Big Outfits Buy Search Vendors: Does Chaos Commence?
May 25, 2012
I don’t want to mention any specifics in this write up. I have a for-fee Overflight on the subject. I do want to highlight some of the preliminary thoughts the goslings and I collected before creating our client-focused analysis. This write up was sparked by the recent news that the founder of Autonomy, which HP acquired for $10 billion, is seeking new opportunities after eight months immersed in the HP way. See “Hewlett-Packard Can’t Say It Wasn’t Warned about Autonomy.” This write up contained a remarkable statement, even when measured against the work of other “real” journalists:
Some will say this is a classic case of an entrepreneurial business being bought by a hulking, bureaucratic institution which failed to integrate it and failed to understand its culture. Others will say HP, desperate to do a deal, simply overpaid for a company that was going to struggle to maintain its sales and earnings momentum and was deluded about its abilities. Certainly warnings about the latter were there for HP to see before it handed over all that cash. Here’s what Marc Geall, a Deutsche Bank analyst who used to work at Autonomy, said in October 2010 about the business model: “…investment in the business has lagged revenues… [which] could affect customer satisfaction towards the product and the value it delivers.” He went on to warn that Autonomy’s service business was “too lean” and that it “risks falling short of standards demanded by customers”. All of which prompted Geall to question whether the company needed to change its business model – “traditionally, software companies have needed to change their business models at around $1bn in revenues”.
Yep, now the issues are easy to identify: the brutal cost of customer support, the yawning maw of research and development, the time and cost of customizing a system. The problem is that these issues have been identified. However, senior managers looking for the next big thing are extremely confident of their business and technical acumen. Search is a slam dunk. Heck, I can find what I want in Google. How tough can it be to find that purchase order? That confidence may work in business school, but it has not worked in the wild-and-crazy world of enterprise search and content processing.
Think back to the notable search acquisitions over the last few years. Here are some to jump start your memory:
- IBM in 2005 and 2006 purchases iPhrase (a MarkLogic precursor with semantic components) and Language Analysis Systems (a next generation content processing vendor)
- Microsoft which acquired Powerset and Fast Search & Transfer in the 2008 to 2009 period. Both vendors had next-generation systems with semantic, natural language processing, and other near-magical capabilities
- Oracle acquired TripleHop in 2005, focused on its less-and-less visible Secure Enterprise Search line up (SES10g and SES11g), then went on a buying spree to snap up InQuira (actually the company formed when two weaker players, Answerfriend Inc. and Electric Knowledge Inc., merged in 2002 or 2003, RightNow (which uses the Q-Go natural language processing system purchased in 2010 or 2011), and Endeca, an established search vendor with technology dating from the late 1990s)
- SAP snagged some search functions with its NetWeaver buy in 2004 which coexisted in a truce of sorts with the SAP TREX system. SAP bought Business Objects in 2007, the company inherited the Inxight Software, a text analytics vendor with assorted wizardry explained in buzzwords by marketing mavens.
So what have we learned from these buy outs by big companies? Here are the observations:
First, search and content processing does not behave the way other types of software learns to sit, come, and roll over. The MBAs, lawyers, and accountants issue commands like good organizational team players. The enterprise search and content processing crowd listens to the management edicts with bemusement. Everyone thinks search is a slam dunk. How tough can a utility function be? Well, let me remind you, gentle reader, search is pretty darned difficult. Unlike a cloud service for managing contacts, search is not one thing. Furthermore, those who have to use search are generally annoyed because systems have since 1970 failed to generate answers. Search outputs create more work. Usually the outputs are mostly wide of the mark. Big companies want to sell a software product or service that solves a problem like what is the back log for the Midwestern region or when did I last call Mr. Jones? The big companies don’t get this type of system when they buy, often for a premium, companies which purport to make content findable, smart, and accessible. So we have a situation in which a sales presentation whets the appetite of the big company executive who perceives himself or herself as an expert in search. Then when anticipation is at its peak, the sales person closes the deal. In the aftermath, the executives realize that search just does not follow the groove of an accounting system, a videoconferencing system, or a security system. Panic sets in, and you get crazy actions. IBM pretty much jettisoned its search systems and fell in love with open source Lucene / Solr. Good enough was a lot better than trying to figure out the mysteries of proprietary search and how to pay for the brutal research and development costs search requires.
