Endeca Pegs Business Intelligence
October 14, 2010
Endeca, once closely associated with eCommerce and enterprise search is working to unleash their business intelligence tools. Business intelligence software is gaining ground in the business world because of its proven advanced data handling but it can be difficult to sometimes find the most effective and efficient way to use the tools. In the Internetnews.com article “Endeca Aims to Simplify Access to BI Value” the company describes Endeca Latitude which combines business intelligence and search tools in one convenient package. Endeca “says its latest release makes typically complex business intelligence (BI) applications more accessible.” The new latitude program allows business IT departments to use business intelligence software to handle a variety of data needs. As other companies unlock the wealth of business intelligence tools and experience success, Endeca must shift its main focus from Enterprise Search and also adopt new technologies to remain competitive. Endeca Latitude provides users with better and quicker access to data and seems to be the wave of the future.
April Holmes, October 14, 2010
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Ease of Use: A Barrier to Business Intelligence Adoption
October 13, 2010
This story is a preview of a new ArnoldIT.com blog now in a limited test.
Training wheels are a good thing when learning to ride a bicycle. Once the training wheels are off, the rider is on his or her own. Most people survive bicycle riding without much more than a few bumps and scrapes. A small percentage suffer serious injuries.
For years, business intelligence came equipped with training wheels and a person with a degree in statistics with programming expertise. For a manager to hop on a business intelligence system, one of these experts plus training wheels were required. Not surprisingly, in this era of rapid fire decision making and flows of big data, who has time for the stats wonk and the speed inhibiting training wheels.
The argument in many organizations boils down to a demand from users to get direct access to business intelligence systems. Just as every Web surfer perceives himself / herself as an expert in online research, that confidence now reaches to most professionals.
“Ease of Use Is a Big Driver of SaaS Business Intelligence” reinforces this shift in the business intelligence market. According to the article on ITBusinessEdge.com:
When business users are actively involved in purchasing BI, ease of use is one of their primary criteria. And as White [a TDWI researcher] writes, “SaaS BI tools are generally intuitive, easy to use, and easy to understand.” Aberdeen found organizations using SaaS BI have 50 percent more self-service BI users than companies that do not use SaaS. That’s significant, since some folks think that getting more people using BI is the key to ROI. It’s also no surprise, then, that Dresner Advisory Services found earlier this year that vendors selling SaaS BI products are gaining ground on companies offering traditional, on-premise BI software. In addition to less-intimidating user interfaces, another reason SaaS BI is easier to use is because deployments typically are based on smaller, simpler data models. As White notes, SMBs using SaaS have smaller and less complex data sets than their larger counterparts. And at big companies, individual departments often use SaaS BI to supplement on-premise deployments by filling niches that traditional software doesn’t adequately address. “This smaller scale can make data inherently easier to navigate and easier to slice and dice,” White writes.
My opinion is that the “user experience” or UX will become more important that the user’s understanding of the underlying data’s strengths and weaknesses. Point and click works well in many situations. I am not convinced that buying a mission critical business intelligence system whether implemented via the cloud or on premises because of the snappy graphics and interface is appropriate.
Game link interfaces that obfuscate the underlying data may lead to very poorly informed decisions. A business intelligence system that isolates the user from the moving parts that put the information in a context may create more problems than its solves. Eye candy may not have the caloric value needed. I prefer a system that combines both rigor and ease of use. More importantly, I want the vendor to be standing by in case my ride begins to wobble. I saw a demonstration of a system from Digital Reasoning that struck me as having a good balance of features and functions without sacrificing ease of use.
Stephen E Arnold, October 13, 2010
InQuira Inks Deal with Zebra
October 11, 2010
I learned that Zebra Technologies has selected InQuira’s natural language processing technology to enhance Zebra’s “knowledge solutions.” InQuira bills itself as a leading provider of self service and contact center support systems. Zebra’s business involves the design, manufacture, sales and supports a range of direct thermal and thermal transfer label printers, radio frequency identification (RFID) printer/encoders, dye sublimation card printers, and software.
According to CRM Marketplace,
InQuira for Web Self Service will allow Zebra to deliver customized and accurate results to partner queries initiated on its website any time of the day. Additionally, Zebra will utilize InQuira for Contact Centers to help increase agent productivity, lower training costs and improve the accuracy and satisfaction of every partner interaction.
InQuira, based in San Bruno, Calif., is an established vendor of natural language processing technology. A visitor to an InQuire-based support system can type a question in normal colloquial form. The system will parse the query, understand the user’s meaning, and display relevant information from the processed content.
