Lexmark: Under Its Own Nose
March 20, 2012
I read “Lexmark Acquires Isys Search Software and Nolij (Knowledge, get it?) In 2008, Hewlett Packard acquired Lexington based Exstream Software. HP paid $350 million for the company, leaving Lexmark wondering what its arch printing enemy was doing. Now more than three years later, Lexmark is lurching through acquisitions.
On March 7, 2012, I reported that Lexmark purchased Brainware, a search, eDiscovery, and back office system. Brainware caught my attention because its finding method was based in part on tri-gram technology. I recall seeing patents on the method which were filed in 1999. I have a special report on this Brainware if anyone is interested. Brainware has a rich history. Its technology stretches back to SER Solutions (See US6772164). SER was once part of SER Systems AG. The current owners bought the search and technology and generated revenue from its back office capabilities, not the “pure” search technology. However, Brainware’s associative memory technology struck me as interesting because it partially addressed the limitations of trigram indexes. Brainware became part of Lexmark’s Perceptive Software unit.
Now, a mere two weeks later, Lexmark snags another search and retrieval company. Isys Search was started by Iain Davies in 1988. Mr. Davies was an author and an independent consultant in IBM mainframe fourth generation languages. His vision was to provide an easy-to-use search system. When I visited with him in 2009, I learned that Isys had more than 12,000 licensees worldwide. However, in the US, Isys never got the revenue traction which Autonomy achieved. Even Endeca which was roughly one-tenth the size of Autonomy was larger than Isys. The company began licensing its connectors to third parties a couple of years ago, and I did not get too many requests for analyses of the company’s technology. Like Endeca, the system processes content and generates a list of entities and other “facets’ which can help a user locate additional information for certain types of queries.
Now Lexmark, which allowed Exstream to go to HP, has purchased two companies with technology which is respectively 24 and 12 years old. I am okay with this approach to obtaining search and retrieval functionality, but I do wonder what Lexmark is going to do to leverage these technologies now that HP has Autonomy and Oracle has Endeca. Microsoft is moving forward with Fast Search and a boat load of third party search solutions from certified Microsoft partners. IBM does the Lucene Watson thing, and every math major from New York to San Francisco is jumping into the big data search and analytics sector.
Here’s a screen shot of the Isys Version 8 interface, which has been updated I have heard. You can see its principal features. I have an analysis of this system as well.
What will Lexmark do with two search vendors?
Here’s the news release lingo:
“Our recent acquisitions enable Lexmark to offer customers a differentiated, integrated system of solutions that are unique, cost effective, and deliver a rapid return on investment,” said Paul Rooke, Lexmark’s chairman and CEO. “The methodical shift in our focus and investments has strengthened our managed print services offerings and added new content and process technologies, positioning Lexmark as a key solutions provider to businesses large and small.”
Perceptive Software is now in the search and content processing business. However, unlike Exstream, these two companies do not have a repository and cross media publishing capability. I think it is unlikely that Lexmark/Perceptive will be able to shoehorn either of these two systems’ technology into its printers. Printers make money because of ink sales, not because of the next generation technology that some companies think will make smart printers more useful. Neither Brainware nor Isys has technology which meshes with the big data and Hadoop craziness now swirling around.
True, Lexmark can invest in both companies, but the cash required to update code from 1988 and methods from 1999 might stretch the Lexmark pocket book. Lexmark has been a dog paddler since the financial crisis of 2008.
Source: Google Finance
Here’s the Lane Report’s take on the deal:
Lexmark’s recent acquisitions have advanced its “capture/manage/access” strategy, enabling the company to intelligently capture content from hardcopy and electronic documents through a range of devices including the company’s award-winning smart multifunction products and mobile devices, while also managing and processing content through its enterprise content management and business process management technologies. These technologies, when combined with Lexmark’s managed print services capabilities, give the company the unique ability to help customers save time and money by managing their printing and imaging infrastructure while providing complementary and high value, end-to-end content and process management solutions.
