Vivisimo and Its New Positioning
August 19, 2010
I was poking around with Compete.com. Just for fun, I plugged in Endeca.com, dtSearch.com, Mindbreeze.com, and Vivisimo.com. Here’s the chart that Compete.com spit out. I view most usage reports as general indicators, not definitive data. But look at the top trending lines for Endeca and Vivisimo line:
What are these Vivisimo-hicans doing to scalp two competitors and challenge top-rated Endeca.com? The answer, based on my poking around, is that Vivisimo does not talk about search too much, does not use tired search jargon, or trot out search platitudes.
Vivisimo writes a combination of Latinized buzzwords and business school jargon. Here’s an example from the company’s news release “Top 10 Ways the US government Has Used Information Optimization to Save Tax Payers $300 Million.” Whoa, Nellie. In a time of de facto bankruptcy and government waste running amuck, Vivisimo is saving tax payers $300 million.
Here’s what the company says its Velocity Platform is doing:
Vivisimo, a leader in information optimization, today announced the top 10 ways its Information Optimization platform has saved taxpayers $300 million by helping the federal government become more efficient and improve national security. Over the past few years, federal agencies, including federally funded organizations, have saved hundreds of millions of dollars and improved America’s security posture by being able to quickly surf through mountains of information and pull relevant data that will allow federal employees and contractors to perform their job better and faster.
“Information optimization” is an interesting concept. It suggests that “information”–a concept not defined in the write up—can be optimized. “Optimize” to me connotes making a process as effective as possible or taking steps for me to make the most of an action such as my time at the gym. Optimizing information sounds pretty darned good, but I don’t know what it really means.
The news release continued:
Fortunately, Vivisimo’s Information Optimization Platform, provides capabilities that improve information access, re-use and collaboration across the full range of government activities. From internal knowledge portals that enhance agency performance to intelligence analysis, military operations and public-facing websites, Velocity helps government agencies fulfill their missions and deliver value to taxpayers.
Next the company explains that
Information Optimization is the process of finding insights across multiple systems and then delivering the right information to enable better business decisions that solve operating challenges and create economic value. The Velocity Platform helps organizations achieve information optimization through information connectivity and contextual intelligence that then enables organizational capabilities.
“Information” appears in this definition three times, optimization twice, and the notion of “contextual intelligence” (not defined) one time. I recall from my university days something called the “fog index”. My hunch is that this chunk of prose would tally a high fog score. Your mileage may differ.
What’s clear is that Vivisimo is selling its clustering and federated search technology in a quite different way. What’s also clear is that the people looking for information about solving “information problems” are find their way to the Vivisimo Web site. That big read line makes the other outfits’ search engine optimization strategies look less effective that Vivisimo’s interesting new approach.
Is Vivisimo radically different from what it was when it operated Clusty.com (now long gone) and processed content for some of its government clients? In my view, no. What’s different is that the management team is selling to the Federal government using jargon that is second nature to the procurement crowd.
Is there a lesson in this shift? Well, traditional search technology does not deliver the traffic that the Vivisimo jargon seems to deliver. The real test will come when hard financial data becomes available or the company gets acquired. In the meantime, other search vendors may want to study the Vivisimo vocabulary.
Do I know what the Vivisimo lingo means? Does that matter? Not in the world of Web site traffic in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, August 19, 2010
Vivisimo Chases Call Center Sales
July 22, 2010
One of the most frustrating things for a call center agent is not having the information that a customer needs right at their fingertips. Any business knows that they can lose customers when they have agents fumbling around through applications looking for answers, and no one really has the resources to be constantly updating this kind of information.
Sometimes the solutions come from unlikely sources. Vivisimo started by supplying applications for the military and academia but is now tackling the more practical problems that call centers face with Velocity. Here’s a real company on the move and they swear by this new information platform which they say optimizes fragmented information with any easy to use interface.
Vivisimo’s history begins with an on-the-fly clustering function, veers into Web indexing, jumps to enterprise search, embraced integration, and now flirts with call center search. Agility or chasing revenue? The goslings and I are not sure.
