Lost in Dataspace? CA Erwin Can Help
February 24, 2012
Intuitive graphics and a search that looks like Google. That’s what CA Technologies proscribes for the non-techies who are being plunged into the cloud, ReadWriteWeb reveals in “Data Visualization for People Who Don’t Visualize Data: CA ERwin 8.2.” ERwin is a database visualization tool which has been evolving since 1998.
Writer Scott M. Fulton, III maintains that the moving of data from SQL databases to cloud storage has many organizations reexamining their data structure. ERWin’s Web portal can help business users better understand what they are looking at. The article relates:
[CA Technologies’ Donna] Burbank agrees that data modeling may never be appealing to 100% of the ‘sponsor’ audience [of database administrators]. But making it appeal to a somewhat greater audience through more intuitive graphics, along with Google-like search, could go a long way toward enabling those tasked with new responsibilities to be able to better understand what they are, and carry them out with a greater sense of confidence.
But will that confidence be misplaced? More consumerization is all well and good, but what happens if the underlying data do not meet standard tests for validity?
CA Technologies has been building IT management software for over 30 years. They pride themselves on providing agile solutions to business and government organizations in nearly every nation.
Cynthia Murrell, February 24, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
PolySpot Technology Makes Big Data Manageable
February 23, 2012
A recent white paper by Beyond Search’s own analyst, Stephen Arnold, “Cutting Big Data Down to Size: The PolySpot Solution,” tackles the issue of high-volume data flow by taking an in-depth look into PolySpot’s Information at Work Solution.
Arnold gives much credit to the France-based company for creating a revolutionary system that offers an easy-to-use solution to Big Data, making data available and thus valuable to companies. Information from ArnoldIT’s investigation is summarized on PolySpot’s website:
PolySpot has developed an innovative approach that makes it possible to deploy a robust frame-work over existing content repositories. The PolySpot technology allows licensees to access information from many different sources and deliver information that answers real-life business questions. Users access the content via applications or apps from mobile devices to desktop computers. The company delivers solutions+apps.
Our team at Beyond Search is glad to see PolySpot offering innovative enterprise search solutions that are much needed in the search enterprise search market place. This technology is necessary in ensuring that information of significant value is not lost in the petabytes of information that is growing daily.
Check out Apprapids for more insight from the ArnoldIT team or direct your browser to PolySpot to download a full-length copy of the analysis.
Andrea Hayden, February 23, 2012
Why Does Dassault Need Netvibes?
February 23, 2012
Enterprise Irregulars reports, “Cloud Wars Heating up: Oracle : Taleo, Dassault Systèmes : Netvibes.” Writer Michael Fauscette examines the potential impact of two recent acquisitions. Oracle has snapped up the cloud-based employee management vendor Taleo, while Dassault Systèmes has bought Netvibes, a dashboard specialist.
Most eyes are on the much larger Oracle-Taleo deal, and the article thoroughly explores that development. However, Fauscette is more interested in the smaller matter of Dassault and Netvibes. We are, too. The write up notes:
“I think this acquisition is an interesting tell to a strategic move by Dassault to reposition as a broader innovation platform. Today Dassault is securely positioned in the product engineering and manufacturing world, but product development is under pressure to become more social and to drive more innovation.”
We’re confused. We thought that Dassault property Exalead offered social-compatible dashboard functionality. Is there an issue with existing technology? Or is Dassault doing the IBM dance of just buying stuff and hoping revenue will follow? Perhaps Inforbix, an ArnoldIT client, is putting pressure on the old-line French firm? Instead of innovating, Dassault is doing what ageing companies do to get new ideas: Buy them. More may be needed. Inforbix’ technology is quite promising and, in my opinion, truly innovative.
Cynthia Murrell, February 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Wolfram Alpha Pro Now Available
February 23, 2012
Wolfram|Alpha continues to make changes to build its user base and traffic. The computational engine’s blog is “Announcing Wolfram|Alpha Pro.” As with so many companies that offer something for nothing, you do have to pay for the full Pro version, just like the good old days of Dialog and SDC Orbit. There is, though, a trial subscription available. Stephen Wolfram writes:
We’ve been able to go a remarkably long way with the basic paradigm of ordinary Wolfram|Alpha. But now Wolfram|Alpha Pro dramatically extends this paradigm—and it’s going to be exciting to see all the new things that become conceivable. But for now, I hope that as many people as possible will use Wolfram|Alpha Pro, and will take advantage of the largest single step in the development of Wolfram|Alpha since it was first launched.
The expanded capabilities include a number of different features. For one, you can set preferences to make the engine more efficient for your needs. You can also now download the raw data behind any query. My favorite, though, is the ability to upload, or point to a URL for, an image for analysis. The same can be done with blocks of data in any format. See the write up for more details on Wolfram|Alpha’s new abilities. It is well worth checking out. A beanie with a propeller may be required for some query formulations, however.