I have a different view:
First, a more fleet footed Lexmark would have snagged the Exstream company. It was close to home, generating revenue, and packaged a solution. Exstream was not a box of Lego blocks. What Perceptive now has is an assembly job, not a product which can go head to head against Hewlett Packard. Maybe Lexmark will find a new market in Oracle installations, but Lexmark is a printer company, not a data management company.
Second, technology is moving quickly. Neither Brainware nor Isys has the components which allow the company to process content and output the type of results one gets from Digital Reasoning or Palantir. Innovative Ikanow is leagues ahead of both Brainware and Isys.
Neither Brainware nor Isys is open source centric. Based on my research and our forthcoming information services about open source technology, neither Brainware nor Isys is in that game. Because growth is exploding in the open source sector, how will Lexmark recover its modest expenditures for these two companies?
I think there may be more lift in the analytics sector than the search sector, but I live in Harrod’s Creek, not the intellectual capital of Kentucky where Lexmark is located.
Worth watching.
Stephen E Arnold, March 20, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
More Allegations about Fast Search Impropriety
March 8, 2012
With legions of Microsoft Certified Resellers singing the praises of the FS4SP (formerly the Fast Search & Transfer search and retrieval system), sour notes are not easily heard. I don’t think many users of FS4SP know or care about the history of the company, its university-infused technology, or the machinations of the company’s senior management and Board of Directors. Ancient history.
I learned quite a bit in my close encounters with the Fast ESP technology. No, ESP does not mean extra sensory perception. ESP allegedly meant the enterprise search platform. Fast Search, before its purchase by Microsoft, was a platform, not a search engine. The idea was that the collection of components would be used to build applications in which search was an enabler. The idea was a good one, but search based applications required more than a PowerPoint to become a reality. The 64 bit Exalead system, developed long before Dassault acquired Exalead, was one of the first next generation, post Google systems to have a shot at delivering a viable search based application. (The race for SBAs, in my opinion, is not yet over, and there are some search vendors like PolySpot which are pushing in interesting new directions.) Fast Search was using marketing to pump up license deals. In fact, the marketing arm was more athletic than the firm’s engineering units. That, in my view, was the “issue” with Fast Search. Talk and demos were good. Implementation was a different platter of herring five ways.
Fast Search block diagram circa 2005. The system shows semantic and ontological components, asserts information on demand, and content publishing functions—all in addition to search and retrieval. Similar systems are marketed today, but hybrid content manipulation systems are often a work in progress in 2012. © Fast Search & Transfer
I once ended up with an interesting challenge resulting from a relatively large-scale, high-profile search implementation. Now you may have larger jobs than I typically get, but I was struggling with the shift from Inktomi to the AT&T Fast search system in order to index the public facing content of the US federal government.
Inktomi worked reasonably well, but the US government decided in its infinite wisdom to run a “free and open competition.” The usual suspects responded to the request for proposal and statement of work. I recall that “smarter than everyone else” Google ignored the US government’s requirements.
This image is from a presentation by Dr. Lervik about Digital Libraries, no date. The slide highlights the six key functions of the Fast Search search engine. These are extremely sophisticated functions. In 2012, only a few vendors can implement a single system with these operations running in the core platform. In fact, the wording could be used by search vendor marketers today. Fast Search knew where search was heading, but the future still has not arrived because writing about a function is different from delivering that function in a time and resource window which licensees can accommodate. © Fast Search & Transfer
Fast Search, with the guidance of savvy AT&T capture professionals, snagged the contract. That was a fateful procurement. Fast Search yielded to a team from Vivisimo and Microsoft. Then Microsoft bought Fast Search, and the US government began its shift to open source search. Another consequence is that Google, as you may know, never caught on in the US Federal government in the manner that I and others assumed the company would. I often wonder what would have happened if Google’s capture team had responded to the statement of work instead of pointing out that the requirements were not interesting.
