Coveo Captures SIIA Codie Award for Second Time
May 14, 2010
The Software & Information Industry Association recognizes companies for excellence each year. The SIIA announced on May 13, 2010, that Coveo and its Enterprise Search platform won the “Best Enterprise Search Engine Category.” According to the official SIIA news release,
One hundred eighty-eight products from 136 companies were selected as finalists from more than 785 nominations submitted by 374 companies. Nominated products underwent an intensive review by subject matter experts, analysts, journalists, and others with deep experience in the field…A listing of winners is now available on the CODiE Awards Website at www.siia.net/CODiEs.
What’s remarkable is that this is the second time Coveo has won SIIA’s award for excellence. The president of Coveo said:
It is an honor to accept our second CODiE award in the ‘Best Enterprise Search Engine’ category,” said Laurent Simoneau, CEO, Coveo. “It is rewarding to have the CODiE judges recognize the significant strides we have made to ensure continued expansion of the use of enterprise search within the enterprise. Our platform enables companies to ‘stop moving data’, and access information directly from virtually any enterprise system, including online communities, CRM systems, CMS, WMS, and email and desktop content.”
You can get more information about Coveo at www.coveo.com. Check out the company’s system.
Stephen E. Arnold, May 14, 2010
Freebie.
SAP Goes for Database and Mobile, Ignores Search
May 14, 2010
One of the outfits I watch is SAP. The company’s IBM-esque technology permeates today’s SAP. I read “SAP Makes Bid for Sybase in Deal Worth $5.8B” and thought, “SAP likes the old-style database a lot and search not so much.” For me the most important fact in the write up was the $6 billion price tag. I am linking to the online Wall Street Journal, so the link will go dead, maybe by the time you read this. Not much I can do.
I also found this statement one to jot down and reference in a year or two:
“We don’t need to cut costs to make it work,” said SAP Co-Chief Executive Bill McDermott during the conference call. “That’s the magic.”
Yes, magic. I don’t believe in magic anymore. SAP seems to believe in magic.
On the plus side, SAP gets the DNA that morphed into Microsoft SQL Server. I have to think about the implications of this because SAP does have customers who are wedded to Redmond. Another up point is that Sybase has focused on mobile. SAP may be able to build on this foundation.
The downside is that Sybase is a bit like Oracle. Well, it is a lot like Oracle, just not as successful in the selling department. SAP is making it clear to me that the NoSQL method is not a priority because there are six billion reasons to embrace Sybase. And what about search? For me, SAP is happy with what it has. I interpret this to mean that SAP sees more money in aging database technology than the informationizing that modern search systems deliver.
This SAP deal may give two big search and content processing vendors some zip. Now what will Autonomy and OpenText buy next? The growth curve demands big deals. Another question, “What will SAP do to bolster its search and content processing systems?” I hope I don’t have to wait 12 months to see how this plays out.
Stephen E Arnold, May 14, 2010
Freebie.
Stephen E Arnold,
Shocker: Business Intelligence Frustrates Some Users
May 12, 2010
Ah, consider the business intelligence analyst from 1990. Most of these folks received healthy injections of statistics in college and most underwent special treatments in SPSS or other specialized tools to crunch data.
Drag the slide in Sony Vegas to the video segment shot earlier this week. Business intelligence has become dashboards and digested reports. The analysts are still around but building protective walls with their stats books, slide rules, and pocket protectors.
The reason is that middle managers want user friendly business intelligence systems. Even more important, these new and improved business intelligence systems should be delivered without pesky analysts. What MBA wants to be told that she has to wait one day for the analyst/programmer to set up her report.? I can hear the comment, “I need it now. I mean one minute.”
When I read “BI Tools Struggle to Keep Up,” I chuckled. The write up references an azure chip outfit which I routinely find the equivalent of a medieval believer buying a relic from a vendor on a muddy side street near the cathedral. Even better, the article reports that most people need to improve their business intelligence software. No surprise there. Most businesses are desperate to find a way to generate sustainable revenue. Finally, about half of those in the survey find business intelligence systems to difficult to use. No surprise. Most MBAs want to get info, make money, and dodge the food for free line.
The fix? Buy a content processing system that delivers answers. I am not sure how the business intelligence analysts respond to disintermediation or marginalization. Interesting write up and a signal of a new direction in search and content processing. Make everything simple. The data might be inappropriate or wrong, but easy is good for some folks in the survey sample.
Stephen E Arnold, May 12, 2010
A frebie.
