FT.com / Companies / IT - Autonomy to spin off consumer arm
Autonomy to spin off consumer arm
By Maija Palmer, IT Correspondent
Published: April 25 2007 08:20 | Last updated: April 25 2007 08:20
Autonomy, the Cambridge-based search software company, on Wednesday announced plans to demerge and float its consumer division, with allows people to search internet TV and video clips.
The consumer division will be renamed Blinkx, and listed on London’s AIM exchange for growth stocks in May. Autonomy will retain around 10 per cent of the shares following the float.
The company is considering issuing new shares at the time of the float to provide funding for the new business, which is expected to be initially lossmaking.
Blinkx is looking to create an advertising-funded business, along the lines of the Google business model.
Autonomy creates software that can search unstructured information, such as emails and pictures. It is used by a hundreds of large companies to track and organise corporate data.
Autonomy has struggled to enter the consumer market, however. It launched a consumer internet search technology in 2000 but was dwarfed by rival search engines such as Yahoo and Google, and quietly withdrew the product.
In 2005 the company re-entered the consumer sector, when it began a joint venture with China Netcom, the telecommunications operator, called OpenV, to provide a internet video search for Chinese consumers.
Mike Lynch, chief executive, has always maintained that Autonomy’s search technology is ideally suited to help consumers search internet television, video clips and other online entertainment, which has become increasingly popular in the last few years.
Unlike Google and Yahoo’s search engines, Autonomy’s technology does not rely on text and keywords, but uses mathematical formulae to detect patterns in any type of information, including pictures and sounds. The technology is used by the BBC, for example, to search and organise its archives.
The demerger of the consumer business is a complex transaction, in which Autonomy will first take ownership of Blinkx, a separate company founded by Autonomy’s former US chief technology officer, Suranga Chandratillake, which already uses Autonomy’s consumer search technology. In exchange Blinkx will be given exclusive rights to the technology, everywhere outside China. Then the Blinkx business will be demerged again and floated.
Autonomy shareholders will be given shares in Blinkx in lieu of a dividend, which the company has do date never paid.
The Chinese OpenV joint venture will not be part of the Blinkx group, and will maintain exclusive rights to the technology in China.
The news of the demerger came as Autonomy announced record first quarter results, which saw adjusted pre-tax profits nearly doubled to $19.5m from$10.3m in the same period last year.
Revenues for the first quarter rose 17 per cent from $56.1m to $65.5m, thanks to new corporate customer wins, including SFR and the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and increasing adoption of the software by technology partners such as IBM, Oracle and Symantec, who are integrating it into their own products and services.
Earnings per share increased to 7 cents from 4 cents last time.
Shares in Autonomy, which have increased 37 per cent in value since the start of the year, rose nearly 9 per cent to 760p in early trade.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Google's Expanded Workplace Products Won't Usurp Office Yet
Google's Expanded Workplace Products Won't Usurp Office Yet
With the Tonic Systems acquisition, Google continues to widen its offerings into a full collaboration suite. Adding presentation features takes it closer to competing with Microsoft Office.
With the Tonic Systems acquisition, Google continues to widen its offerings into a full collaboration suite. Adding presentation features takes it closer to competing with Microsoft Office.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Enterprise Content Management Marketplace: Opportunities and Risks -- CMS Watch
Enterprise Content Management Marketplace: Opportunities and Risks -- CMS Watch
Enterprise Content Management Marketplace: Opportunities and Risks
by Alan Pelz-Sharpe
23-Apr-2007
Enteprise Content Management (ECM) technologies can have a huge impact on your business. So naturally, buyers will do well to carefully assess both ECM products and the vendors that sell them.
It is all too easy to select vendors for your short list based on their supposed “leadership” status in the market – status given either by analyst firms or by the vendors themselves. As our ECM Suites Report amply describes, ECM represents a very wide range of technologies to solve an equally wide range of business problems. Your challenge becomes making the right “fit” for your specific needs.
Once you have identified toolsets that meet your requirements, you also need to consider the vendors. Again “leadership” status in a top right quadrant on an analyst chart does little more than tell you who has the biggest revenues in the sector, along with the widest array of technology to offer. It does not tell you whether the vendor’s corporate status is in state of flux, or whether the product set is currently undergoing an overhaul, or whether both are in the process of becoming somewhat irrelevant in the marketplace due to a lack of innovation and investment.
Major ECM vendors will gladly dazzle, and wine and dine your team, but though they may appear to be a safe and conservative choice, in fact today many are ironically higher-risk partners.
All of these factors involve risk to you, the buyer. So we'd like to provide you with some key indicators to recognize and weigh those risks. Interestingly, you'll see that major brands that would appear a safe and conservative choice actually, in some circumstances, represent higher-risk choices.
To gain maximum value from this analysis you need to consider two key factors: Your enterprise and the ECM marketplace. Each buying organization is different. What represents a high risk to one may represent a chance for innovation and a competitive advantage to another. What represents a staid, uninspiring, and somewhat slow-moving product set to one enterprise may represent a solid area of comfort and low risk to another. And of course, vendors and products are in constant flux.
Charting Risks
The chart below represents four key dimensions that we believe should supplement a functional, cost/value analysis in any major procurement decision. Use this tool in addition to the specific product research that looks in more detail at the detailed functional and technical capabilities of the technology sets.
There is no “right” or “magic” or “leader” location this chart. Buyers with strong internal IT processes and a predilection for “early adoption” may favor a vendor undertaking fundamental change, on the grounds that they can influence roadmaps and new technology and “leapfrog” competitors stuck with older tools and approaches. Other customers will prefer an ECM supplier evolving at a more moderate pace; while still other buyers will prefer a more conservative approach. It is for you to decide where your preferences sit.
The four dimensions we plot are:
1. Size – Denotes the relative size and importance of the vendor in the broad technology marketplace.
2. Focus on ECM – Indicates how much of the firm’s efforts are focused on ECM. For some it is a side activity, for others it is the sole focus.
3. Vendor Evolution – Weighs the current pace of change at the vendor itself: Is it evolving as the marketplace changes? Has it just been acquired, or acquired another product?
4. Product Development – Weighs the current pace of change for the ECM solution. Is the product line about to undergo a major revision? Is the firm in the midst of trying to piece together many disparate modules. Or is little happening, with a mature product undergoing minimal change?
Each buyer will rate the importance of these dimensions differently and we encourage you to make use of this tool interactively. Our placement of the vendors denotes our assessments as of mid-2007; we will update it substantially every six months. To be sure, the vendor are in motion but here is our quick snapshot.
The Vendors
EMC|Documentum
EMC|Documentum is going through a period of major change in 2007: not only is D6 (a major upgrade to the product) due in September, 2007, but the firm lost recently lost its charismatic leader Dave DeWalt – a loss seemingly unexpected by EMC, and one that will have a major impact on the executive leadership, and by default corporate and product direction of the Documentum product set. Hence our placement of EMC Documentum firmly in the Refresh sector toward the Turbulence sector of the chart.
IBM / FileNet
When IBM bought FileNet in late 2006, they took on a product set in P8 that had recently undergone a major revision to Version 4. There is integration work to be done to make sense of the two parallel product sets (IBM CM and FileNet P8) but there is less turmoil than may have been expected. Likewise, as the entire executive team from FileNet replaced the previous IBM team, there will be a period of settling down, and certainly there will be change over time to manage; hence our placement of IBM across the Turbulence and Shifting sectors.
Oracle / Stellent
Oracle will apparently allow the Stellent UCM product set to continue in its current guise for some time to come, and instead is concentrating on integrating elements to run on top of its Content DB and BPEL process manager, so there is less turmoil here than we might have thought. Nevertheless this is a period of major change for Stellent, albeit one we expect to settle down sooner rather than later, in large part due to Oracle’s enormous resources and the relatively small size of this acquisition for Oracle. Hence placement across the Turbulence and Refresh sectors.
OpenText / Hummingbird
Corporately Open Text has a clear, applications-oriented strategy, yet there can be no underestimating the scale of the task they face in rationalizing not just the Hummingbird acquisition, but a myriad of prior purchases. Hence our placement in Shifting albeit bordering Restructuring.
Alfresco
The new kid on the block in the ECM world, Alfresco has made a mark quickly on the market, and yet despite being a new firm, they are surprisingly stable and well-funded. They are not undergoing any major corporate change, and the product is reaching a point of some maturity (as an ECM platform), but the company is still experimenting with licensing and governance models; hence our placement in Shifting, bordering Balance.
Interwoven
The WorkSite products have clearly done well for Interwoven, yet it remains unclear whether the company will commit to them to the same depth as its traditional WCM tools. Interwoven operates as a group of fiefdoms, this particular group is in comparison to others moving slowly both at the product and corporate level, hence we have placed them in Stasis, bordering on Maintenance. They are potentially a good match for a conservative buyer.
Vignette
Like Interwoven, Vignette’s original WCM products seem to get more attention than the company’s acquired ECM tools. As such little of import is happening with the product set. Some elements from the Tower acquisition appear to be languishing, and corporately addressing this does not appear to be high on their agenda. Hence our placement of Vignette in the Maintenance sector bordering Stasis.
Xerox
Xerox is a very large firm, but DocuShare is a tiny part of this mammoth company – albeit a small part that has done well. The product is mature, and we expect changes to be organic and incremental. The executive team responsible for DocuShare also remains stable, though the larger Xerox company continues to show little real interest in DocuShare – hence our placement and weighting of Xerox in Continuity.
Microsoft
Despite all the hype around SharePoint, ECM is not a major area of focus for Microsoft as a whole, even if it is getting more attention now than in the past. But the deeper story here is that SharePoint remains nowhere near complete or mature, even if it is progressing well. As such, we expect it to undergo some major revisions over the next year or so. Hence we have positioned Microsoft in Overhaul.
Hyland
Hyland is a stable company with a stable product set, developing its technology continuously, if conservatively. Hence our placement of them in the Balance sector.
[Editors note: this article was excerpted from the recently released ECM Suites Report, which contains detailed evaluations of each of these vendors.]
Enterprise Content Management Marketplace: Opportunities and Risks
by Alan Pelz-Sharpe
23-Apr-2007
Enteprise Content Management (ECM) technologies can have a huge impact on your business. So naturally, buyers will do well to carefully assess both ECM products and the vendors that sell them.
It is all too easy to select vendors for your short list based on their supposed “leadership” status in the market – status given either by analyst firms or by the vendors themselves. As our ECM Suites Report amply describes, ECM represents a very wide range of technologies to solve an equally wide range of business problems. Your challenge becomes making the right “fit” for your specific needs.
Once you have identified toolsets that meet your requirements, you also need to consider the vendors. Again “leadership” status in a top right quadrant on an analyst chart does little more than tell you who has the biggest revenues in the sector, along with the widest array of technology to offer. It does not tell you whether the vendor’s corporate status is in state of flux, or whether the product set is currently undergoing an overhaul, or whether both are in the process of becoming somewhat irrelevant in the marketplace due to a lack of innovation and investment.
Major ECM vendors will gladly dazzle, and wine and dine your team, but though they may appear to be a safe and conservative choice, in fact today many are ironically higher-risk partners.
All of these factors involve risk to you, the buyer. So we'd like to provide you with some key indicators to recognize and weigh those risks. Interestingly, you'll see that major brands that would appear a safe and conservative choice actually, in some circumstances, represent higher-risk choices.
To gain maximum value from this analysis you need to consider two key factors: Your enterprise and the ECM marketplace. Each buying organization is different. What represents a high risk to one may represent a chance for innovation and a competitive advantage to another. What represents a staid, uninspiring, and somewhat slow-moving product set to one enterprise may represent a solid area of comfort and low risk to another. And of course, vendors and products are in constant flux.
Charting Risks
The chart below represents four key dimensions that we believe should supplement a functional, cost/value analysis in any major procurement decision. Use this tool in addition to the specific product research that looks in more detail at the detailed functional and technical capabilities of the technology sets.
There is no “right” or “magic” or “leader” location this chart. Buyers with strong internal IT processes and a predilection for “early adoption” may favor a vendor undertaking fundamental change, on the grounds that they can influence roadmaps and new technology and “leapfrog” competitors stuck with older tools and approaches. Other customers will prefer an ECM supplier evolving at a more moderate pace; while still other buyers will prefer a more conservative approach. It is for you to decide where your preferences sit.
The four dimensions we plot are:
1. Size – Denotes the relative size and importance of the vendor in the broad technology marketplace.
2. Focus on ECM – Indicates how much of the firm’s efforts are focused on ECM. For some it is a side activity, for others it is the sole focus.
3. Vendor Evolution – Weighs the current pace of change at the vendor itself: Is it evolving as the marketplace changes? Has it just been acquired, or acquired another product?
4. Product Development – Weighs the current pace of change for the ECM solution. Is the product line about to undergo a major revision? Is the firm in the midst of trying to piece together many disparate modules. Or is little happening, with a mature product undergoing minimal change?
Each buyer will rate the importance of these dimensions differently and we encourage you to make use of this tool interactively. Our placement of the vendors denotes our assessments as of mid-2007; we will update it substantially every six months. To be sure, the vendor are in motion but here is our quick snapshot.
