Search to Management: The eDiscovery Play
November 16, 2011
New regulations in both the US and the UK have e-discovery vendors anticipating profits. FT.com advises, “E-discovery: Manage Your Data Wisely—Regulators Now Have Teeth.” (This wise publisher wants you to subscribe to read the full document. Get out your credit card.)
Of course, managing data for e-discovery purposes takes time and resources, so most companies tend to put the issue off until regulators come knocking. This can mean last minute scrambling and, as a result, disadvantage in any proceedings. What can be done?
Writer Jessica Twentyman points to some key advice:
Dean Gonsowski, e-discovery counsel in the information management group at Symantec, a security software company, believes the answer lies in making e-discovery a ‘repeatable business process’, rather than a one-off response to a request. That means establishing company-wide rules on electronic information, governing what should be deleted or retained, applying those rules and using e-discovery software to retrieve information quickly, he says.
Perhaps surprisingly, email comes in third as an e-discovery request target. Files/ documents are the most requested, followed by database/ applications data. Social media records, corporate blogs, instant messages, and texts are growing categories.
It’s important that companies understand e-discovery at least as much as regulators do. Do your research and invest in good e-discovery software. Be prepared, even as you hope you never have to respond to a regulator’s request for information.
Vendors of search will have to “move up the value rope”. Finding is no longer enough we believe.
Cynthia Murrell November 15, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Google Reworks Its Approach to Innovation
November 15, 2011
In the aftermath of Steve Jobs’ death, innovation is a hot topic. Even consumer television programs stick in a reference to Mr. Jobs’ attention to detail, his brush with oriental philosophy, and his mental processes which would get him deleted from the interview pool at General Motors. Since Mr. Jobs’ death, Apple has made some mistakes which suggests that the loss may have generated some negative karma for Apple.
Apple may have innovation challenges going forward. I now hypothesize that Google has here and now innovation problems, and I think the firm’s most recent actions underscore that innovation is a concern to Google’s senior management.
As you may know, Google’s not-so-quiet shift from “we do it all in the Googleplex” to a more traditional approach to finding great ideas turned out the lights in the “old” Google Labs. Now many of the “real” consultants and journalists will point out that Google is an innovation machine. Examples range from the upgrade to Google+ Facebook type service to the tweaks to maps, Gmail, and Google Apps. Point taken, but let me summarize the thought that was triggered by three apparently unrelated announcements. Some of the azure chip crowd will assert that I, once again, am off base, living in rural Kentucky, and past my prime.
No problem. But consider:
First, last week Google bought two companies. Google has been acquiring companies quickly, and I thought it was a combination of getting people and technology. You can read about the deals in “Google Acquires Apture and Katango”. Apture developed an in-browser search gizmo described as a “glossary for the Web,” and Katango offers an automatic friend manager. (The Katango url was dark, but the eWeek story to which I linked explains what Katango did or does.) Net net: Buying ideas.
Google is throwing money, people, and public relations at its innovation problem. Is this is warning light that the engines of creativity at Google are ill-suited to breakthroughs that neutralize challenges from Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and other firms which are gaining momentum in lucrative new markets.
Second, my dead tree copy of the New York Times ran a front page story about Google’s “new” and presumably “real” Google Labs. You can find it in the November 13, 2011 production copy which arrives in Louisville with a November 14, 2011, date. “Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams” is one of those big company public relations coups that make smaller outfits turn green with envy. I learned in the carefully shaped story that Google has a “new” Google Labs, Google X. It is a “clandestine lab where Google is tackling 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas.” So the demise of the “old” Google Labs was not the “termination with extreme prejudice” of “labs.” Google just trimmed the fat and narrowed its focus to 100 “shoot-for-the-stars” ideas. I understand gentle pruning of innovative deadwood, reassignment of bright folks without hurting too many egos, and the focus thing. Net net: Focusing the best of the best on 100 problems to get a home run.
Third, ITProPortal recycle ad story from Globes, an Israeli newspaper, that Google was “planning to establish an incubator for startups in Israel” in 2012. “Google to Incubate Startups in Israel” said:
The company said that it plans to host 20 pre-seed start-ups or 80 people in the incubator program. Google plans to give the start-up training for a minimum of three months. Google said that it was interested in companies developing projects based on open source technologies similar to Android and Chrome web browser.
Israel has some innovative folks. My Overflight service is chock-a-block with references to Google’s activities in Israel, but this is another public relations or marketing nudge related to innovation. Net net: Fund smart people in Israel and presumably elsewhere like Beijing, Moscow, etc.
Mindbreeze: A View from the Top
November 9, 2011
Fabasoft Mindbreeze managing director, Daniel Fallman, gives his insight to KM World in, “Mindbreeze, Managing Director, Daniel Fallmann: View from the Top.”
