Inteltrax: Top Stories, March 26 to March 30
April 2, 2012
Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, the ways in which unstructured data is impacting the big data industry.
Our feature story this week, “Digital Reasoning Makes Major Move in Military,” shows how the leader in unstructured data wrangling is helping the military increase its reach.
“Unstructured Data Demands Right Tools” proves that not all unstructured data softwares are created equal. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a shell game for users to find the right one for their needs.
“Governments Get Self Conscious with Analytics” showed how clever government agencies are clearing up inaccuracies and becoming more efficient by utilizing the massive collections of unstructured data lingering in their systems.
If you aren’t familiar with the term “unstructured data” you will be. It’s the big horizon in the analytics world. We, fortunately, are well versed in the ephemeral stuff. It’s going to change the way the entire industry works and we’ll be following it every day.
Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com
Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.
April 2, 2012
SharePoint Best Practices Resource Center
April 2, 2012
The official SharePoint blog, To The SharePoint, announces the release of the 2010 version of the Best Practices Resource Center. The 2007 version was quite a hit, and Samantha Robertson unveils the newest version in, “Just Released – Best Practices Resource Center for SharePoint Server 2010.”
“We’re pleased to announce that we now have a 2010 version of the Best Practices Resource Center. Like in 2007, this was a joint effort between the SharePoint Customer Engineering team and Microsoft Consulting Services team for SharePoint. They drew on real customer experiences to help us bring you a set of guidelines that lay out the best practices for success with SharePoint Server 2010. Following these practices will help you avoid some of the common deployment pitfalls and keep your SharePoint environments available and performing well.”
The SharePoint resource center is no doubt a useful tool for organizations managing their SharePoint deployment. However, if an organization cannot financially or organizationally devote a dedicated team to managing and configuring SharePoint, how effective can the infrastructure possibly be? If your organization needs personalized attention for its enterprise capabilities, consider a third party solution with out-of-the-box capability, like Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or to be more precise, understands what the most important information is for you at any precise moment in time. It is the center of excellence for your knowledge and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud data together.”
Security and compliance are held to the highest standards with Mindbreeze, but the interface is intuitive and the search effective. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is extensible through connectors and scalable. Available for the Cloud or for on-site installation, check into the offerings of Fabasoft Mindbreeze to see if your organization could benefit from its implementation.
Emily Rae Aldridge, April 2, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SAS Gets More Visual
March 31, 2012
Inxight (now owned by BusinessObjects, part of the SAP empire) is history at SAS or almost history. Now the company is moving in a different direction.
Jaikumar Vijayan writes about a new visual analytics application recently unveiled by SAS in his article “SAS Promises Pervasive BI with New Tool.” Einstein is believed to have once said “computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Human beings are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. Together they are powerful beyond imagination.” We noted this passage from Mr. Vijayan’s write up:
Unlike many purely server-based enterprise analytics technologies, Visual Analytics gives business users a full range of data discovery, data visualization and querying capabilities from desktop and mobile client devices, the company said.
The initial version of the new tool allows iPad users to view reports and download information to their devices. Future versions will support other mobile devices as well, SAS added. The quote is actually a good description of the concept that underlies Visual Analysis. The process uses analytic reasoning to detect specific information in massive amount of data. For example, a clothing manufacturer might use it to determine current trends in ladies’ fashions. The results are presented in charts and graphs to the users, who can fine-tune the parameters until their specific queries are answered.
SAS is known for its statistical functionality, its programming language, and its need for SAS-savvy cow pokes to ride herd on the bits and bytes. Will SAS be able to react to the trend for the consumerization of business intelligence.
While the technology is impressive, SAS may be a little late to the game. Palantir and Digital Reasoning have already introduced applications that offer clients powerful Visual Analysis capabilities. Time will tell if SAS is able to catch up to some competitors’ approach. We are interested in Digital Reasoning, Ikanow and Quid.
Stephen E Arnold, March 31, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Michael Moody Joins Lucid Imagination
March 30, 2012
Market Watch recently reported on Lucid Imagination, the commercial company for Apache Lucene and Solr search technology, in the article “Lucid Imagination Names Software Development Luminary Michael Moody Senior Vice President of Engineering.”
According to the article, Michael Moody brings more than 30 years of software engineering to the search technology company. He has held senior positions in several different companies including: Spigit, Jaspersoft, and Portal Software.
Mr. Moody said:
Thanks to Lucid Imagination, companies will be able to meet the challenge of analyzing their big data before the rapid adoption leads to operational chaos, lost opportunities, and reduced competitiveness,” said Moody. “We have the technology, business model and people in place to help drive a complete transformation of enterprise search and retrieval that will lead to phenomenally better and faster decision making.
