Brainware’s Back Office Service Heals Health Care’s Advocate Accounts Payable
May 24, 2012
Advocate Health Care’s office needed a healing hand according to, Advocate Health Care Selects Brainware Distiller for Accounts Payable Automation. The professionals at Brainware have committed to the operation with promises of a painless procedure.
Brainware is a customized provider of intelligent data capture and enterprise search solutions. Advocate Health Care is included in the top 100 hospitals nationwide, with 12 acute care facilities, over 250 outpatient locations, home health, hospice, occupational health and corporate services.
The good news is Advocate’s account payable department promises to be better than before, according Sonia Lewis, Accounts Payable Manager at Advocate:
“I observed a presentation by Anixter International outlining the success they’d had in using this technology to boost productivity and accountability in their accounts payable routine, and it was a real eye-opener in terms of the possibilities intelligent data capture offered for building efficiency in our accounts payable function.”
Executive Vice President at Brainware, Carl E. Mergele stated:
“Through the efficiencies gained by intelligent data capture, Advocate plans to streamline back end processes to drive resources into their core mission of creating the best place for patients to heal, physicians to practice and associates to work.”
Utilizing Brainware in Advocate will greatly increase the efficiency of inner office operations by eliminating much of the manual data entry and increasing productivity. Brainware’s back office service can heal health care’s Advocate accounts payable.
Jennifer Shockley, May 24, 2012
BA Insight Secures an Additional $4 Million in Financing
May 23, 2012
BA Insight’s lunging up the technical ladder in leaps and bounds. Their ability to offer customers a one stop shop is both impacting and reaffirming their position as an industry leader. As their renown continues to grow, headlines such as BA-Insight Lands $4,000,000 New Round might become a common occurrence.
The generalized BA Insight focus is:
BA Insight provides the technology your people need to find – and act upon – enterprise information quickly and securely. Using BA Insight’s agile information integration platform that allows rapid deployment of context aware, roll based applications, you can provide workers with a single interface through which to search across all enterprise systems, and instantly preview these search results regardless of their source or file type. Armed with these tools, your people can help the organization turn data into insight, transform ideas into action, and recognize opportunities on the winds of every change.”
Enterprise search is a must have for companies today. BA Insight conveniently offers businesses a fast, cost-effective way to optimize their enterprise search. The end result is higher productivity, greater efficiencies, and especially happier end users.
BA Insight emphasizes the importance of customer satisfaction as a key player in their success. That consumer friendly attitude, along with their professional technical support operation ensures their continued evolution in the industry. Given the facts, it was not surprising to see that BA Insight secured an additional $4 million in financing.
Jennifer Shockley, May 23, 2012
Brainware Distiller Lands Icelandair Group
May 21, 2012
PR Newswire recently reported on a new partnership in the news release “Icelandair Group Selects Brainware Distiller for Invoice Processing Efficiency in Shared Services.”
According to the article, after evaluating several potential solutions for accounts payable automation, Icelandair Group, Reykjavik-based enterprise including airline, freight, hotel, tour and ground services operations, found that Brainware’s intelligent data capturing software was the most capable of supporting their long term goals for process improvement.
Carl E. Mergele, Executive Vice President and General Manager at Brainware said:
“In addition to demonstrating extremely high rates of field data extraction, Distiller’s template-free approach translates to low cost of ownership, as new document formats and increased volumes can be handled effortlessly. Intelligent data capture technology builds upon the efficiency of a shared services model to enable faster, more accurate processing, as well as greater insight into the overall process, from receipt to post. Brainware is proud to serve Icelandair Group’s data capture needs.”
By partnering with Brainware, Icelandair group is bound to improve its reporting processes which will help overall day-to-day operations. Sounds like a win to me.
Jasmine Ashton, May 21, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Attivio Offers a Spin on the Big Data Bandwagon
May 18, 2012
Attivio, a software company specializing in enterprise search solutions and unified information access, recently published an informative blog post called “How We Handle Open Source.”