Second, search is a moving target. I find that as recently as my meetings with sleek MBAs from six major financial firms, search was assumed to be a no brainer. Google has figured out search. Move on. When I asked the group how many considered themselves experts in search, everyone replied, “Yes.” I submit that none of these well-paid movers-and-shakers are very good at search and retrieval. Few of them have the time or patience for old fashioned research. Most get information from colleagues, via phone calls which include “I have a hard stop in five minutes”, and emails sent to people whom they have met at social functions or at conferences. Search is not looking up a phone number. Search is not slamming the name of a company into Google. Search is not wandering around midtown Manhattan with an iPhone displaying the location of a pizza joint. Search is whatever the user wishes to find, access, know, or learn at any point in time and in any context. Google is okay at some search functions. Other vendors are okay at others. The problem is that virtually all search and retrieval solutions are okay. People have been trying for about 50 years to deliver responses to queries that are what the user requires. Most systems dissatisfy more than half their users and have for 50 years. A big company buying a next generation search system wants these problems solved. The big company wants to close deals, get client access licenses, or cloud transactions for queries. But the big companies don’t get these things, so the MBAs, lawyers, and accountants are really confused. Confused people make crazy decisions. You get the idea.
Third, search does not mean search. Search technology includes figuring out which words to index in a document. Search does a miserable job of indexing videos unless the video audio track is converted to ASCII and then that ASCII is indexed. Even with this type of content processing system, search does not deliver a usable output. What a user gets is garbled snippets and maybe the opportunity to look at a video to figure out if the information is relevant. Search includes figuring out what a user wants before the user asks the question or even knows what the question is. One company is collecting millions in venture money to achieve this goal. Good luck on that. Search includes providing outputs that answer an employee’s specific question. Most systems provide a horseshoe type of result; that is, the search vendor wants points for getting close to the answer. Employees who have to click, scan, close, and repeat the process are not amused. The employee wants the Smith invoice from April, not increased risk of carpal tunnel problems. The poobahs who acquire search companies want none of these excuses. The poobahs want sales. What search acquisitions generate are increased costs, long sales cycles, and much friction. Marketers overstate and search systems routinely under deliver.
Who cares?
Another enterprise search train wreck. The engineer was either an MBA, an accountant, or a lawyer. No big deal. Just get another search train. How tough can it be to run a search system? Thanks to http://www.eccchistory.org/CCRailroads.htm
Well, the executives selling big companies a search and content processing just want the money. After years of backbreaking effort to generate revenues, the founders usually figure out that there are easier ways to earn a living. If the founders don’t bail out, they get a new job or become a guru at a venture capital firm.
Jetbox Introduces Enticing Solution to Old Problems
May 25, 2012
Finding the right balance between easy to use and robust enough to handle a company’s data is a problem with which many traditional product lifecycle management providers struggle. A new company, Jetbox, has just recently entered the PLM field and promises that their solution is unlike any before. The article, “Introducing Jetbox(TM), Inc., a Company that Has Reinvented the Way PLM Is Sold, Deployed, Used, and Maintained”, on Market Watch, announces all the ways Jetbox is not the same old, same old when it comes to PLM solutions.
The article describes the company:
“Included in its ground-breaking software is iC5(TM) Turbo, a comprehensive sales and implementation toolset that dramatically slashes the time and eliminates the expertise required to sell, plan, install, configure, document, test, deploy, train, use, support, and upgrade a PLM system. This powerful software toolset helps companies eliminate the need for a customized solution and a team of consultants, keeping within the constraints of an out-of-the-box approach.”
Jetbox’s approach at making PLM accessible to more people within an enterprise while keeping costs affordable and making it easily integratable with existing platforms is exactly the direction PLM needs to be moving. Other providers, like Inforbix, are also realizing that a PLM solution that is too difficult to operate and requires a lot of money to install and maintain does more harm than it does good. We look forward to what Jetbox and others similar come up with next.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 25, 2012
Tips for Implementing PLM for SMEs
May 24, 2012
Now that cloud based technology has lowered the cost of implementing product lifecycle management (PLM) platforms to a level to which most small and midsized enterprises (SME) can take advantage many are still gun-shy when it comes to actually pursuing a suitable PLM solution. A recent article, “Ten Tips for PLM Success”, on CADalyst, helps direct such companies in choosing a PLM solution.