Now is most definitely the time for some of the world’s best companies to apply their knowledge to practical economic solutions.
Vivisimo may have to show some Autonomy-style innovation to make a quantum leap in revenue in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, July 22, 2010
Vivisimo Drifts to Integration and Services
June 29, 2010
I heard about Vivisimo’s Federal Day from a contact in Washington, DC. Like MarkLogic and many other organizations, a company sponsored conference can be more effective than a general purpose trade show. The vendors need qualified prospects, and I think that customer conferences with an open door policy for prospects is an important marketing angle for search and content processing vendors.
Vivisimo has not been on my radar. There has been executive churn which is often a sign that a company is in some flux. You can read about the event in the effusive write up in Vivisimo’s Web log Information Optimized. The story is “Vivisimo’s Federal Day 2010.” The line up of speakers struck me as eclectic, and I am not sure how much search and content processing focus the presentations had. The notion of “information optimization” strikes me as azure chip consultant speak. The phrase is ambiguous. I am not sure what information is, so it is tough for me to know how to optimize something I don’t understand. But I was not there, so hopefully Vivisimo will post the PowerPoint decks or PDF versions of the notes.
Like other companies with roots in a search function, Vivisimo is working hard to find a way to get customers without falling into the “search is dead” quagmire. For me, the most telling comment in the article was:
By the end of the day, with the help of our customers and partners, we had explored the need, the theory and the practice behind Information Optimization. As Director of Product Management I have the benefit of hearing our customer stories daily, but many in attendance don’t have this luxury so it was a great pleasure to see their eye light up with possibilities when hearing each other’s stories. One of my favorite quotes of the day was when an analyst explained the value of their application as “finally it was like the lights were turned on.” The diversity of solutions shown by our customers drove home the enormous potential of this discipline, and the feedback we received will help drive the evolution of Vivisimo’s product and service offerings in the future. What a home run!
A home run is great. Winning for customers and stakeholders is the real yard stick in my opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, June 29, 2010
Freebie
Is Vivisimo Preparing for an IPO, Maybe to Be Acquired?
June 11, 2010
Short honk: I learned something interesting in the wake of the Exalead deal. (Watch for my take on the purchase of this search based applications company on June 14, 2010. I will let the azure chip crowd beaver away for now.) Navigate to “Vivisimo Boosts Management Team with Addition of Patrick Williams, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Americas.”My take on this story is that none of the newer executives, include Mr Williams, is into search. The management team wants to find a way to convert Vivisimo into a pay day. There are a number of outfits looking for a way to end their search woes. And there are lots and lots of companies for sale. So what will happen? Not much for a while but the ice shelf may crack next spring.
Stephen E Arnold, June 11, 2010
Freebie
Vivisimo Sells Clusty.com
May 15, 2010
If the story “Yippy, Inc. DBA: ‘Yippy’ Has Closed the Clusty.com Transaction” is accurate, Vivisimo’s metasearch system has a new home. So what’s a Yippy. According to the news item:
Yippy, Inc. formerly known as Cinnabar Ventures, Inc., www.yippy.com, is a new economy technology company that develops technologies and application services environments for both Consumer and Commercial market segments in the cloud computing sector.
Assume the story is accurate. What’s this mean for Vivisimo? First, some money. Second, maybe some reduced operating and development costs. Third, Vivisimo is going to have more management cycles available to focus on its enterprise search and services business.
More details are supposed to be available on May 17, 2010.
Stephen E Arnold, May 15, 2010
Freebie. Yippy.
NASA, Search Death, and Vivisimo
May 10, 2010
In an echo of my article for “Searcher Magazine” five or six years ago, I read this statement by Bob Carter, Vivisimo, “Search is broken. Results are not shared, saved or collected. Search technology doesn’t factor in who I am, what I do, where I am or what I know.” Guess not. I know that I got quite a bit of feedback (positive and negative), when I pointed out that search was dead. Shortly before it left this veil of tears, I could hear the sucking sounds from its chest wound. I think my original write up was on the Information Today Web site, an outfit that publishes some of my for-fee work.