According to the post, there are many open source products, particularly those put out by the Java community, that are responsible for some of today’s hottest technology trends. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of bugs and functional gaps as well. So it is necessary that companies have a system in place to handle these issues.
When Attivio encounters an issue with open source code, the company follows a series of steps to check for possible solutions and then:
“Lastly, we strive to create a formal ticket, patch and test for contribution back to the open source community. In all fairness, this is our weakest part of the process, but one we are striving to improve. Many of our changes are small in nature and fix either esoteric edge cases or general code cleanliness like the thread example I mentioned above, but most changes are still useful for the wider community.”
Every company is different but what they all have in common is the need for a troubleshooting plan to address the issues that can come from using open source products. Attivio’s solution is an excellent example of this.
Jasmine Ashton, May 18, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Test and Compare Enterprise Search Engines with Open Test Search
May 17, 2012
We recommend giving this new site a test drive: Open Test Search, still in beta, pits enterprise search engines against each other. Demos of nine search engines are now available, including Amazon CloudSearch, Google Mini, Thunderstone, Constellio, Searchdaimon ES, Microsoft SSE 2010, and SearchBlox. Each has the same data set indexed and can run the same search query simultaneously, and results display side by side for easy comparison. Users can choose to view search results from within the vendors’ interfaces. Very handy.
The site’s About page explains:
“This site is built as an experiment by me, Runar Buvik, in my free time. I love to work with search and big data problems, and have been doing so for years. During my work I have noticed that almost every search technology vendor claims to have the fastest, most scalable architecture, that delivers the most relevant results. I thought that it would be interesting to set up some of them, side by side, so I could have a look about that for myself. The result is this site.”
For an example of a blind test, click here. To see one results that include vendor interface screens, use this link. Other example queries can be found on this page. The data sets Buvik has loaded, the entire set of English Wikipedia articles and, curiously, a set of 43,426 files from Enron, provide a lot of material for experimentation.
Buvik shares some tips for testers on his Thoughts on Testing page. For example, he suggests judging by top results only. Also, don’t compare loading times because his virtual machine setup could skew those numbers.
Another informative page is labeled simply Search Engines. This page contains a chart of factoids for each search engine reviewed on the site, including useful items like costs, underlying platforms, and the maximum documents each engine can handle.
I tried my own query, for “domestic cats.” (Yes, I’m a cat person. Interestingly, Main Coon was the top result for most of the engines, though SearchBlox put Fritz the Cat first, and SearchDaimon prioritized Domestic sheep reproduction. Hmm.) Only a couple of sample views fit into my browser window at once, but each can easily be seen with the bottom slider. My only suggestion for Mr. Buvik: make the views click-and-drag-able so users can easily place two they’d like to compare next to each other.
I found Open Test Search to be well organized and easy to use, a fun and interesting site to visit. Oh, and it can help you decide which enterprise search product will best suit your company before you invest time and money in a solution. This is one site to keep in your rolodex.
Cynthia Murrell, May 17, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Silobreaker Serves Swiss Soldiery
May 15, 2012
Switzerland’s Department of Defense, Civil Protection, and Sport (DDPS) will soon be relying on Solobreaker’s considerable data management chops, MarketWire announces in “Silobreaker Delivers Enterprise Software to Swiss Armed Forces.” The software underpins a turnkey open source intelligence (OSINT) solution provided by LearningWell, a Swedish integration consulting firm.
The write up quotes Kristofer Månsson, Silobreaker’s CEO:
“Situational awareness and contextual insight are essential and time-critical requirements for any corporate or governmental organization today. Yet, users are drowning in information, and cutting through the proliferation of content from both traditional and social media represents significant challenges, which cannot be met by the use of conventional search methods. We are very pleased that customers keep recognizing our products as leading edge for analytical and sense-making purposes, as well as for the efficiency of their prompt implementations.”