My colleagues and I are very excited to see Michael Moody’s addition to the Lucid Imagination team.
I speak for the ArnoldIT team when I assert that we are confident that his expertise will help the company come up with even better ways to overcome the challenges of enterprise search and big data access.
We have noticed that a number of open source search vendors are touting performance enhancements, fail over methods, and value added indexing advantages which Lucid’s search system allegedly do not provide. Assertions are easy. Real world deployments are different from talking about delivering cost savings and improved efficiencies to a customer.
We have just completed an fly over of open source search vendors. In our view, Lucid’s search system out distanced the other Lucene-based search systems we examined.
We try to avoid Mac vs. PC type hassles, but the key difference among open source search vendors boils down to who can deliver efficiencies to the licensee, offer financial stability, and 24×7 engineering support and services. When measured against our “real world” yardstick, trust Lucid Imagination. There is more to the company than a single entrepreneur working nights and weekends to compete. Just our view. Maybe our Overflight report will become publicly available. Who knows?
In the meantime, navigate to www.lucidimagination.com and learn more about the company.
Jasmine Ashton, March 30, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Attensity Sallies into the Insurance Sector
March 30, 2012
Insurance Networking News recently reported on a new application that is designed to enable insurers to analyze unstructured data in the article “Insurance – Specific Social Analytics Software Launched.”
According to the article, Attensity, a provider of social analytics and engagement solutions, is working to help insurance companies make their claims processes more efficient by assisting them with the analysis of data gathered from a variety of sources including: claim forms, adjuster notes, as well as customer feedback from social media, surveys, emails and other sources.
The article states:
The software builds on the company’s text analytics application with out-of-the-box category sets, topics, reports and dashboards tailored specifically for the insurance industry. The new solution enables insurance carriers to spot fraudulent patterns, identify customer pain points early, respond to customer service requests proactively as well as analyze the data of customers that switch providers.
This is just one more example of text analytics software providers helping other industries get a better feel for what their consumers are saying. Will insurance have the same appetite as the intelligence community for Attensity’s system and method of extracting nuggets of information?
Jasmine Ashton, March 30, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Improving Governance Compliance in SharePoint
March 30, 2012
Jeremy Thake addresses the important issue of governance compliance in, “SharePoint Gone Wild: When Governance Lacks Compliance.” Many organizations employ multiple repositories for sensitive content, and an out-of-the-box SharePoint system makes it hard to enforce the guidelines of where content should go. Thake explains,
“The out-of-the-box auditing features in SharePoint 2010 have some key limitations in this space, specifically regarding the storage of this data over a prolonged period of time (most acts seem to be approximately seven years) as well as the ease of producing a report of an individual user’s activity and attached content. The most common format followed by customers with whom I work is Concordance, which is supported by LexisNexis. But more importantly, from a content perspective, the attached content should be exactly what the user viewed, modified, or created at that point in time so versioning here is the key.”
SharePoint 2010 has many added improvements to address some of the out-of-the-box compliance gaps. But compliance is an area that needs a comprehensive solution. To really extend your SharePoint capabilities and get the most out of your enterprise search investments, look to Mindbreeze.
No matter where your sensitive information is stored, on-premise or in the Cloud, Mindbreeze connects users to the right information while maintaining strict security standards. Here you can read about the cost-efficient solution:
“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. Get a comprehensive overview of corporate knowledge in seconds without redundancy or loss of data.”
Check out their full suite of solutions to see what will work for you.
Philip West, March 30, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Law Firms Learn Staff Can Be Repurposed
March 30, 2012
I know there is considerable enthusiasm for smart software. Most of the eDiscovery vendors suggest that humans and whizzy new systems can coexist. Now, a new chapter in justifiable staff reductions may be upon us. Navigate to “A New View of Review: Predictive Coding Vows to Cut E-Discovery Drudgery” to learn that recently released research from an Ivory Tower-type says that a “predictive coding approach can do a better job of sifting through more than 800,000 documents than humans.”
For many law school graduates, scouring documents for material of value to a case has long been a secure if somewhat tedious means of entering the legal profession. This will no longer be true, however, if a new type of software lives up to its creator’s claims Known as predictive coding, it can supposedly do the same job, faster, cheaper, and as well as humans. But lawyers live to bill, so perhaps software may force law firms to get rid of staff and trust the algorithms.