Verizon Sounds Googley
May 11, 2010
Bad news for information technology professionals. Last week I heard a couple of Googlers complaining about traditional information technology methods. I did not pay much attention because Google does not like too many things that are different from the company’s methods. Then I read “Cloud’s Future Is Not Cloudy: Verizon”. Some of the comments in the write up reminded me of Google and its view of the traditional IT set up. There is a chief information officer, one or more system administrators, assorted engineers, and, of course, consultants. The chief financial officer is often the only person in an organization to know the cost of weekend hot fixes, crash programs, and the upgrades that come like the government agents in the Matrix motion pictures.
Here is a passage I noted. The speaker is a Verizon manager and the subject is cloud computing. Cloud computing is becoming more important due to the cost of keeping traditional enterprise systems alive and well. The quote:
We have to educate our companies to change their mindset,” says Crawford. He says that the computing as a service that Verizon offers is a combination of the customer’s own infrastructure and Verizon’s cloud service. So the investment made on the infrastructure would not go waste. “We have to convince them that they have the flexibility of scaling up and down. Infrastructure as a service is based upon standard hardware and software which runs on dedicated environment. We offer 30 days free trial so that they can test it and be convinced,” he adds.
What is happening is that vendors know more than their clients. IT professionals are obstructions to some degree. I have no doubt that Verizon, like Google, will make headway with their approach. I suppose one should see their view as a spur to the job hunting companies. IT, like librarians, are likely to suffer job erosion and disintermediation in m opinion.
Stephen E Arnold, May 11, 2010
Unsponsored post.
NASA, Search Death, and Vivisimo
May 10, 2010
In an echo of my article for “Searcher Magazine” five or six years ago, I read this statement by Bob Carter, Vivisimo, “Search is broken. Results are not shared, saved or collected. Search technology doesn’t factor in who I am, what I do, where I am or what I know.” Guess not. I know that I got quite a bit of feedback (positive and negative), when I pointed out that search was dead. Shortly before it left this veil of tears, I could hear the sucking sounds from its chest wound. I think my original write up was on the Information Today Web site, an outfit that publishes some of my for-fee work.
Mr. Carter’s comment appeared in the article “Search Is Dead: Long Live ‘Findability’”. I must admit I was confused. The problems of user-aware search and personalization, retention of search histories, results archiving and sharing, and business process centric results are “sort of searchy” and “sort of findability”. The real angle is that search as I wrote during a wonderful, delayed flight to San Francisco is more like an oil spill or an ash cloud. Search is diffusing, disrupting, and creating both opportunities and dislocations.
The Federal Computer Week write up addresses none of these issues. The article is more of a marketing write up about NASA, a highly regarded Federal entity, and its use of Google technology. My question is, “Is NASA Googley or is NASA using Vivisimo to crack the findability problem?” No wonder people are confused about search and content processing systems. Search is dead and two search systems seem to be alive at least in the write up. What?
Search is dead, then it becomes findability, and then it becomes Googley. With analysis like this, the azure chip crowd looks like the brightest stars in the Bright Starbirth Region NGC 2363. Help!
Stephen E Arnold, May 9, 2010
Obviously an unsponsored post.
Azure Chip Search Consultants and the Goose
May 10, 2010
Remember the seventh grade. Charles Dickens, his Tale of Two Cities, this quotation:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only?
Setting: I am at a fancy reception, standing in a corner, tucking my tail feathers beneath me. I shivered in fear as I watched the attendees mingle. To my surprise, an azure chip consultant approached me. I had two additional azure chip encounters, but I will encapsulate my observations into this single ur-azure trope. I even have a logo I envision when I think about the azure chip search consulting crowd.
Source: http://media.photobucket.com/image/losers/lupe318/LOSER.jpg
Conflict: The topic was, “Why are you picking on me / us?” As readers of this * free * (and “free” is an operative adjective) Web log, I comment on the “findings” of azure chip consultants.
Dieselpoint 3.5 Available
May 7, 2010
Dieselpoint keeps a low profile. The company has an interesting technology and a year or so ago made a run at capturing some open source goodness. The company offers a search system that supports XML content, PDF files, structured data for eCommerce and business intelligence, and OEM search applications. Dieselpoint is written in Java and can run on most platforms.
“Dieselpoint Search Version 3.5 Released – All-Java Enterprise Search Software Adds New Features” describes the new release this way:
For those who track the search software industry, Dieselpoint Search is widely regarded as the most sophisticated solution on the market for applications that require full-text, navigational, and parametric search.