The Vendors
EMC|Documentum
EMC|Documentum is going through a period of major change in 2007: not only is D6 (a major upgrade to the product) due in September, 2007, but the firm lost recently lost its charismatic leader Dave DeWalt – a loss seemingly unexpected by EMC, and one that will have a major impact on the executive leadership, and by default corporate and product direction of the Documentum product set. Hence our placement of EMC Documentum firmly in the Refresh sector toward the Turbulence sector of the chart.
IBM / FileNet
When IBM bought FileNet in late 2006, they took on a product set in P8 that had recently undergone a major revision to Version 4. There is integration work to be done to make sense of the two parallel product sets (IBM CM and FileNet P8) but there is less turmoil than may have been expected. Likewise, as the entire executive team from FileNet replaced the previous IBM team, there will be a period of settling down, and certainly there will be change over time to manage; hence our placement of IBM across the Turbulence and Shifting sectors.
Oracle / Stellent
Oracle will apparently allow the Stellent UCM product set to continue in its current guise for some time to come, and instead is concentrating on integrating elements to run on top of its Content DB and BPEL process manager, so there is less turmoil here than we might have thought. Nevertheless this is a period of major change for Stellent, albeit one we expect to settle down sooner rather than later, in large part due to Oracle’s enormous resources and the relatively small size of this acquisition for Oracle. Hence placement across the Turbulence and Refresh sectors.
OpenText / Hummingbird
Corporately Open Text has a clear, applications-oriented strategy, yet there can be no underestimating the scale of the task they face in rationalizing not just the Hummingbird acquisition, but a myriad of prior purchases. Hence our placement in Shifting albeit bordering Restructuring.
Alfresco
The new kid on the block in the ECM world, Alfresco has made a mark quickly on the market, and yet despite being a new firm, they are surprisingly stable and well-funded. They are not undergoing any major corporate change, and the product is reaching a point of some maturity (as an ECM platform), but the company is still experimenting with licensing and governance models; hence our placement in Shifting, bordering Balance.
Interwoven
The WorkSite products have clearly done well for Interwoven, yet it remains unclear whether the company will commit to them to the same depth as its traditional WCM tools. Interwoven operates as a group of fiefdoms, this particular group is in comparison to others moving slowly both at the product and corporate level, hence we have placed them in Stasis, bordering on Maintenance. They are potentially a good match for a conservative buyer.
Vignette
Like Interwoven, Vignette’s original WCM products seem to get more attention than the company’s acquired ECM tools. As such little of import is happening with the product set. Some elements from the Tower acquisition appear to be languishing, and corporately addressing this does not appear to be high on their agenda. Hence our placement of Vignette in the Maintenance sector bordering Stasis.
Xerox
Xerox is a very large firm, but DocuShare is a tiny part of this mammoth company – albeit a small part that has done well. The product is mature, and we expect changes to be organic and incremental. The executive team responsible for DocuShare also remains stable, though the larger Xerox company continues to show little real interest in DocuShare – hence our placement and weighting of Xerox in Continuity.
Microsoft
Despite all the hype around SharePoint, ECM is not a major area of focus for Microsoft as a whole, even if it is getting more attention now than in the past. But the deeper story here is that SharePoint remains nowhere near complete or mature, even if it is progressing well. As such, we expect it to undergo some major revisions over the next year or so. Hence we have positioned Microsoft in Overhaul.
Hyland
Hyland is a stable company with a stable product set, developing its technology continuously, if conservatively. Hence our placement of them in the Balance sector.
[Editors note: this article was excerpted from the recently released ECM Suites Report, which contains detailed evaluations of each of these vendors.]
Friday, April 20, 2007
FT.com / Companies / Financial services - USFE seeks new friends on MySpace
FT.com / Companies / Financial services - USFE seeks new friends on MySpace
USFE seeks new friends on MySpace
By Doug Cameron in Chicago
Published: April 20 2007 19:24 | Last updated: April 20 2007 19:24
The US Futures Exchange is 99 years old and male, at least according to its new MySpace page in what market experts view as the first move by the derivatives sector into the world of social networking.
The details provided by the Chicago-based exchange which, like its peers, prides itself on the transparency of its markets, could just catch the eye of regulators. The USFE is in fact less than one year old, formed in late 2006 when Man Group took over the US exchange formed by Eurex, the derivatives platform controlled by Deutsche Börse. Its sex was previously undisclosed.
The appearance of the USFE on a site beloved of teenagers and musicians comes as it launched its inaugural contract on Friday, based on the outcome of the two-way battle for control of the Chicago Board of Trade.
The ”binary” contract is viewed as an opportunistic move ahead of the formal launch of the USFE, target retail investors with the exchange’s initial product offerings before widening to attract institutions and hedge funds.
Binary futures offer an all-or-nothing pay-out on a range of defined outcomes, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange or the Intercontinental Exchange winning the CBOT bid battle or the acquisition of CBOT by a third party.
The USFE has been working on its Myspace page for a number of weeks and was first reported by John Lothian, a Chicago-based trader who publishes a widely-followed blog and newsletter. “For the longest time I had only one [MySpace] friend, said Mr Lothian who, like many in the sector, was previously unaware of the social networking site before signing up to view the USFE offering.
Mr Lothian is now joined by 13 other friends on the USFE page.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
USFE seeks new friends on MySpace
By Doug Cameron in Chicago
Published: April 20 2007 19:24 | Last updated: April 20 2007 19:24
The US Futures Exchange is 99 years old and male, at least according to its new MySpace page in what market experts view as the first move by the derivatives sector into the world of social networking.
The details provided by the Chicago-based exchange which, like its peers, prides itself on the transparency of its markets, could just catch the eye of regulators. The USFE is in fact less than one year old, formed in late 2006 when Man Group took over the US exchange formed by Eurex, the derivatives platform controlled by Deutsche Börse. Its sex was previously undisclosed.
The appearance of the USFE on a site beloved of teenagers and musicians comes as it launched its inaugural contract on Friday, based on the outcome of the two-way battle for control of the Chicago Board of Trade.
The ”binary” contract is viewed as an opportunistic move ahead of the formal launch of the USFE, target retail investors with the exchange’s initial product offerings before widening to attract institutions and hedge funds.
Binary futures offer an all-or-nothing pay-out on a range of defined outcomes, such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange or the Intercontinental Exchange winning the CBOT bid battle or the acquisition of CBOT by a third party.
The USFE has been working on its Myspace page for a number of weeks and was first reported by John Lothian, a Chicago-based trader who publishes a widely-followed blog and newsletter. “For the longest time I had only one [MySpace] friend, said Mr Lothian who, like many in the sector, was previously unaware of the social networking site before signing up to view the USFE offering.
Mr Lothian is now joined by 13 other friends on the USFE page.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
ECM-Strategie: Konsolidierung der Vielfalt im Unternehmen
ECM-Strategie: Konsolidierung der Vielfalt im Unternehmen
Anwender haben ein sehr unterschiedliches Verständnis von Dokumenten und Content Management. Die Spanne reicht von der einfachen MS Office-Dateiverwaltung auf dem Server mit Volltextsuche bis hin zur Prozessunterstützung in Content-zentrischen Prozessen, die in eine heterogene Anwendungslandschaft unter Einhaltung regulatorischer Anforderungen integriert werden können. Dementsprechend vielfältig und selten direkt miteinander vergleichbar sind auch die verschiedenen Angebote der Hersteller.
Anwender haben ein sehr unterschiedliches Verständnis von Dokumenten und Content Management. Die Spanne reicht von der einfachen MS Office-Dateiverwaltung auf dem Server mit Volltextsuche bis hin zur Prozessunterstützung in Content-zentrischen Prozessen, die in eine heterogene Anwendungslandschaft unter Einhaltung regulatorischer Anforderungen integriert werden können. Dementsprechend vielfältig und selten direkt miteinander vergleichbar sind auch die verschiedenen Angebote der Hersteller.
ASG Needs to Act Fast to Make the Most of Mobius Acquisition
ASG Needs to Act Fast to Make the Most of Mobius Acquisition
Buying Mobius will give Allen Systems Group more customers and a wider document archiving portfolio. But ASG must develop the business and exploit combined assets quickly to stave off rivals in this maturing market.
Buying Mobius will give Allen Systems Group more customers and a wider document archiving portfolio. But ASG must develop the business and exploit combined assets quickly to stave off rivals in this maturing market.
Google Extends Advertising Dominance With DoubleClick Deal
Google Extends Advertising Dominance With DoubleClick Deal
Google's purchase of DoubleClick will change the landscape of online advertising by enabling Google to offer both search-based and display advertising to its clients, ultimately boosting the vendor's competitive position.
Google's purchase of DoubleClick will change the landscape of online advertising by enabling Google to offer both search-based and display advertising to its clients, ultimately boosting the vendor's competitive position.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Adobe and Microsoft Face Off Over Rich Media Platforms
Adobe and Microsoft Face Off Over Rich Media Platforms
Announcements made at the same event by Microsoft and Adobe of a desktop video player and rich media browser extension, respectively, have given new prominence to the companies' previously hidden rivalry.
Announcements made at the same event by Microsoft and Adobe of a desktop video player and rich media browser extension, respectively, have given new prominence to the companies' previously hidden rivalry.
New Content in IBM's ITUP Should Prove Useful to ITIL Shops
New Content in IBM's ITUP Should Prove Useful to ITIL Shops
A new version of the IBM Tivoli Unified Process tool should prove useful to many organizations implementing the IT Infrastructure Library, because ITUP's new content offers how-to guidance that ITIL lacks.
A new version of the IBM Tivoli Unified Process tool should prove useful to many organizations implementing the IT Infrastructure Library, because ITUP's new content offers how-to guidance that ITIL lacks.
FT.com / Services & tools / SearchFT.com / Services & tools / Search
FT.com / Services & tools / SearchFT.com / Services & tools / Search
Google/DoubleClick
FT.com site
Published: Apr 16, 2007
After being on the receiving end for so many years, Microsoft can finally stir the anti-trust pot for somebody else. It should have learnt some tricks along the way to put the spotlight on Google's acquisition of online advertising platform DoubleClick. Microsoft's experience in Europe could be particularly useful, given that regulators there have been willing to go after fast-changing technology companies.
But does the complaint that a DoubleClick deal risks giving Google too much power in the provision of online adverts hold water? Possibly. Leave search advertising aside for now, where Google is the global market leader. In display advertising there are two main companies that serve ads to websites around the world. Google is the strongest in the contextual side – where ads are targeted based on the information on a given web page. DoubleClick is the strongest in ads that are placed according to the behavioural history of each internet user.
There is a risk that putting the two together – and allowing them to use the sheer scale of information they have about internet users – would raise barriers to entry for rivals. Those already exist, given the cost of building an ad-serving platform.
Microsoft, for example, has discovered how difficult it is to get into the provision of search-related advertising from scratch. Its failure, so far, in that arena is a big reason for its reaction to Google's deal. After all, advertising is the fuel for the internet and Microsoft has very little.
That is a good reason for people to take Microsoft's gripes with a fistful of salt. There are rivals who serve display ads. But regulators should still look very closely at how they define the market when assessing Google's deal. Too much dominance for one company now might be difficult to undo in the future.
Google/DoubleClick
FT.com site
Published: Apr 16, 2007
After being on the receiving end for so many years, Microsoft can finally stir the anti-trust pot for somebody else. It should have learnt some tricks along the way to put the spotlight on Google's acquisition of online advertising platform DoubleClick. Microsoft's experience in Europe could be particularly useful, given that regulators there have been willing to go after fast-changing technology companies.
But does the complaint that a DoubleClick deal risks giving Google too much power in the provision of online adverts hold water? Possibly. Leave search advertising aside for now, where Google is the global market leader. In display advertising there are two main companies that serve ads to websites around the world. Google is the strongest in the contextual side – where ads are targeted based on the information on a given web page. DoubleClick is the strongest in ads that are placed according to the behavioural history of each internet user.
There is a risk that putting the two together – and allowing them to use the sheer scale of information they have about internet users – would raise barriers to entry for rivals. Those already exist, given the cost of building an ad-serving platform.
Microsoft, for example, has discovered how difficult it is to get into the provision of search-related advertising from scratch. Its failure, so far, in that arena is a big reason for its reaction to Google's deal. After all, advertising is the fuel for the internet and Microsoft has very little.
That is a good reason for people to take Microsoft's gripes with a fistful of salt. There are rivals who serve display ads. But regulators should still look very closely at how they define the market when assessing Google's deal. Too much dominance for one company now might be difficult to undo in the future.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Die RAF für Kino und Wohnzimmer Martina Gedeck soll Ulrike Meinhof werden - Kultur - sueddeutsche.de
Die RAF für Kino und Wohnzimmer Martina Gedeck soll Ulrike Meinhof werden - Kultur - sueddeutsche.de
Bernd Eichinger plant, die Erfolgscrew seiner "Elementarteilchen" nun für eine Verfilmung der RAF-Geschichte zu gewinnen. Neben der Oscar-erfahrenen Gedeck sollen Moritz Bleibtreu und Nina Hoss in die Rollen von Terroristen schlüpfen.
