InfoPrint: Complemented or Challenged
November 23, 2008
When I mention the IBM Richoh tie up that is available as InfoPrint, most of my confidantes don’t know what the heck the company is. You can learn more about InfoPrint here. When I read the story “Xerox Partners with IBM for Global Imaging and Document Management Services”, several questions flashed through my mind.
- What has happened to Xerox’s own enterprise publishing system initiative? You can read more about this Xerox business here. My hunch is that Xerox can’t make its enterprise publishing initiative generate significant revenues, so the company has partnered with the “other” consulting firm, IBM.
- Why is IBM teaming with Xerox and not putting its energies into the InfoPrint operation? My hunch is that enterprise publishing is showing some promise, and the more horses IBM has in the race the bettr it is for IBM.
- What will other vendors do; specifically, Hewlett Packard? My thought is that there will be stepped up competition for solid partnering like the HP Exalead deal and more interest in “on the edge” enterprise publishing system vendors. (No, I won’t name these “on the edge” players because some of that detail will appear in my forthcoming Google and Publishing monograph.)
After thinking these thoughts, I went back to the story “Xerox Partners with IBM for Global Imaging and Document Management Services” and noted a comment that had some significance for my work:
IBM will leverage Xerox’s global document management services to give clients digital access to information currently stored in paper-based documents.
The “access” word triggered thoughts of search, business intelligence, and reports that answer users’ questions. To me this means more opportunity for some search and content processing vendors and more head aches for others. Enterprise publishing systems may be a faster path to revenue than fuzzier services such as business intelligence. Your view? Just bring some facts to the table says the addled goose.
Stephen Arnold, November 23, 2008
Search Security: An Oxymoron
November 18, 2008
ZDNet runs a nifty feature called IT Facts. Every day, the ZD editors and writers post interesting statistics. Now if you have a knack for numbers, you can make those equations sit up, roll over, and play dead. Despite the “flexibility” of statistical methods, I found “42% of Organizations Reported Unauthorized Access to Their Active Directory.” If you don’t know what an AD or Active Directory is, click here and drink deeply of the information. If you are in a hurry, its a gizmo Microsoft cooked up to make security quick and easy for certified Microsoft engineers to set up. According to Osterman Research, found security loopholes in two fifths of the sample’s servers. Think about third party search systems that “look” at AD and use it to manage user access to search. In my opinion, problems with one percent of the accesses warrants concern on my part. I know folks are rushing to SharePoint, but could Active Directory be this bad? I hope not. My hunch is that anyone with a Microsoft AD will want to do some checking.
Stephen Arnold, November 18, 2008
Sponsored Research Reveals Payoff Metrics
November 6, 2008
SAP, as I have noted, is paddling its robåd in waters roiled by customer resistance to some new prices and increasing pressure from upstart alternatives to the industrial strength R/3 system. Aberdeen, a highly regarded consulting firm, authored ‘”Do More with Less: Merging Enterprise Applications with Desktop Tools” on with some support from SAP and Lawson (a maker of business software, not just human resources software). A summary of the report is here.
What I found interesting in this report were the facts highlighted in the news release; for example:
- Integrated technology delivers a 21% increase in gross margin in a 12 month time span
- Decisions are made 27% faster or what the Aberdeen management gurus and guruettes call ‘time to decision’
- And this quote from the news release: ‘technologies like enterprise search allow the Best-in-Class to spend 63% less time in non-productive tasks which include searching for and manipulating data’.
Metrics in search and related disciplines are difficult to verify. Aberdeen’s data exist in this news release is a similarly disembodied form. If I get a copy of the SAP and Lawson underwrite this study, I will look at the sample size, the data analysis method, and the context in which Aberdeen places these data for its paying customers and me, the addled goose.
Big companies, in my opinion, assume that the notion of explaining where a number comes from is silly when preparing a news release. I do not issue news releases very often, and I suppose my PR maven omits data tables.
Nevertheless, these Aberdeen numbers warrant several high level observations. Note. I am not ‘picking on’ Aberdeen, SAP, and Lawson. I am offering a personal opinion about a common practice in consultant news releases: using numbers to get editorial pick up. And it worked. I am writing about this news release in my Web log!
First, if the data are as substantial as they seem to be, why isn’t this type of pay off causing a stampede to the front doors of SAP, for example. The softening of SAP’s guidance, the annoyance of the SAP customers, and other issues suggest that the return is not commensurate with the cost. I may be an addled goose, but if I pay a reasonable price and get a big payoff, I am a happy goose, and I will do the quacking for the vendor.
