Search Service Application for SharePoint 2013
October 9, 2012
When it comes to SharePoint, the search application has always been a tricky feature. For smaller companies, if programmed directly, it does the job perfectly, but for larger organizations a more robust solution for search was found in third-party software. Rather than turn to ISVs, these days many IT professionals are developing solutions in house to save on costs and to make a piece of software that does exactly what it needs. SharePoint Tutorial took the “do it yourself” approach for “SharePoint 2013 Create Search Service Application with PowerShell.”
The article teaches you the following:
“This guide shows you how to create a SharePoint 2013 Search Service Application using PowerShell and how this process differs from creating a SharePoint 2010 Search Service Application using PowerShell.”
PowerShell is the task automation framework from Microsoft. It uses command-line shell and other scripting languages for Windows. Its main function is to primarily allow IT professionals have greater access over the administrative function of Windows; mostly it uses cmdlets, which can be combined into scripts or executables.
The article walks the reader through steps on how to create a search service application by going through each step individually and explaining them with the use of screenshots. The coding examples are the real winner as they provide the real basis for understanding how to create the search application. Sometimes in the coding process it is easy to get lost and confused, but when a ready reference is available for help it makes the process all the easier to get through. If the coding examples, screenshots, and explanations are not enough to get you started, the article links to the SharePoint 2013 Resource Page. It is SharePoint Tutorial’s Web resource page that points to all their gathered knowledge on the new SharePoint 2013 deployment.
As SharePoint 2013 is still a new and its sea legs are still being tested and it is still being determined whether a homebuilt application to augment its out-of-the-box search capabilities. If we can follow the same pattern from other SharePoint versions, then a homebuilt, customizable solution is the way to go. The article starts IT professionals and SharePoint developers with a good starting point. The real test will come with longtime exposure to 2013, long enough to get all the bugs figured out.
Search Technologies can provide organizations worldwide with engineering and support services for SharePoint Search as well as other enterprise systems. The firm’s engineers can create PowerShell and other components to improve the performance and user satisfaction of any search and retrieval system. More information about Search Technologies is available at http://www.searchtechnologies.com/.
Iain Fletcher, Search Technologies, October 9, 2012
PS. Search Technologies is holding our first search meet up. Details are available at http://www.meetup.com/DC-Metro-Enterprise-Search-Network/ and http://goo.gl/P5oKY.
Comintelli Releases White Paper Analyzing Knowledge XChanger and SharePoint
October 9, 2012
Comintelli provides enterprise information access software in the realms of competitive intelligence, knowledge management, content delivery, and search. Comintelli recently released a White Paper on knowledge management which looks at Comintelli’s flagship product, Knowledge XChanger, and Microsoft SharePoint. The release can be read at, “Knowledge Management, With or Without SharePoint?” The importance of information assets is explained,
In today’s business environment, knowledge has emerged as the most valuable corporate asset and deserves to be managed as such. Managing knowledge is about the information your company possesses and the people, who increase the value this by adding experience, knowledge and associations in order to produce new insights. This cycle continues endlessly and the companies who succeed in organizing and using this flow will be the winners of tomorrow.
The author goes on to add:
IT tools can extend knowledge networks and make it easier to find information and people who have the knowledge you seek.
It is pointed out that any knowledge management software should be able to find and retrieve internal and external information, successfully use taxonomies to filter and structure information, have an intuitive interface, faceted search, and employ user designed alerts. The complete White Paper is available to order and looks at how applicable SharePoint and Knowledge XChanger are for knowledge management on their own and if they could work together. If you are weighing software options for your knowledge management strategy, consider bypassing ordering a White Paper and take a closer look at the Fabasoft Mindbreeze’s Folio Connector solution. The Connector links systems for enterprise-wide information access with faceted search, a familiar user interface, search results that can easily be processed into actionable information, and more. The Fabasoft Folio Connector includes the SharePoint Connector, as well as eGov-Suite, Exchange, File System, and Web Connectors.
Philip West, October 9, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
WalMart Looks to Semantic Technology to Boost Site Search
October 8, 2012
Claudia Bruemmer, Chief Editor of the TopTenWholesale Newsroom, looks at Wal-Mart’s announcement of using Polaris search for its online retail Web site in the post, “New Semantic Search Engine Boosts Wal-Mart Sales.” Polaris uses semantic technology, which works to uncover the connections between people, events, places, and products. The development of Polaris is explained,
Built in 10 months by a small team in @Wal-MartLabs, the retailer’s research and technology hub, the new Polaris search engine is based on the lab’s Social Genome project, which uses public data on the web, proprietary data, and social media, to identify interesting entities and relationships, then adding them to the Social Genome.