Bernd Eichinger plant, die Erfolgscrew seiner "Elementarteilchen" nun für eine Verfilmung der RAF-Geschichte zu gewinnen. Neben der Oscar-erfahrenen Gedeck sollen Moritz Bleibtreu und Nina Hoss in die Rollen von Terroristen schlüpfen.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
FTD.de - IT+Telekommunikation - Nachrichten - Google kauft für Rekordpreis DoubleClick
FTD.de - IT+Telekommunikation - Nachrichten - Google kauft für Rekordpreis DoubleClick
Google baut seine Vormachtstellung in der Internet-Werbung aus: Der Suchmaschinenbetreiber übernimmt für 3,1 Mrd. $ in bar die New Yorker Online-Werbefirma DoubleClick. Damit zahlte Google einen Rekordpreis - und stach Konkurrenten Microsoft aus.
Google baut seine Vormachtstellung in der Internet-Werbung aus: Der Suchmaschinenbetreiber übernimmt für 3,1 Mrd. $ in bar die New Yorker Online-Werbefirma DoubleClick. Damit zahlte Google einen Rekordpreis - und stach Konkurrenten Microsoft aus.
Friday, April 13, 2007
Salesforce.com Gets Into Content Management Through SaaS
Salesforce.com Gets Into Content Management Through SaaS
Salesforce.com's new offerings are evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model. But prospective buyers should approach these new offerings cautiously.
Salesforce.com's new offerings are evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model. But prospective buyers should approach these new offerings cautiously.
Salesforce.com Gets Into Content Management Through SaaS
Salesforce.com Gets Into Content Management Through SaaS
Salesforce.com's new offerings are evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model. But prospective buyers should approach these new offerings cautiously.
Salesforce.com's new offerings are evidence of the growing interest in basic content management delivered through the software-as-a-service model. But prospective buyers should approach these new offerings cautiously.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Interwoven veröffentlicht verbesserte Collaborative Document Management-Lösung
Interwoven veröffentlicht verbesserte Collaborative Document Management-Lösung
Höhere Produktivität und Flexibilität durch optimiertes Content Management
Interwoven, Inc., ein weltweit führender Anbieter von Content Management-Lösungen, gab die Veröffentlichung einer verbesserten Version von Interwoven Collaborative Document Management bekannt. Diese Lösungs-Suite optimiert das Zusammenwirken dokumentengestützter Geschäftsprozesse und bietet Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, beweglicher und flexibler zu agieren.
Höhere Produktivität und Flexibilität durch optimiertes Content Management
Interwoven, Inc., ein weltweit führender Anbieter von Content Management-Lösungen, gab die Veröffentlichung einer verbesserten Version von Interwoven Collaborative Document Management bekannt. Diese Lösungs-Suite optimiert das Zusammenwirken dokumentengestützter Geschäftsprozesse und bietet Unternehmen die Möglichkeit, beweglicher und flexibler zu agieren.
Salesforce.com Buys Into ECM (AMR)
Salesforce.com is acquiring on-demand content management provider Koral, Inc., and while the deal is so small that salesforce.com isn’t required to report its size, it’s a big enough deal for the press and investment community to take heed. But even after wiping the hype off, the acquisition points to looming changes in the content management market. Koral, a $2.5M venture-funded startup, had already demonstrated its capability, ease of use, and ease of integration as a salesforce.com AppExchange partner. Salesforce.com will deploy Koral in a two-pronged content management strategy:
Salesforce.com’s vision for content management is aggressive, suggesting competition with long-standing, firmly established enterprise content management (ECM) providers like Documentum, FileNet, and Open Text and more pointedly, Microsoft’s rapidly growing SharePoint product. Established ECM vendors have far too frequently expressed their growth potential in terms of how much information is unstructured (industry lore has it as about 85%) versus structured. Warning customers that their information is unstructured incites neither fear nor urges to buy. The better point, one that Koral and salesforce.com express aptly, is that only 5% of employees use any content management system. Productivity, collaboration, and knowledge management needs dictate that far more people should; compliance mandates that far more must.
Of course, the value of getting to more users is not lost on Microsoft, already in front of most business users and seeking to retain and leverage the position. It may only come to a salesforce.com-Microsoft showdown if someone can successfully evangelize a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for content management; not an easy task considering companies’ efforts to consolidate their content management investments while addressing growing compliance concerns. These days, compliance is a primary or secondary concern in almost every content management inquiry AMR Research takes. In many industries and for many business processes, systems must meet rigorous regulatory standards, some advising and some requiring that documentation must reside within the enterprise’s control. A deeper look at this acquisition, its ramifications in the ECM market, and the future of SaaS in ECM can be found in, “Salesforce.com Buys Into ECM: Is Content Management Ready for SaaS?”
Salesforce.com’s vision for content management is aggressive, suggesting competition with long-standing, firmly established enterprise content management (ECM) providers like Documentum, FileNet, and Open Text and more pointedly, Microsoft’s rapidly growing SharePoint product. Established ECM vendors have far too frequently expressed their growth potential in terms of how much information is unstructured (industry lore has it as about 85%) versus structured. Warning customers that their information is unstructured incites neither fear nor urges to buy. The better point, one that Koral and salesforce.com express aptly, is that only 5% of employees use any content management system. Productivity, collaboration, and knowledge management needs dictate that far more people should; compliance mandates that far more must.
Of course, the value of getting to more users is not lost on Microsoft, already in front of most business users and seeking to retain and leverage the position. It may only come to a salesforce.com-Microsoft showdown if someone can successfully evangelize a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model for content management; not an easy task considering companies’ efforts to consolidate their content management investments while addressing growing compliance concerns. These days, compliance is a primary or secondary concern in almost every content management inquiry AMR Research takes. In many industries and for many business processes, systems must meet rigorous regulatory standards, some advising and some requiring that documentation must reside within the enterprise’s control. A deeper look at this acquisition, its ramifications in the ECM market, and the future of SaaS in ECM can be found in, “Salesforce.com Buys Into ECM: Is Content Management Ready for SaaS?”
Monday, April 09, 2007
FT.com / Companies / IT - The race for the $100 laptop
FT.com / Companies / IT - The race for the $100 laptop
The race for the $100 laptop
By Kathrin Hille in Taipei
Published: April 9 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 9 2007 03:00
When a team of education and technology experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in 2004 they were going to overcome the digital divide by making a $100 (£51) laptop for the poor children of the world, they were ridiculed.
Technology executives said such an extreme drop in cost would be "impossible". Even those who saw the team as visionaries thought the "one laptop per child" (OLPC) project had no future beyond charity.
Three years later, OLPC appears to be changing the computer industry, although not in the way its founders imagined. The sector has discovered the marketing power of the poor and has increasingly come to believe that the vast majority of the world's population that does not already possess a computer will be one of the main drivers of future growth.
"Currently the semiconductor population is limited to the 800m people at the top of the pyramid," says Cynthia Chyn, a researcher at the Institute for Information Industry, a Taiwanese government-funded think-tank. "The industry is in search of a PC for the next billion."
Over the past year, global hardware and software companies have announced initiatives aimed at this group. Intel, one of OLPC's fiercest critics, has developed low-cost computers aimed atstudents in third-worldcountries, including the "Classmate" PC and the "Eduwise" laptop.
Its rival AMD has pledged to get half the world's population online by 2015 with a device called the Personal Internet Communicator. Microsoft is supporting the establishment of kiosks in villages in developing countries, where residents would share a computer and just pay for usage.
Analysts see some of these moves as no more than public relations campaigns, defensive attempts to make sure that the respective company's brand or technology has a foot in the door once these countries turn into real markets.
But recently companies have started taking steps that are neither charitynor PR: Dell, the world's number two computer company, launched a desktop computer in China last month that sells for as little as $336, more than 60 per cent below the price tag of its previously cheapest machine.
Quanta Computer, the world's largest contract manufacturer of notebook computers, says next year it will start making laptops that will sell for only $200. It is also making the OLPC, the first shipments of which are due to be made this -summer.
Most of these moves have been made possible because the OLPC project forced a group of companies to develop a laptop with the goal of making it as cheap as possible.
This turned out to be far easier than critics had suggested. Costs were cut by using a cheaper form of liquid crystal display, leaving out the hard disk and running the machine on open-source software rather than Microsoft Windows.
"Not all people need to have as heavily loaded PCs as they have today," says Michael Wang, Quanta's president.
Intel's founder Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years, driving the technology industry to produce ever more powerful devices.
Now, though, computer makers will have to use the most advanced technology to produce "older", simpler specifications, argues Jeremy Wang, Asia-Pacific executive director of the Fabless Semiconductor Association.
Mr Wang of Quanta predicts that many different laptops will appear on the market with price tags between $600 and $200 - the lowest price for a laptop so far. "There will be many different combinations [of software and hardware components] for different segments," he says. Quanta has transformed its OLPC project team into a new business unit. "Their task is to create a market," he says.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
The race for the $100 laptop
By Kathrin Hille in Taipei
Published: April 9 2007 03:00 | Last updated: April 9 2007 03:00
When a team of education and technology experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said in 2004 they were going to overcome the digital divide by making a $100 (£51) laptop for the poor children of the world, they were ridiculed.
Technology executives said such an extreme drop in cost would be "impossible". Even those who saw the team as visionaries thought the "one laptop per child" (OLPC) project had no future beyond charity.
Three years later, OLPC appears to be changing the computer industry, although not in the way its founders imagined. The sector has discovered the marketing power of the poor and has increasingly come to believe that the vast majority of the world's population that does not already possess a computer will be one of the main drivers of future growth.
"Currently the semiconductor population is limited to the 800m people at the top of the pyramid," says Cynthia Chyn, a researcher at the Institute for Information Industry, a Taiwanese government-funded think-tank. "The industry is in search of a PC for the next billion."
Over the past year, global hardware and software companies have announced initiatives aimed at this group. Intel, one of OLPC's fiercest critics, has developed low-cost computers aimed atstudents in third-worldcountries, including the "Classmate" PC and the "Eduwise" laptop.
Its rival AMD has pledged to get half the world's population online by 2015 with a device called the Personal Internet Communicator. Microsoft is supporting the establishment of kiosks in villages in developing countries, where residents would share a computer and just pay for usage.
Analysts see some of these moves as no more than public relations campaigns, defensive attempts to make sure that the respective company's brand or technology has a foot in the door once these countries turn into real markets.
But recently companies have started taking steps that are neither charitynor PR: Dell, the world's number two computer company, launched a desktop computer in China last month that sells for as little as $336, more than 60 per cent below the price tag of its previously cheapest machine.
Quanta Computer, the world's largest contract manufacturer of notebook computers, says next year it will start making laptops that will sell for only $200. It is also making the OLPC, the first shipments of which are due to be made this -summer.
Most of these moves have been made possible because the OLPC project forced a group of companies to develop a laptop with the goal of making it as cheap as possible.
This turned out to be far easier than critics had suggested. Costs were cut by using a cheaper form of liquid crystal display, leaving out the hard disk and running the machine on open-source software rather than Microsoft Windows.
"Not all people need to have as heavily loaded PCs as they have today," says Michael Wang, Quanta's president.
Intel's founder Gordon Moore observed that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years, driving the technology industry to produce ever more powerful devices.
Now, though, computer makers will have to use the most advanced technology to produce "older", simpler specifications, argues Jeremy Wang, Asia-Pacific executive director of the Fabless Semiconductor Association.
Mr Wang of Quanta predicts that many different laptops will appear on the market with price tags between $600 and $200 - the lowest price for a laptop so far. "There will be many different combinations [of software and hardware components] for different segments," he says. Quanta has transformed its OLPC project team into a new business unit. "Their task is to create a market," he says.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Roland-Berger-Studie Experten erwarten grünes Job-Wunder - Deutschland - sueddeutsche.de
Roland-Berger-Studie Experten erwarten grünes Job-Wunder - Deutschland - sueddeutsche.de
Die globale Klimaschutz-Debatte hat einer Studie zufolge äußerst positive Auswirkungen auf den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt. Im Jahr 2020 werde die Öko-Branche mehr Mitarbeiter ernähren als die Autoindustrie.
Die globale Klimaschutz-Debatte hat einer Studie zufolge äußerst positive Auswirkungen auf den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt. Im Jahr 2020 werde die Öko-Branche mehr Mitarbeiter ernähren als die Autoindustrie.
FT.com / Business Life - Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short
FT.com / Business Life - Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short
Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short
By Chris Nuttall
Published: April 9 2007 17:04 | Last updated: April 9 2007 17:04
At Twittervision.com the beginnings of what could be a fresh trend in internet self-expression are being spelt out on a map of the world.
Users of this addictive new website can see a text bubble flash up over the state of Arizona with a picture icon of the sender “Chilblane” inside. “Resetting all of my album art,” it says. The world map spins over to Sydney, Australia: “Waiting on my girlfriend to come,” says CJH2. Then to Tokyo: “Keep snoozing, can’t start my day yet,” says Nobi. “Twitter – the reality TV of the blogosphere,” comments LoveHouseRadio back in Richmond, Virginia.
Twittervision’s pop-up bubbles of instant texted thoughts from around the world are a “mash-up” of Google Maps combined with a live feed of the short messages sent out by users of Twitter.com’s service.
Its popularity has forced its creator, David Troy, to create a periodic warning to people who have been glued to their computer monitors for long periods: “You have been watching Twittervision for 12 hours. Do you want to continue?”
