The Coming Financial Crunch on Search Vendors
November 17, 2012
I sat through three, maybe four, “We’re doing great!” teleconferences this week. In one of those teleconference Go To Beating things, I was told, “We think that there is great opportunity in enterprise search.”
I agreed but one cannot call “search” search. Search, in my opinion, have become a new four letter word. But this person insisted that he and his team had the solution to the revenue ceiling problem. Now the concept of a “revenue ceiling” may be unfamiliar to those running companies in a crazed effort to get enough cash to pay last month’s bills. To me, “revenue ceiling” is what keeps most enterprise search vendors below the $20 million in revenue benchmark. In fact, since I have been tracking the enterprise search sector, the companies which have blown past $20 million are no longer in play. These outfits are now part of larger firms, managed by people who are or, should I say, were confident that making oodles of money from enterprise search technology was a “no brainer.”
A happy quack to http://goo.gl/xQMP0 for this inspirational image.
So what’s happening to my through the ceiling outfits? HP owns Autonomy and based on the grim financial results HP continues to report, Autonomy is not lofting HP to new revenue heights. The Endeca crowd managed to get revenues north of $150 million before the sale to Oracle. I have not heard that the Endeca team is pushing Mark Hurd aside due to their financial performance. I do know that Endeca is now just one more arrow in the Oracle quiver of tools and solutions. And Fast Search & Transfer? Microsoft does not break out revenues from Fast which once reported revenues of $170 million. The number was revised downward and I picked up a rumor that some in the Sinofsky free environment were looking at Fast Search as a technological equivalent of a 68 year old soccer player. It’s great the fellow remembers to go to the game, but in a crunch, let’s let gramps watch the 20 somethings win the game.
So, search has been a tough sector to make payoff big. Autonomy, much to the chagrin of the “real” consultants sold for $10 billion. But the real important point is that no other firm to my knowledge has been able to make almost a billion from “search.” Keep in mind that giants like IBM and Google can make numbers dance the tango. But for most search and content processing companies, revenue life and cost control have been similar to earning enough in a war zone to buy a new Rolls Royce. It can be done, but a close look at how may not be a wise idea.
Smash cut to these interesting developments:
- Yahoo is putting more heat on employees and may fire thousands of Yahooligans. See Yahoo CEO Mayer Cuts End-of-Year “Week of Rest” for Employees, While Prepping Plans to Cull Bottom 20 Percent of Staff
- The brains behind Netflix’ brilliant pricing moves alleges that Amazon is losing $1 billion a year on streaming video. (My reaction was, “That number seems low.” The reference is at Netflix CEO: Amazon Losing Up to $1 Billion a Year on Streaming Video
- Apple’s stock continues to decline. some folks think there are worms in the cook’s Thanksgiving pie. See Apple’s Stock Price Falls to Lowest Point in Six months
More Enhancements to Google Translate
November 17, 2012
Tech Crunch recently reported on some new enhancements to Google’s translation service in the article, “Google Translate Gets a Better Dictionary with Smarter Rankings, Reverse Translations and Grouped Synonyms.”
According to the article, Google Translate, a beta service provided by Google to translate a section of text into another language, has come out with some new features that make it easier to decide which translation of a word the querier is looking for. It also groups synonymous translations together when their meaning is closely related and provides reverse translations.
The article states:
“Google Translate will now rank possible translations by frequency. Every possible translation is now also marked as common, uncommon or rare and this ranking is based on, as Google says, “the vast number of translations we use to train our system.” Very rare translations will actually be hidden by default, but you can bring them back with a single click.”
With a globalized world and more and more people looking overseas to find work, translation programs like Google Translate are becoming more and more imperative for English speakers. We appreciate the Search Giant’s recognition of this fact and ability to proactively incorporate a translation service into its services.
Jasmine Ashton, November XX, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
SharePoint 2013 Walk Through from Search Technologies
November 16, 2012
With the recent release of SharePoint 2013 to manufacturing clients as well as volume licensing customers, people are struggling to find information about the product to prepare for the transition.
New information is available about SharePoint 2013’s search capabilities in a recent blog post from Search Technologies. The post, “Search for SharePoint 2013,” provides a high-level summary and a functional walk-through of the capabilities, including crawling, content and analytics processing, and query processing.