Second, if the speed of decision somehow correlates with the efficacy of the decision, then I am all for speed. The problem is that in my pond, going fast may be the wrong thing to do. Here in Harrods Creek, I can decide to rush to the mailbox every morning at 8 am to see what my post mistress has delivered to me. But since she does not deliver mail until 3 pm each day, the speed of my decision is essentially irrelevant. The key to a good decision is context, accurate information, and judgment. Speed may have little or nothing to do with whether a decision is good or bad. Therefore, this goose wonders, ‘Why make a decision faster if a higher value cognitive function in incomplete?’ In the sophisticated world of SAP and Lawson, speed may mean more than it does to the goose in Harrods Creek, but I am skeptical about speed with or with out seemingly precise metrics.
Finally, a lousy search system can be a problem regardless of integration. Here’s another down home example. I index what is on my servers in my log cabin office next to the pond. The data I need are not available from a third party like Aberdeen or from the Internet index on Google. My phone is out of order. My fax is dead. In short, I am sitting alone and without a way to get the needed information. I root through what I know. Deprived of context and common sense, I can craft an uninformed paragraph even though I have an integrated system and I have my own subset of data and I have what is in my goose brain. My thought is, ‘The presence of a good or bad search system may have little or no bearing on the time I spend searching integrated information with an integrated system, manipulating the data, and analyzing the interesting numbers.’ Search is important, but if the context is wrong or the data incomplete, speed, integration, or whatever other factor I toss in invested does not make baloney into prime rib.
In my opinion, consultants and dinosaur companies are trying their best to justify the high cost of their systems. Savvy customers know that if the business process is flawed, the software will just make lousy business processes perform faster, not necessarily better.
I know that slapping numbers on independent factors that are not co related while out of context to boot may boost sales. A word of advice: vendors, please, don’t come to my goose pond to make a sales pitch with these faux data. The geese may take the vendors for an invigorating paddle across the pond.
Stephen Arnold, November 6, 2008
Nexplore: Search Redefined… Again
October 2, 2008
Nexplore’s mission is:
to radically improve the online experience. We provide Web tools and destinations that empower people to drive and define a World Wide Web perfectly suited for their unique needs, interests, and online pursuits….Leveraging advances in Web 2.0 technology, NeXplore engineers develop cutting-edge social computing websites, portals and downloadable applications that elevate online productivity, community and comfort to new heights.
Several readers sent me a link to this service today. I had been alerted to the company several months ago. I gravitate to systems that deliver intelligence-type functions. Readers of this Web log know this because I refer to Silobreaker, Sprylogics, and other answer-oreiented systems more frequently than I do ad-centric search systems. That’s my bias, and I won’t be shifting my mental longitude anytime soon.
On Octobe 1, 2008, Nexplore–a publicly traded company OTC:NXPC.PK announced an updated version of the company’s search system. You can try out the system here. For information about the company, click here. The news release said that enhancements include:
- Interface tweaks; for example, you can collapse certain lists and see the icons now. The previous version of Nexplore used icons too small for my aging goose eyes. Worms I can smell; icons I have to see.
- Performance tuning. The version released on October 1, 2008, seemed snappier to me. The system doesn’t deliver at Google speed, but the system is more usable than before.
- Social features. I am still cautious when it comes to “social” functions on public networks. Anyone thinking about Phorm as you read this? I am. Nevertheless, Nexplore allows you to use the company’s patent pending social sharing feature. The idea is that you can bookmark sites and share those bookmarks.
I ran several queries. My old chestnut “enterprise search” returned some useful results. I noticed a bias to Microsoft, which may be a consequence of what the company is spidering. Here’s the results I saw on October 1, 2008, at 8 30 pm Eastern:
The display looks very similar to those used by some eDiscovery firms. The center pane presents the relevance ranked results. The upper portion of the results list are ads and below the rule are the “organic” results. The left hand column is used for ads, clearly marked “Sponsor Results”. The left hand column provides suggested terms and a list of definitions appearing in Wikipedia “associated” with my search. When I moved my mouse over the results, previews of Web sites appeared. I dismiss these, probably due to my age and my desire to have an interface stay put as I try to figure out what I am being shown and what the usefulness of the results are to me. A younger, more flexible mind will find the pop ups more helpful. I don’t like them, never did and never will. In the results list for “enterprise search” Microsoft ranked well above Fast Search & Transfer. I think this reflects the role of Fast Search in the giant belly of the beast quite accurately. In fact, if I knew zero about enterprise search, the Nexplore results were quite useful.
