Coveo Funding Hits a Deep Drift $34 Million
December 14, 2012
I was slogging through the Swedish snow when my mobile phone beeped. I glanced at the tiny screen on my Canadian-engineered BlackBerry and saw an interesting headline: “Coveo, Canada’s Big Data Offering, Nabs $18 Million as It Edges Closer to Profitability.” The article told me:
Coveo, the Quebec-based big data analytics company, has received a massive $18 million from local growth equity firm, Tandem Expansion Fund. It is best known for its recently-launched Coveo for Salesforce product, a cloud-based application which delivers quantitative insights about customer interactions. The app works by pushing relevant real-time information to sales and marketing teams, whether its an account, a lead, or new opportunity.
Interesting positioning. I thought about Vivisimo—the company with the deduplication and on-the-fly categorization technology—transforming into a Big Data company after IBM’s PR department wordsmithed the company.
The Venture Beat story about Québec-based Coveo included another fascinating factoid, which I assume is accurate. How am I to judge coping with the brisk wind howling down the fjord? To wit:
The company will use the funding to build out its sales and marketing team, as it anticipates “hyper-growth” in 2013, according to a press release. It anticipates that it will be “operating at or close to profitability” in 2013.
I highlighted the words which stuck in my mind: hyper-growth and close to profitability. Both are good notions, particularly when there are millions of investors’ dollars waiting for the Canada goose to yield its down. (My arctic grade overcoat is stuffed with goose feathers from Canada, by the way.)
The pointy icicle which lodged in my mind was contained in this statement in the story by Christina Farr:
All major existing investors also participated in the round, including BDC Venture Capital, Propulsion Ventures SEC and Fonds de solidarité FTQ. This round of funding brings the company’s total investments to $34.7 million.
Coveo was founded in 2004, according to Wikipedia. Note that source. Assume the data are correct. Coveo has been generating revenue but has required the alleged $34 million to get near profitability. In eight years, the company has required $4 million in year plus whatever it generated from the license to its software.
The Wikipedia write up is not clued into the actual Big Data functions of Coveo. In fact, that source, which may be out of sync with reality, points out that Coveo is in this business:
CRM and Contact Centers for sales & service, WCMs for one-to-one marketing, and Enterprise Content for engineering and operations. Coveo Role-based Insight Consoles™ provide advanced navigation into consolidated, correlated information mashups, within any application, including Coveo for Salesforce.
Coveo’s own Web site is the definitive source. Here’s what the company says is its core competency at www.coveo.com:
The three main lines of business, which I may be misreading as the snow collects on the screen of my outstanding BlackBerry mobile device, are:
Get Beyond the Latest Enterprise Buzzword with Feature Rich Solutions
December 13, 2012
Today’s successful company buzzword is agility, but one does not see cheap prints mimicking the word plastered on office walls around the globe. It would be unnecessary because according to The Enterprise Architect’s article“Enterprise Agile: Extending the Agile Process Outside Development” agility takes teamwork to an entirely new level, without the use of pictures.
There may not be an i in teamwork, but there is in agility. Individual departments continue to work separately while working together for a common goal, ROI:
“Solutions need to be fit in an existing ecosystem: the definition of done needs to include compliance and multiple teams working towards a common goal. Agility is only possible when the whole organization adopts the mindset: in an agile enterprise the marketing and sales side of the organization is balanced with product development. In an agile enterprise the entire business is organized in a way that it can respond quickly to changes in the market. All departments are fully integrated with the overall value stream, there is end-to-end agility.”
Companies need results in order to generate ROI, so agility is a great way to respond to the buzz of big data and enterprise solutions. Smart corporations know that the latest trendy buzzword will not provide results. They have to get beyond the buzz to reliable, feature rich search solutions with a provider like Intrafind… the other ‘I’ in agility.
Jennifer Shockley, December 13, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Big Data Drives Business Decisions with Enterprise Search
December 12, 2012
Big data is making the transition from a catchy trend to a serious power in the business world. A flurry of acquisitions involving big data and enterprise search systems are proving that value is being added to big data. According to recent article “Structuring the Unstructured: Why Big Data is Suddenly Interested in Enterprise Search” on CMSWire, this can be attributed to the inclusion of unstructured data (hard-to-predict human content,) into big data analyses, and companies are becoming more and more interested in creating actionable insights from this data set.
