine has been hugely revolutionized, or in the process of undergoing such changes, due to the utilization of big data. Powerful technologies and ideas have transformed daily operations and even yielded life-changing outcomes. For example, Cambridge researchers stopped an MRSA outbreak affecting 12 babies in the Rosie Hospital by rapidly sequencing the genome of the bacteria.
The article delves into some examples of data-intensive projects in scientific research:
The data recorded by each of the big experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Cern in Geneva is enough to fill around 100,000 DVDs every year. Or take the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which is measuring 500 distinct attributes for each of 100m galaxies, 100m stars and 1m quasars. The result: three terabytes of data, where a terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. Analysing that volume of data is beyond the capacity of humans, so it has to be done by computers.
Enterprise organizations used to deal with the same overwhelming amounts of data stored and managed using legacy software. Fortunately, the influx of even more data has prompted many innovative software vendors such as PolySpot to develop information delivery solutions.
Megan Feil, November 20, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Metalogix Announces Migration Tool for SharePoint 2013 Upgrade
November 20, 2012
Metalogix recently launched Content Matrix 6.0, a new take on the former Migration Manager product. Details of the tool can be read in, “Speeding, Easing SharePoint Migration.” Content Matrix aims to provide power, speed, and flexibility to upgrade to SharePoint 2013 from any previous version. The product is explained:
Content Matrix 6.0 is designed to simplify an organization’s content experience, including moving to the cloud. In addition to SharePoint migration, architects and administrators can migrate file shares and documents from legacy enterprise content management (ECM) systems and keep SharePoint content organized in a high fidelity and ongoing basis. Further, content owners have more control over content directly from the SharePoint user interface.
The company is also introducing SharePoint 4.0, which offers the ability to automatic and continuously back up unstructured SharePoint content. The tool may be worth looking into for a migration option. You may also want to consider a more comprehensive solution, especially for reducing content storage sprawl and adding structure to your vast unstructured data. Fabasoft Mindbreeze integrates knowledge from all sections of a company into a uniform, linked whole hub of business information. With the added benefit of a SharePoint connector, Mindbreeze snaps seamlessly into existing systems to extend capabilities and efficiently create relevant business knowledge.
Philip West, November 20, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
KMWorld Announces Mindbreeze InSite as Trend Setting Product of 2012
November 19, 2012
KMWorld.com recently put the spotlight on Mindbreeze InSite in their September 2012, Trend-Setting Products 2012 issue. The full article, “Trend-Setting Products 2012: Mindbreeze: Mindbreeze InSite,” highlights the impressive Web site search and simple implementation benefits. The author states that traditional Web site search just doesn’t work; it is clunky and often presents thousands of unordered search results. This is said about InSite:
InSite changes this. With powerful semantic understanding and an intuitive search and navigation system, InSite allows website visitors to pinpoint their desired page in moments. Searching across your multiple websites, blogs and social media through one search box, InSite revolutionizes your user’s experience: removing hassle, encouraging interaction and delivering information.
This is also included about the simple installation:
Simply by adding the embed code to your website, InSite becomes fully functional in just a few minutes, providing an exceptionally fast return on investment.
InSite is a cloud service and is easily customizable. You can generate search tabs to customize the search experience for Web site visitors and you can create as many tabs as you would like. With intuitive search facets and semantic capabilities, the cost-effective solution seems to really be changing the Web site search game.
Philip West, November 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
IntelTrax Summary: November 9 to November 15
November 19, 2012
This week, the IntelTrax advanced intelligence blog published some important information regarding the state of big data and its impact on some of the world’s most up and coming industries.
“The Ethics of Big Data” examines the possible ethical quandries that develop from big data analysis. However, despite the potential ethical challenges that face the industry in the end the pros, outweigh the cons.
The article states:
“Yet it cuts both ways: Consumers also can take advantage of the democratizing effects of big data. In fact, there’s an app for that: RateDriverenables users to quickly determine the appropriate rate they should expect to pay for attorney’s fees in 51 U.S. markets.
Big data holds promise to improve the legal profession and the quality of service that we deliver to clients, says Carolyn Elefant, a Washington, D.C., attorney and technology evangelist. “Significantly, big data would inject a strong dose of transparency into lawyer marketing and assist consumers in hiring lawyers. How so? Because big data can be used to show the likelihood of winning a case and the true cost.”