My other interesting query is for “beyond search”. This phrase points to this Web log on Google today (October 1, 2008). On Nexplore, the number one result is the Seattle-based search engine optimization company. My study for Gilbane Group is the third hit after the advertisements and the Web log itself is the number six hit. This is not a big deal to me, and it probably makes the SEO group happy. The Beyond Search goose doesn’t really care. He’s too old. One feature I liked was the ability to click the “trash” icon to remove a result from the hit list. (Farewell, beyond search SEO group in Seattle.)
Nexplore operates from Frisco, a suburb near Dallas-Fort Worth in what Texans call the Metroplex, which is foreign territory to this goose. The financial informatoin available to me was modest. In fact, the data were incomplete with losses showing for the period from 2006 to the present. See for yourself by clicking here. The CEO is Edward Mandel. The CFO is Steven Gummer. And the CTO is Dion Hinchcliffe. Mr. Hinchcliffe writes a articles. For an example, click here. He also writes a Web log here. The content focuses on the social computing trend. He includes some interesting illustrations in his writings. Show below is the “General Transformation Process of Busijess to 2.0 in the 21st Century. You can read his the original graphic here.
I want to give Nexplore time to refine its product and give it a chance to make headway in what is a tough sector. I see some features that don’t appeal to me, but I found similar issues with Cuil.com. My recommendation is to give the system a test drive. I find it useful to run the same query across multiple sites. Gems often turn up. I have to remind people that Dogpile.com is a useful metasearch engine. I am willing to give under dogs plenty of leash. Perhaps you will give it a whirl as well?
Stephen Arnold, October 2, 2008
Google Vulnerabilities
June 29, 2008
Seeking Alpha has an interesting discussion of chinks in Googzilla’s armor. The essay “Does Google Have a Weakness Microsoft Can Exploit? is here. The analysis touches upon my listing of Google weaknesses which first appeared in The Google Legacy, which I updated in Google Version 2.0, 2005 and 2007 respectively.
The part of the analysis that I found interesting touches upon Microsoft’s cash back. The idea of buying market share is not new, and I think Microsoft may expand its efforts in this area. The question for me, Is Microsoft able to see the buying market share through to its logical end; that is, to win may require sucking resources from other Microsoft initiatives. Such a shift could create a weaker Microsoft and one that is vulnerable not to Google but to other firms salivating at the idea of a weaker, distracted Microsoft.
Stephen Arnold, June 29, 2008
IN-Q-TEL Investments: 2006 to April 2008
June 1, 2008
This table brings the summary of IN-Q-TEL investments through April 2008. You can access the investments from 2000 to 2003 here. The investments from 2004 and 2005 are here.
The Fast Follies: A Math Error… Maybe
May 29, 2008
I’ve been in Canada with lousy email access. I received two emails earlier today that I wished I had read when I was waiting for a late flight.
One came from a colleague in Oslo, Norway. The second arrived from Copenhagen, Denmark. Both writers wanted to know if I had seen this article, My Norwegian ;anguage skills are non-existent, but with Google Translate, it seems that Fast Search & Transfer has blipped the radar of Norwegian authorities. I have worked for the police in a number of countries, and I enjoy the camaraderie, the intellectual challenge, and the thrill of the hunt. I received from a US colleague the well-composed article by Liz Gunnison at Portfolio.com titled “Microsoft Stuck With a Norwegian Herring?” (I really like that headline, but my “fast follies” is okay too.) The key line for me in her essay is:
Økokrim last week concurred that the nature of the irregularities and the amount by which Fast Search apparently inflated its accounts were serious matters warranting prosecution. But the agency said it was too busy to open a criminal investigation. Rather than let the matter rest, the market supervisor turned it over to the Oslo police for investigation. Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, characterized Kredittilsynet’s decision to involve the police as an unprecedented step in that country.
Fast Search & Transfer is not likely to engender much enthusiasm among the investigative team given the job of figuring out how a company losing money since 2006 could suck in $1.2 billion from Microsoft. The Redmond giant has about 80,000 employees and many of these are certified wizards. I must be missing something. Paying $1.2 billion for a company with several years of losses is pretty interesting.