Using open standards, Mindbreeze offers high-performance enterprise search and digital cognition for all kinds of enterprises. We have developed context-enriching indexing services, which are available without time-consuming set up procedures. Information access without ironclad security is not a solution. Fabasoft Mindbreeze ensures that only authorized users can access the information. Our product was designed from the beginning to be installed quickly in minutes, thus obviating expensive installation processes. The Fabasoft Mindbreeze Appliance can be up and running for your users in just a matter of hours.
Fallmann, the Fabasoft Mindbreeze founder, talks about his Austrian start-up on this brief video. He is able to succinctly explain how the Mindbreeze solution assists users with internal and external search.
Saving the user from lengthy installation and clunky customization, Mindbreeze seamlessly integrates onto an existing platform. Semantic recognition enhances search results, providing not only quick but relevant search results. Third-party application data is available to mobile devices through Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile. Standard installations such as Microsoft SharePoint can lack versatility and customization becomes lengthy and difficult.
Evaluate your enterprise needs and see if Fabasoft Mindbreeze and its highly efficient solutions might be the right choice for your organization. In Fallmann’s words, “Make informed decisions.”
Emily Rae Aldridge, November 9, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Apple and Google: Too Big to Flail?
November 9, 2011
The game is in its final seconds, a key player gets the ball and flails helplessly as the ball is fumbled. Game over. Football, however, is not life.
That is a plus for both Apple and Google. At lunch today (November 4, 2011),one of the goslings mentioned the appear and and disappearance of the Google Gmail app for the iPhone. I don’t use an iPhone. I don’t use Gmail but I do have an account. I don’t need an app. A phone is for talking. I have another gizmo for email, thank you. With lousy eyes, I can’t see the tiny screens which are made for 12 year olds, not 67 year old geese.
According to CBS News, “Google Flubs Its First iPhone Gmail App.” I suppose when regular TV reports a fumble, I should care. I don’t, but I think there is a lesson in the general release of software with a “bug”. I liked the alleged comment by the pre-eminent Google: “Sorry. We messed up.”
Okay. Flail. Not football.
Then someone mentioned that her nifty iPhone 4S was really annoying. I asked, “Does it make calls?” The answer: “Yes.”
I asked, “What’s wrong with the gizmo?” She said, “The voice recognition thing is not working.”
Okay, fumble. Apparently, the death of Steve Jobs has left Apple in a tough spot. A key feature does not work and there is no one to fire off snappy emails in the pre-dawn hours.
According to the Washington Post’s “Apple’s Siri Shows She’s Only a Beta,”
Owners of the iPhone 4S, some of whom are still dealing with the battery drain issues from iOS 5, were further disappointed Thursday when Siri, the automated personal assistant on the phone, took some unapproved personal leave. Siri seemed to be back in service by late Thursday evening.
Another flail. Not a game. Just customers. Who cares?
A tip of the managerial hat to http://jeffreykrames.com/2009/10/12/a-person-could-be-the-biggest-unforced-error-of-all/
As my wont, I see these two events without the personal annoyance that customers of Google and Apple may experience. I don’t really care about either of the two companies.
A Coming Dust Up between Oracle and MarkLogic?
November 7, 2011
Is XML the solution to enterprise data management woes? Is XML a better silver bullet than taxonomy management? Will Oracle sit on the sidelines or joust with MarkLogic?
Last week, an outfit named AtomicPR sent me a flurry of news releases. I wrote a chipper Atomic person mentioning that I sell coverage and that I thought the three news releases looked a lot like Spam to me. No answer, of course.
A couple of years ago, we did some work for MarkLogic, a company focused on Extensible Markup Language or XML. I suppose that means AtomicPR can nuke me with marketing fluff. At age 67, getting nuked is not my idea of fun via email or just by aches and pains.
Since August 2011, MarkLogic has been “messaging” me. The recent 2011 news releases explained that MarkLogic was hooking XML to the buzz word “big data.” I am not exactly sure what “big data” means, but that is neither here nor there.
In September 2011, I learned that MarkLogic had morphed into a search vendor. I was surprised. Maybe, amazed is a more appropriate word. See Information Today’s interview with Ken Bado, formerly an Autodesk employee. (Autodesk makes “proven 3D software that accelerates better design.” Autodesk was the former employer of Carol Bartz when Autodesk was an engineering and architectural design software company. I have a difficult time keeping up with information management firms’ positioning statements. I refer to this as “fancy dancing” or “floundering” even though an azure chip consultant insists I really should use the word “foundering”. I love it when azure chip consultants and self appointed experts input advice to my free blog.)
In a joust between Oracle and MarkLogic, which combatant will be on the wrong end of the pointy stick thing? When marketing goes off the rails, the horse could be killed. Is that one reason senior executives exit the field of battle? Is that one reason veterinarians haunt medieval re-enactments?
