Infor Software Introduction Signals PLM Demand Rising
January 30, 2012
There has been a lot of talk recently about the increased need for PLM among all industries but specifically for the consumer packaged good (CPG) industries due to increased and unpredictable materials costs and stricter regulatory compliance standards. A recent article, Infor Accelerates Product Development for Process Manufacturers, on Industry Today, explores how one provider of PLM solutions is making it easier than ever for companies to adopt PLM.
Infor, a leader in the PLM industry, has introduced Infor10 with the hope that the more user-friendly software application will be easier to use and more effective. As the article highlights,
“Infor10 PLM Process offers users the unifying capabilities of Infor10 ION and the consumer-grade user experience of Infor10 Workspace to connect applications in a single, easy-to-use system that simplifies and streamlines business processes providing users direct access to all relevant, real-time data for faster, more intelligent decision making.”
The increased demand and interest for PLM is not surprising as more and more companies are realizing how much money and time will be saved by moving to the cloud. There is, however, more to PLM than just moving data to a cloud and streamlining business processes. At the heart of any great PLM is a great search engine. Data management is worthless if that data cannot be retrieved easily by any employee needing it. New data management solutions not only streamline business processes but make data easier to manage, search, and access.
With the demand for mobile technology PLM software designers are now making strides, and in some cases accomplishing, mobile applications allowing users to access company data from their Smartphones. As PLM continues to explore new ways to connect employees with information and proving to be cost effective, it will be no surprise to see more industries adopting PLM solutions in the near future.
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 30, 2012
Report Indicates Increase in PLM Usage
January 26, 2012
As PLM cloud solutions grow in popularity across all industries it is not surprising to see reports predicting an increased growth in the months to come. CADD Edge, an engineering industry website, reported in the article, Product Lifecycle Management solutions to experience changes in 2012, of an increase in PLM adoption within the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) industry for a variety of reasons.
As the article explains,
“The report also predicts PLM will become a universal strategy among CPG companies, which have generally been slow to adopt PLM. Young expects PLM to become an obvious advantage for such enterprises during the next 18 to 24 months, as these businesses are dealing with unstable raw material costs and an increased emphasis on regulatory compliance.”
While in this circumstance PLM is the most logical choice in an effort to reduce expenses it also has many more benefits, foremost being the ability to streamline collaboration between development, manufacturing and administrative departments within companies. Access to files, all files, has traditionally been one of the major issues surrounding IT within the engineering industry. A severe lack of search ability and access has caused money to be lost b/c of duplication and lost man hours.
While PLM will most definitely save companies money as this article suggests there are so many more benefits. Inquiring into new data management solutions is the best starting point for any company wanting to eliminate waste. By utilizing PLM and cloud services companies can begin focusing on innovation again rather than costs.
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 24, 2012
Inforbix Offers Demo for New iPad App
January 20, 2012
Recently we reported on the company Inforbix and their upcoming new application for iPad users which will allow employees access to company documents and files from any i-device. This ingenious technological marvel is a result of a growing demand within the workforce to make company files more accessible and cloud technology. Inforbix, not satisfied with leaving good-enough alone has now introduced a demo for their new app. The article, How to test Inforbix on the web and on the iPad, on Inforbix’s website explains how companies considering the technology can experience the difference the cloud can make.
“The technology behind how Inforbix demos work is exactly the same as what our customers deploy. With one exception. We use our own data-set to emulate what a typical Inforbix customer would be using. That’s it. Everything else is precisely the same: 1. The Demo Data provided by Inforbix is scanned and the meta-data collected is sent to the Inforbix cloud. 2. In the cloud, the meta-data is processed. 3. Users access the demo data either via a web browser…or if they downloaded the new Inforbix iPad app on the App Store and use the demo facility on it.”
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 20, 2012
Reference Older and Wiser SharePoint Information
January 9, 2012
When teaching SharePoint 2010 developer classes I typically get at least one question every other class as it relates to ALM. On occasion there is at least one student who is used to doing continuous integration (CI) in their non-SharePoint projects and want to know how to it in SharePoint 2010 projects.
The Cloud Yields to a Typo
January 4, 2012
Now I hope that I don’t sound bitter and twisted from this experience. In fact, the experience reinforced what most in IT strategy already know. It’s not about the technology. I still like what Office 365 offers and I will continue to use and recommend it under the right circumstances. This experience was simply a sobering reality check though that all of the cool features amounts to naught when it can be undone by dodgy underlying supporting structures. I hope that Microsoft and Telstra read this and learn from it too. From a customer perspective, having to work through Telstra as a proxy for Microsoft feels like additional layers of defense on behalf of Microsoft.
Continuous Integration May Solve Your SharePoint Team Project Problems
January 3, 2012
Although fairly common in the .Net world, SharePoint projects which do automated builds are fairly rare – arguably due to other complexities that come with developing with SharePoint. Team Foundation Server 2010 makes build automation easier to achieve than previously with the Microsoft stack, and has superb integration with related Visual Studio capabilities such as testing. Implementing these techniques can make a big difference on SharePoint development projects.
New Book on using SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight
January 2, 2012
While it is now too late for Christmas, a new book out by Bob German and Paul Stubbs gets a positive review from Andrew Connell, the Microsoft Developer with a focus on SharePoint. SharePoint 2010 Development with Silverlight is discussed in Connell’s “Great Resource for SharePoint 2010 & Silverlight.”
Connell’s review:
Are you interested in looking for a good resource on doing SharePoint 2010 or Silverlight development with both tools? This is the book for you. Bob & Paul, the two best people to write this book with their deep experience in both technologies, have done a fantastic job in starting with primers on both technologies and then diving in deep on doing various things you’d want to accomplish with both SharePoint 2010 & Silverlight.