ASG Acquires Riverglass: More Big Data Action
February 1, 2012
RiverGlass News and Media reported on their recent acquisition by ASG Software Solutions in the article “Allen Systems Group (ASG) Acquires Intelligence Search Intelligence Search Firm Riverglass.”
Based in Naples, Florida, ASG Software Solutions is a recognized innovator in IT software solutions. The company announced in October that it acquired RiverGlass, a leading provider of eDiscovery, advanced information collection, data management and analysis solutions.
We learned:
The integration of RiverGlass’ robust intelligent search technologies with ASG’s content management solutions will provide ASG customers with improved capabilities in data collection, management of structured and unstructured data, and access to meaningful analytics.
In addition to the RiverGlass acquisition, according to a December news release, ASG has also acquired Atempo, a leading provider of data protection and backup management software headquartered in Palo Alto, CA.
By acquiring these two data management solutions companies, ASG will be able to help its customers combat the exponential data growth and increasing complexity in meeting e-discovery and compliance regulations.
Jasmine Ashton, February 1, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
HP Announces Autonomy’s Software Will be Integrated Across All Products
December 8, 2011
When Hewlett-Packard (HP) purchased Autonomy this past August for $10.3 billion, nearly 24 times the small Cambridge-based software company’s earnings, it vowed it’s reasoning was to integrate Autonomy’s software with HP’s hardware products.
Three months later, ZD Net UK reported on November 29, Autonomy’s advanced data search, analysis and augmented reality technology will be integrated across HP’s products, in the article “Autonomy plots HP- spanning tech”.
Autonomy’s chief executive, Mike Lynch said:
“There is a lot of work going on between the different business units at HP [to integrate Autonomy technology]. Servers and storage is obviously key [but with the] Personal Systems Group stuff is going to come that was only available for very large companies. There’s also some really stunning technology for printing being done by both HP research and development people and Autonomy’s. More detail will be given very shortly.”
Autonomy’s technology helps make sense of information generated by social media, phonecalls, video feeds and other types of unstructured data. I am very interested to see what this technology brings to HP’s products over the next year.
Jasmine Ashton, December 08, 2011
October 25, 2011
Autonomy blew past Endeca with its acquisition strategy, revenue growth, and take no prisoners sales tactics. Now Oracle is compressing 10 to 12 years of Autonomy craftsmanship into a week or two of Internet time. The most recent acquisition by the database vendor is RightNow, a now cloud loving customer support vendor. Instead of the on premises craziness, a company wanting to chop customer support costs and reduce customer churn can license RightNow. Oracle is going to be the proud owner of RightNow.
You can read some of the details in “Oracle Buys Cloud-based Customer Service Company RightNow For $1.5 Billion”. RightNow, like Endeca, dates from the late 1990s. My hunch is that there will not be massive investment in RightNow’s technology. The customer list is the big asset.
Step back.
Oracle Text has roots in Artificial Linguistic’s technology from the late 1980a. (I bet the real search experts and the azure chip crowd in New York know all about this system. Hey, that’s why azure chip consultants are so darned successful. Legends in their own minds.) Oracle owns TripleHop, InQuira, and Endeca. Toss in the customer relationship management systems and those systems authorized vendors of search, and you have a collection of finding and tagging technology that makes OpenText search profligacy look downright abstemious.
My take away is that Oracle’s senior management took another look at Autonomy, considering the $10 or $12 billion price tag. Instead of making fun of Hewlett Packard, Oracle seems to have concluded that it needed to follow a similar strategy. Just on an accelerated schedule.
Can Oracle match Autonomy’s financial performance? Does Oracle have Autonomy’s management skill?
Quite a battle will be waged by two giants who care little about search and everything about taking business from the other. That’s the sprit of financial crisis capitalism.