Trade Magazine Explains the New MarkLogic
I thought about MarkLogic when I read “MarkLogic Ties Its Database to Hadoop for Big Data Support.” The PCWorld story stated:
MarkLogic 5, which became generally available on Tuesday, includes a Hadoop connector that will allow customers to “aggregate data inside MarkLogic for richer analytics, while maintaining the advantages of MarkLogic indexes for performance and accuracy,” the company said.
A connector is a software widget that allows one system to access the information in another system. I know this is a vastly simplified explanation. Earlier this year, Palantir and i2 Group (now part of IBM) got into an interesting legal squabble over connectors. I believe I made the point in a private briefing that “connectors are a new battleground.” the MarkLogic story in PCWorld indicated that MarkLogic is chummy with Hadoop via connectors. I don’t think MarkLogic codes its own connectors. My recollection is that ISYS Search Software licenses some connectors to MarkLogic, but that deal may have gone south by now. And, MarkLogic is a privately held company funded, I believe, by Lehman Brothers, Sequoia Capital, and Tenaya Capital. I am not sure “open source” and these financial wizards are truly harmonized, but again I could be wrong, living in rural Kentucky and wasting my time in retirement writing blog posts.
Is Google Making Customer Support Progress?
November 5, 2011
Looks like more customer support issues for Google, this time revolving around App Engine services. Yikes.
Google has had previous customer support issues surrounding the Nexus One Android smart phone with no support provisions. App Engine customers are now asked to pay $500 a month for Premier services, but support stops at 6 p.m. and is closed on holidays. The service reopens at midnight, still leaving a six-hour gap.
The App Engine support is compared to Amazon Web Services, where customers only pay $400 a month and get support around the clock.
In the article “Google to App Engine Customers: Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You” on InfoWorld, Bill Snyder shares more information:
According to Google’s guidelines, customers must try to fix problems themselves before contacting support, then submit a written request for help. If the issue is considered a priority, meaning a problem that affects customer operations, Google says it will respond within four hours. That doesn’t sound very good to me. After all, four hours is a big chunk of a business day. I’m not sure how many companies use App Engine for operational functions, as opposed to developmental ones, but those that do can’t be very happy about losing that much business time.
Google is quoted in the same article as looking forward to “expanding coverage in the future” and premier support is offered during business hours. Bottom line? Google sucks at customer service. The company should at least give customers good value for the money they are paying the multi-billion dollar company.
Is Google making customer support progress? Use the comments to let us know your Google experience. Maybe Oracle will pitch an InQuira or RightNow solution next time the two companies are meeting face to face.
Andrea Hayden,November 5, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
SharePoint and Its Sometimes Interesting Costs
November 3, 2011
SharePoint is touted as the ultimate solution to content management and collaboration for enterprises. Microsoft, however, never discusses the costs associated with their software, except for how it’s cost effective and overtime will save your business money. But is that true? Redmondmag.com posted an enlightening article about the hidden costs involved in a SharePoint project, “Study: SharePoint Costs High Due to Inadequate Skills.”
A study conducted by the Azaleos Corp. discovered that the average cost to run SharePoint per user is $46/month. Using Microsoft Exchange proved to be cheaper at $15-15/month per user. SharePoint users also cited downtime as the most common problem.
“The downtime mostly stemmed from hardware errors or mistakes made by IT team members. Those problems caused average monthly management costs for SharePoint to double to around $90 per user per month. Almost half (43 percent) of study respondents pointed to “a lack of administrator skills, training, and knowledge as an inhibitor to efficiently leveraging SharePoint.”
SharePoint is still a young piece of software with a manifest destiny for its future. Its problems are many, but there are a lot of third party solutions to resolve them. At the end of the article, Azaleos Corp. advertises it’s AzaleosX app to help increase uptime.
We believe that you may want to take a close look at the cost effective search and content processing solution from SurfRay. Contain costs and improve user satisfaction with one snap in for SharePoint.
Whitney Grace, November 3, 2011
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Records Management and Humor: An Odd Couple
October 27, 2011
Records management is a dry topic, not exactly humorless but close. We must admit that one of the goslings chuckles when he hears the phrase “destroy by date.” I just go up in ARMA.
We learned that there was some levity with regard to records management at the recent Legal Information Technology Conference, part of the wider ARMA conference in D.C., it was suddenly newsworthy comedy.
Law Technology News’ article, “Records Management as Stand-Up Comedy” shares a few quips from the conference:
Bryn Bowen, director of records information management at Greenberg Traurig, on establishing information governance in large firms: ‘We are sort of changing the tires while moving the truck.
Stacie Capshaw, associate director of records management at Kirkland & Ellis, said she was able to accomplish records management because her firm is ‘a loose federation of entrepreneurs.’
Rudy Moliere, director of information governance and records management at White & Case, observed that records management is ‘not at all like herding cats — you can see cats.’”
Kudos to those in records management for attempting a form of humor—those legal record managers can be a tough crowd. Did you hear the one about leaving lunch in a banker’s box three years ago?
Andrea Hayden, October 27, 2011
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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