The book includes a discussion on both SharePoint 2010 and Silverlight development as well as guidance for setting up your environment and building custom applications. Connell does provide the forward to the new publication, but his knowledge on the topic points to this being a good resource for interested parties.
However, if you do not have the time to read right now while you’re focused on adding value and efficiency to your business information, rely on experts at Fabasoft Mindbreeze. Their suite of solutions provides intuitive access for the right people with the right information at the right time.
Here you can read about their capabilities:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise offers unified information access to enterprise and cloud resources. It combines and links the information. Information can be grouped and classified. A user can scan the results using search tabs and categories and find a relevant document without having to click through a list of links. The information’s semantic context is recognized and depicted, and navigation elements for drill down are provided; one click and the preview of any result is available. Fabasoft Mindbreeze provides a 360 degree view of your business, customers, competitors, and more.
Find what works for you with Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Philip West, January 2, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Search Technology Evolves to Encompass Sound
December 6, 2011
Lockergnome reported on the evolution of search technology this week in the article “In Search Of Sound With MediaMined.”
As a way to continue to evolve search technology beyond searching for text and images, audio engineers at Imagine Research in San Francisco have been working on what they call “the world’s first sound object recognition Web service.”
The service is called MediaMined, and is driven by artificial intelligence that is able to “listen” to sound files — whether they’re properly labeled, mislabeled, or not labeled at all — and analyze what they actually are.
Writer Robert Glen Fogarty states:
“Musicians, podcasters, radio broadcasters, and audio engineers would obviously benefit from this kind of technology, but some other unexpected applications could make use of it, as well. Mobile devices could use a MediaMined type of system to detect their surroundings and present new ways to interact with their users based on this incoming data (think augmented reality cranked up to 11). Medical professionals might be able to use this technology in order to gather data based on sounds made by patients — such as sneezing, snoring, coughing, and wheezing — to help with more keenly diagnosing their condition.”
Here at beyond search we believe that this new search technology is definitely a step in the right direction. The experts at Search Technologies can provide organizations with search
solutions–text or talk.
Iain Fletcher, December 6, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
HOLD Going Fast and Skidding: Search Technologies Can Steer You to Safety
July 18, 2011
Last week we heard a number of rumors about layoffs and other organizational shifts at the Microsoft Fast Search units. We are not sure whether the news reported at Enterprise Search: The Business and Technology of Corporate Search was accurate. We don’t want to speculate.
We, like you, read:
[We] just learned that most of the FAST people we work with here in California and across the country have been laid off by Microsoft, apparently effective immediately. This is the team that was responsible for selling the FAST ESP products – FSIS and FSIA – as well as working with the Microsoft sales teams on Fast Search for SharePoint (FS4SP). Funny, I was just drafting a blog post today on ‘the future of FAST’ and I’m glad I hadn’t finished; I never would have guessed this at all.
Let’s assume that the rumor is false. Search Technologies remains committed to providing the technical and engineering support a Fast Search Server licensee needs to wring the maximum from the system.
Let’s assume the rumor is true. Search Technologies will continue to support Microsoft Fast as well as other Microsoft search technologies as long as our clients require top notch engineering.
Let’s assume there is uncertainty about the Fast search technology. Our view is that deep experience in search is more important than speculating about what a very large company is doing to manage its products and services for its clients.
One of the people tracking the search and content processing sector wrote about the “new landscape of enterprise search.” The point is that powerful forces are operating on search vendors, licensees, and users. We agree.
The Search Technologies value proposition is easy to articulate.
First, we have the depth of experience to cope with our clients’ engineering and technical requirements for Fast search as well as a number of other systems.
Second, most organizations with enterprise search installations will continue to use these systems even if staff changes or organizational restructuring occurs. Search Technologies can deliver the services required to derive maximum benefit from the installed software.
Third, our engineering approach embraces change. This means that if a client wants to replace an existing solution, our team can create the business case and implement the shift with little or no business disruption.
So, let’s put aside the issue of a single shift in a product. The focus at Search Technologies is helping our clients solve business problems. Software, while important, is just one facet of a broader commitment at Search Technologies to deliver value throughout the findability ecosystem.
To learn more about Search Technologies, navigate to www.searchtechnologies.com.
Iain Fletcher, July 25, 2011
Search Technologies
SharePoint’s Potential for Building Dashboards
July 1, 2011
Are you on the fence on whether to use SharePoint to build your company’s web site? The web site is usually a potential customer’s first view of a company, so it is a very big decision to make. Marc D. Anderson wrote, “One of the Most Impressive Web Pages I Have Ever Seen in SharePoint” brings attention to the type of quality web site you can build in SharePoint.
“The reason I pulled this demo out of the vault was that it’s a pretty good example of the type of dashboard that you can build using garden variety SharePoint tools and a little ingenuity. No fancy BI add ons or KPIs here.”
The web site in question was built strictly from basic data view web parts (DVWPs). It was a prototype for a green organization that wanted a web site to help households track their carbon footprint. It was hosted in WSS 3.0, which despite a bad reputation, is great to solve business problems. The web site consisted of four web parts: household demographics, household size details, household’s annual data, and comparative household information. Each DVWP was specifically made to track an important part of a household’s carbon footprint and help the owners’ reduce it. And it was all built in SharePoint. After you build your web site in SharePoint, you’ll need to be able to search it. Try SurfRay’s Ontolica search solution for SharePoint.
Torben Ellert, July 1, 2011
SurRay
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