Mr Troy pays homage to Twitter – the original service that created the online ecosystem of which Twittervision.com is part – for helping create the phenomenon of text messages that turn into web television.
The service was launched last year to let people post brief messages to groups of friends and the public at large, letting them know their current actions and thoughts.
It has rapidly become the poster child of a new trend of micro-blogging, where the social networking tool is reduced to single sentences, pictures and the most everyday emotions and events.
Besides Twitter, another internet tool called Tumblr is enabling scrapbook-style blogs of pasted quotes, pictures and thoughts. Radar.net creates social connections through the posting of camera phone images. And services such as Jaiku, Mozes and Moodgeist have their own take on this new form of web shorthand.
Twitter was invented by Jack Dorsey, a developer at Obvious Corp, a San Francisco start-up. He thought of mashing up existing concepts such as groups of friends and instant messaging (for example: “I’m away from my desk”) and MySpace-style “I’m listening to ColdPlay” status messages. The resulting service allows users to let each other know what they are doing, wherever they are, through mobile phone SMS text messages.
Twitter users tend to update their status from their computers during the day and their phones at night. In each case they are restricted to 140-character messages.
“I really like that constraint. I’m a person of few words. I really like conciseness and making every word count,” Mr Dorsey says.
He feels that Twitter messages avoid the abstraction and commitment of composed blog posts and free people from the obligations of technologies such as the phone and e-mail, where responses are expected in a timely manner.
“Twitter is more ambient,” he says. “You are basically writing on a wall and if someone chooses to read it they can do.”
Hitwise, the web research firm, says visits to Twitter.com in March were up 135 per cent on the previous month and 500 per cent on January, but they have yet to reach critical mass.
Lee Ann Prescott, research director of Hitwise, says Twitter is entertaining but users are still trying to find useful applications for it.
“This is still really niche. It takes a lot of time for a network like this to build,” she says.
Tumblr has attracted 50,000 users so far and 10,000 posts an hour are coming into its micro-blogs. Users can press a Tumblr button in their browser to attach to their blogs a video, photo, quote or link they find while surfing or to post a random thought.
“This is going to be the year of short form,” says David Karp, Tumblr’s founder. “Blogs are great if you want to hammer out commentary, but what if you’re not particularly comfortable as a writer? There are a lot of people who just want to share stuff and we wanted to make a simple, shallow funnel for them.”
With Radar.net’s postings of camera phone pictures, users don’t even have to write. “Pictures have an entirely different feeling,” says John Poisson, the service’s founder. “They can have an immediacy that is compelling.”
Given the underlying appetite for concision, he notes: “A photo can be worth a thousand words.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Micro-bloggers of the world keep it short
By Chris Nuttall
Published: April 9 2007 17:04 | Last updated: April 9 2007 17:04
At Twittervision.com the beginnings of what could be a fresh trend in internet self-expression are being spelt out on a map of the world.
Users of this addictive new website can see a text bubble flash up over the state of Arizona with a picture icon of the sender “Chilblane” inside. “Resetting all of my album art,” it says. The world map spins over to Sydney, Australia: “Waiting on my girlfriend to come,” says CJH2. Then to Tokyo: “Keep snoozing, can’t start my day yet,” says Nobi. “Twitter – the reality TV of the blogosphere,” comments LoveHouseRadio back in Richmond, Virginia.
Twittervision’s pop-up bubbles of instant texted thoughts from around the world are a “mash-up” of Google Maps combined with a live feed of the short messages sent out by users of Twitter.com’s service.
Its popularity has forced its creator, David Troy, to create a periodic warning to people who have been glued to their computer monitors for long periods: “You have been watching Twittervision for 12 hours. Do you want to continue?”
Mr Troy pays homage to Twitter – the original service that created the online ecosystem of which Twittervision.com is part – for helping create the phenomenon of text messages that turn into web television.
The service was launched last year to let people post brief messages to groups of friends and the public at large, letting them know their current actions and thoughts.
It has rapidly become the poster child of a new trend of micro-blogging, where the social networking tool is reduced to single sentences, pictures and the most everyday emotions and events.
Besides Twitter, another internet tool called Tumblr is enabling scrapbook-style blogs of pasted quotes, pictures and thoughts. Radar.net creates social connections through the posting of camera phone images. And services such as Jaiku, Mozes and Moodgeist have their own take on this new form of web shorthand.
Twitter was invented by Jack Dorsey, a developer at Obvious Corp, a San Francisco start-up. He thought of mashing up existing concepts such as groups of friends and instant messaging (for example: “I’m away from my desk”) and MySpace-style “I’m listening to ColdPlay” status messages. The resulting service allows users to let each other know what they are doing, wherever they are, through mobile phone SMS text messages.
Twitter users tend to update their status from their computers during the day and their phones at night. In each case they are restricted to 140-character messages.
“I really like that constraint. I’m a person of few words. I really like conciseness and making every word count,” Mr Dorsey says.
He feels that Twitter messages avoid the abstraction and commitment of composed blog posts and free people from the obligations of technologies such as the phone and e-mail, where responses are expected in a timely manner.
“Twitter is more ambient,” he says. “You are basically writing on a wall and if someone chooses to read it they can do.”
Hitwise, the web research firm, says visits to Twitter.com in March were up 135 per cent on the previous month and 500 per cent on January, but they have yet to reach critical mass.
Lee Ann Prescott, research director of Hitwise, says Twitter is entertaining but users are still trying to find useful applications for it.
“This is still really niche. It takes a lot of time for a network like this to build,” she says.
Tumblr has attracted 50,000 users so far and 10,000 posts an hour are coming into its micro-blogs. Users can press a Tumblr button in their browser to attach to their blogs a video, photo, quote or link they find while surfing or to post a random thought.
“This is going to be the year of short form,” says David Karp, Tumblr’s founder. “Blogs are great if you want to hammer out commentary, but what if you’re not particularly comfortable as a writer? There are a lot of people who just want to share stuff and we wanted to make a simple, shallow funnel for them.”
With Radar.net’s postings of camera phone pictures, users don’t even have to write. “Pictures have an entirely different feeling,” says John Poisson, the service’s founder. “They can have an immediacy that is compelling.”
Given the underlying appetite for concision, he notes: “A photo can be worth a thousand words.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Sunday, April 08, 2007
FT.com / Companies / IT - Californian IT surges into London
FT.com / Companies / IT - Californian IT surges into London
Californian IT surges into London
By Maija Palmer, IT Correspondent
Published: April 8 2007 22:04 | Last updated: April 8 2007 22:04
A record number of Californian information technology companies including Google, MySpace and Bebo have opened offices in London in the past year, leading a surge of investment by foreign business in the capital.
There were a record 250 foreign direct investment projects into London in 2006, up more than 40 per cent on the previous year, according to new figures from Think London, the capital’s foreign direct investment agency.
The number outstrips activity during the dotcom boom in 2000, when 182 investment projects came to London from abroad.
Some 25 Californian IT companies invested in London last year, making them the largest identifiable group of foreign businesses coming to the city.
The US as a whole accounted for 54 per cent of projects, with Californian companies, including non-IT businesses, making up 15 per cent of all London foreign investment projects.
This compares with 10 per cent from India and 7 per cent from Canada, the next biggest investors.
In response to the influx, Think London recently opened offices in San Francisco, in addition to those in New York and Beijing.
Key projects include the rapid growth of Google’s UK operations during the last 12 months. The company now employs hundreds of UK staff and runs a significant part of its mobile and wireless development work out of its huge office complex in Victoria.
Some of the investments have been relatively modest in financial terms. Bebo, the social networking site, opened a UK office this year with the hire of a single executive, Joanna Shields, poached from Google. Sling Media, the video-streaming company, similarly employs just one person in London.
But such small beachheads can grow quickly. MySpace, a social networking rival to Bebo, sent three managers from California to London in January 2006. A year later it had an office of 55 people in Soho.
Californian IT companies say they see London as a centre for convergence of the technology and media industries.
The fact that many global media companies, advertising agencies and telecommunications operators have headquarters in London makes the city a good place for dealmaking.
Google, for example, has signed key deals with Vodafone, the UK mobile phone operator, and with British Sky Broadcasting, Rupert Murdoch’s satellite television business, in the past year. MySpace has done a deal with Vodafone. And Bebo is working with Orange in the UK on the first deal to give mobile phone users access to the social networking site.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Californian IT surges into London
By Maija Palmer, IT Correspondent
Published: April 8 2007 22:04 | Last updated: April 8 2007 22:04
A record number of Californian information technology companies including Google, MySpace and Bebo have opened offices in London in the past year, leading a surge of investment by foreign business in the capital.
There were a record 250 foreign direct investment projects into London in 2006, up more than 40 per cent on the previous year, according to new figures from Think London, the capital’s foreign direct investment agency.
The number outstrips activity during the dotcom boom in 2000, when 182 investment projects came to London from abroad.
Some 25 Californian IT companies invested in London last year, making them the largest identifiable group of foreign businesses coming to the city.
The US as a whole accounted for 54 per cent of projects, with Californian companies, including non-IT businesses, making up 15 per cent of all London foreign investment projects.
This compares with 10 per cent from India and 7 per cent from Canada, the next biggest investors.
In response to the influx, Think London recently opened offices in San Francisco, in addition to those in New York and Beijing.
Key projects include the rapid growth of Google’s UK operations during the last 12 months. The company now employs hundreds of UK staff and runs a significant part of its mobile and wireless development work out of its huge office complex in Victoria.
Some of the investments have been relatively modest in financial terms. Bebo, the social networking site, opened a UK office this year with the hire of a single executive, Joanna Shields, poached from Google. Sling Media, the video-streaming company, similarly employs just one person in London.
But such small beachheads can grow quickly. MySpace, a social networking rival to Bebo, sent three managers from California to London in January 2006. A year later it had an office of 55 people in Soho.
Californian IT companies say they see London as a centre for convergence of the technology and media industries.
The fact that many global media companies, advertising agencies and telecommunications operators have headquarters in London makes the city a good place for dealmaking.
Google, for example, has signed key deals with Vodafone, the UK mobile phone operator, and with British Sky Broadcasting, Rupert Murdoch’s satellite television business, in the past year. MySpace has done a deal with Vodafone. And Bebo is working with Orange in the UK on the first deal to give mobile phone users access to the social networking site.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
FT.com / Technology - The future of search: It’s how, not where, you look
FT.com / Technology - The future of search: It’s how, not where, you look
The future of search: It’s how, not where, you look
By Alan Cane
Published: March 28 2007 10:13 | Last updated: March 28 2007 10:13
The time staff waste searching for “stuff” – the information necessary to do their jobs more effectively – has become legendary. Accenture, the consultancy, polled more than 1,000 executives in the US and UK and found that managers were on average spending up to two hours – a quarter of their working day – searching for stuff.
When they found it, moreover, at least 50 per cent was useless: irrelevant, out-of-date or just wrong.
Concerned that its intranet was becoming overburdened, BAE Systems, the aerospace group, carried out its own survey and discovered that four out of five employees on the network were wasting an average of 30 minutes a day retrieving information while 60 per cent were spending an hour or more duplicating the work of others.
The solution was a system from Autonomy, a UK company which, with 16,000 customers worldwide, leads the market for what is known as “enterprise search”, a family of technologies that make it possible to extract information quickly from both structured and unstructured sources. With the Autonomy system in place, BAE estimates that time spent in finding information is down by more than 90 per cent.
Another example: lawyers with the US firm Morrison & Foerster found they were drowning in information scattered through their systems: client histories were stored in accounting and customer relationship management systems, documents were stored in a document management system, communications in e-mail servers and so on.
The firm drew up a specification for an ideal solution, which it called AnswerBase, and commissioned a system from Recommind, a legal search vendor. Searches which had previously taken hours could be completed in seconds using AnswerBase; those taking days were reduced to minutes.
As Craig Carpenter, Recommind’s head of marketing and business development, puts it, the days when enterprise search was a non-essential novelty are past; now the future lies with search technologies which will home in on concepts rather than keywords.
Enterprise search is a comparatively recent phenomenon, forced on companies by the internet, e-mail, company intranets and the 20bn gigabytes of new data now being created by businesses each year.
Google currently leads the world in conventional internet search but as Mike Lynch, Autonomy chief executive, emphasises, enterprise search is different: “Unlike the internet, enterprise information is in different formats. A large company might support 300 different information formats scattered through 5,000 separate repositories.
“An enterprise search engine has to be able to understand all those formats and talk to all those repositories. And most staff are not allowed to see all the information a company has stored away. In a large group, for example, an individual might be allowed to see only one in every 10,000 documents. Each repository has its own set of complex rules governing who is allowed to see what and it is changing all the time.”
So Autonomy uses “spiders” and “ants” – intelligent software – to roam the intranet, indexing all the material available for a search: in that sense, even unstructured data has a structure of sorts. Ants are self-learning and capable of appreciating that particular pieces of information are frequently requested or that some categories of information change rapidly. Mr Lynch says attempts to create search tools without overall indexing – known as “federated search” – are unworkable: “They glow red hot and melt.”
Tamara Alairys, global leader for search at Accenture, points out that using Google to search a word like “Turkey” will return thousands of hits but it will not distinguish between the country and the bird: “The challenge for people searching their intranets has been to get better search relevancy and to retrieve data that can help them make a better decision.”
