The Enterprise Search Thrill Ride
August 29, 2008
Summer’s ending, and the search engine thrill ride is accelerating. Before you fire up your personal computer and send me an email asking for juicy details, appreciate that I can only comment in a broad way, making observations at a high level. If you have an appetite for more information, you will have to dip into your piggy back and engage me to show up and discuss the state of the industry in a less chatty setting like this Web log.
Every amusement park has a thrill ride. Kids love these roller coasters, bungee jumps, and spinning barrels. Adults or people with an aversion to fear are generally content to watch. Once in a great while, a thrill ride goes wrong. The thrill seekers can be injured and once in a while killed.
Search and content processing companies are in a sense a thrill ride in way. The launch of a company is filled with anticipation. Then the company chugs along and usually gets a sale, and the process repeats itself. At the end of the ride, the company speeds along and in most cases the ride ends with the employees’ displaying big smiles. When a ride goes wrong, the employees aren’t so chipper, but the lawyers often show sly grins.
I am quite confident that the September to December 15, 2008, period will be quite exciting for me. First, the search and content processing sector of the enterprise software market is poised for change. Second, a number of companies will have to make their numbers or face the prospect of enduring the lash of venture capitalists’ whips, changing careers, or closing up for good. Third, the GOOG is beginning to move slowly forward in the enterprise sector. Even if Google’s management insists “We’re just running a beta test”, those “beta tests” will be disruptive for established search and content processing vendors. Fourth, newcomers to the North American market will make their presence felt to a greater degree than in the first six months of 2008. Newcomers often become irritants with their promise of better, faster, or cheaper. Of course, the customer may pick two of these claims, but incumbents have to waste time and money deflecting these competitive challenges. Finally, superplatforms–big enterprise software vendors–have to protect their turf. I expect significant pressure from these firms to add another variable to the search and content sector. After all, what can a company do when Microsoft bundles an incrementally improving search and retrieval system with a widely used server product like SharePoint.
Dataspaces Analysis Available
August 29, 2008
IDC, the research giant near Boston, has issued for its paying customers “Google: A Push Beyond Databases”. The write up is part of the firm’s Technology Assessment series. Sue Feldman, the IDC search and content processing lead analyst and industry expert, is the lead author. I provided some background rowing. The result is a useful first look at a Google initiative that’s been rolling along since 2006. The 12-page document provides a brief definition of dataspaces, a timeline of key events, and several peeks into the technology and applications of this important technology. Ms. Feldman and I teamed to outline some of the implications that we identified. If you want a copy of this document, you will have to contact IDC for document #213562. If your company has an IDC account, you can obtain the document directly. If you wish to purchase a copy of this report, navigate to http://www.idc.com/ and click on the “Contact” link. As with my BearStearns’ Google analyses, I am not able to release these documents. I’m sure others know about dataspaces, but I find the topic somewhat fresh and quite suggestive.
This report is particularly significant in light of Google’s making its “golden oldie” technology MapReduce available to Aster Data and Greenplum. You can read about this here. Last year, I spoke with representatives of IBM and Oracle. I asked about their perceptions of Google in the database and data management business. Representatives of both companies assured me that Google was not interested in this business. Earlier this year, via a government client I learned that IBM’s senior managers see Google as a company that is fully understood by the top brass of the White Plains giant. My thought is that it must be wonderful to know so much about Google, its deal for MapReduce, and now the dataspace technology before anyone else learns of these innovations. The dataspace write up, therefor, will be interest to those who lack the knowledge and insight of IBM and Oracle wizards.
Stephen Arnold, August 29, 2008
Google: Another Legal Hassle
August 27, 2008
A number of sources–including ZDNet UK–are reporting that Google has been named in a legal action by Kalusner Technologies. You can get more information from Reuters here. The issue concerns automatic notification of voice mail. Google declined to comment. For me, this type of legal action just adds one more task on Google’s lawyers’ to do list. I wonder if the wild and crazy world of software and business process patents was created for legal eagles to stimulate the sale of condos in Costa Rica.
Stephen Arnold, August 27, 2008
Clearwell Systems: Making Pain Go Away in eDiscovery
August 27, 2008
I have had some experience as an expert witness. One thing I learned: real life law isn’t like TV law. The mind numbing tediousness of document review, discussing information germane to a legal matter, and talking about data have to be experienced to be understood.