The lab was set up after Wal-Mart’s acquisition last year of Kosmix (Mountain View, California), as Kosmix had developed a social media technology platform that filters and organizes content in social networks in a manner relevant to users.
The move is in response to Wal-Mart’s every growing competition with sites like Amazon and eBay. It is hoped the search will also figure out user intent to deliver better results. A business Web site is the new storefront. When it comes to creating a user-friendly Web site and managing a Web presence, all organizations may want to look closer at their site search. With no installation, configuration or maintenance required, Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite is designed to instinctively find information on your site with a familiar interface. Here you can read how InSite “recognizes correlations and links through semantic and dynamic search processes. This delivers pinpoint accurate and precise finding experiences.”
Philip West, October 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
IntelTrax Top Stories: September 28 to October 4
October 8, 2012
Lately, the IntelTrax information and advanced intelligence blog has been covering a lot of stories related to risk analytics.
The October 4 post “Risk Analytics Becomes Big Business” explains how the days of manually entering data into spreadsheets are over and how risk can now be quantified and lowered with the use of analytics technology.
The article give an example of a company using analytics to mitigate risk:
“Numerix (http://www.numerix.com/), the leading provider of cross-asset analytics for derivatives valuations and risk management today announced that Banque Internationale à Luxembourg (BIL), a pioneer in the Luxembourg financial industry has selected the Numerix CrossAsset analytics platform to support its model validation and model comparison processes. With Numerix’s highly flexible, fully transparent analytics architecture, BIL can conduct rigorous model analysis to independently validate pricing and risk sensitivity outputs, as well as make comparisons between different models to analyze how the outputs vary under different assumptions.”
Another article that emphasizes the financial impacts of data analytics is, “Effective Financial Data Analytics Rely on Quality.” This article discusses how important it is to utilize statisticians and data preparation along with a business’s strategy to form predictive models.
The article states:
“A critical aspect therefore is identifying what data is needed for effective prediction – and what data ends up actually being available and used to build the models. Most analysts can’t fix data – therefore they do the next best thing statistically, which is dropping or avoiding poor quality data.
Data analytics touches nearly all aspects of a business and it’s nearly impossible to achieve effective business intelligence without it.”
The Financial sector is not the only one that is using data analytics technology. It appears that the government is jumping on board the big data wagon as well. “Government and Utilities Get Big Data” explains how analytics spending has gone up quite a bit in the business world.
The article states:
“Utilities must solve data collection and storage challenges and learn how to analyze and act on new forms of information before they even get to the point of realizing real returns on their smart grid investments.
According to a new report from Pike Research, a part of Navigant‘s Energy Practice, the worldwide market for smart grid data analytics is expected to grow steadily through 2020, with cumulative worldwide spending from 2012 through 2020 totaling just over $34 billion.”
One company that has worked to provide data analytics technology for both the government and financial enterprises is Digital Reasoning. Digital Reasoning uses automated understanding to tackle some of big data’s most messy challenges by enabling enterprises and agencies to detect fraud, uncover market trends, gain better insight into customer behavior, gain competitive advantage, and mitigate risk.
Jasmine Ashton, October 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Increasing SharePoint User Adoption with Easy to Understand Training
October 5, 2012
Chris Wright, founder of the technical copyrighting company Scribble Agency, discusses SharePoint end user adoption issues in his CMSWire post, “Driving Adoption: Three SharePoint Concepts End Users Need to Understand.” Wright explains that because SharePoint is such a complex system, end user training is a necessity, even if it is simply a newsletter with tips and tricks. He has this to add:
There are three core SharePoint concepts that you need to explain to your end users, to give them any chance of sticking with SharePoint in the long term. These are Sites, Lists and Webparts. For those of us in the know this is basic stuff, and of course there are a ton of other things you could educate users about. But I firmly believe teaching these three things to the man or woman on the street will give them a huge head start.
