Streamlining Business Process and Providing Better Information Access in SharePoint

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When it comes to enterprise information, many want that ‘single source of truth’ and streamlined access to content. Jennifer Mason weighs in on this challenge in the article, “Driving User Behavior within Your SharePoint Solutions.” Mason says that the ‘single source of truth’ end goal is great, but should be approached with the key point in mind of understanding the context of the data. She suggests this when looking for a solution:

Why go to all the trouble of moving your content to a SharePoint solution without taking the time to look at things differently and provide a solution that aligns with the daily needs of the users? Ideally your solutions are going to provide a way for users to work through a process with your solution supplementing and guiding them along the way. Your solution should be a tool that allows them to be guided through the actions required of them for the task at hand.

Mason explains that a major challenge for many large organizations is the lack of central access to information that multiple people and departments are working on. The author suggests that to overcome this challenge, take a bigger look at the problem. She provides a real-world example of how she helped address an issue of central repository with SharePoint, but also using it as an opportunity to streamline the process and provide guidance to users.

The article seems to be a good example of how to step back from a problem and look at larger opportunities for better content management. It is also an example of some gaps in SharePoint when it comes to efficient access to information for all users. Many organizations have overcome such challenges by employing third party solutions, like Semaphore for SharePoint. With four inter-connected modules, Semaphore offers content intelligence from automatic metadata application to a powerful search application framework.

Alice Wilson, June 20, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

SharePoint Conference 2014 Marked on the Calendar

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Chris Knight summarizes a recent announcement from Microsoft in the CMSWire article, “Microsoft Announces the Dates for SharePoint Conference 2014.” The event will take place on March 3 – 6, 2014 at The Venetian in Las Vegas. Knight explains that the last conference was held in 2012 and the upcoming 2014 event will be full of new developments and associated ecosytem. He adds this about the ‘changing landscape’ of SharePoint:

With Office 365, mobile and cloud usage growing rapidly, it will be a changed landscape when Microsoft’s leaders take the stage for the keynote next year. With the likes of Yammer integration, wide-ranging app development and support features around SharePoint are also growing at speed.

So, it’ll be an exciting time and a massive event for SharePoint users and developers, keep an eye on the page for details and get ready to book your tickets.

All those in the SharePoint community are likely tuning in closely about what to expect and what experts will be keynoting. But you also don’t have to wait until March 2014 to boost your SharePoint system. Consider third party applications, like Smartlogic, to augment your farm. Smartlogic’s Semaphore snaps seamlessly into SharePoint 2013 and enhances the search experience, syncs and optimizes the term store, and more.

Alice Wilson, June 20, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Improving Content Analytics with Tips from Mars Missions

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Managing big data is not short of challenges and hurdles. In the Information Week article, “From Mars to Big Data,” Jeff Bertolucci discusses how MIT scientists are applying methodologies from Mars mission designs to help marketers tackle such challenges. The new program is explained:

DataXu, founded by MIT aeronautics and astronautics scientists in 2007, is applying its experience in designing NASA missions to the unique world of digital advertising, says company co-founder and chief technology officer Bill Simmons. The Boston-based startup is using its expertise in combinatorial optimization, techniques used to find optimal solutions to a specific problem, to help digital marketers boost their advertising efficiency and return on investment (ROI).

The author explains some of the techniques and adds that the company specializes in displaying ads, but not search or email. With a mission to place ads, it will be interesting to see where this industry unique platform goes and how science can help improve content management. If you are looking to optimize your content in the Web, also take a look at Smartlogic. Smartlogic has helped many organizations with their analytics efforts, such as media and publishing. The ontology-based smart content classification system allows organizations to enhance content and create feeds of highly-personalized information so that meaningful information is searchable and found.

Alice Wilson, June 20, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Overcoming Communication Challenges with Information Access

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When it comes to tackling a company project in an efficient manner, communication is key. In “Strategic Communications: From Self-Delusion to Listening Carefully,” Michael Krigsman discusses the follies in conventional wisdom about effective communication.  Krigsman notes that many companies fail to open two-way communication, rather they use PR and communications departments as a megaphone to broadcast one-way directives. The scale and risk of the communication challenge is shown:

A Project Management Institute (PMI) study finds that organizations risk ‘$135 million for every billion dollars’ they spend on projects. Of this large sum, related research from PMI concludes that ‘ineffective communications’ drives 56 percent ($75 million) of these at-risk dollars. Based on these numbers and empirical experience, it is clear that communication plays a significant role in the success or failure of projects.