When I saw a demo of Clearwell Systems last year, I was impressed with the company’s understanding of this brain killing work in eDiscovery; that is, the process of figuring out what info is buried in information generated in a legal matter.
Clearwell Systems has introduced a new version of its content analysis system, and it adds some additional and useful features to a good product. You can read about the new version here. In a nutshell, the most important features for me are:
- Improved search reports. This feature makes it possible to show where information came from. Clearwell talks about “black box” searching; that is, you enter terms and documents come out. The “transparent” approach produces an audit trail. Very useful.
- Tweaks to make the appliance go faster.
- Training wheels for formulating a query. Legal eagles are smart, but Clearwell adds training wheels to reduce the chance for a lousy query.
For more information, navigate to Clearwell Systems at http://www.clearwellsystems.com.
Stephen Arnold, August 27, 2008
SharePoint Test
August 26, 2008
ChiefTech posted an interesting self-test here. I don’t want to spoil your fun so I will quote just one of the tongue-in-cheek questions. You know your SharePoint project is in trouble when…
You are focused on turning off features.
I enjoyed this post because it underscores some of my perceptions of SharePoint. I think it is an example of a content management system infected with Microsoft Word type bloat. For me, SharePoint is a system that looks like a great deal and it sure seems easy to set up, manage, and customize. But as one adds “sites” or becomes mired in the idiosyncrasies of performing minor graphic tweaks, SharePoint can be a termagant.
One happy quack to ChiefTech, a person who knows how to identify the SharePoint gotchas in a clever way.
Stephen Arnold, August 27, 2008
Nexidia: Speech Technology
August 26, 2008
Nexidia, a developer of audio search and speech analytics solutions, received a “market leader” award from Speech Technology magazine.
Nexidia also released a new version of the company’s Enterprise Speech Intelligence (ESI) 7.0. The company also released a library of speech analytics search routines. These software components will, according to the company, speed deployment of the Nexidia system.
The new release includes enhanced reporting and analysis tools. Version 7.0 also features improved performance and scaling. ESI can be integrated directly with all major call recording platforms, these solutions are available to every contact center or similar business applications no matter which call recording in use.
You can get more information about Nexidia here. . Information about the code libraries is here. Information about ESI 7.0 is here.
Stephen Arnold, August 26, 2008
Computerworld: Google’s Not Hot
August 26, 2008
The Computerworld story surprised me. Preston Gralla, a really big name in tech journalism, wrote an opinion piece called “Why Google Has Lost Its Mojo — And Why You Should Care”. You can read the full text of this important essay here. The most important point in Mr. Gralla’s write up is the title. It says it clear: Google has no spice, zing, magic, and voodoo. In Gulla, Google’s medicine men have lost “it”.
Consider this statement:
So why do I think it’s lost its mojo? Let’s start with the way it treats its employees. Google’s largesse has been legendary — free food, liberal maternity and parental leave, on-site massages, fitness classes and even oil changes. But according to a recent New York Times article, those days may be gone.
Once employees sense a downshift, human resources professionals have to scramble.
I posted an innocuous story about the Amtrak passenger service selecting Autonomy. The outfit fighting for this project was Google. Google lost this high profile account. Google has other challenges as well, including legal hassles. Some big and some small. But these take time to address. Google’s technology is showing some flaws. Ads still works, but other functions are buggy. Google has started an investment branch; its foundation is pushing “green” technology. Former employees are not surfing on Google. Some like Cuil.com are competing. The fact that those Xooglers rolled out a tasty confection before it was complete does little to polish the reputation of Google and its Xooglers. For me, the fact that Computerworld is souring on Google is news. Amazing turn of events for Googzilla.
Stephen Arnold, August 26, 2008
nGenera Bakes in Autonomy Search
August 26, 2008
Just when Microsoft makes search “free”, along comes Autonomy and proves that licensing deals are alive and well. According to CRM Buyer, nGenera inked an original equipment manufacturing deal with Autonomy. What’s interesting is that it’s not “search”. The deal is for Web 2.0 technology for search. The application is not finding. The application is knowledge management. I have to be up front and admit that I don’t know what knowledge is. Absent that understanding, I’m baffled at how to manage what I don’t grasp. Nevertheless, the deal is done.