The article continues to explain the need to obtain value from unstructured data:
“It is the hands-on application of processes, pragmatism and checksums that produce the most value from unstructured data. A focus on transparency of process creates confidence in data provenance and enables actionable intelligence from unstructured data. That combination of technology and process is what is driving recent acquisitions and what can drive your business to make better, more accurate decisions based on your unstructured big data.”
The whole point of making structured and unstructured data available is so that the right information can drive business decisions. Intrafind makes finding the right data at the right time a bit easier in the age of big data. The company’s software and enterprise search solutions can help you target necessary information from the big data madness and also provide the consultancy services to help you decide what to do with that information.
Andrea Hayden, December 12, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
The Journey Through Enterprise Search Benefits from a Reliable Roadmap
December 11, 2012
The KM World 2012 Enterprise Search Conference brought to light some interesting tips for success in the enterprise. It also provided an opportunity for Martin White, the Managing Director of Intranet Focus Ltd to promote the release of his new book, ‘Enterprise Search’, from which key points were made during the discussion for the future of enterprise search.
According to KMWorld’s conference review “12 Tips for Enterprise Search Success”, White outlined twelve critical success factors during the conference that will not only affect enterprise search now, but will continue to affect it in the future:
*Invest in a search support team.
*Get the best out of the current investment in search.
*Enterprise search is an approach and not a technology
*Set search within an information management context
*Content quality is essential for quality search
*Understand user requirements and monitor user satisfaction
*Search then browse then alert then search then alert.
*Provide location-independent search
*Undertake intelligent log analysis.*Search is a dialogue
*Procure value not functionality.
*Search is a journey
Enterprise search is indeed a journey… and for a pleasant trip one should always acquire a reliable road map in order to prevent getting lost or stuck in a detour. These 12 tips are a good place to vet enterprise solutions, partners, and approaches. Combining a dedicated, reliable vendor such as Intrafind can be a key component to blending these tips into a complete solution that excels in execution and gets companies where they want to go.
Jennifer Shockley, December 11, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Companies Need Reliable Results Not another Plug and Play Experiment
December 10, 2012
The name Google instantly brings internet search, Android and mobile apps to mind, but that is just not enough for the Big G anymore. TechWeek’s article “Google Enterprise: More Than Just Apps” talks about a new device that Google representatives feel will take the enterprise by storm.
So, what is the next big step for Google? World enterprise domination via plug and play technology:
“This involves something called the ‘Google Search Appliance’ – a yellow box that can be plugged into the data center to look through and index business data. Recently launched Commerce Search is a similar project, but based in the cloud and focused on retail. A different part of the Enterprise department deals with geospatial products: Google Maps, Google Earth and the brand new Google Coordinate – the company’s first geo app to provide not just asset tracking, but the workflow management too.”
Of course this updated Google technology will be compatible with Chrome, Android and existing Google apps, but is this plug and play devise the right answer for sophisticated enterprise needs? What happens when a changes is needed to match unique enterprise requirements? We have found that the mature solutions and dedicated customer service from Intrafind often meets the needs of enterprises with sophisticated requirements. Perhaps a commercial solution, built on open source can better match unique enterprise search needs than a plug and play appliance.
Jennifer Shockley, December 10, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Intrafind Provides Relevant Results throughout Changing Realities
December 6, 2012
Modern technology is changing the way reality can be seen and shown to others. Video cameras and cell phones are being replaced with comfortable, virtually undetectable life capture devices like Google Glasses. These easy to operate wearables literally record all aspects of everyday life, and the lives of those around us.
The collection process is reminiscent of a sci-fi movie, but the data farmed will serve a higher purpose. TechCrunch’s article “Four Perspectives On Augmented Reality And Its Future” explains how developers are taking steps to create devices that not only record, but help users function, think and react:
“Brainwaves in an AR system allows for real-time neuro feedback. This would allow you to know your brain state and have the opportunity to optimize it — being able to choose and be guided into the desired state as you go about your day.The real measure of AR is when it solves real-world problems that may seem boring with realistic and minimal interface. Most AR has had the exciting “wow” factor which lasts for about 15 seconds. It is a big jump from there to useful everyday applications.”
When the initial buzz of the latest, greatest technology trend fades a bit, companies seeking success will be jarred back into reality by the need for relevant results. If your organization wants the security of knowing what theactual reality is, using a search provider like Intrafind that brings that reality to surface may be a better investment than the latest fad.
Jennifer Shockley, December 6, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Efficient Software Leads to Increased Efficiency in Overall Operations and ROI
December 5, 2012
Efficient enterprise operations are a necessity in today’s evolving business world and entrepreneurs are becoming more specific regarding their need for customizable software designs. Their increasing demands have the market flooded with new developers offering pretty buttons and a friendly interface, but end results can often be disappointing.
