Azure Chip Consultant Blames Users for Lousy Search Systems
October 5, 2011
I was fascinated by a write up that perhaps incorrectly covers the recent Forrester research study “Market Overview Enterprise Search. I think the finding from the uptown consulting firm was based on independent research group and an evaluation of 12 enterprise search vendors. The vendors represented a broad spectrum of a market which is dominated by five or six firms. I admired the catholic approach and appreciated the inclusion of some systems that are likely to face tough financial challenges in the months ahead.
In the article Forrester: Enterprise Search Software Limited By User Strategy the writer breaks down the report to explain the differences in the various search providers and also provides us with some advice from Forrester for search consumers. The article states:
The report has a handful of recommendations for enterprises looking for an enterprise search product: Be firm in search requirements, conduct a proof of concept, hammer out a support and services agreement, meet with the vendor semiannually to update the organization’s plan and understand that technology is just one piece of the search puzzle. It explains that the quality of the search experience reflects the discipline with which a group manages its information assets.
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems crazy to blame search weaknesses on the discipline of the users. But intellectually it is much easier than tackling the innards, requirements, and customization of information retrieval systems. Isn’t it wonderful that search experts are so darned on the ball.
Jasmine Ashton, October 5, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: SharePoint Goes Metro
October 5, 2011
HP Acquires Autonomy. Investors Put on a Happy Face
October 4, 2011
A news release whizzed by on October 3, 2011, bearing happy tidings to Autonomy stakeholders. The deal with Hewlett Packard has been consummated. The news release asserted:
The acquisition positions HP as a leader in the large and growing enterprise information management space. Autonomy’s software offerings power more than 25,000 customer accounts worldwide and, as part of HP, will provide high-value business solutions to help customers manage the explosion of unstructured and structured information. Autonomy offers solutions that are complementary across HP’s enterprise offerings and strengthens the company’s data analytics, cloud, industry and workflow management capabilities.
Now with Ms. Whitman at the helm and Autonomy in the HP flotilla, will the company be able to generate the revenue required to pay for the “meaning based computing company.” I don’t have a clue. HP has some interesting challenges, but it has some big money units, including the ink business. I also think the print on demand unit has some potential, and the company desperately needs an improved findability solution for that unit as well as the HP Web site.
Fascinating to consider what HP can do. Microsoft paid $1.2 billion for Fast Search & Transfer. After three years, Fast Search is more or less a freebie for customers who buy oodles of client access licenses and jump on the SharePoint bandwagon. What will HP do with Autonomy? Make lots of money quickly is presumably one goal. We will monitor the trajectory of the deal because we think Mike Lynch could be the person to push out Ms. Whitman and get Autonomy managed effectively. Mr. Lynch is associated with search, but I think he is a much under-rated senior manager. HP could be the platform he needs to allow his skills to be showcased on a larger stage. Some “real” consultants who failed at being Web masters, home economics majors, and students of 18th century poetry will doubt my confidence in Mr. Lynch. Well, that’s why I am a big wheel in rural Kentucky and the “real” experts hang out in the world’s watering holes, not a pond filled with mine run off. Oh, the real consultants are not counting their billions as is Mr. Lynch I surmise.
Stephen E Arnold, October 4, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Brainware to Showcase Magic at Oracle Open World
September 30, 2011
September has been an exciting month for Brainware Inc., an innovative provider of intelligence data capture and search solutions company. In addition to being selected by a Fortune 500 global manufacturer for the automated processing of up to 10,000 invoice pages per day, Brainware also announced on Sept 13 that it will be showcasing its latest technology at Oracle open world 2011.
In the iTech Pulse article The Magic of Brainware Technology Charles Kaplan, Brainware’s vice president of marketing says:
We are excited about this opportunity to demonstrate what we’ve been calling the ‘magic of Brainware,’ this unparalleled ability to meet the document processing needs of Global 2000 companies; capture and reconcile line-item details from invoices, remittances, claims, orders, EOBs and more; and extract up to 100% of unstructured data right out of the box.
Among other things, Brainware’s unmatched capabilities for scalable, out-of-the-box field and line-item data extraction to the cloud; successfully demonstrating the ability to process line-item data from over five million document pages in a single day lead me to believe that magical is an appropriate adjective to describe this company. We expect a blog post from Merlin or Harry Potter any day.
Jasmine Ashton, September 30, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Autonomy and Oracle: HP Fall Out?
September 30, 2011
I expect more Hewlett Packard fall out. There is some tension between Hewlett Packard and Oracle. It appears Autonomy is fair game now because it may soon be part of HP. Close enough for horse shoes. But I don’t have a horse in this race, so I will document the sources and leave it to you, gentle reader, to figure out who’s on first.
