IntelTrax Top Stories: October 5 to October 11
October 15, 2012
This week’s top stories from the IntelTrax advanced intelligence blog focused on the impact of big data analytics solutions on a multitude of different industries.
According to “New Pike Research Report Analyzes Smart Grid Analytics” there will be a spike in smart grid data analytics spending that is forecasted to reach more than $34 billion. The bulk of this spending, which will occur worldwide, will be in the Asian Pacific.
When describing the report, the article states:
“This Pike Research report analyzes the global market opportunity for smart grid data analytics across four key solution segments: meter analytics, grid analytics, asset analytics, and renewables integration for business intelligence, operations, and customer management. The report provides a comprehensive assessment of the demand drivers, business models, policy factors, and technology issues associated with the rapidly-developing market for smart grid data analytics. Key industry players are profiled in depth and worldwide revenue and capacity forecasts, segmented by application and region, extend through 2020.”
“Expert Suggests You Ask Your Analytics Vendor the Tough Questions” explains the importance of advocating for yourself and your business by asking the hard questions when choosing between a myriad of solutions that solve the same or similar data management problems.
The article states:
“SAP customers looking at the possibility of deploying text analytics software within their operations should be diligent about asking vendors lots of questions, according to one expert.
Giving vendors the third degree is especially important when shopping for text analytics technology because there is a wide range of offerings on the market at various levels of maturity, said Hanns Koehler-Kruener, a research director with Stamford, Conn.-based IT research firm Gartner Inc.
Additionally, text analytics technology is still emerging into the mainstream and therefore terminology and performance expectations will vary from vendor to vendor. As a result, the only real way to find out if a particular text analytics product meets specific needs is through questioning and trial and error, the analyst said.”
While most companies see big data as a huge benefit when channeled appropriately, consumers may see it as a threat to their privacy. “The Threat of Big Data” explains how big data can be misused.
The article states:
“What those breadcrumbs tell is the story of your life. It tells what you’ve chosen to do. That’s very different than what you put on Facebook. What you put on Facebook is what you would like to tell people, edited according to the standards of the day. Who you actually are is determined by where you spend time, and which things you buy. Big data is increasingly about real behavior, and by analyzing this sort of data, scientists can tell an enormous amount about you. They can tell whether you are the sort of person who will pay back loans. They can tell you if you’re likely to get diabetes.”
Whether you are looking to utilize big data for good or evil, there are companies out there that are willing to help your company harness data. Digital Reasoning uses automated understanding to take the pressure off employees and gain valuable insights from big data.
Jasmine Ashton, October 15, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint Training Essential to Success
October 12, 2012
The secret to a successful SharePoint implementation is in planning and training. Research and Markets has added new training pieces to their class offerings. Herald Online provides a full story in their article, “Research and Markets: Comprehensive Microsoft SharePoint Training – Manage SharePoint Sites like a Professional.”
Read about their latest SharePoint 2010 End User class:
The SharePoint 2010 End User class is for end users working in a SharePoint 2010 environment. The course teaches SharePoint basics such as working with lists and libraries as well as basic page customizations. The SharePoint 2010 Power User training class teaches students to manage SharePoint sites.
This class is hands-on and interactive, with exercises, presentations and readings to ensure students stay engaged and learn the material presented.
Training is important for complicated enterprise solutions, but there are some third party options that focus on intuitive ease of use. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise, one such smart third party solution. Data is given meaning and is made more easily retrievable. Therefore, training is still important, but becomes less urgent. Usability is brought down to the level of a more common user, meaning small or medium size businesses can save time and money on both training and specialized developer positions.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 12, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Familiar Architecture and Improvements in SharePoint 2013
October 11, 2012
J. Peter Bruzzese, a writer for InfoWorld’s Enterprise Windows blog, takes a look at what he terms welcome enhancements for SharePoint 2013 in his InfoWorld post, “SharePoint 2013: A Low-Key Update You’ll Love.” Bruzzese first points out that architecturally, the upcoming SharePoint release is similar to its predecessor, but with added benefit of increased support for touch based devices. He has this to say about the overall improvements:
SharePoint 2013’s social networking enhancements provide more interaction options for people in a company, such as via community sites and portals that offer a forum-style experience within SharePoint. The My Sites user interface…has been streamlined. New microblog and newsfeed features allow for shorter conversations and quick updates, similar to what Yammer provides.