An article that shows the way that big data is transforming the healthcare industry is, “Big Data is the New Anti-Virus.” However, it looks at it from the angle of computer health and how to better detect viruses.
The article states:
“With Seculert Sense, customers can now upload log files using a Secure FTPS tunnel, or upstream logs through Syslog directly from a secure web gateway or web proxy devices, or log aggregation solution for real-time detection and forensics investigation. Built on Amazon Elastic MapReduce, Seculert Sense launches a “big data analysis cloud” that rapidly analyzes an organization’s vast amount of log data, going back months or even years and comparing it against the thousands of unique malware samples collected by Seculert. Over time, Seculert Sense continues to digest huge amounts of data in order to identify persistent attacks that are going undetected by next generation IPs, Anti-Bot and Secure Web Gateways.”
Big data analytics is not only taking off in America, it is becoming a world-wide phenomenon. “Asian Analytics on the Verge of a Boom” describes the potential for big data analytics success in Asia.
According to the article,
“Two different consumer analytics platforms from Singapore Management University (SMU) and StarHub respectively aim to provide insights into consumer behavior, so companies can develop and tailor initiatives that will be more relevant to and better received by customers.
Rajesh Balan, director of LiveLabs Urban Lifestyle Innovation Platform at SMU, said the platform will enable organizations to utilize real-time insights, helping their campaigns go to market and assess the outcome faster. On the consumer end, it will turn what most users perceive as intrusive spam messages on their phones into something useful.”
It does not matter what country you live in or what industry you work in. Big Data analytics technology is becoming too important to overlook. Digital Reasoning has been using automated understanding of big data for nearly a decade.
Jasmine Ashton, November 19, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Azaleos Survey Reveals Increased SharePoint Adoption but also Challenges
November 16, 2012
SharePoint adoption continues to grow and remain high according to an Azaleos Corporation and Osterman Research survey. The survey also revealed some inhibitors to greater SharePoint growth, including lack of administrative skills, training, and knowledge for current staff members. HeraldOnline weighs in on the findings in the article, “SharePoint Cost of Ownership Jumped 16 Percent in 2012 Finds Osterman Research.” This is added about possible challenges:
’According to Osterman Research, SharePoint is still an extremely high growth platform, but soaring management costs, coupled with insufficient staffing levels and training are leading to performance and satisfaction issues. This is threatening its momentum,’ said Scott Gode, vice president of product management and marketing for Azaleos. ‘To derive maximum business value from SharePoint enterprises need to reevaluate current approaches to systems administration and storage management in order to reduce costs. In addition, SharePoint governance should be given a much higher level of priority by both IT and business leadership.’
The author adds that staffing cut backs and poor governance are also challenges for organizations. The article highlights some important SharePoint issues you may want to consider when evaluating your approach to the ubiquitous platform. One approach worth looking at is a cost-effective third party solution to extend SharePoint capabilities, like Mindbreeze. Mindbreeze facilitates the comprehensive incorporation of all electronic data repositories and connects seamlessly with SharePoint. And with an intuitive user interface, users will find can easily adapt.
Philip West, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Leading Austrian IT News Portal Adopts Mindbreeze InSite Solution
November 15, 2012
Monitor.at is Austria’s leading IT news portal for small and medium businesses. The organization recently added the Mindbreeze InSite search solution to their Web site. This integrated cloud solution helps site visitors quickly and efficiently find important and relevant facts. Details of the InSite adoption can be read in the article, “Monitor.at with New Site Search.” The author includes this comment from Monitor’s editor:
’With over 13,500 products to monitor.at it is for visitors not always easy to find the desired information. Integrating Mindbreeze InSite, we are offering our visitors a convenience feature to quickly and easily find the desired information. Addition be easier for us Mindbreeze InSite work. Messages to the top topics automatically, appears seeking based,’ explains Ing Markus Klaus Eder, editor monitor.
Monitor.at is a good example of a major Web site that has incorporated a powerful search solution for improved site experience. Increasing Web traffic and retaining site visitors is increasingly becoming a major avenue for business success as a Web site is often the first customer interaction with a business. The power of semantic search in addition to relevant content is necessary for gaining and retaining an audience. A powerful search system that can make connections among vast amounts of data can also help deliver a better search experience for the user. InSite is capable of searching a wide variety of specific documents, including PDFs, Excel sheets, and Word documents, as well as searching social media sites and Web sites. Consider the free-trial to see if the Mindbreeze solution works for you.
Philip West, November 15, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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