We learn:
There has been a long-standing myth in the legal field that exhaustive manual review is the gold standard, or nearly perfect, but that has been shown to be a fallacy, according to Maura R. Grossman, a New York City attorney. Research has shown that, under the best circumstances, manual review will identify about 70 percent of the responsive documents in a large data collection. Some technology-assisted approaches have been shown to perform at least as well as that, if not better, at far less cost.
Attorneys, paralegals, unpaid interns, and experts in India will miss 30 percent of the pertinent documents. Smart software is the path to the future.
Some observers worry about the legal defensibility of predictive coding. But such concerns are unfounded, so long as both sides agree to its use. That’s according to Craig Carpenter, a marketer for Recommind, a software development firm focused on the legal and corporate market
But even sophisticated programs don’t actually think. Without that capacity, they cannot understand the subtle nuances and informal connections that underlie written documents. It’s unlikely that predictive coding will live up to the sales hype surrounding it. But what’s new about search vendors’ marketing is that reality is often different from Spock’s world on Star Trek.
Stephen E Arnold, March 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Autonomy IDOL 10
March 29, 2012
Short honk: An good summary of Hewlett Packard Autonomy IDOL 10 appears in the WorldWright blog. You can get the Hewlett Packard version at this link. The angle is the “instant on enterprise.”There is a video and a link to more details. An instant on white paper is also available. It is called “The Instant On Enterprise.”
Three observations:
- Autonomy can coordinate its messages
- The company has not lost its knack for catchy phrases
- I would be delighted if my desktop PC were instant on.
Stephen E Arnold, March 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Security and Compliance Guidance with SharePoint
March 29, 2012
Maintaining security standards and governance compliance in the enterprise is not always easy when trying to minimize risks and maximize access. Mike Fleck addresses the issue in, “SharePoint, Security, and Compliance.” Fleck explains:
“One thing I think that the SharePoint community can easily agree on is that adequately securing SharePoint implementations and meeting compliance obligations are good things. The many capabilities and advantages that SharePoint brings to the enterprise are well documented…Security and compliance are closely related topics. Compliance regulations dictate numerous security controls. Having a strong security posture makes meeting compliance requirements (and proving compliance to auditors) far easier.”
Fleck’s article is the first in a series on security and compliance as related to the collaboration platform. SharePoint architects and administrators may benefit from the read. Some guidance might help as you look to prioritize high level concerns and pertinent questions for increased SharePoint security and compliance.
While information creation and SharePoint adoption continue to grow, you may find the platform is not the complete out-of-the-box solution for enterprise security and compliance needs. If you need a bit of help with it you might check into Mindbreeze and their dynamic search technologies that bring together security, mobility, and information pairing.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze exceeds relevant international standards, including ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 9001, and SAS 70 Typ II. Here you can read more about Mindbreeze certifications:
“Fabasoft has received ISO 20000 certification for the IT services Folio Cloud and Folio SaaS. This furthers the Austrian company’s strategy of implementing international standards, with it already being ISO 9001 and 27001 certified. Fabasoft is one of just twelve companies in Austria with ISO 20000 certification.”
With strict compliance standards, certified security, and regular external audits, Mindbreeze can maximize your information assets with security reliability.
Philip West, March 29, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Considerations for SharePoint Career Development
March 28, 2012
Over at the ShareMuch Blog, Yaroslav Pentsarskyy looks at SharePoint career development in, “How Come Joe-the-SharePoint-Guy Doesn’t Know? SharePoint Career Evolution.” As SharePoint continues to expand and develop, IT employees have to keep up with continuing education and an evolving skill set. Pentsarskyy shares his subjective suggestion:
1. Pick your discipline area (Infrastructure, Technical BA, Developer, User Interface Developer etc.). Something you`re prepared to be an expert in;
2. Be clear on deliverables you are going to have to produce as a part of your area focus (Design Document? DR plan? Code? Governance Plan? etc.). Deliverables will outline your role on projects (usually your title is too vague, everyone wants to know what you`re actually going to produce);
3. Pick a few but not too many product areas (BI, Collab, Publishing etc) and be good at those.
Pentsarskyy warns that trying to keep up with everything may leave you as an expert in nothing. Honing in on a development area may be beneficial to many IT employees that feel stretched too thin across growing collaboration products.
SharePoint is a ubiquitous platform that continues to grow. To add rich value to your system while also providing an easier experience for your users, consider an intuitive solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Their out-of-the-box solution gives you information pairing, mobility, and a more powerful search in a user-centered environment:
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise understands you, or more precisely understands exactly what the most important information is for you at any given moment. It’s a center of excellence and simultaneously your personal assistant for all questions. The information pairing technology brings enterprise and Cloud together.”
Consider the full suite of products and solutions at Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, March 28, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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