She argues that search technologies have improved “by leaps and bounds” in the past two years: “Early capabilities were limited: a user could only perform basic keyword searches and sort the results using parameters such as the date of creation. Much more is possible today. Structured and unstructured data can be searched. And natural language processing enables the search engine to understand the intent behind a user’s query and give a meaningful response.”
The cost of failing to retrieve relevant data can be high. Zia Zaman, in charge of strategic market development for Fast, a search company based in Oslo, Norway, recalls a pharmaceuticals company that entered into a strategic relationship with a drug delivery group: “The two companies invested years and millions of dollars in trying to figure out how they could work together but in the end they had to pull the plug on the deal. Then the pharmaceuticals company found a document in its own files which detailed how the drug delivery mechanism could never work. They had been making decisions in a fog.”
Changes in the legal environment in the US is driving interest in enterprise search. The latest revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the code for civil legal action, published in December year, gives companies involved in a lawsuit 99 days to produce relevant information stored electronically compared with three years or so previously.
Mike Lynch comments: “This will be impossible for a big drug company or manufacturer unless they already have a system in place. Companies which have some experience of lawsuits have already realised how important this is. Others are just waking up to it. Later this year I would expect to see the first prosecutions resulting from a failure to comply with the requirements.” It is expected that other countries will follow the US lead in principle.
Over the past 18 to 24 months there have been significant improvements in search technology, and the number of vendors of enterprise search systems has grown. IBM, Microsoft and Google have offerings aimed at business. The top end of the market is dominated by Autonomy, Convera, Fast and Open Text while specialist players include Endeca, InQuira, Siderean Software and Vivisimo.
The result, as Jerome Pesenti of Vivisimo writes, is that the search market is fragmented and confusing but that should not stop companies experimenting: customers don’t know what to ask, what features are needed and which vendors to look at, he notes, going on to argue that search should be seen as a long-term application, deployed quickly and improved in phases based on end-user feedback: “There is no limit as to how good and useful a search can be,” he claims, “but modest goals, early rewards and especially, valuable user feedback, can be obtained through quick deployment.”
The BBC has difficult information retrieval needs. It is awash with information: core business systems as well as financial information about programmes, approvals processes, e-mails, audio and video.
Keith Little, BBC chief information officer, says: “We have lots of information that is unsearchable – valuable information that nobody can access. We have systems with search facilities but these are silos and then there are e-mails and other repositories of unstructured data that go right across the organisation.”
The BBC uses several search tools – Autonomy, Microsoft Sharepoint and OpenText Livelink among them. Mr Little says: “At the top level, our search strategy is to create a framework for plugging in, in a service-oriented manner, legacy and future systems.
“We need the ability to put those together to meet the search requirements from the business and we then have to think about how we provide access to our real audience – the people who pay our licence fees.” “Infax”, a simple programme search tool, was made available to the public last year.
What lies ahead for enterprise search? Ms Alairys of Accenture sees four developments. First, advanced analytics and monitoring which will make it possible to tap information in real time and provide rapid responses. Second, sentiment analysis which uses textual analysis to gauge the tone of a document – whether results show a company in a positive or negative light, for example. Third, multimedia search across textual, video and audio sources. And fourth, guided information discovery – exploring information without a specific query.
So in future, even if you don’t know what you want or where to find it, enterprise search will guide you to the right answer.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
The future of search: It’s how, not where, you look
By Alan Cane
Published: March 28 2007 10:13 | Last updated: March 28 2007 10:13
The time staff waste searching for “stuff” – the information necessary to do their jobs more effectively – has become legendary. Accenture, the consultancy, polled more than 1,000 executives in the US and UK and found that managers were on average spending up to two hours – a quarter of their working day – searching for stuff.
When they found it, moreover, at least 50 per cent was useless: irrelevant, out-of-date or just wrong.
Concerned that its intranet was becoming overburdened, BAE Systems, the aerospace group, carried out its own survey and discovered that four out of five employees on the network were wasting an average of 30 minutes a day retrieving information while 60 per cent were spending an hour or more duplicating the work of others.
The solution was a system from Autonomy, a UK company which, with 16,000 customers worldwide, leads the market for what is known as “enterprise search”, a family of technologies that make it possible to extract information quickly from both structured and unstructured sources. With the Autonomy system in place, BAE estimates that time spent in finding information is down by more than 90 per cent.
Another example: lawyers with the US firm Morrison & Foerster found they were drowning in information scattered through their systems: client histories were stored in accounting and customer relationship management systems, documents were stored in a document management system, communications in e-mail servers and so on.
The firm drew up a specification for an ideal solution, which it called AnswerBase, and commissioned a system from Recommind, a legal search vendor. Searches which had previously taken hours could be completed in seconds using AnswerBase; those taking days were reduced to minutes.
As Craig Carpenter, Recommind’s head of marketing and business development, puts it, the days when enterprise search was a non-essential novelty are past; now the future lies with search technologies which will home in on concepts rather than keywords.
Enterprise search is a comparatively recent phenomenon, forced on companies by the internet, e-mail, company intranets and the 20bn gigabytes of new data now being created by businesses each year.
Google currently leads the world in conventional internet search but as Mike Lynch, Autonomy chief executive, emphasises, enterprise search is different: “Unlike the internet, enterprise information is in different formats. A large company might support 300 different information formats scattered through 5,000 separate repositories.
“An enterprise search engine has to be able to understand all those formats and talk to all those repositories. And most staff are not allowed to see all the information a company has stored away. In a large group, for example, an individual might be allowed to see only one in every 10,000 documents. Each repository has its own set of complex rules governing who is allowed to see what and it is changing all the time.”
So Autonomy uses “spiders” and “ants” – intelligent software – to roam the intranet, indexing all the material available for a search: in that sense, even unstructured data has a structure of sorts. Ants are self-learning and capable of appreciating that particular pieces of information are frequently requested or that some categories of information change rapidly. Mr Lynch says attempts to create search tools without overall indexing – known as “federated search” – are unworkable: “They glow red hot and melt.”
Tamara Alairys, global leader for search at Accenture, points out that using Google to search a word like “Turkey” will return thousands of hits but it will not distinguish between the country and the bird: “The challenge for people searching their intranets has been to get better search relevancy and to retrieve data that can help them make a better decision.”
She argues that search technologies have improved “by leaps and bounds” in the past two years: “Early capabilities were limited: a user could only perform basic keyword searches and sort the results using parameters such as the date of creation. Much more is possible today. Structured and unstructured data can be searched. And natural language processing enables the search engine to understand the intent behind a user’s query and give a meaningful response.”
The cost of failing to retrieve relevant data can be high. Zia Zaman, in charge of strategic market development for Fast, a search company based in Oslo, Norway, recalls a pharmaceuticals company that entered into a strategic relationship with a drug delivery group: “The two companies invested years and millions of dollars in trying to figure out how they could work together but in the end they had to pull the plug on the deal. Then the pharmaceuticals company found a document in its own files which detailed how the drug delivery mechanism could never work. They had been making decisions in a fog.”
Changes in the legal environment in the US is driving interest in enterprise search. The latest revision of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the code for civil legal action, published in December year, gives companies involved in a lawsuit 99 days to produce relevant information stored electronically compared with three years or so previously.
Mike Lynch comments: “This will be impossible for a big drug company or manufacturer unless they already have a system in place. Companies which have some experience of lawsuits have already realised how important this is. Others are just waking up to it. Later this year I would expect to see the first prosecutions resulting from a failure to comply with the requirements.” It is expected that other countries will follow the US lead in principle.
Over the past 18 to 24 months there have been significant improvements in search technology, and the number of vendors of enterprise search systems has grown. IBM, Microsoft and Google have offerings aimed at business. The top end of the market is dominated by Autonomy, Convera, Fast and Open Text while specialist players include Endeca, InQuira, Siderean Software and Vivisimo.
The result, as Jerome Pesenti of Vivisimo writes, is that the search market is fragmented and confusing but that should not stop companies experimenting: customers don’t know what to ask, what features are needed and which vendors to look at, he notes, going on to argue that search should be seen as a long-term application, deployed quickly and improved in phases based on end-user feedback: “There is no limit as to how good and useful a search can be,” he claims, “but modest goals, early rewards and especially, valuable user feedback, can be obtained through quick deployment.”
The BBC has difficult information retrieval needs. It is awash with information: core business systems as well as financial information about programmes, approvals processes, e-mails, audio and video.
Keith Little, BBC chief information officer, says: “We have lots of information that is unsearchable – valuable information that nobody can access. We have systems with search facilities but these are silos and then there are e-mails and other repositories of unstructured data that go right across the organisation.”
The BBC uses several search tools – Autonomy, Microsoft Sharepoint and OpenText Livelink among them. Mr Little says: “At the top level, our search strategy is to create a framework for plugging in, in a service-oriented manner, legacy and future systems.
“We need the ability to put those together to meet the search requirements from the business and we then have to think about how we provide access to our real audience – the people who pay our licence fees.” “Infax”, a simple programme search tool, was made available to the public last year.
What lies ahead for enterprise search? Ms Alairys of Accenture sees four developments. First, advanced analytics and monitoring which will make it possible to tap information in real time and provide rapid responses. Second, sentiment analysis which uses textual analysis to gauge the tone of a document – whether results show a company in a positive or negative light, for example. Third, multimedia search across textual, video and audio sources. And fourth, guided information discovery – exploring information without a specific query.
So in future, even if you don’t know what you want or where to find it, enterprise search will guide you to the right answer.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
The McKinsey Quarterly: How businesses are using Web 2.0: A McKinsey Global Survey
The McKinsey Quarterly: How businesses are using Web 2.0: A McKinsey Global Survey
By and large, executives are satisfied with their previous investments in Internet technology, and most are investing in trends that promote automation and networking online.
By and large, executives are satisfied with their previous investments in Internet technology, and most are investing in trends that promote automation and networking online.
MOSS 2007: Microsofts dritter Anlauf sorgt für Aufmerksamkeit
MOSS 2007: Microsofts dritter Anlauf sorgt für Aufmerksamkeit
Microsoft setzt mit dem Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 auf Synergie-Effekte mit Produkten aus dem eigenen Hause. Beim Funktionsumfang wurde stark zugelegt. Wichtige Lücken der Vorgängerversion, z. B. in den Bereichen elektronisches Dokumenten-Management (EDM), Workflow und Web Content Management wurden geschlossen. Zwei wesentliche Schwachpunkte im Bereich der Verwaltung von elektronischen Dokumenten wurden beseitigt, indem eine rollenbasierte Rechteverwaltung für Dokumentenbibliotheken, Ordner und einzelne Dokumente implementiert wurde und indem mit MOSS 2007 nun Inhaltstypen (oft auch als Content Types oder Dokumententypen bezeichnet) eingeführt wurden, die eine einfache Erfassung der Metadaten zu Dokumenten ermöglichen.
Microsoft setzt mit dem Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 auf Synergie-Effekte mit Produkten aus dem eigenen Hause. Beim Funktionsumfang wurde stark zugelegt. Wichtige Lücken der Vorgängerversion, z. B. in den Bereichen elektronisches Dokumenten-Management (EDM), Workflow und Web Content Management wurden geschlossen. Zwei wesentliche Schwachpunkte im Bereich der Verwaltung von elektronischen Dokumenten wurden beseitigt, indem eine rollenbasierte Rechteverwaltung für Dokumentenbibliotheken, Ordner und einzelne Dokumente implementiert wurde und indem mit MOSS 2007 nun Inhaltstypen (oft auch als Content Types oder Dokumententypen bezeichnet) eingeführt wurden, die eine einfache Erfassung der Metadaten zu Dokumenten ermöglichen.
ECM mit dem SharePoint Server 2007
ECM mit dem SharePoint Server 2007
Interview mit Darius Mahmoudi, Senior Solutions Sales Professional der Microsoft Deutschland GmbH. Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des DOK.magazin.
Interview mit Darius Mahmoudi, Senior Solutions Sales Professional der Microsoft Deutschland GmbH. Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des DOK.magazin.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Microsoft's SharePoint Technologies: What to Expect in 2007
Microsoft's SharePoint Technologies: What to Expect in 2007
The upcoming Office 2007 release contains an unprecedented number of server-side components, including newly Office-branded SharePoint tools that support high-performance workplace domains, such as portals, content management and collaboration. In addition to building enterprise SharePoint applications, planners also need to deal with the many ad hoc SharePoint instances that exist "under the radar." These can be a nuisance or they can be a useful part of an overall information ecosystem. Find out what's new, how SharePoint interacts with Microsoft and other applications, how to take advantage of SharePoint ubiquity and what it all will cost.
The upcoming Office 2007 release contains an unprecedented number of server-side components, including newly Office-branded SharePoint tools that support high-performance workplace domains, such as portals, content management and collaboration. In addition to building enterprise SharePoint applications, planners also need to deal with the many ad hoc SharePoint instances that exist "under the radar." These can be a nuisance or they can be a useful part of an overall information ecosystem. Find out what's new, how SharePoint interacts with Microsoft and other applications, how to take advantage of SharePoint ubiquity and what it all will cost.
