Attivio Upping Its Profile
November 2, 2010
First, I received a copy of the Attivio newsletter. Then Overflight delivered “Attivio’s Active Intelligence Engine (AIE)” to me this morning (October 31, 2010). IntraLinks, a leading provider of software as a a service for managing content has licensed the Attivio Active Intelligence Engine to tame some unruly data lions. According to the write up:
AIE has workflow and alerts for a more proactive user experience. It empowers IntraLinks’ permissioning model, enabling users to find and examine critical information, while maintaining strict access rights. Unlike legacy enterprise search software that stores ACLs as a field in each document, Attivio’s real-time fields are indexed separately, so they can be updated instantly without having to re-index entire documents. Attivio also gives us the ability to execute real-time tagging and commenting. AIE retrieves all types of information – content and data – with one query. Information is linked when a query is submitted, using patented SQL-style JOINs that connect entities extracted from content to relational data ingested from databases. AIE also dynamically generates facet recommendations, enhancing navigation and information discovery.
The article provides a summary of Attivio’s strengths. The “only weakness” is AIE’s ability to process video searches. IntraLinks wants a system that does more than index the metadata attached to a video.
If you are interested in a client’s analysis of Attivio’s system, check out the article. Information about Attivio is available at www.attivio.com.
Stephen E Arnold, November 2, 2010
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Coveo Connects
November 1, 2010
Knowledge and information are directly related to a company’s success. Coveo taps on this aspect as a leading provider of enterprise search and customer information access solutions. The PR-USA.net article “Coveo Announces New Information Indexing Connectors Including Support for Microsoft SharePoint 2010,” tells the story of how “Coveo offers a richer, more integrated view of enterprise knowledge and information compared to what’s available with Microsoft’s native search.”
The article further discloses that through its Enterprise Search 2.0 approach, it is possible for Coveo to “bring the benefits of unified information access to customers faster, and less expensively, than is possible with traditional solutions including SharePoint Search or Microsoft FAST.” Since Coveo dynamically indexes the data and presents it in a unified view, it helps the organizations with instant value of the information and knowledge stored in form of structured and unstructured data across the enterprise, in any system without moving data. Thus, the extended Coveo offers superior functionality and integration. Our recommendation: connect with Coveo.
Harleena Singh, November 1, 2010
Search Musical Chairs
November 1, 2010
“Search” has acquired renewed importance in today’s enterprise. Acknowledging this, even BA-Insight, an enterprise information access solution provider, has searched an important leader for its new search engine optimizer. The TMCnet.com article “Former Microsoft and FAST Enterprise Search Expert Jeff Fried Joins BA-Insight as CTO,” recounts how the professional expertise and experience of the new development leader will benefit BA-Insight’s Longitude products for SharePoint Search and FAST Search.
The article enumerates the various positions held by Jeff Fried in different companies including Lingo Motors, FAST Search and Transfer, and Microsoft, “where he served as core product manager for FAST Search for SharePoint and then technical product manager for all Microsoft enterprise search products.” Banking on Jeff’s versatility, depth of knowledge of FAST and SharePoint, and a common passion to build search-based applications, the article expresses this development as “outstanding integration between BA-Insight’s Longitude and SharePoint.” It seems like a musical chair saga to us, but we hope BA-Insight is the last chair where Jeff can play first violin.
Harleena Singh, November 1, 2010
Endeca Extends Latitude
October 29, 2010
Imagine scaling Mt. Everest without having the training to do so. In workplaces, we can really achieve such a feat by acquiring greater agility in operations and decision-making, using the Endeca latitude BI tools with zero training. This positive news comes from the BusinessWire.com article “Endeca latitude Delivers First Hybrid Search-Analytical Database for Business Intelligence,” which informs how Endeca’s “hybrid search-analytical database enables IT organizations to deliver solutions with consumer ease-of-use on the diverse and changing information.”
Using innovative technology Endeca Latitude brings together all structured and unstructured information, and easily explores the data making on-the-fly information discovery. This helps the untrained user get answers to unanticipated questions, which ultimately lead to better outcomes. “A single discovery application built with Endeca Latitude can take the place of hundreds of traditional reports,” states the article. We remember such application had been on-the-cards years ago, and high time it gets the push now to help employees take better decisions, give their company the agility edge, and save money.
The question in Harrod’s Creek is, “Can a company with roots in ecommerce and search compete with established business intelligence products and services from old timers like Cognos and SAS and newcomers like Megaputer and Digital Reasoning?” We don’t have an answer, but the marketplace will.