The article also breaks down the main headlines about the release:
“The FAST search technology, acquired by Microsoft in 2008, is at the heart of SharePoint 2013
Technologies and ideas from Bing and elsewhere have been added to the mix to provide a comprehensive set of enterprise search capabilities, with plenty of room for customization
It includes a rules-based query parsing framework
Pricing has not yet been formally announced, but it is generally assumed that this search functionality will be a standard part of SharePoint 2013.”
We found the information on SharePoint which is available at this site to be informative and easy to digest. Browsing the blog brought up numerous other points of specialties in the IT services and search engine field of expertise. Other articles can be found at http://www.searchtechnologies.com/blog.html. We recommend adding this blog to your must-read list.
Andrea Hayden, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com
Cloud Services Keep Operational Efficiency Firmly Grounded
November 16, 2012
There is a new theory of evolution in the enterprise or possibly just in enterprise software itself. Either way something informative this way comes. An expert panel in Enterprise Architect’s article “The Evolution of PaaS in the Enterprise” discusses some changes that may have enterprise users floating on cloud nine in the near future.
The overall impression was that PaaS could be a huge enabler for Cloud Computing:
“Enterprises are starting to take interest in running PaaS solutions virtually, as app developers want to focus on building apps rather than dealing with infrastructure issues. Enterprises that use PaaS solutions almost always go down the private route. In this session we focus on private PaaS offerings and look at the considerations and what will happen if one day enterprises want to use PaaS solutions in the public cloud. PaaS should cover the complete application lifecycle and help to transfer old way of working seamlessly to cloud.”
This shift to private PaaS may just be the enterprise’s first step toward services designed to increase productivity through the cloud. Businesses want solutions that can evolve swiftly and efficiently and the cloud is a good way to build in those abilities. Another key success factor for businesses is the ability to harness the power of relevant data. Intrafind offers cloud services that seamlessly integrate into existing business processes by utilizing flexible search and text mining from within the cloud itself. Established methods such as these keep operational efficiency firmly grounded while potential for ROI can aim for the skies.
Jennifer Shockley, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
PolySpot Technology Captures and Disseminates Information in Real Time
November 16, 2012
The uncertain economic times have evolved into a new paradigm, thanks to big data and the advent of business intelligence software. Business Finance discusses how many companies have been able to turn uncertainty into insights and opportunities. The article, “How Business Intelligence Software Solves Top Financial Challenges” explains that the three of the biggest barriers to handling big data are complexity, high costs, and the need for real-time insight.
The core of the article’s idea is summarized in it’s closing:
Some of the key trends driving next-generation solutions include visual displays for easier consumption of data as well as in-memory and mobile technologies that are changing the speed of data delivery as well as accessibility. BI success isn’t just about having a lot of data. Making the right information available to the right people at the right time is critical.
The ultimate realization for companies today is that insights and important information is not possible without the right enterprise software solutions. Innovations from PolySpot such as their Information At Work software delivers vital information to all users in the enterprise. From lower-level executives to the CFO, ideas will be captured and disseminated in near real-time.
Megan Feil, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext.
Azaleos Survey Reveals Increased SharePoint Adoption but also Challenges
November 16, 2012
SharePoint adoption continues to grow and remain high according to an Azaleos Corporation and Osterman Research survey. The survey also revealed some inhibitors to greater SharePoint growth, including lack of administrative skills, training, and knowledge for current staff members. HeraldOnline weighs in on the findings in the article, “SharePoint Cost of Ownership Jumped 16 Percent in 2012 Finds Osterman Research.” This is added about possible challenges:
’According to Osterman Research, SharePoint is still an extremely high growth platform, but soaring management costs, coupled with insufficient staffing levels and training are leading to performance and satisfaction issues. This is threatening its momentum,’ said Scott Gode, vice president of product management and marketing for Azaleos. ‘To derive maximum business value from SharePoint enterprises need to reevaluate current approaches to systems administration and storage management in order to reduce costs. In addition, SharePoint governance should be given a much higher level of priority by both IT and business leadership.’
The author adds that staffing cut backs and poor governance are also challenges for organizations. The article highlights some important SharePoint issues you may want to consider when evaluating your approach to the ubiquitous platform. One approach worth looking at is a cost-effective third party solution to extend SharePoint capabilities, like Mindbreeze. Mindbreeze facilitates the comprehensive incorporation of all electronic data repositories and connects seamlessly with SharePoint. And with an intuitive user interface, users will find can easily adapt.
Philip West, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data Continues to Draw Investors
November 16, 2012
Big Data is big news these days, and it is increasingly big business. Several Big Data companies, especially those who are founded on open source technologies, are raising considerable amounts of capital. Elasticsearch appears to join their ranks. Read the full report in the TechCrunch article, “Big Data Search And Analytics Startup Elasticsearch Raises $10M From Benchmark.”