Google steigt USA-weit in die TV-Werbung ein - Nachrichten - computerwoche.de
Google steigt USA-weit in die TV-Werbung ein - Nachrichten - computerwoche.de
Der Suchmaschinengigant Google wird in den USA in den lukrativen Markt mit TV-Werbespots einsteigen.
Der Suchmaschinengigant Google wird in den USA in den lukrativen Markt mit TV-Werbespots einsteigen.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Sunday, April 01, 2007
ECM mit dem SharePoint Server 2007
ECM mit dem SharePoint Server 2007
Interview mit Darius Mahmoudi, Senior Solutions Sales Professional der Microsoft Deutschland GmbH. Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des DOK.magazin.
Interview mit Darius Mahmoudi, Senior Solutions Sales Professional der Microsoft Deutschland GmbH. Mit freundlicher Unterstützung des DOK.magazin.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
FT.com / Companies / IT - Will twittering be big business?
FT.com / Companies / IT - Will twittering be big business?
Will twittering be big business?
Published: March 28 2007 03:00 | Last updated: March 28 2007 03:00
Spring has sprung, the birds are singing and San Francisco is hearts a-flutter over a Web 2.0 service called Twitter.
I encountered it first in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Tekkies were using it to track events and each other's movements around the vast show. It has been growing exponentially ever since.
Twitter essentially allows you to broadcast SMS-type messages to friends and the public about what you're up to, with an archive of your one-sentence twitterings available on the twitter.com website.
Opinions are divided on whether to love or hate Twitter and whether it is full of useless minutiae or useful information. Photo blogger Thomas Hawk finds it as addictive as Flickr and says: "It is the micro blogging platform du jour, allows me to stay in contact with over 400 people, serves as a great daily record of what I've been up to for archive purposes, and is fun as hell."
Others might say this is taking Web 2.0's interactive tools and blogging into the realms of the absurd.
Just looking at the current twitterings on the public page, there are some interesting comments but also entries such as "same thing I was doing eight hours ago", "uploading a new image", "getting dinner on my way home" and commercial messages including the BBC posting what is up next on the World Service.
These may tell us little about the zeitgeist but there is no doubt that Twitter itself is very much of the moment - the Hitwise research team says its traffic has risen 55 per cent in the space of a week, and although still niche, it is already spawning related sites such as Twittersearch, Twitterholic, which ranks "twits" by postings, and Twittermaps and Twittervision, mash-ups that mix Google maps of the world with the latest twitterings and their locations.
What is also interesting about Twitter is what it says about Web 2.0 and Silicon Valley's culture. Valley companies have a habit of working on one idea until a better one comes along. This is not a world of carefully hatched business plans leading to world domination, it is one of happenstance and serendipity, quick adaptations and imaginative improvisations on existing themes.
In Twitter's case, Evan Williams is behind the service, an entrepreneur and developer who founded Blogger, the blogging service bought by Google in 2003. He went on to create Odeo, a podcasting technology that has made little impression, but one of his engineers came up with Twitter as a project and this has now changed the course of the business.
But what is the business? Williams doesn't know and doesn't seem to care. Build a great user experience and the business model will follow, he told the San Francisco Chronicle.
I have heard this more than once in recent weeks from Web 2.0 companies, including Izimi, a British company that is following other foreign start-ups in setting up in San Francisco, the heart of the movement.
This seems part of a new confidence and independence that Web 2.0 fosters. The code-sharing that goes on, the coffee-shop offices and the cheap technology now available means these small companies can survive for long periods without the need to seek venture capital or go to the markets.
It's a refreshing change from the 1999 bubble of MBAs with carefully prepared business plans designed to attract venture capital. There were too many me-too ideas and everyone had the same SASSy proposals for making money, as in Subscriptions, Advertising, selling Services or earning Sponsorship. All the while, they had sweet FA - as in Flotation or Acquisition - in the back of their minds as the best way to cash in.
So in contrast, the Web 2.0 crowd seem happy to, and can afford to, go with the flow of where their users take their services. Look at Google, they point out, it went four years before finding a business model, and a pretty spectacular one at that.
This is all very well, but there is only one Google, and MySpace and YouTube have achieved similar dominance in social networking and online video. The future could be big for Twitter or it could end up as a passing fad - already many people are learning to turn down or turn off the constant messaging to their phones.
Instead of understanding their market in advance with focus groups, Web 2.0 companies are doing it on the fly by observing user behaviour. They are user-driven in every sense and will live or die by those users and their attention spans.
The best outcome for most would be an acquisition by a larger company, in the way that Google and Yahoo! have picked up Web 2.0 services such as Del.icio.us, Flickr, JotSpot, Keyhole, Konfabulator, Oddpost, Upcoming and Writely.
The rest need to partner and club together, according to a new Forrester Research survey, if they want to address enterprises with their services. Businesses made clear they wanted to buy suites of Web 2.0 applications not stand-alone services.
And mass-market consumers may prefer integrated offerings rather than idle twitterings as well.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Will twittering be big business?
Published: March 28 2007 03:00 | Last updated: March 28 2007 03:00
Spring has sprung, the birds are singing and San Francisco is hearts a-flutter over a Web 2.0 service called Twitter.
I encountered it first in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Tekkies were using it to track events and each other's movements around the vast show. It has been growing exponentially ever since.
Twitter essentially allows you to broadcast SMS-type messages to friends and the public about what you're up to, with an archive of your one-sentence twitterings available on the twitter.com website.
Opinions are divided on whether to love or hate Twitter and whether it is full of useless minutiae or useful information. Photo blogger Thomas Hawk finds it as addictive as Flickr and says: "It is the micro blogging platform du jour, allows me to stay in contact with over 400 people, serves as a great daily record of what I've been up to for archive purposes, and is fun as hell."
Others might say this is taking Web 2.0's interactive tools and blogging into the realms of the absurd.
Just looking at the current twitterings on the public page, there are some interesting comments but also entries such as "same thing I was doing eight hours ago", "uploading a new image", "getting dinner on my way home" and commercial messages including the BBC posting what is up next on the World Service.
These may tell us little about the zeitgeist but there is no doubt that Twitter itself is very much of the moment - the Hitwise research team says its traffic has risen 55 per cent in the space of a week, and although still niche, it is already spawning related sites such as Twittersearch, Twitterholic, which ranks "twits" by postings, and Twittermaps and Twittervision, mash-ups that mix Google maps of the world with the latest twitterings and their locations.
What is also interesting about Twitter is what it says about Web 2.0 and Silicon Valley's culture. Valley companies have a habit of working on one idea until a better one comes along. This is not a world of carefully hatched business plans leading to world domination, it is one of happenstance and serendipity, quick adaptations and imaginative improvisations on existing themes.
In Twitter's case, Evan Williams is behind the service, an entrepreneur and developer who founded Blogger, the blogging service bought by Google in 2003. He went on to create Odeo, a podcasting technology that has made little impression, but one of his engineers came up with Twitter as a project and this has now changed the course of the business.
But what is the business? Williams doesn't know and doesn't seem to care. Build a great user experience and the business model will follow, he told the San Francisco Chronicle.
I have heard this more than once in recent weeks from Web 2.0 companies, including Izimi, a British company that is following other foreign start-ups in setting up in San Francisco, the heart of the movement.
This seems part of a new confidence and independence that Web 2.0 fosters. The code-sharing that goes on, the coffee-shop offices and the cheap technology now available means these small companies can survive for long periods without the need to seek venture capital or go to the markets.
It's a refreshing change from the 1999 bubble of MBAs with carefully prepared business plans designed to attract venture capital. There were too many me-too ideas and everyone had the same SASSy proposals for making money, as in Subscriptions, Advertising, selling Services or earning Sponsorship. All the while, they had sweet FA - as in Flotation or Acquisition - in the back of their minds as the best way to cash in.
So in contrast, the Web 2.0 crowd seem happy to, and can afford to, go with the flow of where their users take their services. Look at Google, they point out, it went four years before finding a business model, and a pretty spectacular one at that.
This is all very well, but there is only one Google, and MySpace and YouTube have achieved similar dominance in social networking and online video. The future could be big for Twitter or it could end up as a passing fad - already many people are learning to turn down or turn off the constant messaging to their phones.
Instead of understanding their market in advance with focus groups, Web 2.0 companies are doing it on the fly by observing user behaviour. They are user-driven in every sense and will live or die by those users and their attention spans.
The best outcome for most would be an acquisition by a larger company, in the way that Google and Yahoo! have picked up Web 2.0 services such as Del.icio.us, Flickr, JotSpot, Keyhole, Konfabulator, Oddpost, Upcoming and Writely.
The rest need to partner and club together, according to a new Forrester Research survey, if they want to address enterprises with their services. Businesses made clear they wanted to buy suites of Web 2.0 applications not stand-alone services.
And mass-market consumers may prefer integrated offerings rather than idle twitterings as well.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
FT.com / Technology - A message to the world
FT.com / Technology - A message to the world
A message to the world
By David Bowen
Published: March 28 2007 10:13 | Last updated: March 28 2007 10:13
Alarge company’s web presence is an expensive thing – companies brave enough to tot up the cost may find it runs into tens of millions of dollars a year. Yet return on investment is impossible to calculate.
But with the web now becoming a mass medium in the developed world, and growing at a giddy rate elsewhere, it is an essential part of the communications mix.
What is needed is a way of judging whether a web package is as good as it can be – that is, doing all the things it could be doing, as well as it can do them. And – at least as important – to see who is doing better so that best practice can be observed and adopted or adapted. These are the jobs the FT Bowen Craggs Index is attempting to do.
The Index, featured on Page 5, is a ranking – in fact it is many rankings. The aim is not to stimulate praise, blame or panic, but to show what should be done (and what should not be done) to make a website as effective as possible under several headings.
This Index is valuable partly because it takes an overall view, looking at the different (and often complex) jobs a site is asked to do, and seeing how well it does them. The advantage with corporate sites is that although there are considerable differences in emphasis, these tasks are pretty much the same for all. It is also valuable because it is based on judgments, rather than a “checklist” approach (see Methodology, Page 5, for details).
The Index looks at 60 of the world’s largest companies, taken from the 2006 FT Global 500, which ranks companies by market capitalisation. The top 20 from each of the US, Europe, and the rest of the world have been analysed.
So what makes a top-class corporate web presence? First, you can move around easily without losing your bearings. This is a sign both of good construction and good governance – that is, the web presence is run according to well-observed rules and processes.
Second, the best sites do all the jobs they could be doing. They offer a high-quality service to all stakeholders: people looking for jobs, customers, journalists, investors and the important social responsibility lobby. They even take care to offer good contact points – an element we include separately because it is often the most important role a site plays.
Third, they make good use of web technology. With broadband spreading, video, podcasts and other features make increasing sense, although imaginative use of less bandwidth-hungry tools can be at least as valuable. We see little evidence yet of Web 2.0 and its interactive functions to build communities online. This may be because these corporate giants are laggardly, or because they are rationally cautious. Whichever, we can expect to see more experimentation over the next year.
But the companies at the very top do more. Siemens stands out not only because it has a huge and highly coherent web presence, but also because of the attention to detail. Try looking for a product: the drilldown is ultra-rational. Look at the contact page or its press release archive: ditto.
It is clear that Siemens has not just said: “Let’s do the same as others, only better”; it has taken each problem and tried to solve it from first principles.
Shell does everything well, too. Until recently, its site was classy but conservative. That has changed with its new home page: here is a “tag cloud”, words in different sizes that reflect their popularity as search terms. It is not only clever, but carries a touch of Web 2.0 about it.
BP is slightly different: it stands out less for overall coherence than for flashes of brilliance, particularly in the use of web technology. Click the “Statistical Review of World Energy” on the home page, then the “Energy Charting Tool”. Useful and fun.
These are companies that are taking their websites very seriously indeed. Is it a coincidence that all three at the top have run into reputation problems recently? Almost certainly, yes. But it is no coincidence that they have used the web to manage the damage to their reputations (see the “Serving society” column in the table, Page 5).
What of the overall trends the Index has identified?
There is nothing notable by sector, but the regional differences are striking. Eight of the top 10 sites are European. This may come as a surprise to Americans, who took to the web so early, but that is part of the problem. Many US corporate websites have a distinctly frayed feel – they do little to polish the brand, and make rather too obvious their owners’ divisions (nothing like a website to uncover internal politics).
They also often have a strong marketing and selling focus, with brand and other communications tasks left to languish. This is confirmed by how US and Canadian sites fare better in the “serving customers” category – where six of the top 10 are North American – than they do in the ranking by “construction” (overall coherence) – where North America provides only two of the top 10.
Europeans came from behind, and some have been playing leapfrog. The best example is ENI, which comes out best in the construction list: a few years ago, the then-unwired Italians would have languished near the bottom of any table like this.
The US attitude, on the other hand, is exemplified by Bank of America. Its site is an architectural and branding nightmare – except for customers, who are directed step by easy step to where they can place their business. ENI comes nowhere in the marketing ranking, however. The two sides of the Atlantic can learn from each other.
What does this mean for the companies at the bottom of the list – nearly all from the developing world? Will they play leapfrog, too? It is probable that only some will. Russian sites are poor because they are being built on budgets that are far too mean. They will surely improve fast. The Saudi sites are very thin on content: they too will improve as they bulk out.