Harleena Singh, October 29, 2010
Sinequa Harvests Crédit Agricole
October 25, 2010
In January 2010, I reported that Polyspot, a French search and content processing company, landed the Crédit Agricole account. My information source was Communauté Finance Opérationnelle, a publication which most Americans read avidly. I received a news item from the SFGate online publication. What caught my attention was the headline: “Crédit Agricole Deploys Sinequa Business Search for a 360 Degree Customer View.” According to the write up:
To tame its information complexity, the bank deployed Sinequa Business Search: an all-in-one solution for information access that includes customizable enterprise search and search-based applications. Designed specifically for understanding business context, Sinequa navigates and synthesizes information from structured applications, unstructured and social content, and people data to discover hidden correlations for more relevant answers, improving and accelerating the information chain from ask to act. During an initial pilot in the bank’s Atlantique Vendée division, Sinequa was deployed in less than three months. Through the efficiency of Sinequa’s all-in-one solution, the division was able to realize its full ROI in only a month and consolidate five data centers into a single, green data center.
Polyspot seems to have a bedfellow or Polyspot is now sleeping on the floor. I found the reference to “360 Degree Customer View” interesting. I thought it echoed the Exalead phraseology, but I may be mistaken. For more information about Sinequa, visit the firm’s Web site at www.sinequa.com.
Stephen E Arnold, October 24, 2010
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EPiServer May Embrace Forward Search
October 21, 2010
My recollection fogs with time, particularly when autumn settles on the goose pond. I thought that EPiServer (a Swedish content management system) relied on Mondosoft search. If the story in “The News of the Forward Search 2.0” write up is accurate, EPiServer (which could control as much as one third of the Swedish Intranet market) may be embracing Forward Search. I don’t know what happened to Mondosoft which I think is now owned and operated by SurfRay, a Danish firm.
Search results from the www.annefrank.org Web site.
What’s a Forward Search? The firm says:
Forward IT is a dynamic, flexible and committed supplier of Enterprise Search. Based on our own product solution – Forward Search we deliver search projects through our partners, covering different needs, from Website Search, Corporate Secure Search, eCommerce Search or Custom Search Solutions. Forward Search is Enterprise Search for enterprise solutions including Content Management Systems, intranets, databases, document repositories, OEM software etc. Forward Search appears to be a Danish firm. CMS Wire wrote about the company in its “Forward Search 2.0 for Enterprise and Web Includes Web CMS Integrations.”
What’s the search DNA? Here’s what the company says:
Forward is a Danish based and privately own company that was founded in 2004 by Thomas Jensen and Henrik Bach. Forward received capital for further growth mid 2009, when entering into cooperation with two Danish technology venture companies to ensure speeding up further development of the Enterprise Search product platform Forward Search, together with continued sales expansion that Forward has experienced since the second half of 2008, successfully delivering solutions to large customers in the Nordic and in Benelux.
Prior to the establishment they both worked with Enterprise Solutions based on technology from Open Text, at Ni Ansa IT Solutions ApS, from the year 2001.
The Kundo.se write up said, “A platform for web and enterprise search, it [Forward Search] works with a range of .NET Web CMSs, including EPiServer, Sitecore and Umbraco to collect a wide range of data including index content, crawler logs and visitor searching behavior from within the Web CMS, helping editors improve the search experience.”
I don’t have any pricing data at this time.
In Kundo.se, I located a list of Forward Search clients. These appear as:
- Addskills
- Anne Frank Foundation, www.annefrank.org
- Hotel & Restaurant Carone, www.hrs.dk
- Luminus SPE, www.luminus.be
- Mascot International, www.mascot.dk
- Niras A/S.
The write up lists these firms as Forward Search partners:
- Gengu, Netherlands
- LBi Lost Boys, Netherlands
- Magnetix, Denmark
- Nansen, Sweden
- Omega Point, Sweden
- Suneco, Netherlands
- Tuen Web, Denmark
- WWWins Consulting, China.
My take is that Forward Search is a snap in for Microsoft SharePoint search. The EPiServer outfit is pretty savvy. My opinion is that Forward Search delivers the needed functionality without the hassle and weirdness required to get SharePoint search in its various incarnations to walk, talk, roll over, and bark on command. I don’t want to push the canine metaphor too far, but Forward Search may be one of those animals discriminating buyers will want to take home for a weekend.
I have not updated my list of European search vendors recently. Yep, on the to do list. The old list is at http://arnoldit.com/wordpress/2009/09/18/european-search-vendors-additions/. I see that I need to add SurfRay, Fabasoft, Forward Search, and Exalead Dassault.
Gartner killed off its subjective, almost-an-infomercial search quadrant thingy. Maybe one of the enterprise azurini in Europe will jump into this empty marketing space? One can only hope.
Stephen E Arnold, October 21, 2010
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Lawson Like Google
October 19, 2010
I wanted to use an exclamation point at the end of the headline. But, nah. Lawson is a publicly traded company and it wants Web traffic. The company refers to Google in this passage:
Acts like Google™ search for ERP to find data fast
Search engine software from Lawson is here. Lawson M3 Enterprise Search acts like a Google™ search for your ERP business applications. Conduct business searches using this integrated, intuitive, simple-to-use enterprise search application. You gain access to relevant Lawson and non-Lawson structured and unstructured data securely, and in seconds. There’s no need to know where the data lives, because Lawson Enterprise Search makes it easy to find.Search Appliance to Work Smarter, not Harder
With Lawson Enterprise Search in place, you don’t have to spend hours, days, or weeks to navigate mountains of menus or forms, run reports, and conduct database queries. The enterprise search application enhances your Lawson user experience by getting you to the data you need securely and quickly. As a result, you gain time to focus on more strategic and value-added tasks.
