Exclusive Interview: Franz Kogl, Intrafind
July 10, 2012
Germany is a hot house for search, semantic, and content processing vendors. Most of them are not widely known outside of Germany. Intrafind, based in Munich, has been in business for more than a decade. The company is anchored in search solutions. I had heard about Intrafind, but I did not have much first-hand information about the company. In London in June, I spent some time with Franz Kögl and found that the firm has a number of high profile clients and, like a number of other companies, has found success with open source technology.
I asked Mr. Kögl about his view of search in 2012. He said, “The future every modern application will be ‘search enabled.’”
The company’s approach is refreshing. He told me:
Our approach is, “Think big, start small.” Many of our customers start with an application like an internal search. We then can extend the service piece by piece. For example, a new requirement comes from another department or business unit. It is pretty typical for us to start work in a single department. Then the client decides to use our iFinder as corporate search solution. What is special about our approach is that we combine computer linguistics within information retrieval. It’s not the idea itself which is unique, but the way we have implemented it.
On the subject of big data he said:
Huge amounts of data are frequently discussed at client meetings. We can handle almost any volume of data. We have different methods to match specific client situations. If updating the index is a key consideration, we work with the client to make clear that the update time of the full-text index is largely dependent on the connected sources and the attendant system.
To read the full text of the interview, navigate to “IntraFind AG: An Interview with Franz Kögl.” The ArnoldIT Search Wizards Speak subsite contains more than 60 interviews with professionals in the search and content processing sector. You can find the index to the interviews on the Wizards Index tab. A complete listing also appears on the Search Wizards Speak subsite.
Stephen E Arnold, July 10, 2012
Sponsored by HighGainBlog
Apelon Releases DTS 4.0
March 22, 2012
Apelon Medical Terminology in Practice recently posted a news release introducing the latest version of its open source terminology management software titled “Apelon Introduces Distributed Terminology System 4.0”
According to the article, Apelon’s latest DTS is a comprehensive open-source solution for the acquisition, management and practical deployment of standardized healthcare terminologies. It is built on the JEE platform allows for simplified integration into existing enterprise systems.
The article states:
DTS users easily manage the complete terminology lifecycle. The system provides the ability to transparently view, query, and browse across terminology versions. This facilitates the management of rapidly evolving standards such as SNOMED CT, ICD-10-CM, LOINC and RxNorm, and supports their use for longitudinal electronic health records. Local vocabularies, subsets and cross-maps can be versioned and queried in the same way, meaning that DTS users can tailor and adapt standards to their particular needs.
The advance of technological terms in the medical industry that need to be referenced quickly and accurately, has precipitated the need for enhanced functionality in terminology management tools. The latest version of this software is easier to use than its predecessors and will help even more institutions integrate the latest decision support technologies into their daily work. We are monitoring the vertical search in this market sector.
Jasmine Ashton, March 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Lucid Imagination: A Look Ahead
February 24, 2012
Enterprise search can be over simplified in many people’s mind because it is so intuitive. However, while understanding the concept may be relatively simple, orchestrating it proves to be more difficult.
IT World’s Brian Proflitt recently reported on Lucid Imagination’s new enterprise search product in the article, “Enterprise Search is a Valuable, and Growing Component of Big Data.”
According to the article, enterprise search allows users to treat data as they would fields within a relational database. It is excellent for examining large sets of structured or unstructured information. Documents that are structured uniformly like weblogs do particularly well with this technology.
Many enterprise search software providers, including Lucid Imagination, use Apache Lucene and Apache Solr products.
The article states:
“Lucid is to Lucene and Solr what companies like Red Hat, SUSE, and Canonical are to Linux. Like a Linux distribution, Lucid Imagination’s LucidWorks Enterprise product pulls together the best features of Apache Lucene/Solr, adding a few more features along the way, such as search connectors to SharePoint, Web, and Active Directory data. This is not an open core company: like Red Hat, versions of LucidWorks are provided free of charge, with a support subscription required for production use.”
Lucid Imagination’s new product promises the functionality of enterprise search but is delivered from the cloud. We’re looking forward to seeing how this develops. The generator is humming at Lucid Imagination we believe.