Wright goes on to share in a little more detail each of the three core components and how he has found success in relaying the concepts to his users. He suggests starting with a discussion on sites using a ‘container’ metaphor – that sites contain all the content that will eventually be displayed somehow. He adds that lists can be explained in Excel terms of columns, rows, and cells and that Web parts are the main way to surface list data onto a page.
A third party application can also simplify SharePoint for end users while maximizing return on investment in the product. One worth looking at is Fabasoft Mindbreeze’s Enterprise search and SharePoint Connector. The Connector adds a powerful search to increase the findability of documents in SharePoint with the benefit of a friendly user interface.
Philip West, October 5, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Empowering your SharePoint User Base
October 4, 2012
CMS Wire brings the article, “SharePoint: Empowering Your User Base,” to discuss how to get the most out of your SharePoint solution by getting the most out of your user population. The author begins by framing her argument:
In previous articles, we have covered the different solutions that can be built using SharePoint. But even the best of features are no good if they aren’t being fully utilized by the organization. One of the best features of SharePoint is that with the right expectations, training and guidance your internal Information Workers can be empowered to build solutions without having to work with IT or have IT build it for them. There are endless possibilities for the potential solutions that can be implemented.
The author then goes on to discuss how the empowerment happens, particularly through training. While training is important in any organization for a number of functions, most SharePoint analysis would show that the learning curve for SharePoint is steep enough that most end users will never harness its full potential. For that reason, many small or medium organizations are turning to intuitive third-party solutions to optimize their enterprise solution without a huge investment in time or training. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise is one such solution that optimizes efficiency simply by an intuitive interface and ease of use for the end users.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 4, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Move Over Google Yandex Is On the Move
October 3, 2012
Who would have thought that someone would be able to challenge Google’s mighty search power? Investors noted that “Yandex Building Right Side of Base as Competition with Google Builds In Russia.” Yandex is Russia’s biggest search engine and its stock has gained valued in seven of the past eight weeks. Russia has become Europe’s largest population of Internet users, boosting Yandex to the top of the search engine popularity lists
Yandex stocks have garnered interest in investors:
“Also, Yandex’s Accumulation-Distribution Rating has soared to a best-possible A+ from C- at the end of June, indicating that institutional investors find the shares attractive. In fact, fund ownership jumped 20% last quarter, including a new position started by the highly ranked Columbia Acorn Fund.”
To extend its reach, Yandex is headed to the mobile search market and the search engine has also started a mapping service. One of its primary goals is to decrease its dependence on Russian advertising by trying its lot in Turkey. Like anything these days, however, Yandex’s success fluctuates with Russia’s economy, but profit is expected to continue to for the rest of the year. Yandex has its job cut out for it in the US market. Google is so ingrained into the average US’s citizen’s daily life: maps, mail, social networking, documents, etc. that Yandex will have to up its offerings and services to compete.
Whitney Grace, October 03, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Making Web Site Search Better for Users and Search Engine Optimization
October 3, 2012
When it comes to improving search engine optimization, there are many services available to choose from. One of these services is discussed in the article, “Smart Rank – Make Your Website Search Engine in a Smart Way.” The author has this to say about the service:
There are many things you have to do if you are looking for a solution regarding making your website top in sales. You would have also come across various seo websites, which are exclusively out there over the internet to help in search engine optimization. A best example for this kind of seo agency is Smart Rank. Smart will help you to increase website traffic without facing the difficulties of technical aspects of search engine optimisation.
The author adds that increasing the bottom line and visibility should be the main focus upon when you own a business or Web site online. And while he advocates Smart Rank, details of the service are not explained but rather that it is simply an easy solution to boost SEO. It may be worth reading into, but you might consider looking at a service with a proven record. Fabasoft Mindbreeze’s InSite solution offers faceted search for your site to give visitors the latest and most relevant content. Additionally, InSite allows you to extract the value of real-time search reporting to give insight so to keep your site optimized.
Philip West, October 3, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Comperio FRONT: Business Logic for Enterprise Search
October 2, 2012
There are many enterprise search systems. Some are available without charge; others can push beyond seven figures. Many professionals working in an organization want systems to provide information needed in the context of work. Laundry lists of hits from a key word query were a significant advance over manual inspection of documents in file folders in file cabinets.
In order to deliver information within the context of a business task, logic is needed. Many search systems provide laundry lists or categories of possible relevant documents. Without business logic, an enterprise search system can frustrate some professionals.