Okay. I think Dieselpoint is a capable product, and you can see it in action at http://hmv.com/hmvweb/home.do. HMV is a large music retailer in the UK. A number of companies offer content technology as good as or better than Dieselpoint’s, the description in Lifestyle notwithstanding. I include Dieselpoint in my free Overflight service which you can check out here. You can easily compare the buzz for different vendors’ systems with a mouse click or two. The number of articles about a vendor in an Overflight provides a rough indication of the uptake about a particular company. Google, for example, warrants an Exalead search service plus five separate Overflights.
Lifestyle’s writer may find the Overflight service helpful when suggesting that “those who track the search software industry” will know that a particular product is “widely regarded as the most sophisticated solution on the market”. For a comparison test, check out Autonomy and Mark Logic on Overflight. I find the coverage comparison interesting and possibly suggestive.
Stephen E Arnold, May 7, 2010
Unsponsored post.
Netezza Partners with Coveo for Customer Service
May 7, 2010
A leading provider of customer information access and enterprise search solutions, Coveo can now add Netezza, a leader in data warehouse, analytic and monitoring appliances, to its customer list.
According to newly released press, Netezza will implement Coveo’s Customer Information Access Solution for Contact Centers and Customer Self-Service. This will allow Netezza customers to quickly search and pinpoint information within its online support knowledgebase to solve their technical questions, ultimately deflecting calls into Netezza’s call centers. Netezza customers will also have access to the secure, online customer self-service console that offers infinite possibilities to retrieve, manipulate, and display data. However, what Coveo offers is much more than a search engine, or a dashboarding tool, or a reporting platform, though it can do all of these things well. This new client will give them yet another opportunity to flex their muscles for the crowd that will surely be watching.
Melody K. Smith, May 5, 2010
Note: Post was sponsored.
Autonomy and Its ROI Push
May 6, 2010
Autonomy seems to have opened a new front in the information access wars. Search and content processing has experienced Balkanization over the last 20 years. Flash back to 1980 and how many ways were there to search digital information. My list includes the marvelous Inquire product (forward and rearward truncation), Stairs III, BRS, and a handful of other systems. Today I track more than 300 vendors, and I could expand that list by tossing in companies embedding enterprise search into applications.
In “British Airways Enhances Customer Engagement and Drives Up Conversion Rates with Autonomy Optimost” I could discern a return on investment push. The idea is that search delivers a payoff, a substantial benefit in today’s churning financial climate. Anyone planning a trip to Scotland or Greece this morning? Thought not.
The write up asserts:
“Autonomy Optimost enables businesses to depart from legacy approaches relying on ill-equipped metrics and guesswork, and empowers them to gain a true understanding of their customers’ preferences, intent and behavior,” said Andy Jenks, CEO of Autonomy Optimost. “Businesses are increasingly turning to Autonomy Optimost to democratize their marketing campaigns and design process and we are delighted to see British Airways achieve these fantastic results with Autonomy Optimost.”
Optimost, according to Autonomy:
delivers automated capabilities such as advanced analytics, pattern-matching, optimization, and targeting to optimize marketing across multiple channels to drive business growth. Marketers can now take a proactive and automated approach for identifying emerging customer segments and determining the most effective way to market to them, including the most optimal product recommendations, promotional offers, pricing strategies, and advertising placements.
Why is this important?
- Autonomy is a smart content platform, not just search
- Autonomy has an uncanny knack for market positioning
- Autonomy has morphed from search into a far broader software ecosystem with vertical technology that makes the company a threat in audio, video, data, and text processing.
Worth tracking in my opinion. Unlike Google or Microsoft, Autonomy sends a more consistent message about what its technology delivers. That’s the core of the argument, isn’t it? Return on investment. How will other vendors respond? Hopefully with substantive cost and payoff information. I am not holding my breath, however.
Stephen E Arnold, May 6, 2010
Unsponsored post.
UC Davis Maybe Not Googley
May 5, 2010
No details but the University of California – Davis may not be Googley. “Exclusive: Gmail Ditched By Major University” reported in an exclusive, which is important, that:
In a joint letter last week to employees, University of California-Davis CIO Peter Siegel, Academic Senate IT chair Niels Jensen, and Campus Council IT chair Joe Kiskis said the school decided to end its Gmail pilot, which could have led to campus-wide deployment, because faculty members doubted Google’s ability to keep their correspondences private. Many faculty “expressed concerns that our campus’s commitment to protecting the privacy of their communications is not demonstrated by Google and that the appropriate safeguards are neither in place at this time nor planned for in the near future,” the letter said.
Is the school admitting it is not Googley? Not sure, but the privacy thing. Ouch.
Stephen E Arnold, May 5, 2010
Freebie, gentle reader, freebie.
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