But what of companies that have spent on their sites but to no great effect? They have most to do. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the Brazilian mining giant, has an expensive site that just does not work well.
It is also surprising to see many Japanese sites in a mess. Our Japanese analyst checked to see if the domestic versions of Japan’s websites were better: there was much more marketing material from the banks, and also good information for graduates, but overall the answer was “no”.
For example, it has not helped that Honda’s US subsidiary has taken its standard “dot-com” address but the most charitable thing that can said about its global site (www.world.honda.com) is that it is charming in its eccentricity.
Not that eccentricity is the preserve of the Japanese. EDF (www.edf.com) has a musical home page that also acts as a hub for navigating the web. Every time you pass through it you get the music. Sound is a neglected aspect of the web – but you can have too much of a good thing.
■ David Bowen (dbowen@bowencraggs.com) is an ft.com columnist and senior consultant for Bowen Craggs & Co.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
A message to the world
By David Bowen
Published: March 28 2007 10:13 | Last updated: March 28 2007 10:13
Alarge company’s web presence is an expensive thing – companies brave enough to tot up the cost may find it runs into tens of millions of dollars a year. Yet return on investment is impossible to calculate.
But with the web now becoming a mass medium in the developed world, and growing at a giddy rate elsewhere, it is an essential part of the communications mix.
What is needed is a way of judging whether a web package is as good as it can be – that is, doing all the things it could be doing, as well as it can do them. And – at least as important – to see who is doing better so that best practice can be observed and adopted or adapted. These are the jobs the FT Bowen Craggs Index is attempting to do.
The Index, featured on Page 5, is a ranking – in fact it is many rankings. The aim is not to stimulate praise, blame or panic, but to show what should be done (and what should not be done) to make a website as effective as possible under several headings.
This Index is valuable partly because it takes an overall view, looking at the different (and often complex) jobs a site is asked to do, and seeing how well it does them. The advantage with corporate sites is that although there are considerable differences in emphasis, these tasks are pretty much the same for all. It is also valuable because it is based on judgments, rather than a “checklist” approach (see Methodology, Page 5, for details).
The Index looks at 60 of the world’s largest companies, taken from the 2006 FT Global 500, which ranks companies by market capitalisation. The top 20 from each of the US, Europe, and the rest of the world have been analysed.
So what makes a top-class corporate web presence? First, you can move around easily without losing your bearings. This is a sign both of good construction and good governance – that is, the web presence is run according to well-observed rules and processes.
Second, the best sites do all the jobs they could be doing. They offer a high-quality service to all stakeholders: people looking for jobs, customers, journalists, investors and the important social responsibility lobby. They even take care to offer good contact points – an element we include separately because it is often the most important role a site plays.
Third, they make good use of web technology. With broadband spreading, video, podcasts and other features make increasing sense, although imaginative use of less bandwidth-hungry tools can be at least as valuable. We see little evidence yet of Web 2.0 and its interactive functions to build communities online. This may be because these corporate giants are laggardly, or because they are rationally cautious. Whichever, we can expect to see more experimentation over the next year.
But the companies at the very top do more. Siemens stands out not only because it has a huge and highly coherent web presence, but also because of the attention to detail. Try looking for a product: the drilldown is ultra-rational. Look at the contact page or its press release archive: ditto.
It is clear that Siemens has not just said: “Let’s do the same as others, only better”; it has taken each problem and tried to solve it from first principles.
Shell does everything well, too. Until recently, its site was classy but conservative. That has changed with its new home page: here is a “tag cloud”, words in different sizes that reflect their popularity as search terms. It is not only clever, but carries a touch of Web 2.0 about it.
BP is slightly different: it stands out less for overall coherence than for flashes of brilliance, particularly in the use of web technology. Click the “Statistical Review of World Energy” on the home page, then the “Energy Charting Tool”. Useful and fun.
These are companies that are taking their websites very seriously indeed. Is it a coincidence that all three at the top have run into reputation problems recently? Almost certainly, yes. But it is no coincidence that they have used the web to manage the damage to their reputations (see the “Serving society” column in the table, Page 5).
What of the overall trends the Index has identified?
There is nothing notable by sector, but the regional differences are striking. Eight of the top 10 sites are European. This may come as a surprise to Americans, who took to the web so early, but that is part of the problem. Many US corporate websites have a distinctly frayed feel – they do little to polish the brand, and make rather too obvious their owners’ divisions (nothing like a website to uncover internal politics).
They also often have a strong marketing and selling focus, with brand and other communications tasks left to languish. This is confirmed by how US and Canadian sites fare better in the “serving customers” category – where six of the top 10 are North American – than they do in the ranking by “construction” (overall coherence) – where North America provides only two of the top 10.
Europeans came from behind, and some have been playing leapfrog. The best example is ENI, which comes out best in the construction list: a few years ago, the then-unwired Italians would have languished near the bottom of any table like this.
The US attitude, on the other hand, is exemplified by Bank of America. Its site is an architectural and branding nightmare – except for customers, who are directed step by easy step to where they can place their business. ENI comes nowhere in the marketing ranking, however. The two sides of the Atlantic can learn from each other.
What does this mean for the companies at the bottom of the list – nearly all from the developing world? Will they play leapfrog, too? It is probable that only some will. Russian sites are poor because they are being built on budgets that are far too mean. They will surely improve fast. The Saudi sites are very thin on content: they too will improve as they bulk out.
But what of companies that have spent on their sites but to no great effect? They have most to do. Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, the Brazilian mining giant, has an expensive site that just does not work well.
It is also surprising to see many Japanese sites in a mess. Our Japanese analyst checked to see if the domestic versions of Japan’s websites were better: there was much more marketing material from the banks, and also good information for graduates, but overall the answer was “no”.
For example, it has not helped that Honda’s US subsidiary has taken its standard “dot-com” address but the most charitable thing that can said about its global site (www.world.honda.com) is that it is charming in its eccentricity.
Not that eccentricity is the preserve of the Japanese. EDF (www.edf.com) has a musical home page that also acts as a hub for navigating the web. Every time you pass through it you get the music. Sound is a neglected aspect of the web – but you can have too much of a good thing.
■ David Bowen (dbowen@bowencraggs.com) is an ft.com columnist and senior consultant for Bowen Craggs & Co.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Monday, March 26, 2007
SharePoint et MOSS au Quotidien Blog d'EROL: Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007
SharePoint et MOSS au Quotidien Blog d'EROL: Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007
Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007 Updated: March 15, 2007
Some of the content in the Office SharePoint Server technical library is available in downloadable and printable form as Microsoft Office Word documents (.doc files).
The content in these 4 books is a copy of selected content in the Office SharePoint Server technical library (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=84739) as of the date listed for each book.
The 4 books for WSSv3 are here :
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/decec839-73d9-4e23-b167-11e05dfc2feb1033.mspx?mfr=true
Downloadable books for Office SharePoint Server 2007 Updated: March 15, 2007
Some of the content in the Office SharePoint Server technical library is available in downloadable and printable form as Microsoft Office Word documents (.doc files).
The content in these 4 books is a copy of selected content in the Office SharePoint Server technical library (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=84739) as of the date listed for each book.
The 4 books for WSSv3 are here :
http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/WSS/en/library/decec839-73d9-4e23-b167-11e05dfc2feb1033.mspx?mfr=true
Sunday, March 25, 2007
FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Mini-blog is the talk of Silicon Valley
FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Mini-blog is the talk of Silicon Valley
Mini-blog is the talk of Silicon Valley
By Richard Waters and Chris Nuttall in San Francisco
Published: March 25 2007 22:03 | Last updated: March 25 2007 22:03
Silicon Valley is abuzz over a new mini-blogging service for mobile phones that some predict will be a mass-market hit with the reach of a YouTube or MySpace.
Over the past two weeks, Twitter has attracted the sort of hyperbole the Valley reserves for its next internet darling – though such self-reinforcing adulation also led to dotcom mania.
Jonathan Schwartz, chief executive of Sun Microsystems, singled Twitter out at the end of last week as the latest hit from the post-YouTube generation of “viral” internet applications that have the potential to attract massive online audiences.
The internet has “become so consumerised that social phenomena can take off like lightning”, he said. Warning against the temptation to reject Twitter as a flash in the pan, Mr Schwartz added: “YouTube was funny until it was worth $1.65bn to someone,” a reference to Google’s purchase of the company last year.
“This is the first application that people have got excited about since Flickr came out,” said Ross Mayfield, a Valley entrepreneur, comparing it to a popular photo-sharing site bought by Yahoo in 2005. “I don’t think it will be the next YouTube – but I do think it will gain wide adoption,” he said.
Users of Twitter post short messages – up to 140 characters – that can be viewed either on a website or on mobile phones. “Twitter probably wouldn’t have existed before blogging, when people learned to be more transparent,” Mr Mayfield added.
Though launched publicly last summer, use of Twitter started to take off in the middle of March after it was adopted by technology bloggers attending the South by Southwest conference in Texas. As people like Mr Mayfield lauded the service on their blogs, interest spread quickly among the Valley’s key opinion-formers.
The sudden popularity of Twitter has seen the number of messages posted on its site jump from 20,000 to 70,000 a day, said Biz Stone of Obvious, the internet company which started the service. According to HitWise, which measures web traffic, use of the service jumped by 55 per cent the week after the conference, though it said Twitter was “still very niche” and had yet to reach the mass market.
The sudden jump in use has put a strain on Twitter’s servers, and the service has become “sluggish” as a result, said Mr Stone. That could point to the sort of difficulties that accompanied the sudden popularity four years ago of Friendster, the first widely used online social networking service. As it struggled to build the technological infrastructure capable of keeping up with demand, users tired of its patchy service and eventually turned to other sites like MySpace.
“We’ve seen the Friendster experience and we don’t want that to happen,” said Mr Stone. Twitter’s development team had now stopped adding new features to the service so that it could focus all its attention on coping with the surge in traffic, he said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Mini-blog is the talk of Silicon Valley
By Richard Waters and Chris Nuttall in San Francisco
Published: March 25 2007 22:03 | Last updated: March 25 2007 22:03
Silicon Valley is abuzz over a new mini-blogging service for mobile phones that some predict will be a mass-market hit with the reach of a YouTube or MySpace.
Over the past two weeks, Twitter has attracted the sort of hyperbole the Valley reserves for its next internet darling – though such self-reinforcing adulation also led to dotcom mania.
Jonathan Schwartz, chief executive of Sun Microsystems, singled Twitter out at the end of last week as the latest hit from the post-YouTube generation of “viral” internet applications that have the potential to attract massive online audiences.
The internet has “become so consumerised that social phenomena can take off like lightning”, he said. Warning against the temptation to reject Twitter as a flash in the pan, Mr Schwartz added: “YouTube was funny until it was worth $1.65bn to someone,” a reference to Google’s purchase of the company last year.
“This is the first application that people have got excited about since Flickr came out,” said Ross Mayfield, a Valley entrepreneur, comparing it to a popular photo-sharing site bought by Yahoo in 2005. “I don’t think it will be the next YouTube – but I do think it will gain wide adoption,” he said.
Users of Twitter post short messages – up to 140 characters – that can be viewed either on a website or on mobile phones. “Twitter probably wouldn’t have existed before blogging, when people learned to be more transparent,” Mr Mayfield added.
Though launched publicly last summer, use of Twitter started to take off in the middle of March after it was adopted by technology bloggers attending the South by Southwest conference in Texas. As people like Mr Mayfield lauded the service on their blogs, interest spread quickly among the Valley’s key opinion-formers.
The sudden popularity of Twitter has seen the number of messages posted on its site jump from 20,000 to 70,000 a day, said Biz Stone of Obvious, the internet company which started the service. According to HitWise, which measures web traffic, use of the service jumped by 55 per cent the week after the conference, though it said Twitter was “still very niche” and had yet to reach the mass market.
The sudden jump in use has put a strain on Twitter’s servers, and the service has become “sluggish” as a result, said Mr Stone. That could point to the sort of difficulties that accompanied the sudden popularity four years ago of Friendster, the first widely used online social networking service. As it struggled to build the technological infrastructure capable of keeping up with demand, users tired of its patchy service and eventually turned to other sites like MySpace.
“We’ve seen the Friendster experience and we don’t want that to happen,” said Mr Stone. Twitter’s development team had now stopped adding new features to the service so that it could focus all its attention on coping with the surge in traffic, he said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Oracle’s Strong Quarter and the Case of the Purloined Passwords | AMR Research
Oracle’s Strong Quarter and the Case of the Purloined Passwords | AMR Research
My initial plan for this week’s First Thing Monday was to analyze Oracle’s 3Q07 results. While the third-quarter performance was the strongest in more than five years, the financial news was overshadowed by the company’s news that it is suing archrival SAP, alleging “corporate theft on a grand scale.” Here’s our analysis of both.
My initial plan for this week’s First Thing Monday was to analyze Oracle’s 3Q07 results. While the third-quarter performance was the strongest in more than five years, the financial news was overshadowed by the company’s news that it is suing archrival SAP, alleging “corporate theft on a grand scale.” Here’s our analysis of both.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
CeBIT - Trends und Themen CeBIT 2007
CeBIT - Trends und Themen CeBIT 2007
Trends und Themen CeBIT 2007
Zum Abschluss der CeBIT 2007
Die CeBIT war erneut die Messe für Innovationen in der ITK-Branche. Zu den Highlights 2007 gehörten neue Dienste rund um Voice over IP (VoIP) und IPTV, das mobile Fernsehen sowie HD-DVD und Blu-Ray.