Jasmine Ashton, February 24, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
The Newest Version of Tibbr Exceeds Expectations
February 1, 2012
In my opinion, tibbr dramatically reduces unnecessary human intervention in the workplace, thereby making work less unpleasant while freeing up resources for the really interesting work. Not the greatest nor shortest sales pitch – but then I’m not selling anything here…I see business cases by the dozens here. tibbr 3.5 socialises the entire world, inside as well as outside the enterprise.
Slaying Data Tigers: The PolySpot Approach
January 26, 2012
A recent study conducted by Mindjet estimated twenty-one minutes a day were wasted searching for data among employees. Although that number seems small upon first glance once the math is done one realizes just how much money that costs companies. The blog post, Employee productivity: 21 critical minutes, on Polyspot’s Web site puts that cost upwards of two weeks’ worth of pay per employee putting a little more bite into that statistic.
So, what is a company to do to eliminate this waste? The answer, according to Polyspot, is quite simple really – utilize a search engine. As the post explains,
Search engines are often seen as a commodity. However, when used properly, they can breathe new life into information distribution within a company, saving employees valuable time that would otherwise be wasted. Now more than ever, with the appearance of so-called “Big Data”, these information asset management technologies provide a strategic gateway to a company’s entire knowledge base, enabling each and every employee to become more flexible, responsive, efficient and productive.
All too often as big data looms over their heads companies throw more and more money into data silos and other data management products thinking the storage of such vast amounts will fix the problem. As the post points out, however, storing data is the least of a company’s problem. As more business applications are being created and added into a company’s system more data is, in turn, being produced. In some instances the applications are meant to manage the data yet in reality only create more.
Without proper search within a larger data management solution companies are doomed. With entire industries existing solely online data will only continue to grow. Complicating the increasing data problem is the ever increasing types of data popping up making traditional search applications irrelevant. To be truly competitive in today’s market companies facing data problems must stop turning to applications to solve their problems and listen closely, rather, to Polyspot’s advice: invest in search.
Catherine Lamsfuss, January 26, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PolySpot Scales Ten Alps Publishing
January 24, 2012
The economic climate may be uncertain, but it is a great day for scaling Ten Alps. PolySpot announced that it closed a deal to implement its next generation, search enabled applications system for a major publisher. The PolySpot system will be deployed for the Link2Portal system.
Olivier Michel, one of PolySpot’s senior managers, told me:
Ten Alps publish more than 200 publications a year and have developed the unique Link2Portal site, to bring together the day’s news, analysis and exclusive opinions across UK and Global Trade, Logistics, construction and infrastructure, energy and sustainable development sectors. This information was previously isolated by each publication or subscriber list and as the volume of data was both growing rapidly, and becoming of increasing value to a widening readership, Ten Alps decided to invest in an information search and access solution to facilitate and enhance access to all of its information assets.
According to Mr. Michel, Ten Alps selected PolySpot because of its flexibility, performance, and implementation speed. The PolySpot system was up and running in three days, including integration of the PolySpot solution with other enterprise applications. PolySpot’s robust enterprise search application programming interface was a pivotal element in this implementation.
Stuart Brown, managing director of Ten Alps, said:
With its simple, open architecture, PolySpot was the only platform capable of providing us with a unique B2B search engine, which optimizes our content.
What makes this implementation significant is that PolySpot uses a range of content, including directory information from an Amazon cloud-hosted CouchDB database, the site’s editorial content (which is managed by Drupal), and the unstructured content of the thousands of publications available as PDF files and e books.
Consequently, PolySpot delivers the type of integrated search experience that some vendors have been describing but delivering only after weeks or months of effort. With PolySpot, a search on Link2Portal lets the user find news, a sector expert’s opinion, the e book for a publication, opened at the right page supported with industry solutions and suppliers information.
Gilles André, the chief executive officer of PolySpot, said:
The aim of Link2Portal is to facilitate information access for visitors to a major UK media group’s Web site. We achieved this objective in just a few days and we are proud to have Ten Alps as a customer.
Founded in 2001, PolySpot designs and sells search and information access solutions designed to improve business efficiency in an environment where data volumes are increasing at an exponential rate.
PolySpot’s solutions offer deep connectivity,so that licensees can access the data they need, regardless of their structure, format or origin. PolySpot’s solutions are based on an innovative infrastructure offering both versatility and high performance, enabling companies to make best use of their assets and rationalizing the strategic costs that today’s businesses and organizations face. PolySpot’s solutions have millions of users worldwide, across all business sectors, with customers including Allianz, BNP Paribas, Bureau Veritas, Crédit Agricole, OSEO, Schlumberger, Veolia, Trinity Mirror and Vinci.
