New Exclusive Interview: Bjorn Laukli, Comperio US
June 6, 2012
At a recent conference devoted to enterprise search, I spoke with Bjørn Laukli, now the president of Comperio US. Mr. Laukli was the Fast Search & Transfer chief technical officer. Prior to Fast Search’s acquisition by Microsoft in 2008, Mr. Laukli joined Comperio AS, a search solutions company. For more information about Comperio, navigate to the company’s Web site, www.comperiosearch.com. If you mistype the url as comperio.com, Google displays a malware warning, which does not apply to Comperio AS.
I asked Mr. Laukli about Comperio’s business focus. He told me:
We founded Comperio AS in 2004 with a vision of utilizing search technology to improve the way people interact with information, ensuring that the solutions understand people and context, rather than the other way round. Early on, Scandinavia was Comperio’s focus area, however, since 2008, it has expanded into the US and UK. Initially, the business was building a practice around the FAST Enterprise Search Platform (ESP) with both products and services. Since Microsoft acquired FAST, Comperio’s business focus has expanded into SharePoint and FAST Search for SharePoint.
A company’s approach to client engagements is key to the success of an engineering services firm. In response to the question, “How do you lead a client through a solution?”, Mr. Laukli said:
After an engagement agreement has been established, we typically enter the discovery phase. Often we follow an agile methodology like Scrum, and in such a setting we refer this phase to Sprint 0. In Sprint 0, we gather requirements and talk with the stakeholders from the client. This includes business and IT resources, as well as end users of the system. Sprint 0 consists of many activities from analysis, to concept development, interaction and technology design. The output of this initial phase is normally a detailed project plan outlining key deliverables and dependencies. A system design is also outlined and communicated. After sign-off on the project plan, we start the implementation. After the solution is deployed, it enters the maintenance phase. Comperio offers application management service (AMS) which in many cases is a great option for the client. That way they can focus on their core business, while we can ensure that their system produce high-quality results all the time.
You can read the full text of the interview with Mr. Laukli on the ArnoldIT.com subsite Search Wizards Speak. For one click access to the 2009 interview with Mr. Laukli, click here. For the 2012 interview, click here.
The Search Wizards Speak collection of interviews contains more than 70 interviews with individuals who are involved in search and content processing. The index of the interviews is available at the subsite http://www.arnoldit.com/search-wizards-speak/.
Stephen E Arnold, June 6, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
Live Data and Web Site Design Considerations in SharePoint Deployment
June 6, 2012
We’ve been covering Robert Schifreen’s SharePoint 2010 series of posts on his SharePoint deployment experience. In his eleventh installment, “Countdown to Launch: Importing Data,” he continues the topic of security and how to manage it alongside live data and a public-facing web site.
Schifreen has this to say about importing data:
There’s a good bulk upload tool, which improves on the facilities in out-of-the-box SharePoint, available for a couple of hundred dollars, which will make it easy for users to copy stuff across. Or they can just use WebDav from Windows. Or I could probably do the whole thing in PowerShell, because there’s enough information in our Active Directory for me to find their current files, check that they are staff rather than a student, and copy the files to the correct SharePoint library.
And he goes on to comment on developing a public facing web site,
A SharePoint site, especially one that isn’t a public-facing website, tends to look like every other SharePoint site on the planet. You can, if you wish, customise it in any way you want. At the simple level you can replace the SharePoint logo with your own.
Importing data and branding your SharePoint site are both important steps in the overall SharePoint deployment. If you’re in the same process, you may want to read the article for some handy tips and guidance. You may also consider a third party solution to extend the capabilities of your SharePoint system. It seems that the experts at Fabasoft Mindbreeze understand the importance of a web site brand and design.
An attractive website serves as an effective digital business card. Surprise your website visitors with an intuitive search. Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite is intuitive and user friendly and is instantly ready for use as a Cloud service. It turns your website into a user-friendly knowledge portal for your customers and recognizes correlations and links through semantic and dynamic search processes. This delivers pinpoint accurate and precise “finding experiences” and is the perfect website search for your company.
And with no installation, configuration, or maintenance required, the comprehensive and cost-effective solution will save you valuable time and training resources. Navigate to http://www.mindbreeze.com/ to read more about the full suite of solutions.