FRONT is available for Dot Net and Java. FRONT is compatible with SP 2013.
Comperio, a company with the motto “Search matters,” offers FRONT. According to the firm:
Comperio FRONT is the proven business logic software for state of the art search solutions. Comperio FRONT blends perfectly with your enterprise search platform to deliver quickly, with quality and top features.
The software is an outgrowth from more than eight years of experience with enterprise search and more than 100 search projects. Comperio has encapsulated that expertise into the FRONT framework.
In a nutshell, says, Jørn Ellefsen, CEO and Founder of Comperio:
Our deep experience has lead to the creation of Comperio FRONT framework, which allows search solutions to be built more quickly and with improved quality and features.
KMWorld Magazine named FRONT a trend-setting product for 2012. This is the second time that Comperio FRONT has received this recognition from KMWorld. FRONT is now a crucial part of more than 200 enterprise search solutions.
Comperio FRONT is a major source of satisfaction amongst our customers. It is a product that blends seamlessly with existing investments in search engines and end-user applications. The search middleware, or orchestration layer, leverages best practices gained from hundreds of search projects and possesses business logic visualized in graphical workflows. Whether it’s for developing a search solution as a business productivity solution or as a line of business application, Front allows our customers to benefit from faster time to market with higher quality. The flexible nature of the FRONT framework helps companies react quickly to new business opportunities and likewise to the availability of new technology. This award recognizes Comperio’s investment in, and commitment to, delivering world-class search solutions that will stand the test of time.
For more information about Comperio Front, navigate to http://goo.gl/umaO7.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2012. Mr. Arnold is a paid columnist for KMWorld Magazine.
Sponsored by Augmentext
LexisNexis Embraces Open Source
October 2, 2012
LexisNexis has been anchored in commercial, for fee search and retrieval for decades. I fondly recall watching the red Lexis terminals double space each line. I saw the white space as a way to charge for data and special paper. The search system was proprietary. When the company talked about search, most of the information was about how to extract information from the LexisNexis system, not about the details of the systems and subsystems.
I found “How LexisNexis Competes In Hadoop Age” quite fascinating because the story included some high level information along with a bit more detail about LexisNexis’ approach to data management for its risk businesses. The idea is that LexisNexis has quite a bit of data from different sources. These data become the raw material for analyses which allow users of the for fee products and services to assess risk.
The big news in the story is that LexisNexis has developed a high performance computing cluster. The foundation is HPCC. Here’s the key phrase, “an open source platform. Those critics of open source who question the security and stability did not dissuade LexisNexis from an open source path.
HPCC charges an annual subscription to the platform software and includes enterprise support.
The other high level items in the story included:
- The decision to shift to open source was taken over a span of several years
- The market for a big data platform such as LexisNexis is new. This means that LexisNexis and its corporate parent Reed Elsevier are pushing into uncharted territory.
- The Hadoop platform is viewed as becoming fragmented. The strategy seems to be to offer an fragmented alternative.
The data management system is HPCC. Some of the details about this platform are:
- The data transformation methods are implemented via an open source Enterprise Control Language
- The system includes a social graph (relationship analysis) component
- HPCC will be easier to use.
The community edition is available via download. There is a fee for the enterprise edition of the system. Modules which extend the basic system are also available. Information about how to buy a subscription is available on the HPCC Web site. There was no pricing information on the HPCC Web site on October 1, 2012. You may want to call HPCC or check the Web site to see if more cost information is posted.
In my opinion, the shift to open source makes sense due to the cost efficiencies the approach can deliver. The technology of open source software can be excellent for operating systems and search. For data management, the proprietary data management vendors assert that systems like Oracle’s database and IBM DB2 offer advantages which many organizations find attractive.
Will LexisNexis embrace open source technology for its commercial search and retrieval service? Perhaps LexisNexis, like Microsoft, is moving more quickly in the open source sector than I know. IBM has been a leader in tapping open source technology within its commercial business model.
As I write this, Reed Elsevier, according to Google Finance, has been able to grow its top line revenue modestly since early 2010 while tripping total operating expenses by a percentage point or two. My view is that open source software offers one way to trim certain licensing fees and possibly some of the restrictions that vendors of proprietary software vendors impose on their customers.
Stephen E Arnold, October 2, 2012
Sponsored by Augmentext
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