We wonder, will Google embrace this approach, offering their products free with ads but for a fee for “value added” service?
Cynthia Murrell, February 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Bearing with the Hassles of SharePoint
February 23, 2012
Forrester’s latest report on SharePoint 2010 remarks that the platform’s strengths outweigh its weaknesses, providing enough business value to overcome the hassles. Toby Ward comments on the Forrester report in, “If You Can Afford It, SharePoint May be Worth the Hassles.”
Ward disagrees, recommending each organization evaluate whether or not SharePoint is the right solution for their situation:
While the power and feature set of SP 2010 is undeniable, it turns out it is more expensive, more complicated and fails to live up to a number of key expectations. It is, however, a vast improvement over 2007, and is particularly more so for business users such as corporate communications, marketing and HR, who rely more heavily on enterprise content management, collaboration, and portal features.
In his pro/con list, Ward remarks that a major weak point of SharePoint 2010 is its mobile access problems on a variety of platforms. One solution that provides excellent mobile access is Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
Read more about how their Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile solution compliments an existing enterprise infrastructure:
Fabasoft Mindbreeze Mobile makes company data available on all mobile devices . . . You can act independently and freely – yet always securely. Irrespective of what format the data is in. Full functionality: the display of the search results is homogenous to the tried and tested web client in terms of clear design and intuitive navigation . . . Existing access rights to company-internal documents and data remain maintained in the view via the mobile client. The user only receives information for which he/she has access rights.
While some organizations may suffer through the idiosyncracies of SharePoint, there are third-party solutions that work with SharePoint to greatly improve the user experience. Fabasoft Mindbreeze is a strong contender, and a great place to start if your organization wants to improve its enterprise usability.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 23, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Is SharePoint Being Shunned?
February 22, 2012
SharePoint’s widespread adoption is a fact that no one contests, but The Running Librarian asks us to consider, “Are Employees Rejecting SharePoint?” SharePoint might be up and running in an organization, but is it really being used, embraced by the work force?
The Running Librarian has this to say:
Sam (Marshall) suggests that a major reason for the failure of SharePoint is that the way individuals interact with SharePoint is different from a traditional intranet. On SharePoint there is an expectation that users will be active participants rather then just passive users. Sam also points out that SharePoint is inherently complicated.
The combination of an inherently complicated infrastructure and a requirement that users be active participants is just too demanding for most users. An enterprise solution must be more easily adoptable and inherently natural to the end user in order to be successful.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze makes an effort to provide an enterprise solution that is efficient and sophisticated but also easily adoptable and intuitive for the end user. Mindbreeze routinely receives accolades for their products including, “Mindbreeze Named to KMWorld’s 100 Companies That Matter In Knowledge Management.” The press release highlighted just some of the solution’s strengths.
Fabasoft Mindbreeze enables corporate information access. Only one search query is needed to clearly display search results and related information, even for complex topics. Each item from the hit list can be opened in preview mode which, in addition to document content and the most important meta data (author, date of creation, subject and topic etc) shows all e-mail attachments. The existing access rights are checked for each query, ensuring individual adherence to corporate access restrictions.
If your organization is struggling with SharePoint, try adding Fabasoft Mindbreeze to see if both efficiency and user satisfaction can be improved.
Emily Rae Aldridge, February 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Semantics Fuel Need for Analytics
February 22, 2012
Here’s a different approach to the “next big thing.” Network Computing insists, “Semantic Technology Key to Mastering Data Growth, Analysis.” The article examines the recent InformationWeek report titled Database Discontent.
It used to be that data analysis parameters were defined manually. However, says the report’s co-author David Read, that is becoming less and less feasible. Writer Chris Talbot explains:
With the significant depth and breadth of data contained inside and outside the enterprise, in addition to the high volume of transactions that are continually generating more data, there is no reasonable way for people to know where to look when seeking out actionable knowledge, Read said. Predictive analytics will likely outpace reporting and traditional business intelligence efforts in the future, and they will be used to inform SMEs [Subject Matter Experts] about where to invest their business intelligence efforts, he added.
SQL systems are fine for analyzing uniform data, he adds, but not the growing mounds of unstructured data. The report sees semantic technology as the answer to the problem. Talbot notes that these tools have both improved and come down in price over the last few years. The way things are going, that’s a very good thing.
Cynthia Murrell, February 22, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Using SharePoint Effectively: Simple Tips for your Users
February 21, 2012
As a follow up to the popular, “7 Ways to Use SharePoint Effectively,” the SharePoint Engine Blog published, “7 More Tips for SharePoint Success.” The brief list of tips are full of handy and effective ways to keep your business processes and business intelligence on track, mainly through simple, yet efficient document management features.
