Engineers Skeptical of Mobile Apps
January 13, 2012
The public is sold on mobile technology. They gobble up the latest tablets and download the greatest apps. But “Do Engineers Have an Appetite for Mobile Apps?” It might surprise you that CAD users are still a quite hesitant about going mobile.
Engineers are not convinced “that their day-to-day design tools can translate well to a tablet or smartphone platform.” It is up to vendors like Autodesk to change their minds. Engineers will likely use mobile apps differently than they do their traditional CAD software.
Rather than serving as a direct replacement for desktops or laptops for doing traditional CAD and modeling work, the mobile platforms are far better suited for specific tasks and workflows, and design tool apps have to follow suit.
Change is almost always met with some type of resistance. CAD users will eventually integrate mobile apps into their everyday professional life. But apps have to win their trust by becoming more reliable. Inforbix is doing just that. Their product data apps help users, like engineers and product managers, quickly and easily find, re-use, and share product data from disparate sources and file types. Inforbix’s revolutionary product data apps will quickly change the mind of any skeptical engineer.
Jennifer Wensink, January 13, 2012
American Exteriors Embraces Visual Mining NetCharts
January 13, 2012
The Information Management.com article “Visual Mining NetCharts Performance Dashboard V2.0” gives readers a look into Visual Mining NetCharts Performance Dashboard (NCPD) through the eyes of Michael C.Hurst, director of IT at American Exteriors, LLC. American Exteriors, LLC is a well -known vinyl replacement window and siding company and they currently run the NCPD on Windows Server 2008. The company was experiencing problems with the accuracy of their report data. American Exteriors wanted a tool that could provide “quick insight into KPIs and the flexibility of assessing current activities against budgets and historical trends. “ They were initially attracted to NCPD “primarily due to its cost and ease of use for the end user.” Hurst comments “A primary strength is the ability to immediately access the most relevant drivers of the business in real time via Web-based reports.” Hurst praised the company’s vendor support especially their responsiveness to customer suggestions and improvements. His one gripe is that programming script knowledge is necessary for dashboard customization. Overall American Exteriors seems to be pleased with the NCPD benefits. Looks like another satisfied customer.
April Holmes, January 13, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: Google Docs and SharePoint Can Collaborate
January 13, 2012
Protected: Throwing SharePoint Taxonomy to the Masses
January 12, 2012
When SharePoint Training Falls Short
January 12, 2012
SharePoint is an expansive and time intensive implementation for any organization. Therefore, much attention has been devoted to SharePoint training in enterprise circles. SharePoint Engine offers one viewpoint of SharePoint training in, “How to Cope When SharePoint Training Doesn’t Connect.”
Within the context of the web site’s attention to the issue of training, they state:
We’re [sic] spent plenty of time emphasizing the importance of SharePoint training, even taking plenty of time to tell you about effective SharePoint training techniques. Despite all our advice, though, there’s still a chance that your training just won’t hit home with your audience. What causes this dissonance? What can you do to prevent it? And what can you do to fix it once it’s already happened?
The tips offered include reexamining the training, refocusing the training, reformulating the training, or even reapplying the training to see if it will stick the next time around. We understand that SharePoint is unwieldy, and getting an entire staff to be comfortable working with the application can be tricky. However, we wonder if such extensive training is an effective way to spend an organization’s time and budget. Perhaps a simpler, more intuitive solution could be found to prevent such extensive workshops.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze is a solution that is more easily implemented and more intuitively created. The interface and search features both respond to a more natural approach:
Be well informed – quickly and accurately. The data often lies distributed across numerous sources. Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise gains each employee two weeks per through focused finding of data (IDC Studies). An invaluable competitive advantage in business as well as providing employee satisfaction.
Extensive support and training is also offered by Fabasoft, along with tutorials and online help available 24/7 on the web site. The idea here is that extensive training should not be required for employees to be able to use such software.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 12, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Is PLM Destin to Collide with Social Media?
January 12, 2012
Companies are clamoring to reach millions, if not billions, through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and their counterparts. However, there is a debate (probably on Twitter) as to how product lifecycle management (PLM) and social media fit together. The To-Increase Blog takes a look at “PLM Integation With (Wait for It…) Social Media Technology.”
The blog, which turns to Siemens’ Social Media in PLM presentation at COFES 2009 as a source, agrees that an airplane will not be designed on Facebook, but there are other social media aspects to take advantage of.
Siemens presentation goes on to discuss the concept of social computing, and how these concepts could apply to product development. For instance:
- A ‘Tweet’ could be equatable to an instant communication of a design challenge
- A ‘comment’ could be equatable to shared, public feedback on design issues or concepts
- A ‘news feed’ could be equatable to progress issues or statuses
Social media and PLM technologies really are very similar. For example, Inforbix’s technological solutions were inspired by a need to connect multiple pieces of data located in different places together. Inforbix’s ability to interconnect data and share it with people throughout the company looks a lot like the social networking structure. PLM and social media have already started to intersect – maybe because they are more similar than people think.