The author says that communication and project success relies on cultivating collaboration and knowledge sharing. This means using technology to provide users access to information to create a healthy flow of content sharing. If you have found communication in the vast amounts of data and information flowing through the enterprise a challenge to project success, the article may be a good read. Many organizations are overcoming these challenges with comprehensive content intelligence platforms, like Smartlogic. The Semaphore platform is being used in a variety of industries and sectors, such as media and publishing, to provide content creators broad access to information and to deliver focused information to users.

Alice Wilson, June 19, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Best Performing Companies Allow Users to Interact with Data

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In “The Need for Speed: Data Analysis for Real-Time Decision Making,” the author relays the increased importance of companies’ ability to quickly evolve their content intelligence, analytics, and management efforts. According to a new study from Aberdeen Group, the best performing companies allow users to interact with data and customize their analytics environments to meet needs. Some statistics from the study are shared:

Leading companies report that they find the information they need to inform decisions 85% of the time; that’s a stark contrast to less successful companies that report they only find the right information 59% of the time.

Moreover, it takes leading companies an average of five days to build new data dashboards, while less successful companies need more than 55 days, according to Aberdeen.

The article also includes suggestions from Aberdeen, such as providing users full interaction capabilities with business information so that they have a better chance of finding the right information at the right time. The brief article highlights the quick changing nature of information and some helpful tips for keeping up. One flexible and scalable content intelligence solution to note is Smartlogic. Smartlogic uses semantic-powered technology to enrich information and turn it into smart content so users can get a complete picture of business knowledge. It can save employees untold man-hours by making search efficient and works for the users.

Alice Wilson, June 19, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Tapping into the Power of Content Intelligence

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In “Unleashing the Power of Your Content Intelligence Network,” Matthew Kumin defines content intelligence and how to tap into your greatest information assets. Kumin explains that content intelligence is a theory describing a form of group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration of individuals in a network. The challenge lies in how individuals can best tap into content intelligence in real time. Mastering this process has many benefits, and the author shares one:

Your greatest asset is in fact the sum total of how empowered your people are to succeed in their jobs, accomplish your organization’s goals, and solve your customers’ problems. The more empowered your teams are to thrive in these areas, the more that your organization will grow and prosper.

Kumin suggests that companies are smart to tap into people inside and outside the organization to ‘curate’ content. He explains this concept of harnessing intelligence:

More brands and content marketers are coming to understand the tremendous opportunity to empower people inside and outside their organizations, and are providing tools to harness this collective intelligence and curate content at social scale.

To turn data into smart content requires the right tools and the article provides some helpful guidance if you are ready to delve into the world of content intelligence. It is also smart to create a list of tools to evaluate, like Smartlogic, for your content intelligence needs. With semantic technology and rich metadata tagging capabilities, Semaphore exposes business knowledge across the company, regardless of where it is stored and format. The facilitated findability allows users to easily access and repurpose content so that it can be used to solve business challenges.

Alice Wilson, June 19, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Consumer Search Space may Influence Future of Enterprise Search

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Where is enterprise search headed? Dick Weisinger takes a look at this question in his Formtek.com article, “Enterprise Search: Consumer Search Path Hints at Direction for the Enterprise.” Weisinger suggests that the consumer search space, such as how consumers interact with Google or Bing, may hold the clues for what enterprise search becomes. The author shares this about Gartner’s prediction:

Gartner says that the Enterprise Search market has grown at a rate of 11.7 percent each year since Andrews made his prediction in 2008.  The market size ended 2012 at $1.7 billion and is expected to reach $1.9 billion by the end of 2013.

The author also says that traditionally a search, on Google for example, would bring back a list of documents or Web pages that are highly related to the search criteria. The user then has to look at those results to find the ‘final answer.’ Now, search engines are attempting to directly answer questions. For example, Google will directly answer a math question, world time, or word definitions. This is taken from the article:

Andrews says that by the end of 2017 that more than half of consumer searches will not be producing lists of documents, but a ‘final answer’.

While consumers get accustomed to this ‘final answer,’ it may very well lead to that demand in the enterprise search arena. Time will tell. Part of this ability to provide a ‘final answer’ and accurate search result lies in semantics and contextual meaning.

When it comes to enterprise search, consider the Semaphore platform which includes an ontology manager and classification and text mining server. These modules classify content for organizations using the process of analyzing a document and adding metadata “tags” that describe the document which is sourced from taxonomy or other form of controlled vocabulary. The ontology manager is powered by semantic technology, meaning it covers the life-cycle of taxonomy, thesauri or ontology development and maintenance. The platform automatically manages the language that defines your space or industry and with accurate metadata, business data is given contextual meaning so searchers can efficiently find the answers to their questions and thus delivering enterprises a complete information management experience.