The article states:
Elasticsearch, a real-time big data search and analytics startup,has raised $10 million in Series A financing led by Benchmark Capital. The other investors in the round include Rod Johnson, the creator of Spring and co-founder of SpringSource, and Data Collective . . . The company will use this funding to expand into new geographic regions and for further product development.
Open source is a good investment, and Big Data is definitely on the rise. However, Elasticsearch has yet to be proven in the industry. The article quotes 1.5 million downloads since 2009, but we received a piece just last week that leads us to believe the numbers may be inflated. “Are Elasticsearch Commits Lopsided?” discusses the questionable counting of downloads, but also the number of actual committers to the open source project. LucidWorks is an industry standard in open source search, so its natural extension into Big Data technology is a good fit and a trusted alternative to Elasticsearch.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Explanation of the RightNow Deal
November 16, 2012
The Stock Blog posts its perspective on Oracle’s purchase of RightNow Technologies in “Oracle’s RightNow Bid could Breed More SaaS M&A.” The brief write up explains:
“Companies in the software-as-a-service business were higher on speculation that Oracle‘s acquisition of RightNow announced Monday means more M&A [mergers and acquisitions]in the industry.
“Oracle (ORCL) said it would pay $43 per share, which amounts to an enterprise-value-to-revenue multiple of 5.5x compared to a 4.5x average multiple for a basket of SaaS companies, according to FBR Capital Markets. FBR says Oracle’s diversified software and hardware portfolio ‘positions the company well to weather the uncertain economic climate. We believe Oracle’s engineered systems (Exadata and Exalogic) strategy, coupled with Fusion Applications, should allow the company to take market share from its rivals, namely IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and SAP. We reiterate our Outperform rating and $38 price target.'”
Interesting. The piece goes on to note some other players in the Software as a Service and customer service markets. It also mentions that RightNow’s earnings look healthy. Well, that’s good.
But what about RightNow’s natural language processing? We want to know what Oracle ultimately plans to do with the technology behind RightNow CX, the company’s cloud-hosted customer experience suite. Currently, information about the product is available here, at Oracle’s site. RightNow was founded in 1997, and is headquartered in Bozeman, Montana.
Cynthia Murrell, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Some Oracle Secrets Revealed
November 16, 2012
We’ve found a resource for Oracle users at the Independent Oracle UCM Knowledge Center: “Secrets of the Full Text Search.” This clearly written and illustrated article explores the details of Oracle Content Server’s full text indexing. This might be one to peruse now, then tuck away for future reference. Writer Dmitri Khanine explains:
“Spend 15 min to understand exactly how Content Server’ Full Text search is working!
“This article takes you behind the scenes and shows you exactly how the full text indexing works in Oracle Content Server. If you ever tried to troubleshoot your search, indexer, batch loader or a performance issue – without a full understanding of how the things really work under the hood – I don’t have to tell you how much time this article can really save you. So without any further due – here it comes.”
And with that, Khanine dives into the technical details, walk-through style. Once you have your full text search enabled and options configured, he takes you through creating and working with a PDF.
I will share the one point Khanine saw fit to emphasize with a paragraph full of italics—since only the latest revision of any document is stored in the IdcColx tables, full text searches are only done on the latest released revision. See the article for more such technical tidbits.
Cynthia Murrell, November 16, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
ElasticSearch Analysis Published by IDC
November 15, 2012
Short honk: The ArnoldIT team worked with IDC to produce “ElasticSearch: An Open Source Search Option for Big Data.” The write up discusses the origins of the company. Compass was the precursor of Elastic Search. My understanding is that Compass was built on Lucence. The new incarnation is built on Solr. There is a discussion of ElasticSearch’s enhancements to the Solr system. The most significant part of the report is the explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of the ElasticSearch approach. The analysis is not written from the developers’ point of view. The focus is on the business value of ElasticSearch in the highly volatile, increasingly crowded market for search systems based on open source technology. Already published in the multi-part research series are analyses of Attivio, LucidWorks, and PolySpot. Unlike the cheerleading on free blogs and developer forums, the IDC analyses cost $3,500 per report. IDC customers have access to the analyses, but should check with their IDC account manager to determine if access is permitted under their subscription plan.
Stephen E Arnold, November 15, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT. Watch for our new professional social media consulting services coming in 2013
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