He adds that overall SharePoint 2013 is an improvement, but also has this to say:
I only wish that SharePoint was released more frequently, not tied to the three-year cycles of the Office and server lines, so it could better keep up with the rapid changes in social networking, mobile, and other user technology spaces.
Bruzzese points out that greater scalability and integration of FAST Search, rather than being a stand-alone program, are also two improvements. But when it comes to taking advantage of social capabilities and search, we know that FAST has its gaps and users need efficient and easy access to information. Fabasoft Mindbreeze offers Enterprise Search with SharePoint Connectors so to easily snap into your existing farm. In addition to all-inclusive search, Mindbreeze creates relevant knowledge by storing data according to type and relevance while processing data in a comprehensible form.
Philip West, October 11, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Tips for Creating Content to Attract an Audience
October 10, 2012
Simon Penson started his career as a journalist and magazine editor before turning to the world of online audience creation and has owned and run his own sites. He is also the founder of content led digital marketing agency Zazzle Media, which specializes in content marketing and strategy. In his article, “46 Ways to Kill It with Content,” he concisely delivers a variety of tips to boost online content. Penson includes discussion on creating content ideas and structure, strategy development, as well as content execution and measuring effectiveness. He has this to share about understanding users as part of measuring effectiveness,
Set up goal and funnel tracking as part of any major content creation process and track users through to action. Just ensure that time frames are set in a realistic manner. Too many times this is measured over weeks or a couple of months when it should be a 6-12 month investment that will continue to deliver engaged and targeted visitors for many month to come.
Don’t simply measure outreach by the links earned. Look at referral traffic and brand visibility value also as part of the measurement process.
A successful Web presence depends on having useful and attractive content. MindBreeze InSite understands that an attractive Web site is a company’s digital business card. InSite “turns your website into a user-friendly knowledge portal for your customers. Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite recognizes correlations and links through semantic and dynamic search processes. This delivers pinpoint accurate and precise “finding experiences.” With no installation or configuration required, InSite can save you valuable resources that can otherwise be spent on developing and managing stellar content.
Philip West, October 10, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
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.
Oracle Embraces Digital Reasoning
October 8, 2012
Digital Reasoning™, a leader in unstructured data analytics at scale is now a Silver Partner in Oracle PartnerNetwork (OPN) Specialized program. The “silver” designation means that Digital Reasoning benefits from Oracle’s complete solutions addressing unstructured data analytics where extreme scale and high performance are key customer needs. (For more information, see “Digital Reasoning Becomes Oracle PartnerNetwork Silver Level Partner.”
Digital Reasoning has integrated Synthesys®, the company’s software platform for unstructured analytics, with the Oracle Big Data Appliance. A white paper featuring benchmark performance information on the analytics of massive unstructured data sets of documents is available on our website. With the combined power of Synthesys and the Big Data Appliance users can now analyze tens of millions of documents in only a few hours as opposed to months with traditional methods.
Synthesys uses a unique combination of machine learning, patented advanced analytics and tight integration with Hadoop to automatically uncover critical information buried in documents, email, web content and social media. Synthesys has been applied to complex big data analytics challenges in the U.S. intelligence community during the past decade and is now being applied to big data analytics challenges in finance, healthcare and legal markets.
Rob Metcalf, president of Digital Reasoning, said:
We are excited about achieving Silver Level Partner Status in OPN. We see a lot of customer interest in combining Synthesys with the Oracle Big Data Appliance for high performance unstructured data analytics.
With its Silver status, Digital Reasoning is now able to develop, sell and implement Oracle’s 1-Click product portfolio, allowing us to increase competitive positioning and profitability with midsize companies. As an additional benefit, Digital Reasoning can now leverage the OPN Portal tools, resources and experts within the Oracle Partner Business Center to increase their market knowledge and ability to maximize customer sales and retention with Oracle. Silver Level partners are also eligible for discounts on Oracle training, lead registration via Open Market Model, entry into the Oracle Solutions Catalog, discounts on Oracle Linux and VM Support and more.
My view is that Oracle has rich capabilities which are now extended with the state of the art functionality provided by Digital Reasoning.
Stephen E Arnold, October 8, 2012
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.
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