Let’s sort out who is who in this deal. Talisma, according to CRM Buyer, “OEM’ed the Autonomy search engine.” An Autonomy reseller told me that Autonomy’s search engine no longer needs training, and it now shares many features with “appliance like” search systems from Google and Thunderstone, among others. You can get more information about Talisma here. The Talisma catchphrase is “Software that enables an exceptional online customer experience.”
nGenera bought Talisma in May 2008. nGenera’s Steve Papermaster is reported as having said at the time of the deal:
The future of innovation is customer co-creation: talking directly to customers, listening to them, learning from them. We’re taking content and processes from customer interaction software and mashing that with Web 2.0 collaboration tools to help companies discover brilliant new product ideas inspired by their own customers. Source: Paul Greenberg.
nGenera now has its own customer support product line to complement its other management consulting type software offerings. nGenera is a cloud computing - Web 2.0 services firm. The company has a remarkable “manifesto” here that sets forth its vision for organizational operations. One idea in the manifest is that organizations must move from knowledge management” to what the company calls “content collaboration and collective intelligence”. Since I don’t know what “knowledge management” means, I am in the dark about information operations that reach beyond. The manifesto also advocates moving from “traditional information technology” to “a next generation enterprise platform.” Again my experience is not much help to me in figuring out what nGenera’s services will deliver. The company has its fingers in many different pies. Each pie is stuffed with Web 2.0 goodness and goodies like “leveraging institutional memory,” “mass collaboration”, “business analytics”, and “transformational change”. These notions are too sophisticated for this addled goose.
The Talisma Knowledgebase which may now incorporate Autonomy technology.
The purchase of Talisma adds what nGenera describes here as:
The leading Customer Interaction Management (CIM) software solution provider enabling organizations globally to deliver an exceptional online customer experience while dramatically increasing their efficiency and effectiveness. Talisma’s customers include Aetna, AOL, Canon, Citibank, Comcast, Dell, Ford, University of Notre Dame, Microsoft, Pitney Bowes, Siemens, Sony, and Sprint. Talisma is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, and has offices located across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America.
To sum up, nGenera bought Talisma in May 2008. Talisma inked a deal for Autonomy’s search and content processing technology. Autonomy, therefore, “snaps in” to the broader range of nGenera’s Web 2.0 services. Autonomy joins Atlassian Confluence as a technology provider to nGenera. I must admit these names leave my head spinning.
SharePoint and SQLServer: Designer or Visual Studio 2008
August 25, 2008
We can’t escape SharePoint. We also can’t escape SQLServer. The question arose recently about Designer (a light weight, graphical tool for “coding” SharePoint) and Visual Studio 2008. Our solution was to hack away until the beastie SharePoint could suck data from SQLServer.
MSDN’s Dot Net Web log, “. Net Developer”, had a useful post today. We think it’s pretty useful. We tried to locate the information using the MSDN search and experience zero joy. The original Web log post we snagged is here. The key piece of information is this statement:
If you’re working with content, SharePoint Designer is a great tool, but if you’re working with compiled code, then you really need to be looking at Visual Studio and the things that the extensions let you do.
To make Visual Studio work, however, you will need these links to obtain bits and pieces not in the Visual Studio 2008 build:
The information is available on Phil Wheat’s Web log: http://blog.austinwheats.net
Save these links because the search function doesn’t work too well.
Stephen Arnold, August 23, 2008
Autonomy: On Track with Amtrak
August 25, 2008
US search and content processing vendors must be wondering why their sales efforts continue to come up short. Autonomy nailed another juicy, high profile contract. This time Amtrak, the outfit that runs America’s remarkable passenger rail system, has inked a deal with the Cambridge, UK, vendor of search and content processing software. Financial details were not announced. Amtrak’s search system, its voice response system, and its personalization functions are–in a word–ratty. I hope that Autonomy’s software improves Amtrak’s online functions. I don’t think there’s much hope for the rail system itself. The train running from Campinas to Sao Paulo I rode as a kid was light years better than the Amtrak regional service I experienced about 10 days ago. The Amtrak business class car smelled as if a couple of chickens and a pig were on board. In Brasil, the chickens and pigs rode mostly in third class and the first class cars were quite nice as I recall. Amtrak’s business class delivered the stink without the actual beasts. More information about the Autonomy win is here. Information about Autonomy is here. The site was sluggish on August 24, 2008, at 3 30 pm Eastern. Might be a network issue.
Stephen Arnold, August 25, 2008
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