Friday, August 31, 2007

Microsoft Expands IM Functions With Parlano Buy

Microsoft Expands IM Functions With Parlano Buy

As part of its aggressive drive to propagate its instant-messaging system, Microsoft has filled a functional hole by acquiring Parlano, a vendor with strong tabbed and group chat capabilities.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Recommind

Recommind

MindServer 5.0: Recommind stellt neue Web 3.0-Generation intelligenter Suchmaschinen vor.
Patentiertes Verfahren ermöglicht noch effizientere zentrale Informations-kategorisierung und relevanzorientierte dezentrale Suche über alle Datenquellen und –formate in komplexen, auch standortübergreifenden IT-Systemen.

Rheinbach/Bonn, 28.08.2007 - Recommind GmbH, einer der führenden deutschen Entwickler von intelligenten Suchmaschinen, stellt heute mit der Version 5.0 seiner Kategorisierungs- und Suchplattform einen Quantensprung in der automatisierten Informationsverarbeitung vor. MindServer 5.0 basiert auf den jüngsten wissenschaftlichen Entwicklungen der „machine learning“-Forschung und ermöglicht die höchste Qualität im Bereich der Content-Analyse, die es derzeit am Markt gibt.

"Die fehlende Komponente beim Information Retrieval ist Kontext. Woher weiß ich, was der Inhalt eines Textes ist? Was macht genau diesen Text besonders wertvoll? Ist dieser Text für mich als individuellen User wichtig? Das alles sind Fragen, die von der überwiegenden Anzahl an Tools, die am Markt erhältlich sind, nicht einmal im Ansatz beantwortet werden können." So fasst Dr. Jan Puzicha, CTO und wissenschaftlicher Leiter der Recommind, die Lage im Bereich Informationsmanagement zusammen.

MindServer 5.0 identifiziert unabhängig von Sprache und Themenbereich automatisch Konzepte, die ein Dokument beschreiben. Mit der MindServer-Plattform ist es möglich, menschliche Experten-Qualität in Bezug auf Suchergebnisse und Content-Strukturierung bei gleichzeitig höchstem Automatisierungsgrad zu erreichen, wie auch eine Fraunhofer-Studie belegt.

"Unternehmensinterne Informationsstrukturen sind schon heute so komplex, dass es den Knowledge Managern schwerfällt, Millionen Informationen in dutzenden unterschiedlichen intern gewachsenen Systemen effektiv zu handeln" so Dr. Puzicha.

Die MindServer-Produktfamilie, die bereits erfolgreich bei u.a. dem ZDF, Bertelsmann, der Bauer Verlagsgruppe, Novartis Pharma, U.S. National Library of Medicine etc. im Einsatz ist, verschlagwortet interne und externe Informationen automatisch nach frei definierbaren Kategoriensystemen, reichert die Dokumente mit zusätzlichen Metadaten an und stellt sie der zentral über alle Datenquellen aufgesetzten Suchmaschine für die patentierte, kontextuelle Suche zur Verfügung. Aufwändige manuelle Vorarbeiten zum Training des Systems sind beim MindServer 5.0 nicht mehr notwendig.

Die künstliche Intelligenz der Suchmaschine versetzt den Anwender trotz kurzer 1- oder 2-Wort-Anfragen in die Lage mittels Smart-Filtering die Ergebnismenge der Suchanfrage in wenigen Schritten von mehreren zehntausend oder gar millionen Dokumenten auf die wenigen relevanten, von ihm gesuchten Dokumente herunter zu brechen.

In unseren Tests bot MindServer schnelle, treffende Suchergebnisse, nahtlos über die Informationsquellen hinweg. MindServer wird unsere Dokumentenspeicher öffnen, sie einfacher durchsuchbar machen und unsere Anstrengungen unterstützen, Information global verfügbar zu machen. Ich glaube, dass schnelle, intelligente Abfrage unserer internen Dokumente kritisch dafür ist, unseren Klienten Rat und Anleitung rechtzeitig und in hoher Qualität zur Verfügung zu stellen.," – Brant Freer, Senior Counsel bei Miller Canfield, Chairman des Information Systems Committee und Vorsitzender der Knowledge Management Aktivitäten.

Mit Single-Sign-On und dem integrierten Security-Modul, das sämtliche User-spezifischen Zugangsberechtigungen der „darunterliegenden“ Datenquellen einhält und überwacht ist MindServer 5.0 als Lösung für vielschichtige, komplexe Systeme mit verteilten Datenquellen und -formaten konzipiert und kann nahtlos in bestehende IT-Landschaften integriert werden.

Windows Live Deal Benefits Microsoft and Nokia, Not Operators

Windows Live Deal Benefits Microsoft and Nokia, Not Operators

Microsoft and Nokia have agreed to bundle Windows Live services on some Nokia mobile phones. The deal is good news for these two companies and their customers, but cuts network operators out of the value chain.

IBM's Notes and Domino 8 Will Consolidate Lotus Base

IBM's Notes and Domino 8 Will Consolidate Lotus Base

Friday, August 24, 2007

ERP/SCM: Workday Releases Beta Of Its On-Demand Financial Applications -- Workday -- InformationWeek

ERP/SCM: Workday Releases Beta Of Its On-Demand Financial Applications -- Workday -- InformationWeek

Talking Exit Strategies With Montgomery & Co. | AMR Research

Talking Exit Strategies With Montgomery & Co. | AMR Research

Best valuations: must-have products and infrastructure vendors

We switched from exits to valuations. In our 2005 interview, Mr. Cooper said valuations had been holding at “1.5 to 3.0 times last-twelve-months (LTM) revenue.” This still holds true, though there are two exceptions. Some buyers will pay any price for a strategic acquisition. As proof, look at Citrix’s $500M offer for XenSource, a virtualization vendor said to have less than $5M in LTM sales. That’s a 12.5 multiple over the $40M the VCs put in, and more than a hundred times LTM revenue. The second exception is the desirable infrastructure that vendors are going for three to five times LTM revenue.