Stephen E Arnold, October 25, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Endeca Deal Ups Ante in Oracle Fight with HP
October 19, 2011
Today American computer technology corporation Oracle entered into an agreement to purchase Endeca Technologies, a Cambridge MA vendor of software for unstructured data analytics and business intelligence for an undisclosed sum.
Who cares about this deal? Hewlett Packard to name one company. Other organizations will see this as a little known software company which has been absorbed by a far larger database and enterprise software firm. Search is now a bit like Norton Utilities, an add in.
After the deal closes, Oracle allegedly will create a comprehensive technology platform to process, store, manage, search and analyze structured and unstructured information together enabling businesses to make stronger and more profitable decisions.According to the Computer World article, “Oracle Boosts Enterprise Search with Endeca Purchase” Oracle said in a statement:
The purchase will allow Oracle to offer a range of technologies that will help enterprises process, store, search and analyze both structured and unstructured data in an integrated fashion.
Despite the range of customers and products that Endeca brings to the table, we suspect that the amount Oracle paid is probably hefty. Endeca has ingested more than $70 million since the late 1990s. Stephen E Arnold, author of The New Landscape of Search, told me:
Endeca tried to pull off an IPO several years ago. That did not take place. Endeca then raised additional money from Intel and SAP’s venture unit. Endeca was not able to generate the type of revenue Autonomy had achieved. Oracle’s purchase of Endeca complements or complicates the firm’s search and content processing cost situation. Now Oracle has the aging Oracle Text, the somewhat inefficient Secure Enterprise Search 11g system, the InQuira natural language processing system, the TripleHop tagging systems, and the Endeca Guided Navigation system. One thing is certain: consulting and engineering services will be required to herd these different technologies forward in a cohesive manner. Like Hewlett Packard, Oracle may be betting on big companies with an appetite for expensive engineering to make the deal pay, regardless of the price Oracle paid for Endeca. With Microsoft bundling Fast Search with some SharePoint licenses, Oracle’s desire for a high margin, no brainer upsell may be tough to achieve.
We foresee three primary challenges in Oracle’s future:-
- Avoiding the high cost base of supporting and enhancing quite different search technologies. This is a strategy that Autonomy was able to implement, but enterprise software vendor OpenText has not yet been able to make work at Autonomy’s scale.
- Fighting successfully against HP and Autonomy for services revenue in a market where search is a commodity and becoming a component in a larger software system. Exalead has implemented this strategy effectively. Now Oracle and HP will have to differentiate their offerings and maintain margins and fees for search solutions decline. Autonomy has outperformed Endeca for many years in both management acumen and revenue production.
- Finding a way to keep costs under control. Search is an expensive proposition, and Oracle will have to do more than get a Fortune 500 firm to sign on for Endeca’s solution. Oracle will have to boost margins, implement Endeca’s consultative approach to search, and invest in Endeca’s eCommerce, business intelligence, and unstructured data technology. eCommerce may be a tough challenge due to the increasing interest in open source solutions such as eBay’s acquisition of Magenta.
Our question: Who will emerge to challenge Dassault Exalead in search based applications? IBM OmniFind and Watson, an open source vendor, one of the many newcomers to search? Will Endeca’s MBA style approach to consultative engineering pay dividends to Oracle, a company with some US Marines type qualities? Culture shock, anyone?
Stay tuned.
Jasmine Ashton, October 18, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Oracle Plans for CRM Expansion
October 12, 2011
The consulting firm Ovum is weighing in on Oracle’s pending acquisition of InQuira; a move that expands Oracle’s CRM capabilities. Read the full review at, “InQuira buyout firms up Oracle CRM sway.”
Oracle’s pending acquisition of InQuira is a sensible move, providing it with tools to help enterprises unify web information with internal CRM data and provide more targeted sales, marketing, and customer service. Although Oracle already had a partnership and integration with InQuira, the acquisition will ensure that knowledge becomes an intrinsic part of Oracle Siebel and Oracle Fusion CRM applications.