Jennifer Wensink, January 12, 2012
Tools and Tips for Maximizing SharePoint Functionality
January 11, 2012
There is a large chunk of the IT blogosphere devoted to SharePoint and enterprise, and a sizeable percentage of that is carved out for tips and tools to increase functionality. It makes sense. Enterprise is becoming a requirement, not just an option. Enterprise solutions, especially SharePoint, are massive creatures, requiring a lot of time and energy. Therefore, any tip or trick to get the most out of the system is of interest. The SharePoint Engine blog weighs in with, “7 Ways to Use SharePoint 2010 Effectively.”
The author writes:
The immense landscape that is SharePoint functionality is easy to lose track of. As a result, even those who don’t make major mistakes can still fall well short of taking full advantage of the platform. To help you as you try to milk this magnificent Microsoft system for all it’s worth, here are 7 simple ways you can use SharePoint to better your business.
The advice ranges from setting up mobile access to centralizing task locations. All these customization tips are smart, and will likely increase efficiency and retrieval. However, we wonder if a smarter solution exists, one that automatically implements these intuitive customization features, without having to spend the time to do the customization. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers that type of enterprise solution. Read more about their enterprise solution.
Highly efficient enterprise search and specific connectors link together data sources in companies and organizations. They integrate the knowledge of different sections of a company into a uniform, linked whole . . . But an all-inclusive search is not everything. Creating relevant knowledge means processing data in a comprehensible form and utilizing relations between information objects. Data is sorted according to type and relevance.
SharePoint is created to be an infrastructure, a shell. Powerful, yes, but costly to customize. That’s why many organizations are turning to third party solutions, such as Mindbreeze, to bridge the gap with SharePoint. Mindbreeze in particular will serve as a standalone solution or as an addition to an already existing SharePoint infrastructure.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 11, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Master Data Management to Grow in 2012
January 11, 2012
The search is on for better organized and accessible product data. Some companies are turning to Master Data Management (MDM) for the solution. “Gartner Says Master Data Management Software Revenue to Grow 21 Percent This Year” with revenues reaching $1.9 billion in 2012 and $3.2 billion by 2015.
MDM focuses on both customer and product data. For customers, MDM allows companies to cross-promote, retain current client bases and provide high-quality customer service. As for product data, it provides organized master data, metadata, or both. Gartner research director, Colleen Graham, says that MDM is necessary to deal with the likes of social data and data in the cloud.
“The increased demand for more effective decision-making and a focus on improving the timeliness and accuracy of business decisions makes MDM paramount for organsations,” said Graham. “MDM supports these goals by ensuring the high quality of key data needed at the point of decision, removing uncertainly and increasing confidence.”
Companies should not stop at MDM. They should look beyond and if they do, they will find that Inforbix goes a step further by using semantic technology to find and infer relationships between disparate sources of structured and unstructured product data. This allows users to find, locate and access data quickly which gives manufacturers the organized and accessible product data they are looking for.
Jennifer Wensink, January 11, 2012
Protected: Get Started on SharePoint Continuous Integration
January 11, 2012
The Urgency of the Cloud for Enterprise
January 10, 2012
It seems that moving IT infrastructure to the cloud is no longer an innovative alternative, but is rather becoming the standard, the norm. IT teams need to embrace the change and shift their thinking away from the football team sized IT staffs of the future. This is not just a general trend, but one that specifically applies to large organizations’ enterprise solutions as well. Rob Lamear focuses on the need to move SharePoint to the cloud in, “Why You NEED SharePoint in the Cloud Now.”
Lamear is referring here to the budget crunch pushing the urgency of the Cloud:
C-levels in every country are no longer telling me that the Cloud is something ‘we are looking at,’ but rather have turned the conversation to ‘We need the Cloud!’ They know they need to slash IT budget dollars and use them in other areas of the business. At best, they use the extra money to innovate and differentiate in the global marketplace. At worst, they need to save to survive.
The question we have to ask is how complicated and costly is the initial move to the cloud. Is there a simpler solution that combines efficient enterprise search with functional, affordable cloud services? We think Fabasoft Mindbreeze might be just that solution.
Read a little more about their cloud services:
The Cloud makes your business mobile; Mindbreeze finds its way in the Cloud. This intelligent search is available as a Cloud service. This means that, if you so desire, Fabasoft Mindbreeze can run without any installation whatsoever – we operate the search engine for you. All the data that you manage in the Cloud is made searchable by Fabasoft Mindbreeze. This makes Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise the center of excellence for your knowledge in the Cloud too.
Implementing Fabasoft Mindbreeze in the cloud alongside your existing SharePoint installation is a switch that improves the efficiency of your search as well as your infrastructure. There’s no configuration and no maintenance. If your organization spent less time and money maintaining your enterprise system, in what other areas could you invest those resources? It is definitely worth consideration, and Fabasoft Mindbreeze is worth a second look.
Emily Rae Aldridge, January 10, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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