For the most part, companies share a common thread for cloud operations and the desired end result is ROI. ZDNet’s article “More than Software, as a Service” talks about how developers can stand out in the industry crowd:
“Therefore, what they want delivered from the cloud is rarely software on its own, but software in combination with other non-software components that add up to a useful outcome. This is using the cloud to do what it’s best at — providing access to a pooled, specialist resource that would be hugely more costly to implement separately for each individual business. It wouldn’t be possible to do this without the software (nor the cloud), but it’s the addition of live expertise that completes the service.”
The end result is efficient software leads to increased efficiency in overall operations and ROI. When looking at software options, companies will find utilizing an established developer that offers not only start up project management but also long term software support to be a reliable choice. Professionals can rely on providers such as Intrafind, that can deploy secure search solutions through the cloud that match the demands of the pharmaceutical and financial industries is a safe bet.
Jennifer Shockley, December 5, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
LucidWorks Makes Big Data Useful
December 5, 2012
Enterprise search is such a buzz word, that it not only sounds like a good idea, but it has almost become a mandatory one. Organizations do not sounds relevant or effective unless they have an enterprise search platform in place, and yet finding one that lessens the workload without deepening it is a challenge. Michael Vizard tackles that challenge in his recent article, “LucidWorks Breathes Programmable Life into Big Data and Enterprise Search.”
Vizard begins:
“Collecting data is one thing; however, making actual use of it is another. Enterprise search clearly has a role to play in terms of making Big Data accessible; the challenge is doing it in a way that other applications can utilize. To address that specific issue, LucidWorks this week formally released LucidWorks Big Data, an application development environment that brings together Hadoop, Mahout, Hive and Lucene/Solr enterprise search technology in a way that is designed to make these technologies accessible to the average developer by using a single RESTful application programming interface.”
Vizard goes on to point out that LucidWorks is one of the few serious competitors in the Big Data arena that relies on open source technology. If your organization is considering experimenting with Big Data, LucidWorks may be the only option that makes it both affordable and feasible, with its out-of-the-box operability.
Emily Rae Aldridge, December 05, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Inflated Investments Can Be Healed with the Right Tools
December 4, 2012
Plenty is being written about HP’s acquisition of Autonomy at the moment. A view from a historical perspective can be found on Search Technologies’ blog in a piece called, “HP, Autonomy and Meaning-Based M&A.” Autonomy, a UK-based company, began as an enterprise search vendor. Without doubt, in the years since Autonomy has proven to be the most successful company in the sector; some of the reasons for that can perhaps be traced back to 1996 origins and initial engagements with the market.
The article argues that the same factors driving Autonomy’s success in the enterprise search space also drove HP to pay an inflated price. The blog post states:
Autonomy IDOL remains a capable and widely used search engine. It is our collective experience that some customers bought too heavily into the meaning-based vision, and probably paid too much for it. We work with such customers to help them make the most of their investment – and much can be made of it. IDOL is a detailed and capable search engine.
We think the team on Search Technologies provides the information needed to help people make the most of such enterprise search tools. Enterprise search technology customers need to understand their needs and make smart purchases, and it seems Search Technologies can assist in that task.
Andrea Hayden, December 4, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com
Business Intelligence Software Essential to Current Business Decisions
December 3, 2012
Business intelligence (BI) technologies are essential to today’s knowledge workers in the enterprise, providing helpful and necessary decision support software. A recent academic research article addresses the changes and growth in this industry in the past twenty years. The article, “An Overview of Business Intelligence Technology,” published in the August 2011 issue of Communications of the ACM, was written by a team of researchers from Microsoft Research and Hewlett-Packard Lab. According to the article, this rapid growth has been fueled by the declining cost of data storage.
The article states:
“Enterprises today collect data at a finer granularity, which is therefore of much larger volume. Businesses are leveraging their data asset aggressively by deploying and experimenting with more sophisticated data analysis techniques to drive business decisions and deliver new functionality such as personalized offers and services to customers. Today, it is difficult to find a successful enterprise that has not leveraged BI technology for its business.”
This obvious growth accompanies a need to shorten the lag time between acquiring data and decision-making in daily business. Innovations in BI technologies require sophisticated functionality and services. Enterprise search solution Intrafind has a history as a university developed solution that understands the challenges in this industry and the company has created research-based services that solve the problem of making data findable within enterprise environments.
Andrea Hayden, December 3, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
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