Silobreaker Serves Swiss Soldiery

May 15, 2012

Switzerland’s Department of Defense, Civil Protection, and Sport (DDPS) will soon be relying on Solobreaker’s considerable data management chops, MarketWire announces in “Silobreaker Delivers Enterprise Software to Swiss Armed Forces.” The software underpins a turnkey open source intelligence (OSINT) solution provided by LearningWell, a Swedish integration consulting firm.

The write up quotes Kristofer Månsson, Silobreaker’s CEO:

“Situational awareness and contextual insight are essential and time-critical requirements for any corporate or governmental organization today. Yet, users are drowning in information, and cutting through the proliferation of content from both traditional and social media represents significant challenges, which cannot be met by the use of conventional search methods. We are very pleased that customers keep recognizing our products as leading edge for analytical and sense-making purposes, as well as for the efficiency of their prompt implementations.”

Yes, the “big data” phenomenon is placing big demands on organizations everywhere. Silobreaker’s Enterprise Software Suite is a robust tool for making sense of it all. It covers workflow from beginning— back end content, aggregation, indexing, classification and storage— to end— front-end search, filtering, analysis, visualization, user collaboration, report generation, and decision support. The software handles both structured and unstructured content with aplomb, and manages data from both inside and outside sources, both horizontally and vertically.

Founded in 2005, Silobreaker has headquarters in London and Stockholm. Their solutions facilitate teamwork across user groups through strong single user platforms that provide information aggregation, analytical tools, and collaboration features. Besides the aforementioned Enterprise Software Suite, the company offers Silobreaker Premium, a powerful intelligence and media monitoring SaaS tool for corporate, financial, NGO and government agency users. Silobreaker’s products help many private, corporate, academic, financial and government organizations worldwide with intelligence, media-monitoring, risk management, and early warning capabilities.

Cynthia Murrell, May 15, 2012

Sponsored by PolySpot

Tagged.com Holds User Interest

May 15, 2012

Digg declares, “Social Discovery Site Tagged.com Has More Engagement than Facebook.” Is there a better Facebook than Facebook? Well, not exactly. Tagged.com isn’t better, just different.

Tagged.com used to be much like Facebook, a rival, in fact, in the early days. When the company wisely realized they could not beat Zuckerberg’s phenomenon, they changed focus. Now, their site is a “social discovery” site, a place to find new people. That is one realm in which Facebook does not even try to excel (yet).

The metric used to define the “engagement” of the article’s headline: the average time users spend on each site per visit. While Facebook users average 10.9 minutes, the typical Tagged visitor spends 12.1 minutes. Writer Rocco Penn suggests the difference has to do with the nature of each site:

“Checking through our friends’ and family members’ updates is quick for experienced [Facebook] users and posting to the site is a breeze. With social discovery, there are limitless connections, searches, and profile-views that can happen. It’s simply a matter of how much time someone is able to spend looking for their next social BFF.

“Over the next year, expect a shift in time spent on social discovery. Facebook will be the end destination for the connections we make (unless Google+ can somehow grow more quickly) but the site does not lend itself to finding fresh acquaintances, to ‘reloading’ so to speak. Tagged may be the perfect place for freshness.”

Penn may be right about that. He also expressed surprise that Tagged’s success seems to have snuck up on social media pundits. The company has turned a profit since 2008, and has snapped up some startups of its own, including competitor Hi5. They can also boast of nearly tripling their number of workers over last year, and they seem poised to continue growing: this page is all about their career opportunities.

Cynthia Murrell, May 15, 2012

Sponsored by PolySpot

Grade School Students Explore with Dassault Platform

May 15, 2012

For a long time now the engineering community has relied on CAD/CAM friendly product lifecycle management (PLM) solutions to aid in all aspects of product design and manufacturing.  Now, high school students at Notre Dame Preparatory School are getting the opportunity to get a jump start over their competition by learning and mastering Dassault Systèmes’ PLM 3D platform as explained in the article, “Notre Dame Preparatory School Adopts Dassault Systèmes 3D Experience Platform”, on the Sun-Herald.