One of the best tips is to hire a professional. The analogy is made that PLM is like a do-it-yourself home repair project. Most of the time one gets in over their head and are forced to call a professional to clean up their mistake making the project more expensive and time consuming than necessary. As for PLM, it explains,
“PLM is no different. You need very specific expertise for these types of deployments, and many companies — out of a desire to save money and reduce the initial investment — think they can manage it internally with their IT team. Without the right level of knowledge on hand, however, deployments can take a lot longer and have a lower chance of success.”
All ten tips are great for small and midsized businesses intimidated by PLM solutions and the entire culture surrounding the once impossible notion of having one’s own PLM platform. Choosing the right professional for the job can be tricky which is why we recommend that companies look for providers with a proven record in customer service. As the article also explains, implementing a PLM solution that no one understands or can use is worthless.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 24, 2012
Cloud SaaS Is as Good as It Seems
May 23, 2012
Anyone can hear companies groan when replacing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is mentioned and for good reason. Replacing software (recommended every seven to ten years) is a costly and difficult process. All that is changing however thanks to the cheapening-down of PLM solutions and the cloud according to the Works Management article, “Not Brain Surgery”, which asserts that cloud based SaaS solutions are not only trendy but practical.
PLM and ERP’s complicated relationship is explained by the article as:
“PLM for the masses may have taken about a decade longer than most pundits predicted, but it’s here now, and manufactures jumping on board will benefit from lessons learned, and improvements in technology and implementation thinking throughout that period. And did you note that reference to cloud computing as an enabler? If you want to improve the cost/benefits ratio, how about considering a sexy new cloud solution for most of your business, engineering and manufacturing software – including ERP? Not long ago such a suggestion would have been laughed out of court. But now?”
As cloud based PLM solutions are proving themselves across industries and enterprises of all sizes more and more are jumping on board. As the article points out when one stops to think about all the benefits of new technologies it just makes sense. PLM providers basing their solutions on cloud technology are creating affordable, customized platforms for their clients that would have been just a dream a decade ago. It’s time more companies realize their dreams.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 23, 2012
The Heat in SharePoint Semantics May 11 to May 17
May 22, 2012
As always SharePoint Semantics points readers, search enthusiasts, and SharePoint end users to create a strategy to deploy SharePoint in a way that benefits everyone in your workplace.
In the post, “Prepare a Robust Adoption Strategy for Your SharePoint Deployment with 7 Tips,” writer Ken Toth stresses that people should be the primary focus of your SharePoint adoption strategy because no matter how great your technology it is the people that make your company succeed.
When describing the list of tips, Toth states:
“Executives need to be visible in their use of SharePoint. Next is getting buy-in from business users because they will drive your business requirements and you need to make sure the end results will meet their needs. Third, influence the organization by forming a core community of successful thought leaders and subject matter experts. Fourth, engage your users by selling the concept and establishing a meaningful connection to its value and benefits. Fifth, offer instructor-based and e-learning training. Sixth, market your SharePoint launch like you would a new product. Finally, promote participation by giving rewards and recognition.”
Looking towards the future, App development is a becoming a very integral part of ensuring a company’s ability to prosper in the 21st century. In order to stay current, SharePoint created the planned SharePoint App Marketplace. The post, “Furuknap Shares Insight on the Expected App Marketplace for SharePoint 2013”
In the referenced article, Furuknap explains:
“In short, the job ad is for a software developer who can help the Visual Studio team build the next generation of tools for SharePoint. The ad, however, reveals more information than I suspect Microsoft intended, and confirms the existence of the new App model, the App Marketplace, simplified HTML and JavaScript, and leveraging Windows Azure and SQL Azure for data, logic, and workflows.”
In the realm of SharePoint troubleshooting, the post “Understand the Difference Between SharePoint Publishing and Collaboration” does an excellent job of fleshing out the details of publishing and collaboration in a way that is easy to digest.