Philip West, June 6, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Innovation Leading the Way Once Again
June 6, 2012
Manufacturing companies have long understood the value of product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions but now thanks to lower costs of PLM implementation companies need a new edge to gain traction in competitive markets. The article, “The Role of IT in Linking Innovation Lifecycle Information Management to ERP and PLM”, on Network World, proposes that companies turn back to good old fashioned ingenuity in the form of research and development (R&D) for that winning edge.
According to the article,
“In today’s highly connected information ecosystem, the moment has arrived for R&D to e-enable itself, just as the manufacturing and supply chain side has done with PLM and ERP. Thanks to the advent of cloud computing, service-oriented architecture and the use of Web services and technologies that support advanced search and data mining, innovation management that streamlines R&D, yet respects its complexity, is now a real possibility.”
While large companies with dedicated scientists, statisticians and other brilliant members of R&D teams lead innovation smaller enterprises often struggle to find a single innovator, much less an entire department. For those finding their company in that position we contend that focusing on smarter PLM solutions is the best move. Of course innovation should never be ignored but by adopting next-generation PLM technology, like Inforbix, small and midsized companies can gain a proven edge simply through better data management.
Catherine Lamsfuss, June 6, 2012
HP Autonomy: The Big Data Arabesque
June 5, 2012
Hewlett Packard has big plans for Autonomy. HP paid $10 billion for the search and content processing company last year. HP faces a number of challenges in its printer and ink business. The personal computer business is okay, but HP is without a strong revenue stream from mobile devices.
“HP Rolls Out Hadoop AppSystem Stack” provided some interesting information about Autonomy and big data. The write up focuses on the big data trend. In order to make sense out of large volumes of information, HP wants to build management software, integrate the “Vertica column oriented distributed database and the Autonomy Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) 10 stack.” The article reports:
On the Autonomy front, HP has announced the capability to put the IDOL 10 engine, which supports over 1,000 file types and connects to over 400 different kinds of data repositories, onto each node in a Hadoop cluster. So you can MapReduce the data and let Autonomy make use of it. For instance, you can use it to feed the Optimost Clickstream Analytics module for the Autonomy software, which also uses the Vertica data store for some parts of the data stream. HP is also rolling out its Vertica 6 data store, and the big new feature is the ability to run the open source R statistical analysis programming language in parallel on the nodes where Vertica is storing data in columnar format. More details on the new Vertica release were not available at press time, but Miller says that the idea is to provider connectors between Vertica, Hadoop, and Autonomy so all of the different platforms can share information.
HP’s idea blends a hot trend, HP’s range of hardware, HP’s system management software, a database, and Autonomy IDOL. In order to make this ensemble play in tune, HP will offer professional services.
InfoWorld’s “HP Extends Autonomy’s Big Data Chops to Hadoop Cloud” added some additional insight. I learned that former Autonomy boss Michael Lynch will leave HP “along with Autonomy’s entire original management team and 20 percent of its staff.”
The story then explained that Autonomy, which combines with Vertica:
can now be embedded in Hadoop nodes. From there, users can combine Idol’s 500-plus functions — including automatic categorization, clustering, and hyperlinking — to scour various sources of structured and unstructured data to glean deeper meanings and trends. Sources run the gamut, too, from structured data such as purchase history, services issues, and inventory records to unstructured Twitter streams, and even audio files. IDOL includes 400 connectors, which companies can use to get at external data.
Autonomy moved beyond search many years ago. This current transformation of Autonomy makes marketing sense. I am interested in monitoring this big data approach. IBM had a similar idea when it presented the Vivisimo clustering and deduplication system as a “big data” system. The challenge will be applying text centric technology to ensembles which generate insights from “big data.”
Will the shift earn back the purchase price of $10 billion and have enough horsepower to pull HP into robust top line growth? Big data and analytics have promise but I don’t know of any single analytics company that has multi-billion dollar product lines. Big data is a hot button, but does it hard wire into the pocketbooks of chief financial officers?
Stephen E Arnold, June 5, 2012
Sponsored by IKANOW
Security Concerns and Account Permissions in SharePoint 2010 Explained
June 5, 2012
Robert Schifreen brings us the tenth installment of his SharePoint 2010 series in his ZDNet.co.uk post, “Security on the Farm: Accounts and Permissions.” Shifreen explains that SharePoint’s most important database is SharePoint_config but that if it breaks, you’re best bet is to rebuild from your notes and restore backed-up content databases. Why? Schifreen points out that restoring a backup of SharePoint_config isn’t actually supported by Microsoft and rarely works in practice.