The idea behind the adoption of the generally engineer-only platform is for students to be introduced to the fun stuff of engineering hopefully eliminating negative stereotypes that might keep talented youth from pursuing careers in the field.

As the article explains of Notre Dame’s use of the software:

“Equipped with technologies implemented by today’s leading manufacturers, students are creating products — from initial design through 3D prototype — for a variety of industries, including automotive, consumer goods, energy, aerospace and defense. The 3D Experience platform and applications serve as the backbone for Notre Dame Prep’s emerging engineering curriculum, which supports the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Education Coalition initiative focused on STEM education required in order for the U.S. to remain an economic leader in the global marketplace.”

Stories like this would not have been possible even a few years ago.  Thanks to advances in cloud technology PLM platforms can be utilized just about anywhere.  Data management solutions providers are realizing the value in thinking outside the box and we applaud Dassault Systèmes’ collaboration with Notre Dame Prep School for encouraging youth in such a non-traditional manner.

Catherine Lamsfuss, May 14, 2012

Ecommerce Search Race Is On

May 15, 2012

As more people begin to shop online, the e-commerce search engine race intensifies.

According to Reuters article, “EBay, Wal-Mart Search for Revved-Up Search Engines,” both EBay and Wal-Mart are developing new Web search engines to better compete against online giant Amazon. The article reveals that patience runs low with online shoppers, who will switch to a competitor’s site or a physical store if they don’t immediately find what they are looking for. New shopping search technology will focus on a customer’s history and related terms.

“‘Amazon is on version 8.0 of search,’ said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps merchants sell more online. ‘EBay is at 2.0, but they are thinking about how they make this huge leap to 3.0.’

The stakes are high because e-commerce is a huge, fast-growing market, putting billions of dollars in sales up for grabs. U.S. retail spending online grew 13 percent to $161.5 billion last year, according to comScore. Physical retail sales are much larger, but the sector is struggling to grow and losing share to online operators.”

The race will continue until someone can deliver a high-quality shopping search experience for consumers. Until then, we believe Google and Amazon will continue to reign.

Andrea Hayden, May 15, 2012

Sponsored by IKANOW

Google Enterprise Push Netting Smaller Fish Than Expected

May 15, 2012

CIO.com recently reported on the results of a survey of Google Apps users in the article “Small Businesses Are the Vast Majority of Google Apps Early Adopters.”

According to the article, 69% of Google Apps early adopters are companies with between one and ten employees. Cloud Alliance, a consortium of the top independent software providers in the Google Apps Marketplace, says this could be due to the fact that small businesses are able to adopt new technology because they have less red tape that they need to navigate through. Large businesses on the other hand, are much more concerned about security and privacy and are therefore more reluctant to adopt new technology light google apps.

Cloud Alliance also found:

“Tech users are more likely to trust new technology and be early adopters than other companies that are more averse to risk. Other industries represented among Google Apps early adopters including advertising and marketing (11%), construction and architecture (6%), and education, non profits and retail, each of which accounted for a 5% slice of Google Apps early adopters.”

Now we know that Google’s enterprise push is netting smaller fish, isn’t the money in the Fortune 1000 accounts?

Jasmine Ashton, May 15, 2012

Sponsored by IKANOW

Still No One Stop Shop for Social Media Management

May 15, 2012

Digg recently reported on social media management monitoring, or in this case, lack thereof in the article, “Why Is Social Media Management Still An Epic Fail?”

According to the article, when it comes to viewing today’s social media landscape there are an overwhelming amount of social media management tools available. Unfortunately, there is no one stop shop for all of your social media tracking woes.