Toth concludes:
“One simple way to get encourage collaboration is by integrating a powerful search feature into your SharePoint system so users can efficiently find and reuse information. The experts at Smartlogic really understand the benefits of metadata. Here you can read about the comprehensive solution, “Tagging information with metadata significantly enhances its findability. Metadata also improves the consistency and quality of the output so content can be repurposed and reused slashing time it takes to create new content.”
Toth is absolutely right. Without third party solutions like Smartlogic, it would be much more difficult to really understand all of the intricacies that come with using SharePoint.
Jasmine Ashton, May 22, 2012
Siemens Invests in Tomorrow’s Manufacturers
May 22, 2012
The manufacturing industry has relied largely on labor to function. As technology grows more complex and the average age of the American manufacturer creeps higher a new breed of worker must be developed and trained. In an effort to train the next generation of manufacturing laborers in emerging technology Siemens has begun partnering with community colleges for training as discussed in the Bloomberg article, “Siemens PLM Software Launches New Community College Best Practice Program to Revitalize U.S. Manufacturing”.
The article describes the partnership by saying,
“The program, developed in conjunction with Iowa Western Community College (IWCC), provides resources to interested community colleges and local manufacturers including a recommended associate’s degree curriculum, a guide for obtaining in-kind software grants to provide the technology needed for implementation, and a detailed white paper, titled Community Colleges Revitalize manufacturing, outlining the process for building a successful academic, government and business partnership for the program’s execution.”
The idea behind such training is that as technology becomes more refined so must the laborers using it. Siemens, known for their product lifecycle management solutions, understands the value of highly-trained workers. Their teaming up with community colleges is a great investment in tomorrow’s workforce. PLM solutions are being adopted across all industries, not just manufacturing, as an efficient way to reduce costs and streamline processes.
Catherine Lamsfuss, May 22, 2012
Inforbix: Semantic Technology for Manufacturing Information
May 21, 2012
Inforbix, a company whose focus is product data challenges in manufacturing, will be presenting at the 2012 Semantic Technology & Business Conference in San Francisco this June 3rd through 7th. CEO Oleg Shilovitsky’s presentation will share ways his company uses semantic technology to tackle the growing data complexity plaguing the manufacturing sector. Inforbix will also take part in the Start-Up Competition on the 5th with the pitch, “Solving the Problem of Engineering Data Complexity.”
Regarding the data challenges unique to their corner of the industry, Inforbix’s press release explains:
“Manufacturing companies generate vast amounts of data. These organizations are asking how they will survive tomorrow with such data complexity. Inforbix helps companies solve the problem of data complexity in a new and different way.
1. Inforbix uses smart components (product data crawlers) that scan on-premise data and give users access to data, no matter where it’s located or how it’s sourced. There is no data extraction involved, no data import, and no data conversion. The process is automatic and requires little to no effort to deploy and maintain.
2. Inforbix uses intelligent semantic modeling that infers relationships between disparate sources of data. It combines, links, and connects these data pieces, then exposes that data using product data applications.
3. Inforbix uses the power of the cloud to allow broad and cost-effective data access.”
Founded in 2010, Inforbix is based in Boston, MA. They help their manufacturing clients access mounds of data through a single tool; ease of use, speed, and efficiency are their hallmarks.Inforbix develops intelligent apps– simple tools that address specific product data tasks like searching and accessing product data, organizing and presenting product data, and visualizing product data trends and patterns.
Inforbix’s semantic technology underpins its groundbreaking apps. It automatically finds and infers relationships between disparate sources of structured and unstructured product data. By linking and connecting related product data, Inforbix provides users with the ability to locate and access product data quickly and thoroughly.
While Product Data Management (PDM) systems offer search, their success depends on properly structured and consistent data formats, and those systems can only search within their own infrastructure. Inforbix is product data agnostic: it can access structured and unstructured data located anywhere in a manufacturing company. That’s a huge savings in time and trouble. Though smaller companies may be able to use Inforbix instead of a PDM, the solutions are intended to work with those systems.
Inforbix apps are cloud-based and fast to deploy, require no data migration or maintenance. They also provide data security by preserving the on-premises data without touching it or moving it into the cloud; that is wise.
The company introduced a mobile platform for the iPad for its apps this past January, and no training or prior experience is necessary to make the most of these apps. The software is priced affordably for any size manufacturing company to deploy companywide; a demo is available here. We highly recommend you check Inforbix out.