The author also has this to share about the nuances of a SharePoint deployment:
When you start building and running a SharePoint farm, you will come across dozens of seemingly unsolvable problems that turn out to be merely down to permissions.
He goes on to say,
Best practice is then to use separate accounts for installing various underlying services, databases, and so on…The most tempting option, of course, is to forget best practice and just use one account for running all the SharePoint internal stuff. The upside is that things will work a little better, with fewer permission-related errors. There are two downsides. First, if a hacker manages to penetrate the account he’ll have access to the entire farm rather than just a half or a third of it. Secondly, splitting everything across multiple accounts can actually aid troubleshooting in some cases because, by glancing at the server’s security log, the account that caused the problem will give you a clue as to why things are going wrong.
Schifreen’s topic of security is a valuable one in the world of big data that is continuously growing across on-premise and cloud platforms. Consider a comprehensive out of the box solution, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze, to extend your SharePoint system with the added certified security benefits.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise “finds every scrap of information within a very short time, whether document, contract, note, e-mail or calendar entry, in intranet or internet, person- or text-related. The software solution finds all required information, regardless of source, for its users.” Further, Mindbreeze offers certified security and reliability with regular external audits of their relevant standards ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 9001, and SAS 70 Tup II. The solution is worth a second look at www.mindbreeze.com.
Philip West, June 5, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Third Industrial Revolution Is Data Management
June 5, 2012
In the manufacturing race there is only so much companies can do to gain a competitive edge when it comes to technology. At least that is the premise under which PTC President and CEO, Jim Heppelmann, made his assertion that a ‘third industrial revolution’ is underway as reported in the Market Watch article, “PTC CEO Jim Heppelmann Declares New Era of Manufacturing Competitiveness Driven By Product and Service Advantage”.
According to the article Heppelmann’s vision of the new order of manufacturing includes:
“Fundamentally, PTC technology solutions transform the way companies create and service products by enabling them to make better, smarter, faster strategy and planning decisions. These decisions relate to how products are designed and engineered, how a supply chain is optimized, how quality and compliance is assured throughout the manufacturing process and, ultimately, how service is efficiently delivered against a product once sold.”
Another word for all this transforming and smarter decision making capabilities is data management (okay – two words). The PLM provider Inforbix has long understood the role of data management in PLM processes and has long strived to enable their clients to find, share and reuse data to accomplish everything Heppelmann sees as the future.
Catherine Lamsfuss, June 5, 2012
Get a Comprehensive Search Solution for SharePoint from Fabasoft Mindbreeze
June 4, 2012
In “SharePoint Log: When Databases Rebel,” Robert Schifreen looks at how one user can generate 16 gigabytes of logs in just three months. The article is the ninth part of a larger SharePoint 2010 series chronicling a SharePoint deployment at the ZDNet Blog.
Schifreen has this to say about navigating the growing amounts of data:
Microsoft markets a separate SharePoint add-on product called FAST Search, and likes to imply that no successful SharePoint installation is complete without it. In practice, from what I have read, it seems that FAST is unnecessary unless you have tens of millions of documents to index. Otherwise, SharePoint’s out-of-the-box indexing system will crawl the full text of all your documents (you’ll need to download a free ifilter, as it’s called, to crawl PDF files) perfectly well.
But he goes on to add:
There’s a handful of things missing from the standard search, such as having the number of hits displayed in brackets within the search results page, and there are no thumbnail previews of search results, but nothing that is sufficiently must-have to warrant the added expense or complication of learning yet another Microsoft technology.
We know SharePoint is a complex and beneficial system for content management, but we also know there are gaps in the out-of-the-box search feature. But you don’t have to learn a new Microsoft technology or settle for less. Consider a third party solution developed and devoted specifically to search, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Their Web Parts based information pairing capabilities give you powerful searches and a complete picture of your business information, allowing you to get the most out of your enterprise search investments. And your end users will benefit from the fast and intuitive search with clearly displayed results and simple navigation.
Creating relevant knowledge means processing data in a comprehensible form and utilizing relations between information objects. Data is sorted according to type and relevance. The enterprise search for professionals.
Mindbreeze’s intuitiveness also means less training required. They have tutorials and wikis that are easy to use and more efficient. Here you can browse Mindbreeze’s support tools for users, including videos, FAQs, wikis, and other training options. Check out the full suite of solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, June 4, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
CAXA Partners with ModuleWorks
June 4, 2012
CAXA, China’s largest provider of software for computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and product lifecycle management (PLM), will partner with ModuleWorks, a software component provider for the CAD/CAM industry, to incorporate simulation technology for 5-Axis machining in its 2013 release.
