Exalead Makes a Sage Move
June 1, 2011
We have no qualms over recurrent expressions of our appreciation and enthusiasm for the Exalead brand.
A long time leader in the field of search enabled applications and data management software, the company continues to prove itself relevant in a landscape that shifts more frequently than the iTunes’ Recent Hits page.
The most recent news we saw about Exalead, a unit of Dassault Systèmes, comes in the form of a deal with the Sage Group. Sage is one of the leaders in enterprise resource planning (ERP). Sage will use Exalead’s technology in the Sage ERP X3 system.
The write up “Sage Innovates with Exalead CloudView to Enhance Its ERP User Experience” said:
CloudView brings the speed and simplicity of consumer Web search to the Sage ERP X3 user experience, offering flexible natural language search across all Sage database content, including both data and metadata. Offered as a simple drag-and-drop Gadget in the Sage portal, CloudView-powered Sage Search enables users to locate information anywhere in the system using a single text box: no training, complex forms or SQL queries required. Moreover, fuzzy matching and flexible search refinement by dynamic results categories help ensure search success even when a user’s query is incomplete, misspelled or imprecise.
CloudView may give Sage a turbo boost. With this deal, Sage and Exalead jump up the enterprise charts to super group status.
Micheal Cory, June 1, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Brainware: Another Back Office Win
June 1, 2011
Brainware has shifted from eDiscovery, search, and business intelligence to a back office business process system. The company has robust data capture and paper-to-digital conversion solutions.
The news of another back office deal is not much of a surprise. According to the PR Newswire article “Kansas City Southern Clears the Tracks in Accounts Payable With Brainware Distiller” the transportation holding company Kansas City Southern recently chose Brainware Distiller to handle its account payable automation process.
Brainware provides intelligent data and enterprise search solutions to large companies to help them process and retrieve their data from throughout their enterprise. The Brainware announcement stated:
Brainware Distiller offers customers a simple, powerful technology that can interface with any number of ERP and ECM applications to reduce overhead and drive value to the bottom line,” said Carl Mergele, Chief Executive Officer at Brainware. “Distiller’s superior field extraction will translate to immense gains in processing efficiency and visibility, and we are proud to serve Kansas City Southern’s automation needs.”
Seems like Brainware’s back office organizer solutions are quickly becoming a customer favorite. Other search vendors are chasing customer support, sentiment analysis, and business intelligence. Has Brainware focused on an unexciting, unsolved problem to find itself without significant competition from me-too search vendors?
April Holmes, June 1, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
EMC: Lots of Initiatives and Now an Appliance
June 1, 2011
EMC has been busy. The company has announced a wide range of initiatives. The flow of announcements has been overwhelming. We did notice “SAS Will Be Available On A Database Appliance From EMC,” SAS has announced that it will begin to offer SAS High Performance Analytics. The system will be available on an EMC database appliance.
The blog asserted:
This new offering from SAS on the EMC Greenplum Data Computing Appliance will provide an environment for customers to perform analytical exploration and development on all data to complement their regular analytic operations.
Clients will be able to form models that take into account their data from each department and showcase all the possible scenarios. Being able to see the whole picture definitely gives customers a more accurate picture to enable to them to make better decisions. In addition when compared to current technology, SAS High-performance Analytics blows the competition out the water and solves problems in seconds rather than hours. This appliance could be in the running for best in class.
However, with appliances proliferating in some organizations, management of yet another toaster is, in our experience, beginning to generate some pushback.
April Holmes, June 1, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
eDiscovery: Mindseye and dtSearch Connect
June 1, 2011
We saw a couple of news items and a news release about the infusion of dtSearch by Mindseye for Tunnelvision.
Mindseye Solutions, developer of the e-discovery software Tunnelvision, announced recently two major releases coming over the next six weeks. 7th Space Interactive describes the version 2.9 Flexible Search in this way:
end users [will have] the ability to select which index and search technology will be used. This allows for selection of a fully configurable implementation of the well-known dtSearch technology and assists in creating consistency for downstream processes.
Readers of dtSearch’s product description know that the company asserts that its technology can instantly search terabytes of text across a desktop, network, or an Internet site.
dtSearch also offers versions of its systems which can be used to make content on DVDs searchable. Further, one of the new releases includes improvement in the utilization of Lotus Notes in exporting speed.
Mindseye suggests that the tie up with dtSearch will enhance eDiscovery.
We had heard that Iron Mountain’s acquisition of Mimosa used dtSearch technology. (Autonomy acquired some of Iron Mountain’s online asserts earlier this year.)
dtSearch may be poised for a broader thrust into eDiscovery on an original equipment manufacturing basis.