Just as every other sector of the corporate world, customer service channels will need to respond to the ever-changing mobile technology. Oracle will likely bring InQuira’s information expertise to work alongside its already successful suite of process management and business expertise products. The match is a good one and will likely prove fruitful for Oracle.
Emily Rae Aldridge, October 12, 2011
http://www.telecomseurope.net/
Silver Lake, Alibaba, Digital Sky in Talks of Buying Yahoo
October 12, 2011
Yahoo has been flailing around the internet ever since Google set anchor: this is no new news. The slight possibility for Yahoo to become a multinational corporation places the company in the media with Bloomberg’s article, “Silver Lake Said to Discuss Yahoo Deal with China’s Alibaba, Digital Sky.”
The private-equity firm Silver Lake in addition to China’s Alibaba Group and Russia’s Digital Sky Technologies are reportedly considering a joint bid for Yahoo.
We learned about the potential opposition to this deal from the article:
Regulators may oppose foreign ownership of a company such as Yahoo, which plays a crucial role in U.S. communications through the delivery of e-mail and instant messaging. The company also serves as the second-largest U.S. search engine, through a partnership with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) The deal would face tax implications as well because of Yahoo’s stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan Corp. (4689), one person said.
The whole deal is very much up in the air at this point. After the recent firing of CEO Carol Burtz last month, Yahoo plans on evaluating their current plan.
Additionally, it has been reported that the group is not even certain if they will make a bid.
Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma sees it in his best interest to buy Yahoo because Yahoo currently has a 40% stake in Alibaba. It would be interesting to hear about the motivations from the other two companies.
Megan Feil, October 12, 2011
HP and Autonomy to Effect Change on Each Other
October 11, 2011
Unstructured information growth is so high now, and it’s becoming such a core part of what we have to do within the enterprise, that it’s time for the database to be eclipsed by something that can handle both rather than just one type of information.
HP Acquires Autonomy. Investors Put on a Happy Face
October 4, 2011
A news release whizzed by on October 3, 2011, bearing happy tidings to Autonomy stakeholders. The deal with Hewlett Packard has been consummated. The news release asserted:
The acquisition positions HP as a leader in the large and growing enterprise information management space. Autonomy’s software offerings power more than 25,000 customer accounts worldwide and, as part of HP, will provide high-value business solutions to help customers manage the explosion of unstructured and structured information. Autonomy offers solutions that are complementary across HP’s enterprise offerings and strengthens the company’s data analytics, cloud, industry and workflow management capabilities.
Now with Ms. Whitman at the helm and Autonomy in the HP flotilla, will the company be able to generate the revenue required to pay for the “meaning based computing company.” I don’t have a clue. HP has some interesting challenges, but it has some big money units, including the ink business. I also think the print on demand unit has some potential, and the company desperately needs an improved findability solution for that unit as well as the HP Web site.
Fascinating to consider what HP can do. Microsoft paid $1.2 billion for Fast Search & Transfer. After three years, Fast Search is more or less a freebie for customers who buy oodles of client access licenses and jump on the SharePoint bandwagon. What will HP do with Autonomy? Make lots of money quickly is presumably one goal. We will monitor the trajectory of the deal because we think Mike Lynch could be the person to push out Ms. Whitman and get Autonomy managed effectively. Mr. Lynch is associated with search, but I think he is a much under-rated senior manager. HP could be the platform he needs to allow his skills to be showcased on a larger stage. Some “real” consultants who failed at being Web masters, home economics majors, and students of 18th century poetry will doubt my confidence in Mr. Lynch. Well, that’s why I am a big wheel in rural Kentucky and the “real” experts hang out in the world’s watering holes, not a pond filled with mine run off. Oh, the real consultants are not counting their billions as is Mr. Lynch I surmise.
Stephen E Arnold, October 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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