The company was founded in 2002. My recollection is that two firms merged to create InQuira. I think one company was Answerfriend and the other was Electric Knowledge. In the last eight years, the engineers have supplemented search with work flow, authoring, analytics, and a feedback function.
The company was of interest to me because it was one of the first to take two search and content centric vendors, merge them, and create what appears to me a successful business. For more information about InQuira, navigate to www.inquira.com.
Stephen E Arnold, October 11, 2010
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Microsoft Suggests Google Instant Is No Big Deal
October 7, 2010
Microsoft and Google have never hidden their competiveness when it comes to trying to outdo one another. In the PC World article “Microsoft’s Yusuf Mehdi Pooh-Poohs Google Instant”, one of Microsoft’s VP’s discusses Google’s new instant feature. The new feature is designed to refresh users search results while they are typing their queries and describes the program as “search before you type”. Microsoft’s response to the new system is “Google Instant is technologically “impressive” but misses the mark in what search engines should do.” Microsoft contends that the service, though fast, misses the mark because it does not help users to narrow down the information they are looking for. Microsoft promises its Bing service will continue to focus more on providing users with more of the information that they want. It is convenient to get quick results but if the results are not helpful then the speed factor is really of little importance. Our view is that most users won’t know how to turn it off, so for casual consumers, Google Instant is the new Google.
April Holmes, October 7, 2010
Egentia: Another Aggregation Play
September 28, 2010
The newspaper is no longer the most sought after when it comes to finding the latest information. More and more people are putting down their paper and turning to online news to keep them informed. The company Eqentia aims to build a business portal that will have the same prestige for entrepreneurs that Google News has for the average user who wants to be informed about general news and developments.”
The article “Eqentia.com – Like Google News but For Businessmen” on KillerStartups.com explains a little more about the site. Basically, the company wants to allow users to customize their news options and get only the business news they want. Users can get the latest news from their business sector, keep an eye on the competition or see consumer patterns which can be helpful when coming up with marketing or media campaigns. A similar setup is already used by Silobreaker, which is dedicated to providing users with relevant news. Users perform automated searches in order to find in depth and relevant news instead of unsubstantiated chatter. Both sites give new meaning to the phrase “have it your way.”
The challenge seems to be marketing, not technology. There is an abundance of choices.
April Holmes, September 28, 2010
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i2, Inc. and Palantir
September 19, 2010
In a motion filed Monday Aug. 9, 2010, i2 filed a complaint explained in “Media Advisory from i2.” The plaintiff, www.i2.co.uk, makes allegations related to i2’s intellectual property. You can access the legal documents via Scribd. i2 and Palantir are involved in content processing, data management, and various analytics processes. More about i2 is here. More about Palantir is here. Years ago I did some work for i2 and learned that the firm’s technologies were widely used in intelligence, law enforcement, and related market sectors. Palantir is more of a newcomer. Palantir received an infusion of venture funding in 2010.
Stephen E Arnold, September 19, 2010
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SwiftRiver: Open Source Pushes into the Intel Space
September 13, 2010
If you are one of the social netizens, you know it isn’t easy to keep track of, manage, and organize the hundreds of Twitter streams, Facebook updates, blog posts, RSS feeds, or SMS that you keep getting. Do not feel helpless as SwiftRiver comes to your aid, which is a free open source intelligence-gathering platform for managing real-time streams of data streams. This unique platform consists of a number of unique products and technologies, and its goal is to aggregate the information from multiple media channels, and add context related to it, using semantic analysis.
SwiftRiver can also be used as a search tool, for email filtering, to monitor numerous blogs, and verify real-time data from various channels. It offers, “Several advanced tools (social graph mining, natural language processing, locations servers, and twitter analytics) for free use via the open API platform Swift Web Services.” According to the parent site Swiftly.org, “This free tool is especially for organizations who need to sort their data by authority and accuracy, as opposed to popularity.” SwiftRiver has the ability to act quickly on massive amounts of data, a feat critical for emergency response groups, election monitors, media, and others.
There are multiple Swift Rivers. You want the one at http://swift.ushahidi.com or http://swiftly.org/.
Ushahidi, the company behind this initiative claims, “The SwiftRiver platform offers organizations an easy way to combine natural language/artificial intelligence process, data-mining for SMS and Twitter, and verification algorithms for different sources of information.” Elaborating further it states, “SwiftRiver is unique in that there is no singular ‘SwiftRiver’ application. Rather, there are many, that combine plug-ins, APIs, and themes in different ways that are optimized for workflows.”