Some of the SharePoint Engine tips include opening up documents to collaborators and training all staff to do likewise. This will contribute to the sense of teamwork and get communication and ideas flowing. During training, include a how-to on restoring previous document versions to eliminate the time spent on re-writing or re-constructing content that has already been built. And add some flexibility to the work environment:
Allow for telecommuting for specific tasks, such as training. It’s easy to set up documents and other training materials that can be pulled from anywhere that gives you access to the web. This lets those who are sick at home stay up on work, cuts cost during training, and gives you an additional incentive by which to retain your top talent.
Building a sense of teamwork and collaboration among your users will improve the use and adoption of SharePoint capabilities, which will lead to idea development and collaboration in pursuit of your business goals. To get the most out of your SharePoint and enterprise search investments, look to Fabasoft Mindbreeze.
The new release of Mindbreeze displays a simple and easy to navigate search feature with index tabs that break down search results in specific groups and topics. With this feature, users can immediately see what documents contain their search term and in what context it is mentioned, meaning a fast search and find experience. Daniel Fallmann of Mindbreeze explains the search capabilities:
It is our goal to tame the information overload. Through semantics and relevance you don’t just get exact results, but also a better overview. If you are searching for files, for example, you will also find relevant documents and not just search result hits that contain the search term.
Check out the full suite of products at Mindbreeze to find the solution for your document collaboration needs.
Philip West, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
What Is Lightbound, Formerly iQuest Analytics?
February 21, 2012
iQuest Analytics was founded in 2005 by Peter Gloor, who continues as president and chief science officer, to innovate and deliver world class and best of breed search technology solutions that solve critical knowledge issues around speed, relevance, and efficiency. The company, we believe, is now Lightbound.
Its iQuest Software Suite, an integrated software suite that combines social network analysis, auto-categorization with text extraction technologies to analyze unstructured data, was named a KMWorld Trend-Setting Product in 2009.
iQuest Discovery is the company’s enterprise search, research, and discovery (eSRD) solution that utilizes a technology architecture based on combined proprietary dynamic data structure innovations, natural language processing, and “parts of speech” to deliver optimized, efficient and relevant search results. This combination enables high-speed performance and lower cost of ownership and allows researchers to retrieve results that are both intuitive and non-intuitive. iQuest is able to analyze unrelated collections of documents to automatically surface patterns and associations by clustering previously unconnected documents, blogs, RSS feeds, email and other unstructured data. It employs unique Social Network Analysis algorithms combined with token and link extraction to find hidden relationships and mission-critical undiscovered information by mining unstructured data from large document stores, the Web, email logs, phone archives, message boards, blogs and enterprise intranets.
By developing a solution that rapidly identifies relationships between previously unconnected data, iQuest and partner SGI have made it possible for the intelligence community to flag in near real time anomalous behavior that bears scrutiny as a possible danger to national security.
iQuest is the leading provider of eSRD software for the life sciences, intelligence, law enforcement, regulatory, legal, and research and development industries.
Stephen E Arnold, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
Oracle Adds RightNow to Its Cloud Collection
February 21, 2012
Remember when Oracle was grousing about the cloud. Well, the company has gone bonkers for digital meteorology, excelling in cloud moves.
Have you been wondering what Oracle will do with RightNow? Oracle purchased the maker of cloud-based customer service software last fall for about $1.5 billion. ComputerWorld reports, “Oracle Outlines Plans for RightNow Integration.” Writer Chris Kanaracus checked out an Oracle webcast on the subject; he states:
Oracle executives outlined the company’s bid to reinvent the notion of CRM (customer relationship management) software, discussing how RightNow’s applications will work as part of a continuum involving Oracle technologies for e-commerce, natural language search, customer segmentation and other areas, many of which it also procured through acquisitions.
Specifically, RightNow’s applications will fit at the end of the customer experience chain, tracking product usage, maintenance, and recommendation scenarios. Before that, Oracle has the life of a sale covered. FatWire helps consumers research purchase decisions; Social Network and Siebel Marketing help target marketing endeavors; Endeca provides search technology used to find a product; and ATG Commerce furnishes the e-commerce foundation to complete the purchase. The company’s financial and supply chain software follow, leading the transaction to RightNow’s doorstep.
Oracle intends to make these integrations very soon, though no date has been given.
Founded in 1997, RightNow operates out of Montana with a client roster that is almost 2,000 organizations strong. It’s official mission: to “rid the world of bad experiences.” Now that’s the way to aim high. With Oracle’s acquisition of the quirky Taleo, storm fronts are on the move.
Cynthia Murrell, February 21, 2012
Sponsored by Pandia.com
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