Yes, the “big data” phenomenon is placing big demands on organizations everywhere. Silobreaker’s Enterprise Software Suite is a robust tool for making sense of it all. It covers workflow from beginning— back end content, aggregation, indexing, classification and storage— to end— front-end search, filtering, analysis, visualization, user collaboration, report generation, and decision support. The software handles both structured and unstructured content with aplomb, and manages data from both inside and outside sources, both horizontally and vertically.
Founded in 2005, Silobreaker has headquarters in London and Stockholm. Their solutions facilitate teamwork across user groups through strong single user platforms that provide information aggregation, analytical tools, and collaboration features. Besides the aforementioned Enterprise Software Suite, the company offers Silobreaker Premium, a powerful intelligence and media monitoring SaaS tool for corporate, financial, NGO and government agency users. Silobreaker’s products help many private, corporate, academic, financial and government organizations worldwide with intelligence, media-monitoring, risk management, and early warning capabilities.
Cynthia Murrell, May 15, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
EPiServer Snaps Up Enterprise Search Solution Provider 200OK AB
May 14, 2012
EPiServer is trying to figure out how to make content findable– a long standing problem in content management systems, particularly for SharePoint centric systems. To that end, The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch reports, “EPiServer Acquires 200OK AB, and Enterprise Search Solution Provider.”
The terms of the deal have not been disclosed. The press release explains:
“200OK AB’s ‘Truffler’ product scales to handle large amounts of information — including user data, social and mobile web content, and product and online transaction data. The solution applies next-generation data management strategies, wherein organizing content and unstructured data are key to streamlined content delivery. With this purchase, EPiServer creates the opportunity for organizations to reduce the boundaries between a website and content housed in other sources by making that data available to the business user or content owner.”
200OK AB is based in Sweden. Truffler technology supports a SaaS solution and promises to hasten time-to-market for new online initiatives. It also pledges speedy deployment and short release cycles for new business solutions.
Also headquartered in Sweden, EPiServer was formed in 1994. The Web content management company emphasizes what they call the four C’s of online engagement: content, community, commerce, and communication. They also host EPiServer World, a developer community with over 15,000 members.
Our view: Why not use the PolySpot system?
Cynthia Murrell, May 14, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
Open Source Search: Momentum Building
May 10, 2012
It has happened.
The self-appointed experts have discovered open source search, reveals CIO in “Wide-Open Search.” With exponentially growing amounts of data to contend with, organizations from Twitter and Facebook to the Library of Congress are turning to open source solutions. Such groups, Stacy Collett writes:
“. . . venture into the seemingly untamed world of open-source search applications, not just for the cost savings, but also for the ability to customize and modify applications quickly. Plus, open source has an active community that can help solve related problems.”
All true. Collett points to Lucene, developed by Lucid Imagination, as her open source example, which seems like a good choice to us. She emphasizes that Lucene is a formidable application built for enterprises with sophisticated search needs. Smaller-scale tools based on Lucene are also available, like Elasticsearch.
Lucid Imagination provides an enterprise open source search solution as well as consulting and engineering services. Lucene Solr leads the field in independent enterprise search platforms, with 200,000 to 300,000 downloads per month. As other search application vendors get snapped up by the giant companies, Lucid relies on adaptability. The write up informs us:
“Lucid Imagination plans to move into the business intelligence and data warehousing spaces and enable integration with big-data technologies, [Lucid CEO Paul] Doscher says. ‘If you put traditional data warehouse or business intelligence-type applications on top of Hadoop, in some instances, it’s almost like trying to take this manhole cover of opportunity and shove it through a garden hose,’ he says.”
Nice metaphor.
We’re okay with Lucid, but he mid-tier consultants. . . . Well, mid-tier exists for a reason. You can get profiles of key open source search vendors for free by clicking on the Profiles link at our sister information service, OpenSearchNews.com.