Presently SwiftRiver uses the Sweeper App, the Kohana MVC UI, the distributed reputation system RiverID, and SwiftWebServices (SWS) as the API platform. The beauty here is that SwiftRiver is just the core, and it can have any UI, App, or API. It also has an intuitive and customizable dashboard, and the “users of WordPress and Drupal can add features like auto-tagging and more using Swift Web Services.” While you may download SwiftRiver and run it on your web server, SWS is a hosted cloud service, and does not need to be downloaded and installed.
Harleena Singh, September 13, 2010
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RSS Readers Dead? And What about the Info Flows?
September 13, 2010
Ask.com is an unlikely service to become a harbinger of change in content. Some folks don’t agree with this statement. For example, read “The Death Of The RSS Reader.” The main idea is that:
There have been predictions since at least 2006, when Pluck shut its RSS reader down that “consumer RSS readers” were a dead market, because, as ReadWriteWeb wrote then, they were “rapidly becoming commodities,” as RSS reading capabilities were integrated into other products like e-mail applications and browsers. And, indeed, a number of consumer-oriented RSS readers, including News Alloy, Rojo, and News Gator, shut down in recent years.
The reason is that users are turning to social services like Facebook and Twitter to keep up with what’s hot, important, newsy, and relevant.
An autumn forest. Death or respite before rebirth?
I don’t dispute that for many folks the RSS boom has had its sound dissipate. However, there are several factors operating that help me understand why the RSS reader has lost its appeal for most Web users. Our work suggest these factors are operating:
- RSS set up and management cause the same problems that the original Pointcast, Backweb, and Desktop Data created. There is too much for the average user to do and then too much on going maintenance required to keep the services useful.
- The RSS stream outputs a lot of baloney along with the occasional chunk of sirloin. We have coded our own system to manage information on the topics that interest the goose. Most folks don’t want this type of control. After some experience with RSS, my hunch is that many users find them too much work and just abandon them. End users and consumers are not too keen on doing repetitive work that keeps them from kicking back and playing Farmville or keeping track of their friends.
- The volume of information in itself is one part of the problem. The high value content moves around, so plugging into a blog today is guarantee that the content source will be consistent, on topic, or rich with information tomorrow. We have learned that lack of follow through by the creators of content creators is an issue. Publishers know how to make content. Dabblers don’t. The problem is that publishers can’t generate big money so their enthusiasm seems to come and go. Individuals are just individuals and a sick child can cause a blog writer to find better uses for any available time.
Oracle Keeps Pushing into Business Intelligence
September 12, 2010
It’s like following a trail in the woods made by a Hummer. Tough to miss. Deer get the heck out of the way—usually. Smaller critters may not know what’s about to happen when the metal beastie crunches their carapace. Oracle made a big stride into the business intelligence domain with its new Oracle Business Intelligence 11g. It was officially released in August 2010 and accelerated into the tender pines dainty flowers that make up the US business intelligence market.
From the beginning Oracle BI solutions have retained some of the popular stable features from Seibel Analytics and that has not changed with 11g. the newer version does have some great features, presentation and business analysis features which are a good improvement over the previous versions. However, the real enhancements can only be appreciated by someone who has used OBIEE 10.1.3.4. Steve Callan in his The Old and New of Oracle Business Intelligence” asserted, “There may be lots of changes you can’t or won’t appreciate if you don’t know what it was like in past.”
Just like Hummers. Big, powerful, and sometimes tough to avoid.
Martin Brooke, September 12, 2010
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Twitter: New Monetizing Play?
August 14, 2010
Data and text mining boffins like to crunch “big data.” The idea is that the more data one has, the less slop in the wonky “scores” that fancy math slaps on certain “objects.” Individuals think that his / her actions are unique. Not exactly. The more data one has about people, the easier it is to create some conceptual pig pens and push individuals in them. If you don’t know the name and address of the people, no matter. Once a pig pen has enough piggies in it (50 is a minimum I like to use as a lower boundary), I can push anonymous “users” into those pig pens. Once in a pig pen, the piggies do some predictable things. Since I am from farm country, piggies will move toward chow. You get the idea.
When I read “Twitter Search History Dwindling, Now at Four Days”, I said to myself, “Twitter can charge for more data.” Who knows if I am right, but if I worked at Twitter, I can think of some interesting outfits who might be interested in paying for deep Twitter history. Who would want “deep Twitter history?” Good question. I have written about some outfits, and I have done some interviews in Search Wizards Speak and the Beyond Search interviews that shed some light on these folks.
What can a data or text miner do with four days’ data? Learn that he / she needs a heck of a lot more to do some not-so-fuzzy mathy stuff.
Stephen E Arnold, August 14, 2010
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