The alleged Autonomy PowerPoints (pdf files actually), which may be removed from the Oracle Web site at any time were live as of 3 pm Eastern, September 29, 2011. Both documents contain some interesting information. One document is dated January 2011 and the second “Autonomy Trading and Financial Statistics”. Snag them at Please Buy Autonomy on the Oracle Web site.
The Oracle news releases / statements about the matter are at http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/503333 and http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/503343.
The ZDNet story “Autonomy: Oracle Is Confused over Supposed Sale Offer” is interesting as well and features this alleged quote from Autonomy:
It may well be that investment banks were independently recommending Autonomy as an acquisition target to industry players — that is standard practice for M&A bankers — but this would not have been at our behest,” Autonomy said. “This is the first time we have seen [the slides]. Autonomy was not involved in this nor was Qatalyst engaged by Autonomy until mid-year.
My view: When elephants fight, only the grass get trampled. This goose is happy in Harrod’s Creek and has no observations, insights, or comments to offer. I will watch for former home economics majors, the azure chip consultant crowd, former English majors, and certain failed Web masters to elucidate the matter. (No pun on “lucid” by the way.)
Stephen E Arnold, September 30, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com, publishers of the search landscape study with an original title. Imagine that, art history majors.
Protected: Manage SharePoint Metadata in Excel
September 30, 2011
Protected: Setting Up Custom Access Controls in SharePoint Search
September 29, 2011
IntelSoft Provides Data Management for Supply Chains
September 28, 2011
In the world of supply chains there are several programs a company can choose for their reporting needs. IntelSoft is one such program with an interesting new demo available. Campion PPS, the parent of IntelSoft, repeatedly describes the program as “Easy, Agile and Robust.”
The demo gives a walkthrough of the programming system and the many applications available at both the creation and end result. Live time reporting is just a click away and information can easily be added and deleted from reports and then distributed to the appropriate team members. The systems ease-of-use allows IT departments more time to focus on more important jobs than the drudgery most data management systems require.
Campian’s website describes IntelSoft’s solution as:
Increasingly, more and more detailed supply chain reports has become the norm, as has the need for real time solutions facilitating rapid drill down of information in order to achieve a more visible, efficient, and responsive supply chain structure…Modern BI solutions, such as IntelSoft Style Intelligence, can support these supply chain report needs for greater transparency across organizations and the desire for rapid, more detailed reporting requirements to aid decision making through all levels.
Data management is not limited to businesses dealing with massive amounts of written data to sort through. Companies such as supply chains also lose precious man hours searching and retrieving data. Programs such as IntelSoft are an ideal solution to that loss in productivity. As search and content processing vendors expand from the commodity arena of enterprise search, firms looking for new markets will have to offer benefits not provided by incumbents. Without benefits, pricing may become the way for a search vendor to attack certain vertical markets.
Stephen E Arnold, September 28, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Protected: SharePoint Profesionals: Are Customers Put First?
September 28, 2011
Gmail: Two Views
September 27, 2011
I found two articles about Gmail interesting and mildly amusing. The notion of free email with scripts chugging away doing mysterious things is not for me. The first article asserts that I am a silly goose. Big surprise since I am a goose. That’s a snap of me in the Beyond Search logo. Who made the assertion? An azure chip consultant that’s who. Navigate to “Gmail now ‘Viable Alternative’ to Microsoft, says Gartner.” I used to know what percent of the commercial enterprises were using Gmail. I can’t recall the number but it was in single digits, but you can check the facts by asking Google. Here’s the key passage:
Cain said that apart from Exchange, Gmail is the only email package that has done well in the enterprise market recently, while others such as Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino have “lost market momentum”. But Google still has a way to go, the Gartner report said. Because Google focuses on features for the mass market, large organizations with complex requirements – such as financial institutions – have found Google is resistant to requests that would only apply to a few customers. “Banks, for example, may require surveillance capabilities that Google is unlikely to build into Gmail given the limited appeal,” the report said. Similarly, the report said large system integrators and enterprises report that Google’s lack of transparency in areas such as continuity, security and compliance can “thwart deeper relationships”.
I read this an find some fancy dancing, but there’s that single digit estimate of Gmail’s uptake. Hmmm.
The second article is “Lack of Transparency Scares Enterprise Off Google Mail.” Same source, the azure chip consultant. However, now the message is less than optimistic. Here’s the snippet I noted:
There are certain sectors where email is very sensitive that Google will not win over in the near future. That includes places like banks which really could do with stronger security and surveillance, not less of it, as Kweku Adoboli has proved. Gartner reckons Google isn’t willing to introduce that any time soon. More importantly, larger organizations, says Gartner, complain that Google isn’t transparent about what it does with your data. And that is a big problem.
Is this an example of curation with spin, honest misinterpretation, or masterful marketing? For Gartner, it is definitely marketing. For the critics, it is prudence.
Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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