A tip of the search enabled applications hat to the PolySpot team. Autonomy, Endeca, Exalead, and IBM have a frisky competitor on their hands I surmise.
Stephen E Arnold, January 24, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Exclusive Interview: Gilles Andre, PolySpot
December 13, 2011
Last week I was able to interview Gilles Andre, the chief executive officer, of PolySpot late in November and then last week. Mr. Andre joined PolySpot in June 2010. Prior to this, Gilles was co-founder and CEO of Augure, a company engaged in e-reputation management and services. Mr. Andre was also the founder of Leonard’s Logic suite in 1997 (software editor of Genio ETL). Acquired by Hummingbird in 1999. Mr. Andre is board member at Talend, recognized market leader in open source middleware solutions.
PolySpot is a provider of open search solutions. The company offers a robust and innovative architecture which supports search-centric applications accessible from any device connected to a client’s network.
I was interested in Mr. Andre’s view of PolySpot. The search and content processing sector is in transition, and the role of open source solutions continues to gain traction. He told me:
PolySpot’s agile framework, its use of open source technology like Lucene, and a focus on putting information in the business work flow. Olivier Lefassy, David Fischer – our CTO – and I had designed some interesting ideas, and I was eager to fine tune these elements into a business model that would propel PolySpot over the hurdles which cause many enterprise information solutions to fail.
With open source making in roads at IBM and other major technology providers, I asked about Mr. Andre’s involvement in the “communities” which play an important role in the sector. He told me:
When I was board member at Talend, a very successful French initiative in the ETL [extract, transform, load] segment from inception in 2006 to December 2010, I came to understand the potential of open source software. PolySpot gives me a chance to leverage my knowledge about fast growth, high potential companies, open source software, and the “big data” opportunity around us. I think you can say that data management and information are woven throughout my business fabric.
The PolySpot approach boasts a robust framework. I asked what PolySpot has constructed around Lucene, the open source search system:
We build the connectors I mentioned before and a connector software development kit. We engineered out proprietary transformation and enrichment platform (that’s the Sense Builder components) which adds intelligence to raw information. We also developed a very innovative end to end administration console enabling to design and maintain search applications with no particular technical skill, this eases Lucene and Solr configuration but also amplifies the search functionalities provided by Solr. Last, we have added display modules, information views, and graphical user interfaces. These can easily be customized. To make it brief, PolySpot delivers the first end-to-end packaged search infrastructure over Lucene and SOLR core technologies.
After seeing several demonstrations of client deployments, I was impressed with the PolySpot technology. To learn more about PolySpot’s solutions and technical approach, navigate to www.polyspot.com. The full text of the interview with Mr. Andre is located in the ArnoldIT’s series Search Wizards Speak at this link.
Stephen E Arnold, December 13, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of The New Landscape of Enterprise Search
AppRapids: A New Information Service about Enterprise Apps
December 6, 2011
We pride ourselves on the wide variety of information covered “beyond search”. But the field of search technology increasingly morphs into a larger and larger beast. We have decided to focus on apps in a new information service.
That’s why we have created AppRapids. We want to cover the appification of enterprise software solutions. Like SharePointSemantics and Inteltrax, the service is supported by a commercial venture. We are delighted to announce that PolySpot will sponsor AppRapids.
The AppRapids service will cover news, developer information, and business strategies for the exploding world of enterprise applications for search, content processing, and business processes.
This service is run by members of the Beyond Search team. AppRapids’ editor Megan Feil and ArnoldIT editorial coordinator Constance Ard, MLS, utilize the Overflight intelligence system to track important news related to enterprise architecture, search solutions, and apps.
Features of the new service include:
- Open comments section
- Social components such as LinkedIn and Facebook presences
- User-submitted content
- Open source approach so you can locate a source document and reuse the AppRapids’ content with a link back to the micro-site.
As the PRWeb News Release states, Chief Marketing Officer and PolySpot Founder Olivier Lefassy said:
We believe that the type of information generated by ArnoldIT makes it easy to track important innovations and the companies which are helping create the next-generation enterprise frameworks, architectures, and solutions, including open source. PolySpot is active in this arena, and we want to ensure that a continuous flow of information is available to document developments in open source and proprietary solutions.