We closed the call with a discussion of the hot and cold M&A sectors. As for the hard to sell, security software tops the list of frigid. There was a sense that market had already consolidated.

Best bets: governance and compliance, SaaS, analytics, “platform extensions”

The hot list began with governance and compliance, albeit with a twist. This is a highly-converged offering that consists of content, business intelligence/performance management, and business process management. This was followed by SaaS, analytics, “platform extensions” (software adding to or building off of platforms by Google or salesforce.com), virtualization and data center optimization, and tight, vertical-specific offerings for financial services (such as credit card transaction processing) or healthcare IT.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Open Text Extends Alliance With Microsoft, Announces New Comprehensive Solution for Law Firms

News - Open Text Corporation

Open Text Extends Alliance With Microsoft, Announces New Comprehensive Solution for Law Firms

New Offering Enables Law Firms To Utilize Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for Matter Lifecycle Management, While Mitigating Legal and Compliance Risks

Monday, August 20, 2007

FTD.de - IT+Telekommunikation - Nachrichten - IT-Programm Theseus kommt in Fahrt

FTD.de - IT+Telekommunikation - Nachrichten - IT-Programm Theseus kommt in Fahrt

Open Text To Build Law Firm-Focused Content Management System On Microsoft SharePoint > Information Management > Intelligent Enterprise: Better Insight for Business Decisions

Open Text To Build Law Firm-Focused Content Management System On Microsoft SharePoint > Information Management > Intelligent Enterprise: Better Insight for Business Decisions

Open Text To Build Law Firm-Focused Content Management System On Microsoft SharePoint
The new product, available next year, would would combine Open Text's expertise in lifecycle management of legal documents with the collaboration and content management capabilities of SharePoint.


By Antone Gonsalves

Open Text on Monday said it would offer law firms a content management system based entirely on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

The new product, unveiled at the ILTA legal conference in Orlando, Fla., would combine Open Text's expertise in lifecycle management of legal documents with the collaboration and content management capabilities of SharePoint. Open Text currently sells its own product for the legal market called LegalKEY.

SharePoint is used by law firms for broadly used intranet, extranet and collaboration capabilities, while Open Text technologies have been tailored to specific law firm processes, Open Text officials said. Under the combined offering, SharePoint could become a firm's central content repository, and lawyers and staff could use its interface to access Open Text's practice-centric views of content and virtual file cabinets.

The integrated product is expected to help firms manage new business and potential conflicts of interest, establish ethical walls separating client cases, and provide records management and archiving that meets compliance requirements. In addition, users can perform federated searches across matters, and automatically assign metadata to allow correct classification of documents and pre-population of relevant content. The single point of content management through SharePoint also means that firms can apply retention schedules across repositories in a consistent and centralized manner.

Open Text two years ago launched an initiative to combine Microsoft productivity tools with its enterprise content management software and vertical-market expertise. Earlier this year, Open Text launched software integrated with SharePoint for managing U.S. Department of Defense-certified records. The company also launched a joint SharePoint-Open Text product that life sciences companies could use to manage documents that meet U.S. Food and Drug Administration requirements.

The latest integrated product is scheduled to be fully available to law firms by early next year. Pricing was not disclosed.

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

FT.com / Home UK / UK - Microsoft shakes up online services arm

FT.com / Home UK / UK - Microsoft shakes up online services arm

Microsoft shakes up online services arm
By Richard Waters in San Francisco

Published: August 14 2007 03:00 | Last updated: August 14 2007 03:00

Microsoft on Monday shook up the organisation and management of its online services business following its $6bn purchase of advertising services company Aquantive, marking its latest attempt to catch up with Google and Yahoo.

The overhaul included a new organisational structure that closely resembles one that had been planned at Yahoo by Terry Semel, its former chief executive officer, although Yahoo has since turned its back on the arrangement.

Microsoft said it had split the management of its online services business, giving control of all its advertising activities to Brian McAndrews, the former chief executive of Aquantive. Advertising had previously been overseen at Microsoft by Steve Berkowitz, the executive in charge of its internet group, who will now head only the part of the business that is responsible for attracting the company's online audience.

The split between advertising and audience groups would create a clear division of responsibilities that would let both sides focus more clearly, said Mr McAndrews, adding: "It makes perfect sense to me."

Yahoo recently abandoned a similar plan after naming Jerry Yang as its new chief executive, saying at the time that it was unnecessary.

Mr McAndrews' appointment also marks the arrival of an injection of new blood designed to make Microsoft more than an also-ran in the advertising business. The senior management team for Microsoft's new advertising group is made up of former Aquantive executives, with the exception of Satya Nadella, who will be responsible for the advertising technology platform. Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's former chief advertising strategist, had been appointed to a new role as senior vice-president in charge of strategic partnerships for the company's broader platforms and services division, Microsoft said.

Integrating Microsoft's AdCenter search engine advertising business into the other Aquantive online operations would position the new division for the changes that now are likely in online advertising, said Mr McAndrews.

While the growth of search had been the big trend in the first part of the decade, he said, advertisers were now interested in a broader mix of display, rich media and web video, and search was set to take its place in these more integrated online campaigns.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007