Alice Wilson, June 18, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Challenges with People Search in the Enterprise

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Enterprise search has a number of challenges for many organizations, and Martin White discusses one of the challenges – people search – in his CMSWire post, “Enterprise Search: Searching for Names & Brains.” During May, three major conferences on search were held and White says that the main focus of these events was on how to present the most relevant search result with all needed information first to the searcher. But White also says that one of the most helpful and important uses of enterprise search is to find people, either by name or expertise.

He says simple challenges, like knowing how to spell a tricky name, to more complex challenges, such as defining someone’s expertise, can make people search ineffective. When it comes to finding expertise in the enterprise, he has this to say:

The answer lies in being able to integrate search across multiple applications, each of which may contain some element of information about the expertise of employees. These might include project files, product design databases, blogs, conference papers and patents.

White also adds this suggestion:

Your search strategy should have a specific section on the approach you will be taking as expertize of employees, both long-term and newly arrived, provides your organization with a significant competitive advantage.

If you are implementing an enterprise search solution, the article poses some challenges you may want to take into consideration while planning. One way to bypass ineffective search is with a comprehensive content intelligence platform that searches the entirety of business data regardless of format or location. For example, Smartlogic specializes in information retrieval software concentrating on adding semantic capabilities to enterprise search and content management systems to give users a complete picture of corporate knowledge.

Alice Wilson, June 18, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Comments on the Future of Enterprise Search

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Martin White discusses the importance of enterprise search in the CMSWire article, “Is There a Future for Enterprise Search?” White explains that over the last couple of years, countless books and reports have been published on the topic of enterprise search and providing effective access to big data which goes to show the importance of this topic for organizations. The author explains the challenge of enterprise search in that there are often vast amounts of unstructured data in the enterprise, and:

There are also vast collections of project reports, service reports, business plans, patient records, etc. where being able to find relevant information by using either keywords or through a natural language enquiry in whatever are relevant languages is absolutely business critical.

The author also provides links to a variety of surveys carried out by MarkLogic, Findwise, Oracle and Smartlogic that show the scale of mismatch between business requirements and the availability of enterprise solutions. The business perspective on enterprise search is also shared:

What is now emerging is a view of enterprise search as a managed framework of search applications which enable employees to find the data, information and knowledge that they have the authority to access in order to make business decisions.

White goes on to provide a few comments on the skills gap that many organizations face when implementing content management solutions. The article is a good read for a well-rounded perspective on the benefits and challenges of enterprise search.

One way to champion these trends and turn data into smart content is with semantic technology, which powers the Semaphore Content Intelligence Platform. With powerful components, like an ontology manager and classification and text mining server, Semaphore provides features to automatically classify business documents and streamline workflows. Smartlogic also provides a full-service support team to help businesses fill in those skills gaps in their enterprise search team.

Alice Wilson, June 18, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search

Semaphore for SharePoint 2013 and Office 365 Explained

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SharePoint 2013 offers a host of features to make enterprise content management more efficient and effective. But many users of the SharePoint platform also know that there are some gaps in the system and third party applications can really round out the offerings. In the Image and Data Manager article, “Semaphore Signs on for SharePoint 2013 & Office 365,” the author explains Smartlogic’s Semaphore solution for the SharePoint 2013 search experience.

Semaphore is specifically designed to augment SharePoint 2013 to enhance the search experience, drive content management and workflow processes, standardize metadata, and eliminate the burden of manual classification of content. Some of the improvements include enhanced and scalable multi-farm support, simplified syncing of the terms store with enterprise metadata standards, and more ontology-related Web parts for improved contextual searching. This taken from the article summarizes the SharePoint solution:

Smartlogic’s Semaphore Content Intelligence application enables enterprises to turn unstructured content into actionable information by enhancing the capabilities of existing information management systems such as SharePoint.

Functioning in parallel to the Microsoft platform, Semaphore enables enterprises to more quickly and precisely identify, classify, extract, integrate and utilize unstructured information such as research papers, plans, proposals, presentations, meeting notes, strategy documents, reports, memos, web copy and emails.

Smartlogic’s chief technology officer, Matthieu Jonglez, also says that, “We are reacting to customer requirements and demand with these improvements.” It seems that Semaphore for SharePoint 2013 is tailored and customized for practical enterprise content intelligence challenges. With consistent metadata governance, employees can save valuable time with improved search and quickly finding needed information. It also means that top executives have access to an enterprise-level view of business knowledge that can be repurposed to make better business decisions.

Alice Wilson, June 17, 2013

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search