PolySpot was founded in 2001. The company designs and sells search and information access solutions designed to improve business efficiency in an environment where data volumes are increasing at an exponential rate. PolySpot’s solutions offer universal connectivity, covering all business needs and ensuring that companies can access the data they need, regardless of their structure, format or origin.
For more information about PolySpot’s enterprise solutions, navigate to www.polyspot.com.
PolySpot’s solutions are based on an innovative infrastructure offering both versatility and high performance, enabling companies to make best use of their assets and rationalizing the strategic costs that today’s businesses and organizations face. PolySpot’s solutions have millions of users worldwide, across all business sectors, with customers including Allianz, BNP Paribas, Bureau Veritas, Crédit Agricole, OSEO, Schlumberger, Veolia, Trinity Mirror and Vinci. For more information about PolySpot, point your browser to www.polyspot.com.
The most notable feature of AppRapids is similar to what we do at Beyond Search: stories include analysis of topics that are usually intentionally muddled by the language of marketing experts. The editors welcome comments for stories and any ideas may be submitted to gumdrop1@mail.com. Point your browser to the About Us page for more information on the editorial policy.
The AppRapids’ team will be attending key events, and we will process news releases sent to us at the email in the news service, gumdrop1@mail.com. We are contemplating a meet up in the near future. Watch AppRapids for details.
Megan Feil, December 6, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
New Google App Sneaks Chrome on the iPad
December 3, 2011
In the battle between Apple and Google, it appears that the search giant has come out with new way to come out on top, and search is not the primary focus. Google has created a search app that is superior to the experience of any Android tablet and puts the core Chrome elements onto an Apple product.
If you are wondering why Google has suddenly decided to stop innovating for it’s own products, and has chosen to invade Apple’s, The Next Web article “Google Just Used It’s Search App to Sneek Most of Chrome OS onto the iPad” states:
“The reasons why it has shipped a pack of its most potent apps in one convenient dashboard are evident if you look at the tablet landscape as we know it. Google’s “official” version of Android is losing the tablet race, flat out. Products from manufacturers that have no access to an ecosystem beyond the Android Market have proven not to work. Now, Amazon has launched the Kindle Fire, which stands to quickly attain ’2nd place’ status behind the iPad, utilizing a tweaked version of Android that Google will gain nothing from.”
iOS devices account for 2/3 of mobile searches on Google’s platform, making it the largest outlet for Google’s primary product, ads. Google recognizes this fact and has created an app for its fans who use Apple products.
With such a seamless integration, it appears that Apple may not be able to separate itself from Google, no matter how hard they try. This is a certainly a clever move on Google’s part but definitely not the most innovative. Is this the new Google?
Jasmine Ashton, December 03, 2011
Information Volume Can Exceed Capacity to Cope
November 28, 2011
There has been much written about SharePoint 2010’s widespread and rapid adoption, but few people are shedding light on an organization’s ability to cope. Ed Kelty, CIO of Rio Salado College in Arizona, talks about his college’s journey with SharePoint in “SharePoint adopted faster than any other application I’ve ever seen!”
While Kelty highlights many of the benefits gleaned from their SharePoint installation, he admits there have been struggles and weaknesses in the implementation.
“It’s not so much a weakness, but one of the issues we had with SharePoint is that we didn’t realize the level of flexibility and the power it had to develop different things … and we didn’t initially have a process in place to help govern what went where. And so our SharePoint sites, especially on our Employee Portal went crazy . . . In the last few years, we’ve been more organized about things – navigation and database storage and that sort of thing, but in the beginning, we didn’t have a clue how to best configure the system.”
There are other solutions that work independent of SharePoint, or alongside SharePoint, that might prevent the sort of out-of-control information explosion. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is one third party solution that we like, especially for the kind of website customization that Kelty mentions above through its Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite.
“Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite recognizes correlations and links through semantic and dynamic search processes. This delivers pinpoint accurate and precise ‘finding experiences.’ And this with no installation, configuration or maintenance required. Fabasoft Mindbreeze InSite is the website search that your company needs.”
You can prevent not only the out-of-control growth that Kelty mentions, but also save valuable configuration time, simply by choosing an option that handles this customization for you. Explore solutions like Fabasoft Mindbreeze to ensure that your organization has an agile answer to its information needs.
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 28, 2011
Sponsored by: Pandia.com
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