Cynthia Murrell, May 21, 2012
Sponsored by HighGainBlog
A Search Solution for Truvo
May 21, 2012
Truvo, a provider of search and digital advertising solutions in Belgium and Portugal, recently announced that it will implement products created by Amdocs to support its sales, billing, and product lifecycle management (PLM) needs as it continues to ramp up its system capabilities to address the growing demand for multi-media advertising. Truvo had deployed software by Amdocs in 2011 to improve the relevancy of its search results to consumers.
In a press release entitled “European Provider Truvo Selects Amdocs to Improve Sales, Ordering and Billing for Digital Advertising Products” that recently appeared on Market Watch, Rebecca Prudhomme, the vice president of product and solutions marketing at Amdocs, comments on the need for data management solutions that enhance the productivity of clients like Truvo:
“Local search and advertising providers today require more sophisticated systems that can support complex, multi-media products, while driving operational efficiencies. The deployment of Amdocs’ products will not only allow Truvo to remain at the forefront of digital advertising innovation, but also simplify Truvo’s operational processes and reduce the associated costs.”
Inforbix, with its cloud-based, scalable, and affordable products, can also offer its clients a PLM solution that enhances their search capabilities so that they can find, reuse, and share their product data with ease.
Tonya Weikel, May 21, 2012
Grave Dancing: Implications for Search
May 20, 2012
I read “The Golden Age of Silicon Valley Is Over, and We’re Dancing on Its Grave.” I like the metaphor of grave dancing. A trifle medieval, but I think the sentiment matches the post Facebook IPO. I am surprised that no MBAs did high dives from Wall Street sky scrapers on Friday, April 18, 2012, but perhaps I misunderstood the CNBC headline about Facebook’s underwhelming share price performance. There were not too many financial mavens dancing to Rufus Thomas’ Walking the Dog on Friday evening.
There were several passages in the article which I snipped for my quotation collection. Let me highlight several.
I liked this statement by Steve Blank, “a professor at Berkeley and Stanford and serial entrepreneur from Silicon Valley.” He allegedly said:
Companies like Facebook for the first time can get total markets approaching the entire population.
I think 900 million members is a good population, just not an “entire population.” Why quibble? The point is that consumerization makes simplicity job one. Complexity has to be hidden and kept away from the users.
Second, here’s an opinion which some may find out of step with the happy squirrel approach taken by most Silicon Valley cheerleaders. He, according to the write up, opined:
Silicon Valley is screwed as we know it.
Well, the Better Business Bureau needs to get on its pony and ride, baby, ride.
Third, I liked the positive view of US government funded research:
Thank God we have small business research grants from the federal government, otherwise the Chinese would just grab them.
My take is that grave dancing is not likely to be the next Hokey Pokey, mashed potatoes, or schottische. The economy, not the social stampede and smart phones, may be calling the tune.
Perhaps that is why the “new” search from Bing and Google look a lot like the mid 1990s Excite with better typography.
Stephen E Arnold, May 20, 2012
Sponsored by Polyspot
America’s Technology Highway
May 18, 2012
Dassault Systèmes, France’s largest software company; Parametric Technology Corp., which is based in Needham, Massachusetts; and Aras Corp., which relocated from New York to Andover, Massachusetts, are among the large number of firms creating product lifestyle management (PLM) solutions who have recently established a presence along Route 128, or the aptly named “PLM Highway,” in the technology-heavy Greater Boston area.
In an article entitled “Route 128 at Center of Manufacturing,” which was written by D. C. Denison and appeared on the Boston Globe’s website, on May 13, 2012, the significance of this corridor to the growing PLM industry is discussed:
“Today, just about every product that consumers touch—the cars they drive, the planes they fly in, the pots and pans they cook with—is likely to have been created with software developed in the area surrounding Route 128….Boston’s dominance in PLM is rooted in the state’s manufacturing history, and has been 50 years in the making. The technology grew from the invention of computer-aided design software, or CAD, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1960s.”
Inforbix, which offers cloud-based solutions data management for companies seeking to find, reuse, and share their increasingly complex product information among their often globalized operations, has a growing presence in the PLM industry and is based near its epicenter.
Tonya Weikel, May 18, 2012
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