Why does Lawson act like Google. The company is a Google partner.
Sample search screen. Copyright Lawson 2010.
What’s interesting to me is that I am not running into as many happy Google Search Appliance customers as I did in the period between 2006 and 2008.
What’s interesting to me is that GSA and some of the non-map enterprise editions are difficult to make jump through flaming hoops. When a dog gets singed, a call to Google for emergency vet service does not work particularly well.
Lawson apparently is a happy camper with Google’s technology for handling stru8ctured and unstructured data of the type that riddles enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Lawson’s eight page write up emphasizes that its M3 system can transform data into information. The white paper/brochure “Lawson Enterprise Search for M3” makes for interesting reading. There is a companion white paper/brochure “Lawson Enterprise Search – Lawson M3 Now with Google Like User Friendly Search and Full Lawson M3 Compatibility” you may want to snag.
I don’t have an opinion, but I find the “like Google” phrase great for getting traffic. My hunch is that one may want to be a Google partner before tossing this phrase into one’s Web content.
Stephen E Arnold, October 19, 2010
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Another View of IBM and Its Harmony Play
October 18, 2010
My head is spinning. Geese cannot understand the intricacies of Java in the big proprietary software companies. I think you will find the angle of attack in “IBM Abandons Harmony for Java Unity with Oracle” interesting. My take is that the write up finds IBM leaning toward Google in the Java dust up. Here’s a passage that caught my attention:
Harmony became untenable when Oracle sued Google. That was what convinced IBM that Oracle would never ever loosen its grip on the TCKs[compatibility test kits] – and may be an assessment of Oracle’s chances of winning – but between times without its backing Java development would drift or stagnate more than it already has.
Smart, strategic move? Tactical twitch? The goose will have to wait for the combatants to engage in a knock down drag out in slow motion via the US legal process. Should be exciting. Uncertainty is a definite plus when innovation seems to be in short supply.
Stephen E Arnold, October 18, 2010
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Open Source, Opens Up the Enterprise
October 17, 2010
I am seeing open source everywhere. At the gym in Louisville, Kentucky, a second tier wrestler with tattoos sported a T shirt that said, “Hadoop” and featured an elephant on the back. Go figure.
“Open Source Investment to Increase – Survey” provides more fuel for the community’s bonfire under proprietary software. The survey was cranked out by a blue chip consulting outfit (Accenture), so you know I know that those folks never make mistakes. Just like Arthur Andersen maybe?
Here is a passage I noted:
Exactly half of the respondents are fully committed to OSS in their business while just more than a quarter (28pc) said they are experimenting with it and keeping an open mind to using it. Some 65pc of those polled said they have a fully documented strategic approach for using OSS in their business, while another third (32pc) are developing a strategic plan. Of those organizations using open source, a massive 88pc said they will increase their investment in the software this year compared to 2009. The overall volume of open source software development is forecast to rise over the next three years to 27pc, up from 20pc in 2009.
Is it time for commercial software vendors to fill out applications at Wal-Mart and Costco? Not right away. If the data are overstating the update by a third, the implications of the study are tough to miss. Open source is free, and it is open. Quite a few outfits are taking a close look at open source.
I know that if I had a client trying to decide between Microsoft SharePoint and Alfresco, for example, I would probably point the outfit toward Alfresco. After all, some of the lessons of Documentum have influenced thinking at Alfresco I have heard.
Blue chip consultants can make a lot of money analyzing the pros and cons of options. This study may be the first shot in a broader push by a blue chip firm to surf the open source wave.
Stephen E Arnold, October 17, 2010
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Coveo Adds Connectors
October 16, 2010
Coveo has announced new information indexing connectors. Among the new connectors are those for Jive SBS Versions 3.0 to 4.5, support for Microsoft SharePoint 2010, and Microsoft Exchange 2010. Coveo updated its connector for Lotus Notes. In the news release, we learned that Coveo is working with Netezza. Earlier this year we heard that Netezza was hooked into Attivio. Netezza, as you may know, is now part of IBM, a company which has been on a mini-spending spree.
One of the interesting comments in the news story was:
Out of the box, Coveo Information Indexing Connectors seamlessly and securely index enterprise-wide systems and data repositories. Coveo-developed connectors offer superior functionality and integration, including with the native security model of each system. Coveo Connectors feature live monitoring and dynamically index new, deleted and modified documents, ensuring just-in-time access to the timeliest information.
Connectors continue to have a pipeline to our in box. The i2 – Palantir legal matter is about connectors. With the green light turned on for this dust up, connectors are edging from back stage to center stage.
More information about Coveo is available at www.coveo.com.
Stephen E Arnold, October 16, 2010
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