Take a quick look at the restated financials. These are tough to locate, but I found a link to them here. These are public documents, but I have a hunch that the files will become even more difficult to locate as this drama unfolds. I did some looking for Fast Search’s management presentations. These have been removed from the Fast Search Web site. Even the vaunted Fast Search search system was unable to direct me to these documents. The Fast Search site map is more useful than its own site search system. You can access the site map here.
There are some technical descriptions of Fast Search’s technology available via Google. Just navigate to Google’s advanced search page, enter the phrase “Fast Search & Transfer” and specify the file type as Powerpoint (PPT). Reading these decks with knowledge of the restated financials left me thinking I was caught in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, a TV series where reality isn’t what the protagonists think. Three years of losses and a $1.2 billion sale. It’s almost too far out for TV.
The Web site also include videos of Fast Search management explaining how their system is the one for other vendors to beat. You can learn much from them here. What I did was to note the folks who raved about Fast Search. I don’t want to drink too much of these analysts’ KoolAid or get caught in a “search wave” and get crushed by a reality ignored by researchers. You can also listen to darned amazing podcasts here. i was able to grab a few snatches in between phone calls about the aforementioned police investigation. I think the one I listened too was science fiction. You can still get a flavor of the “old” Fast Search by reading the entries on the Fast Forward Web log, a chronicle of Fast Search’s user meetings. Access this information here.
If you have some difficulty navigating the site, you’re not alone. The redesign makes it difficult to locate information. Nevertheless, you can do some data archeology using the Google cache, the Wayback Machine, and other search engines; for example, Exalead. AllTheWeb.com, operated by Fast Search for Yahoo, is not too useful for finding information about Fast. I tracked down the Norwegian news stories via EUfeeds.eu. I’m not sure why there was no pick up of this story when I looked at AllTheWeb.com‘s index of 5,000 news sources. I may not have sharp enough search skills to locate this information.
In the morning, I will print out the restated financials and post short essay about these date. Maybe there’s another mistake in the math. I find it amazing that so many smart people at two high-tech companies make errors in addition and substraction. Ah, these youngsters.
If you have any information and insights into this interesting development, let me know. Watch for my run down of the restated financials on May 30th.
Stephen Arnold, May 29, 2008
EMC’s Upcoming Plans
May 23, 2008
Last year, IBM created InfoPrint. When Ricoh, the Japanese copier outfit, invested, InfoPrint became a $1.2 billion company. The idea is that an organization has informatioin scattered in many different systems. IBM’s InfoPrint would make it possible for an organization to tap into these facts and data, generate an output, which could be a personalized invoice, a benefits statement or a Web page. Viewed one way, InfoPrint is a virtual print shop. Viewed another, it was an IBM play to bring some sort of order to the crazy, poorly-disciplined world of content management of CMS as its cheerleaders say.
Then a Lexington, Kentucky, company called Exstream Software was acquired by Hewlett-Packard earlier this year for $1.2 billion and change. Exstream became part of the HP’s printer unit, and marked a turning point in CMS; namely, the notion of software to produce a Web page became a tiny cog in a giant printing or output machine. The functionality in the HP model shifted from the department to the a meta function.
Optio, an early entrant in this sector, struggled and then found a buyer called Bottomline. And, at the same time Swedish-based segment leader Streamserve found itself smack in the middle of a CMS revolution.
These changes underscore the Balkanized state of information management in most organizations. To fix a big problem, each of these companies offer a big solution.
Will the H-bomb approach to helping workers write, access, and repurpose information work? Probably not, but it certainly means that the CMS vendors have to respond to the sins of their past.
In New York yesterday, I learned that EMC (once a vendor of storage devices) has begun to reposition itself to become a more significant player in a changing and increasingly contentious market.
Here’s a run down of what the storage company will do in 2008, if my source has her ear angled the right way.
First, EMC is going to be a player in the enterprise search market. Even though there are more than 300 vendors in this sector, EMC figures that there’s room for one more company. I’m not so sure because EMC’s archives often pose more challenges than they solve when it comes to finding the specific piece of information in one of EMC’s archives or buried in the bowels of its Documentum CMS.