Mr. Carter’s comment appeared in the article “Search Is Dead: Long Live ‘Findability’”. I must admit I was confused. The problems of user-aware search and personalization, retention of search histories, results archiving and sharing, and business process centric results are “sort of searchy” and “sort of findability”. The real angle is that search as I wrote during a wonderful, delayed flight to San Francisco is more like an oil spill or an ash cloud. Search is diffusing, disrupting, and creating both opportunities and dislocations.
The Federal Computer Week write up addresses none of these issues. The article is more of a marketing write up about NASA, a highly regarded Federal entity, and its use of Google technology. My question is, “Is NASA Googley or is NASA using Vivisimo to crack the findability problem?” No wonder people are confused about search and content processing systems. Search is dead and two search systems seem to be alive at least in the write up. What?
Search is dead, then it becomes findability, and then it becomes Googley. With analysis like this, the azure chip crowd looks like the brightest stars in the Bright Starbirth Region NGC 2363. Help!
Stephen E Arnold, May 9, 2010
Obviously an unsponsored post.
Vivisimo Garners Life Sciences Award
April 5, 2010
Vivisimo received the Customer Choice Award at 2010 Life Sciences Technology Summit. According to the story “Vivisimo Wins Customer Choice Award at Life Sciences Technology Insight Summit”,
Vivisimo was recognized for helping its customers unlock and optimize the true business value of all their data, regardless of application or source to drive knowledge management, real-time decisions and actionable insight.
You can get more information about Vivisimo at www.vivisimo.com.
Stephen E Arnold, April 3, 2010
A freebie.
Vivisimo Rivets Social Search Deal
March 10, 2010
Vivisimo and its Velocity Enterprise Search Platform is versatile. I read “Vivisimo Powers Social Search for the Industrial Research Institute” and learned more about the Velocity social search capabilities.
IRI is “a leading research organization representing industrial and service companies that have a common interest in technological innovation and invest billions on research and development annually.” IRI wants to maximize the value of social media for its lead generation activities.
According to the new story:
…Members are able to use the search interface as a single collaboration point, fostering knowledge sharing among users and optimizing information…RI members using Velocity are utilizing a rich set of discovery, personalization and collaboration functionality, empowering them with greater control over their search experience. Rather than just being able to search and find information, users can tag, rate and annotate documents and search terms to optimize future results all aimed at improving collaboration, innovation and productivity.
Approximately 1,000 IRI members will use the new search service.
My definition of social search is more narrow than that presented in the news story. The idea that search is a collaboration tool because a user can add a tag is more in the Microsoft SharePoint approach to information management. If you want more information, point your browser to Vivisimo’s Web site.
Stephen E Arnold, March 10, 2010
No one paid me to write this article. I will report non payment to the social secretary for the White House and if the position is not yet filled, I will report when the new person is on the job and screening invitation lists.
Vivisimo Issues Point Upgrade
October 8, 2009
Vivisimo, http://www.vivismo.com, a company that works with email archiving, eDiscovery, and information management solutions, just released a revved-up version of the Velocity Enterprise Search Platform, which builds search-centric programs. The platform focuses on extensibility, scalability and performance; Vivisimo is using it to accelerate into OEM and reseller markets. Those programs are designed to add value to existing applications and develop new solutions for sorting information assets, for example, it supports searching 1 billion emails on a single server. Vivisimo also says “With Velocity 7.5, new traceable accuracy metrics can accurately prove and defend that all data has been crawled and identify any documents that were not indexed due to corrupt file types.” This can be a big plus for companies dealing with growing regulation. A happy quack for Vivisimo (tagline: “Search Done Right!”). Any progress that can help enterprise business advance search and make sense of unstructured data is a good thing.
Jessica Bratcher, October 8, 2009
Vivisimo on Reddit
August 29, 2009
We check Reddit.com every few days. An interesting post plugging Vivisimo’s Clusty.com metasearch system hit our radar on August 26, 2009. “Get Clusty” enjoined me to kick the Google and Bing habit. What I found interesting about the post was the implementation of the popup preview.
This was a first in our experience reading about search engines.
Stephen Arnold, August 28, 2009
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