Elaborating on this point, the article states:

“You’re going to find that all the tools you evaluate are going to perform better either as a stand-alone management tool or a listening tool. Very few try to do both—and in those cases, they fail at one or the other. Most companies and small businesses will start this journey looking for a social media management tool because the first step in evolving your company’s social media brain is “awareness,” in which you identify and track your existing social media presence on social platforms.”

So it appears that social search is not a slam dunk. Now the notion of actually managing social media emerges as a challenge. Isn’t governance a nice way to say, “hey, we can’t manage?”

Jasmine Ashton, May 15, 2012

Sponsored by IKANOW

AOL Mistakes Outlined in Painful Detail

May 15, 2012

Starboard Value, who owns over 5% of AOL‘s stock, has some constructive criticism of the company and its CEO Tim Armstrong. Business Insider shares Starboard’s excellent analysis, helpfully annotated by reporter Jay Yarow, in “Huge AOL Shareholder: Here’s Everything Tim Armstrong is Doing Wrong.”

This is a very thorough, data-laden 43 slides that begins with who Starboard is, why it is involved with AOL, and why it is concerned. The core problem: display advertising losses. The first mistake the slideshow emphasizes is AOL’s plethora of brands and sales reps. The Huffington Post‘s tumble from profitability since AOL bought it features prominently here.

The biggest criticism, however, is reserved for Patch, AOL’s collection of local Web sites. This division, the presentation asserts, is responsible for the lion’s share of display ad losses. Starboard lays out the reasons they feel Patch is irredeemable:

“*Patch is a high cost business model that is not scalable.

*Local advertisers want direct response ads that have an attractive measurable ROI, which we believe Patch ads do not provide.

*National advertisers do not appear to value hyper-local advertising any more than they value broad-based display advertising because there is no evidence that proves it is more effective.

* As a result, we believe that the vast majority of Patch ad slots are filled with remnant AOL ad inventory, which could be used on any other AOL property.

* Even if Patch were to achieve its targeted revenue model, the business would still be highly unprofitable on its current cost structure.”

The presentation elaborates on each of these points, then follows up by insisting AOL take action on Patch and on display losses in general. Naturally, they also insist that the election of their nominees to the Board will help the situation.

There is much, much more information in the slideshow. Starboard Value is an investment company that focuses on helping to boost underperforming companies. They pride themselves on operating from a deep understanding businesses and markets. Created in 2001 through a spin-off from Ramius LLC, the company makes its home in New York.

Cynthia Murrell, May 15, 2012

Sponsored by PolySpot

Tech Start Up Lessons Confuse: Learn from Failure or Success?

May 14, 2012

I read “Robbie Bach’s Four Startup Lessons from Xbox and Zune.” I am puzzled. The article said:

Bach compared and contrasted the Xbox and Zune businesses and shared some inside stories during a Northwest Entrepreneur Network event Seattle this morning. The topic was “intrapreneurship” — the buzzword for entrepreneurial projects inside major companies — but as Bach noted, the lessons apply to traditional startups, as well.

But the sentence preceding this paragraph was the kicker:

Former Microsoft executive Robbie Bach led the company’s entertainment division through the rise of the Xbox business, which has become a success, by many measures, after billions of dollars of investment and some major bumps in the road. He also led the division through the launch of the Zune music player, which is “probably universally viewed as less of a success,” as he puts it, charitably.

The write up then focuses on four “lessons.” These confused me because even though the Xbox is allegedly successful, there is the red ring of death meme and the need for data to show that the Xbox has paid off the investment and covers the on going customer support and repair activities.

The first lesson is to focus on a “discontinuity.” This is Peter Drucker stuff. The problem is that there are many discontinuities, so isn’t it necessary to pick the right discontinuity at the right time and execute without investing so much that pay back is tough, if not impossible.

The second lesson is marketing and branding. Okay, but Microsoft seems to be a company making and killing brands with dizzying speed. Windows Live, Windows NT, Zune—what’s the brand logic and marketing strategy behind these moves? Windows RT?