Second, EMC is going to be a player in the eDiscovery business. Regulated industries have to save and be able to find information in archives. EMC reasons that this is a growing sector. If Autonomy (the number two company in enterprise search) can make a go with its Zantaz eDiscovery unit, EMC can certainly squeeze money from regulated or litigated entities. See my list of more than a dozen companies in this search niche now. EMC will have to find a way to sidestep some specialist companies and the aforementioned Autonomy which is smaller and more than willing to engage in hand-to-hand combat.
third, EMC is going to jump into the middle of the emerging enterprise publishing sytem market where InfoPrint, Exstream Software, and other player have gained some key sales in the auto industry, insurance, and health care sector. Remember, this is a market created because established CMS vendors like Documentum, Ektron, vignette, and a 100 others have created because their systems were more problemattic than panacea.
To top these ambitious plans off, EMC wants to enter the SaaS or cloud computing market. Cloud computing is an emerging trend. EMC is a company able to build high performance storage systems, but pulling off an Amazon or Google play is going to be an extra challenge for EMC.
You can read more about EMC’s plans for the next 12 months in the Computer Reseller News’ story about the company.
My thought is that EMC will want to set clear priorities and the realities of competing with the likes of IBM, Ricoh, and HP in a sector created largely because CMS sytems have been tarballs.
I think EMC has its work cut out for it. But once again, in today’s financial climate, some managers find it easier to assert that it can provide a one-stop shop for anything that has to do with information. Customers are looking for new solutions, and I think there will be blood on the floor of the conference room and red ink in the company swimming pool for high-tech companies who think their engineers can solve any problem–even the ones their previous software created.
What are your thoughts about the CMS tarballs? Can giants like IBM and HP learn new tricks? Can companies with a core competency in storage transform themselves into cloud-based services companies?
Based on what information I have, EMC will have a tough time delivering in just one sector–for example, enterprise search. Hitting home runs in these other sectors is going to require more than PR puffery.
Stephen Arnold, May 22, 2008
SPSS Reveals Key Facts
May 23, 2008
Analytics and business intelligent giant SPSS revealed today some key facts about its business. You will want to read the Computerwire story that contains the text of an interview with SPSS’s Alex Kormushoff, a senior VP with the Chicago-based firm.
He disclosed:
- SPSS has 250,000 customers
- SPSS serves 95 percent of the Fortune 1000, the top 10 global brands, 21 of the top 25 retailers, and 24 of the top 25 research firms
- Customers span industry, education, and government
The most interesting assertion he made, if I read the computerwire story correctly is:
According to Nucleus Research, which tracks the company, 94% of customers achieve a positive ROI in 10 months.”
Pretty impressive. I have just two questions. If SPSS has such a dominant position in the market, why is SAS continuing to grow at a healthy clip? Firms offering alternatives such as Clarabridge and Megaputer tell me that their analytics businesses are booming.
My thought is that SPSS is painting a picture that has a touch too much of the bold acrylic lime green and signal red colorings.
Analytics is changing and changing quickly. Google looms as a disruptor on the first order. Megaputer’s tie up with Moscow’s best and brightest mathematicians is not to be ignored. And, SAS’s acquisition of Teragram puts that company in a position to challenge the SPSS unstructured information functions with a newer chunk of technology.
My hunch is that traditional analytics companies are in the same kettle of fish as traditional CMS and enterprise search vendors. The markets are shifting quickly, and these presumptive segment leaders are teetering on the brink of great financial and competitive pressure.
Agree? Disagree? Let me know. My bet is on outfits like Google and Megaputer. Just because you don’t know these organizations are up to their eyeballs in state of the art analytics services doesn’t mean the destabilization of the traditional vendors is not underway.
Stephen Arnold, May 23, 2008
LTU: Challenging the Thomson Reuters Trademark Fortress
May 16, 2008
LTU Technologies in France is putting its well-regarded image search technology to work in a proprietary trademark database. The LTU system compare a submitted digital image against the database to confirm an already extant trademark or industrial design. You can read about that here. Click quickly. Some of news stories disappear without warning.
LTU’s image search has been among the most accurate available. Military and intelligence entities have been among LTU’s most eager customers. Now LTU is moving into a service where Thomson Reuters has a strong, if not dominant, position. You can read about Thomson’s Trademarkscan service here.
Thomson also operates Derwent, a patent information service, and the company has dozens of complimentary information services for intellectual property.
What are LTU’s chances of running with the big dog? We think that LTU will have to move quickly and be prepared for some Thomson Reuters push back.
If LTU puts out a quality product and focuses its effort, LTU may be able to offer an alternative to Thomson Derwent customers looking for options. But speed and quality are important. Oh, LTU has to be prepared for Thomson Reuters-style competition.
Jessica Bratcher, May 16, 2008
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