Stephen E Arnold, June 1, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Protected: A SharePoint Diagnostic Tool from Microsoft
June 1, 2011
OpenText Gets More Social
May 31, 2011
OpenText is dedicated to helping businesses get the most from their content. The company helps clients clearly pave out clear business goals so they can provide them with the enterprise technology services they need to support their various programs and departments. According to the Business Insider article “How OpenText Uses Social Media” Greg Second, vice president of investor relations at OpenText opened up about their new role for social media. He stated that:
“All staff especially management members are encouraged to use social media to ‘reach out’ to their customers and people in the industry.”
The popularity of social media makes it a great tool to communicate with the public but analysts, portfolio managers and others in the field are more interested in the comments of the employees in order to get a better understanding of the industry. Sounds like a great tool but with so few details, one must wonder if it ever lived up to the hype. We are, however, wary of categorical affirmatives. That “all” surely does not mean everyone?
Stephen E Arnold, May 31, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information
Protected: Indexing SharePoint Content through Northern Light
May 31, 2011
The Analytics Path: Search Sits at the Kerb
May 30, 2011
According to the Technology Review article “The Future of Analytics” IBM is working on the next generation of Analytics technology and has set out of develop technology that can handle the massive amounts of data. The team led by Chid Apte:
“is developing algorithms and other techniques that can extract meaning from data, and it is trying to find ways to use these methods to solve business challenges.”
In his interview with Tom Simonite, Apte indicated that the company was trying to take company data as well as social information data and work with clients to see how both sources can be used to handle business problems. The team even helped to develop the popular QA technology that was used on the Watson on Jeopardy and they hope to bridge this QA problem solving technology into their system.
Apte concluded by emphasizing the ever present need for a better way to handle large scale data. If IBM can pull it off they will have hit the jackpot.
IBM has a Tundra truck stuffed with business intelligence, statistics, and analytics tools. IBM has no product. IBM, in my view, has an opportunity to charge big bucks to assemble these components into a system that makes customers wheeze, “No one ever got fired for buying IBM.”
Well, it used to be true. And it is probably true for MIT grads. Today? Maybe. Tomorrow? Maybe not.
April Holmes, May 30, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information and current news about data fusion
Protected: Idera Has a New SharePoint Diagnostic Tool
May 30, 2011
Open Source to the Enterprise
May 29, 2011
The technology world is constantly changing and while some concepts catch on and are embraced easily by the public, others take a little longer to win over the crowd. When it first entered onto the scene many people were uneasy about taking a chance on open source but the technology is catching on. According to the NetworkComputing.com’s “Survey” Half of Enterprise Software Will Be Open Source Within Five Years” a recent survey showed not only are more companies using open source but industry experts predict this is only the beginning.
The survey was conducted by OSBC and the results were shared at the Open Source Business Conference 2011. Survey results showed that 60 percent of those surveyed were already using open source software and 56 percent predicted that over the next five years more than half of business software purchases will be open source. We learned:
“This is because customers have overcome their reluctance toward using open source, such as concerns about licenses, and are embracing its virtues, such as flexibility, lower cost and avoiding vendor lock-in.”
Many IT users admitted that in the beginning they did not actually understand open source and what it had to offer. There were also a lot of questions surrounding the open licensing concept including potential copyright violations. Enterprises begin to see that the benefits of the software programming far outweighed any potential concerns they might have. Open source perks such as having free rein of the open source license instead of being tied to a vendor was considered the major advantage followed by lower operating costs and flexibility were the notable areas. Companies are always looking for ways to get the most out of its software but vendor licensing often places very strict restrictions on how users can utilize programming. Open source provides users with flexibility and allows them to manipulate the software to meet their specific needs. The ability to change a program several times if necessary to fit a variety of needs instead of purchasing separate components saves valuable money and time.
Companies are also continuing to develop possible uses for their open source software such as in a SaaS model or the ever popular cloud computing. It should come as no big surprise that open source has found its way into the SaaS and cloud computing world because the software allows such freedom and innovation due to the open license. With open source popping up everywhere even in some mobile technology it seems that the tables have turned.
The question is, “How long will open source vendors remain open?” IBM has been a champion of open source, but it continues to expand its proprietary software holdings. What about Oracle? Is the company a “friend” of open source, or is the firm playing a sophisticated game of lock in and toll road?
We are watching the situation because even the open Google is starting to look more like a closed vendor particularly with regard to Android.
Will open source software become another marketing buzzword, devoid of meaning, or will it become a platform for sustained revenue growth?
April Holmes, May 29, 2011
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, the resource for enterprise search information
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