In a press release entitled “CAXA Partners with ModuleWorks for 5-Axis Machining and Simulation” that recently appeared on the website MCAD Café, the features of this software update are described:
“The new CAXA 2013 release will offer ModuleWorks toolpath generation and simulation technology to provide customers with state-of-the-art 5-Axis machining and simulation. A wide range of 5-Axis strategies include multi-pass roughing, swarf, contouring, flowline, and 3-5-Axis toolpath conversion. Combined with full kinematic machine simulation and material removal, CAXA 2013 provides a complete set of tools for advanced machining applications.”
Endeavors such as the CAXA/ModuleWorks partnership resulting in customized, comprehensive, and scalable CAD/CAM and PLM solutions such as CAXA 2013 that enable manufacturers to enhance their efficiency and to easily find, reuse, and share their product data are valuable assets that can maximize the competitive position of an enterprise.
Tonya Weikel, June 4, 2012
Understanding Microsoft Specifications for Designing a SharePoint Farm
June 1, 2012
In the eighth part of his SharePoint 2010 series, Robert Schifreen explains how he found that reading between the lines is an essential part of understanding Microsoft’s approach to specifications. His full account is relayed in, “Designing a SharePoint Farm: Tiers before Bedtime.” Schifreen decided on the three-tier model as the best architecture for performance in his farm: the first tier for SharePoint server IIS processes, the second tier for three more SharePoint servers doing all non-IIS things, and the third tier for an SQL Server.
Schifreen goes on to explain:
Having decided on a farm architecture, we also needed to think about the storage architecture too. The web, and especially TechNet, is full of warnings that storage can be the major bottleneck, and that it’s best to split the major data paths across separate physical drives. We originally drew up a plan that saw us using around 20 separate drive volumes on the SQL server, to include content databases, non-content databases, search indexes, transaction logs, tempdb, and so on.
But after further research, the team came up with a different method:
A subsequent session with SharePoint 911 convinced us that this was not a wise move because it would be too difficult to manage. Also, our SAN should be able to take care of ironing out any storage bottlenecks anyway. So we decided to start off with a couple of 1.6TB volumes, to put all the databases on those, and then to request further volumes from our SAN people as and when required. Moving a database from one volume to another, within the same SQL server, is relatively painless.
Overall, the post provides some practical insight into the design process. While SharePoint is a powerful and ubiquitous program, Schifreen points out that the data limits are a little deceiving as there are limitations with 1.6 terabytes. To round out your SharePoint system, consider a third party solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise.
Here you can read about the cost-efficient solution:
Company knowledge and the information in the Cloud are constantly growing. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Fabasoft Mindbreeze web client is the driving force behind the information pairing. It makes the access to knowledge user-friendly and easy. Correlations and links are semantically recognized and displayed. This provides your employees with a flexible, dynamic, yet still easy to use platform that grows with you. This is the professional implementation of Unified Information Access.
Navigate to http://www.mindbreeze.com/ to learn more.
Philip West, June 1, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Sky Goes Green
June 1, 2012
British broadcaster Sky is utilizing product lifecycle management (PLM) analysis to establish the origin of the components used in its high-definition television set-top boxes in a bid to curb its use of rare earth or conflict materials in these Chinese-manufactured devices. Previous efforts by the company to reduce its environmental footprint included those focused on improving the energy efficiency of the boxes and on reusing or recycling reclaimed boxes.
In describing this latest green initiative, Jo Fox, head of Sky’s Bigger Picture program, emphasizes the broadcaster’s shift to a PLM-based solution in an article by Jessica Shankleman entitled “Sky Believes in Better Environmental Outcomes through Product Lifecycle Management” that recently appeared on BusinessGreen’s website:
“We’re [Sky] doing some lifecycle analysis on our boxes and it’s not just about rare minerals. It’s quite all-encompassing about things like conflict materials. We are not using large quantities in any box, but there will be certain minerals that we rely on, just like any other electronics. We’re looking at all of that as part of our responsible sourcing and lifecycle analysis. I’m very much moving away from just managing energy to lifecycle analysis.”
Inforbix, with its affordable, cloud-based PLM products, offers flexible solutions to companies like Sky who are hoping to organize and leverage their product data to support their corporate initiatives.
Tonya Weikel, June 1, 2012
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