The third lesson is find “partners who want you to be successful.” Partners want to make money. If you have something that will make partners money, then you are on the right track. Partners who stop paying for expensive certifications or quietly add “off the reservation” activities are not partners. These are companies run by executives who need revenue growth. There are lots of potential partners. Which partner is the key question?

The fourth lesson is “capitalize on your competitor’s mistakes.” My view is that this has more to do with picking a discontinuity and acting in a timely manner. Much of the so-called “insight” in technology has more to do with being in the right place at the right time. When the right time shifts and the right place moves to another location, most companies end up in challenging situations. Examples range from Microsoft’s support of legacy code to the stunning work on the Windows Nokia phones.

How do these lessons explain the trajectory of Microsoft search technology. Answer: Not too well.

In short, these are “lessons” which need to be reviewed by a curriculum committee. Just my opinion.

Stephen E Arnold, May 14, 2012

Sponsored by Polyspot

Inteltrax: Top Stories, May 7 to May 11

May 14, 2012

Inteltrax, the data fusion and business intelligence information service, captured three key stories germane to search this week, specifically, hot trends among the industry.

The hottest trend in most businesses is change and “How an Analytic Firm Handles Challenges” highlights the rapidly evolving Petri dish of data analytics.

The law has been a major topic of talk and “Google Indiscretions Prove Need for Secure Data Mining” looks at how the search giant’s analytics arm might be violating laws and trust.

Partnerships have been the biggest trend in big data this year and “Clients Win When Big Data Partners” examines Cloudera’s recent teamwork.

These are just a sampling of the big time changes moving this industry forward at a frantic pace. It’s exciting and you can catch the thrill every day as we cull analytic news from around the globe.

Follow the Inteltrax news stream by visiting www.inteltrax.com

Patrick Roland, Editor, Inteltrax.

May 14, 2012

SharePoint 2015 Highly Anticipated

May 14, 2012

If you are a follower of Microsoft and its products, you are used to the inherent mystery and anticipation that accompanies its often belabored and long-suffering releases of major software.  Kurt Mackie updates on the latest information on upcoming releases in, “Office and SharePoint ’15’ Expected in Early 2013.”

Veteran Microsoft reporter Mary Jo Foley unearthed a few clues about Microsoft’s product roadmap for this year and the next.  Last week, Foley pointed to two Microsoft charts, reportedly given to partners, that show approximately when we might see certain Microsoft on-premises products and cloud-based services emerge. The documents are a bit dated, originating from Dec. 22, 2011, and lack details about the arrival of Windows 8 and Windows Server 8. However, Microsoft did confirm to Foley that charts were given to partners and show ‘forward-looking information.’

The article goes on to predict that Exchange, Microsoft Office, and SharePoint, all in their “15” versions, are expected for general availability early 2013.  We cannot help but wonder why there is so much pageantry surrounding Microsoft major releases.  For a company with so much pull in the general technology world, it seems smaller more frequent updates would keep them more relevant as the competition grows stiffer.

One third-party solution keeping the competition tight for Microsoft in enterprise search is Fabasoft Mindbreeze.  Mindbreeze is particularly efficient at updating their offerings without major releases that disrupt workflow.  Visit the Fabasoft Mindbreeze Enterprise page to note the changes made available in the quarterly releases over the last couple of years.  Updates to the Cloud enterprise offering are even more frequent and more subtle.

It seems to us that at a certain point a ship does get too big to turn.  This may be where Microsoft is heading, with software offerings so overwhelming that implementers at the local level have to plan months in advance just for an update.  For a software solution that is current, intuitive, and less disruptive, consider a smart third-party solution like Fabasoft Mindbreeze.

Emily Rae Aldridge, May 14, 2012

Sponsored by Pandia.com

« Previous PageNext Page »

  • Archives

  • Recent Posts

  • Meta