Cynthia Murrell, May 10, 2012
Sponsored by HighGainBlog
Free DataStax Open Source Search Profile Now Available
May 8, 2012
OpenSearchNews.com has posted another open source search engine profile. Like the two previous profiles—Basho Riak and Doculibre Constellio—the discussion of the search system is available for one week. Navigate to the OpenSearchNews.com profile page and click the link for the DataStax report.
OpenSearchNews.com is a service of ArnoldIT, which provides information and analysis of selected open source search solutions. Many proprietary vendors of search are reluctant to admit that open source search is becoming an increasingly disruptive force in the enterprise market.
According to Stephen E Arnold, “This series of profiles is designed to make it easy for an individual to get basic information about open source search. We want to provide these profiles at no cost because access to the information is more important than monetary considerations. Self appointed experts have not stepped forward to cover this important market sector. The team at Beyond Search has taken an important step forward.”
For more information about ArnoldIT, the publisher of these profiles, navigate to www.arnoldit.com and www.augmentext.com.
Don C. Anderson, May 8, 2012
Sponsored by ArnoldIT
Ontology Systems Bests Vivisimo and Information Optimization
May 8, 2012
I read “Ontology Systems Set to Unveil OSS/BSS Intelligence Semantic Search Apps at Management World 2012.” The write up focuses on a forthcoming announcement of technology for “enterprise data alignment.”
When I read this, I thought of IBM Vivisimo’s “information optimization” catchphrase. I am not exactly sure what information optimization means. I think I am unclear about OSS BSS intelligent semantic search apps for enterprise data alignment. The Ontology Systems’ Web site includes detailed information about the company’s method.
My hunch this technology is a search system with semantic functions. The company describes itself this way:
Ontology Systems have caused Communications Service Providers (CSPs) to rethink the way they find and align customer, equipment and service information. CSPs spend vast sums of money attempting to do this via integration but getting usable results is hard. The world’s largest misaligned system is the Internet and you search the Internet. Ontology believes you should search your systems too.
The benefits of the company’s approach are explained in terms of an “ontology” seasoned approach:
Using state-of-the-art semantic search technologies, Ontology quickly finds and aligns business entities in operational, business and infrastructure systems. We provide a single, accurate, enterprise-wide view of customers, services and network assets. An organization using OSS BSS intelligent semantic search apps for enterprise data alignment can, according to the write up, “increase profit and reduce costs by preventing revenue leaks, improving service management, enhancing customer experience, maximizing network assets and improving the speed and accuracy of migration.”
The conclusion which the company suggests for me is “Ontology is semantic search for Enterprise Data Alignment.”
Stepping back, I had several observations:
- Vivisimo’s use of “information optimization” allowed IBM to perceive Vivisimo as a “big data” company. My hunch is that with a phrase which is ambiguous, convincing a cash rich purchaser to buy becomes easier. There are no pesky concrete explanations to block a “pivot” or deft repositioning. The Ontology Systems’ catchphrase is, to me, similar to Vivisimo’s choice of words.
- I am not sure what the undefined acronyms mean. I thought briefly about trying to untangle the “OSS BSS” pair, but if the writer did not explain them, it is not important to an addled goose. A brief explanation to an uninformed reader such as I was obviously unnecessary for the company’s target market.
- The “ontology” buzzword is used without associations to big data, analytics, and social media. Most of the articles I read about enterprise semantics are shifting from the taxonomy/ontology hooks to concepts which are getting more sales traction. There is a notable example of a well known Microsoft centric vendor scrambling to find a market positioning that captures SharePoint licensees’ interest. Ontology Systems seems to have a unique angle to make money with an ontology centric approach.
You can keep up with some of the vendors in the taxonomy and ontology sector with a subset of our Overflight service. Take a look at our free subsite http://www.arnoldit.com/taxonomy/. When you click on a company name, you can determine if the company is active in the market and get an indication of what is being said about the firm. We will add Ontology Systems to the public facing service so you can track this firm with a mouse click.
Stephen E Arnold, May 7, 2012
Sponsored by PolySpot
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