Weitere Top-Themen waren der Einsatz energiesparender Technologien, IT-Sicherheit sowie leistungsstärkere Telematik- und Navigationssysteme. Viel diskutiert wurden außerdem die Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Auto ID/RFID, SOA-basierte Unternehmenslösungen, "Software as a Service" und neue Entwicklungen im Bereich eGovernment.
Trends und Themen CeBIT 2007
Zum Abschluss der CeBIT 2007
Die CeBIT war erneut die Messe für Innovationen in der ITK-Branche. Zu den Highlights 2007 gehörten neue Dienste rund um Voice over IP (VoIP) und IPTV, das mobile Fernsehen sowie HD-DVD und Blu-Ray.
Weitere Top-Themen waren der Einsatz energiesparender Technologien, IT-Sicherheit sowie leistungsstärkere Telematik- und Navigationssysteme. Viel diskutiert wurden außerdem die Einsatzmöglichkeiten von Auto ID/RFID, SOA-basierte Unternehmenslösungen, "Software as a Service" und neue Entwicklungen im Bereich eGovernment.
CeBIT: Alle trends op een rijtje - Personal Computer Magazine
CeBIT: Alle trends op een rijtje - Personal Computer Magazine
De afgelopen week heeft u iedere dag vers nieuws van de CeBIT - de grootste technologiebeurs van Europa - kunnen lezen. Gisteravond sloot de CeBIT. Vandaag krijgt u nog de allerlaatste nieuwtjes én kunt u ons verslag lezen.
De afgelopen week heeft u iedere dag vers nieuws van de CeBIT - de grootste technologiebeurs van Europa - kunnen lezen. Gisteravond sloot de CeBIT. Vandaag krijgt u nog de allerlaatste nieuwtjes én kunt u ons verslag lezen.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
What are people 'twittering' about? / Oddly addictive technology broadcasts what users are doing via IM, Web, cell
What are people 'twittering' about? / Oddly addictive technology broadcasts what users are doing via IM, Web, cell
What are people 'twittering' about?
Oddly addictive technology broadcasts what users are doing via IM, Web, cell
What are people 'twittering' about?
Oddly addictive technology broadcasts what users are doing via IM, Web, cell
Thursday, March 15, 2007
:: PIRONET NDH AG ::
:: PIRONET NDH AG ::
Pironet NDH auf der CeBIT: Pironet NDH stellt Redaktionssystem für das SAP NetWeaver Portal vor
Köln, den 15. März 2007 - Pironet NDH bietet eine weitere Content-Management-Lösung für SAP. Das pirobase Enterprise Content Studio (ECS) erweitert das SAP Netweaver Portal um ein vollständiges Redaktionssystem. Die Lösung setzt auf den Funktionen des SAP Netweaver Portals im Bereich Knowledge Management & Collaboration auf.
Zum Leistungsumfang gehört beispielsweise ein Editor, mit dem sich komplexe Intranetseiten erstellen und pflegen lassen. Dabei organisiert pirobase ECS auch die Freigabe von Dokumenten. Durch die Integration in die Netweaver-Umgebung entfällt für die Redakteure zudem die doppelte Pflege der Navigationshierarchie, da das Portal die im Editor erstellten Inhaltsbäume nach der Freigabe automatisch übernimmt. Zusätzlich erweitert pirobase ECS das Netweaver Portal um eine Mandantenverwaltung. Hierdurch lassen sich komplexe Organisationsstrukturen leichter im SAP Netweaver Portal abbilden.
„Innerhalb unseres ECM-Portfolios für SAP haben wir pirobase ECS als kleine, leicht zu integrierende Lösung konzipiert. Sie bietet Autoren eine intuitive Redaktionsoberfläche, mit der sich sehr einfach komplexe Intra-, Extra- und Internetauftritte realisieren lassen. Dabei nutzt pirobase ECS vorhandene Netweaver-Funktionen wie etwa die Portal-Navigation, Knowledge Management oder Web Dynpro“, erklärt Ali Saffari, Leiter Portal Solutions bei Pironet NDH. Mit der Laufzeit- und Entwicklungsumgebung Web Dynpro können Unternehmen professionelle Browser-basierte Anwendungen bauen und eine geräte- und plattformunabhängige Anwendungsumgebung schaffen.
Weitere Informationen zum pirobase ECS bietet Pironet NDH auf der CeBIT in Halle 4, Stand D12.
Über Pironet NDH
Die 1995 gegründete Pironet NDH bietet innovative Lösungen zur Erstellung, Synchronisierung und Verteilung von digitalen Inhalten jeglicher Art sowie zur Optimierung von internen und externen Geschäftsprozessen. Zu den Schwerpunkten gehören Beratungs- und Kreationsleistungen, Softwareprodukte und der Betrieb von unternehmenskritischen Infrastrukturen und Anwendungen. Das börsennotierte Technologieunternehmen mit Hauptsitz in Köln beschäftigt mehr als 300 Mitarbeiter an mehreren Standorten in Europa. Zu den Kunden zählen sowohl mittelständische Unternehmen als auch international agierende Konzerne.
Pressekontakt:
Pironet NDH AG
Press Office
Andrés Sieverding
Maarweg 149-161
50825 Köln
Tel.: +49 (0)221/770-1224
Fax: +49 (0)221/770-1205
press@pironet-ndh.com
www.pironet-ndh.com/press
Pironet NDH auf der CeBIT: Pironet NDH stellt Redaktionssystem für das SAP NetWeaver Portal vor
Köln, den 15. März 2007 - Pironet NDH bietet eine weitere Content-Management-Lösung für SAP. Das pirobase Enterprise Content Studio (ECS) erweitert das SAP Netweaver Portal um ein vollständiges Redaktionssystem. Die Lösung setzt auf den Funktionen des SAP Netweaver Portals im Bereich Knowledge Management & Collaboration auf.
Zum Leistungsumfang gehört beispielsweise ein Editor, mit dem sich komplexe Intranetseiten erstellen und pflegen lassen. Dabei organisiert pirobase ECS auch die Freigabe von Dokumenten. Durch die Integration in die Netweaver-Umgebung entfällt für die Redakteure zudem die doppelte Pflege der Navigationshierarchie, da das Portal die im Editor erstellten Inhaltsbäume nach der Freigabe automatisch übernimmt. Zusätzlich erweitert pirobase ECS das Netweaver Portal um eine Mandantenverwaltung. Hierdurch lassen sich komplexe Organisationsstrukturen leichter im SAP Netweaver Portal abbilden.
„Innerhalb unseres ECM-Portfolios für SAP haben wir pirobase ECS als kleine, leicht zu integrierende Lösung konzipiert. Sie bietet Autoren eine intuitive Redaktionsoberfläche, mit der sich sehr einfach komplexe Intra-, Extra- und Internetauftritte realisieren lassen. Dabei nutzt pirobase ECS vorhandene Netweaver-Funktionen wie etwa die Portal-Navigation, Knowledge Management oder Web Dynpro“, erklärt Ali Saffari, Leiter Portal Solutions bei Pironet NDH. Mit der Laufzeit- und Entwicklungsumgebung Web Dynpro können Unternehmen professionelle Browser-basierte Anwendungen bauen und eine geräte- und plattformunabhängige Anwendungsumgebung schaffen.
Weitere Informationen zum pirobase ECS bietet Pironet NDH auf der CeBIT in Halle 4, Stand D12.
Über Pironet NDH
Die 1995 gegründete Pironet NDH bietet innovative Lösungen zur Erstellung, Synchronisierung und Verteilung von digitalen Inhalten jeglicher Art sowie zur Optimierung von internen und externen Geschäftsprozessen. Zu den Schwerpunkten gehören Beratungs- und Kreationsleistungen, Softwareprodukte und der Betrieb von unternehmenskritischen Infrastrukturen und Anwendungen. Das börsennotierte Technologieunternehmen mit Hauptsitz in Köln beschäftigt mehr als 300 Mitarbeiter an mehreren Standorten in Europa. Zu den Kunden zählen sowohl mittelständische Unternehmen als auch international agierende Konzerne.
Pressekontakt:
Pironet NDH AG
Press Office
Andrés Sieverding
Maarweg 149-161
50825 Köln
Tel.: +49 (0)221/770-1224
Fax: +49 (0)221/770-1205
press@pironet-ndh.com
www.pironet-ndh.com/press
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Cool vendors in content management, 2007
The cool vendors in this document are setting trends in areas like open-source enterprise content management, the business value of content analytics, knowledge applicability of social networks and better support for e-discovery.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
FIRSTspirit - maximale Leistung in allen Portalen
FIRSTspirit - maximale Leistung in allen Portalen
e-Spirit präsentiert auf der CeBIT High-End-Funktionalitäten für effektives Content Management großer und weltweit genutzter Webseiten
FIRSTspirit ab sofort auch nahtlos in den Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2007 integrierbar
FIRSTspirit, das Content-Management-System des Dortmunder Softwarehauses e-Spirit, zeigt sich auf der CeBIT 2007 mit einem Leistungsspektrum, das für Unternehmen mit komplexen Inter- und Intranet-Projekten noch mehr Vorteile bietet. in|SHARE, ein Tool der adesso AG für umfassende Integration in den Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2007 (MOSS), vervollständigt FIRSTspirits Integrationsfähigkeit und macht es zu einem perfekten Content-Management-System für Unternehmen mit SAP-, IBM- und Microsoft-Portalen.
Perfekt im Portal
Neu im Bereich der Portalintegration ist in|Share, die Integrationslösung für den Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Gemeinsam entwickelt mit der adesso AG, komplettiert in|Share die Produktpalette der Integrationslösungen. FIRSTspirit verfügt somit über eine perfekte Anbindung an das SAP NetWeaver und das IBM WebSphere Portal und nun auch in den Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Selbstverständlich kann FIRSTspirit all diese Portale auch gleichzeitig bedienen und so den gleichen Content in verschiedene Portale ausgeben.
In allen Portalen profitieren die Anwender vornehmlich von der Möglichkeit, Inhalte ohne das entsprechende Portal-Know-how pflegen zu können. Inhalte können in FIRSTspirit komfortabel bearbeitet und anschließend inklusive Navigationsstrukturen, Berechtigungen und Sprachen automatisch ins Portal übernommen werden. Die Ausgabe erfolgt in allen gewünschten Sprachen und Schriften sowohl auf Webseiten als auch in PDF-Dokumente.
Die Portalfunktionen auf einen Blick:
- Pflege mehrsprachiger Inhalte direkt am Seitenobjekt
- Generierung der Inhalte in beliebig viele Ausgabeformate
- Anlegen und Pflegen von Portal-Menüpunkten direkt aus FIRSTspirit heraus
- Personalisierung der Inhalte durch die Redakteure
- Frei definierbare Redaktionsprozesse
- Automatische Erzeugung von Druck- oder PDF-Versionen der Portalinhalte
- Wiederverwendung von Inhalten für Internet- und Extranet Projekte
- Keinerlei Portal-Know-how für Redakteure erforderlich
- Keinerlei FIRSTspirit Know-how für die Portal Administratoren erforderlich
High-End Content-Management
FIRSTspirits High-End-Funktionen sind vornehmlich für große und international agierende Unternehmen interessant, für die eine hohe Leistungsfähigkeit und Flexibilität des Systems ebenso wichtig ist, wie dessen Benutzerfreundlichkeit.
FIRSTspirit ist eine 100% in Java implementierte Client/Server-Anwendung, eine seiner zentralen Funktionen ist die Trennung von Struktur, Inhalt und Darstellung. Inhalte können einmal gepflegt und in verschiedenen Kontexten wieder verwendet werden, d. h. eine Webseite ist in sekundenschnelle beliebig umstrukturierbar. FIRSTspirit basiert auf Unicode und unterstützt daher alle Sprachen und Zeichensätze.
Fast alle Datenbanken werden mit wenig Programmieraufwand ohne Redundanzen integriert und die Erstellung der Datenbank-Schemata unterstützt ein grafischer Editor. Als revisionsbasiertes Repository erlaubt FIRSTspirit überdies das lückenlose Nachvollziehen aller Änderungen und Zugriffe auf einen Systemzustand in der Vergangenheit. Die hohe Skalierbarkeit und Performance stellt sicher, dass die Stabilität des Systems auch bei der gleichzeitigen Nutzung durch mehrere Hundert User konstant bleibt.
Ein besonderes Augenmerk legt FIRSTspirit auf die Usability. Es lässt seinen Anwendern die Wahl: regelmäßige Nutzer können auf einen komfortablen Java-Client, Gelegenheitsnutzer auf einen intuitiv zu bedienenden Web-Client zurückgreifen - unnötiger Schulungsaufwand wird so vermieden.
Aus den medienneutral im XML-Format abgelegen Inhalten kann FIRSTspirit beliebige Ausgabeformate erzeugen und diese an frei wählbare Live-Systeme ausgeben. Aber natürlich werden auch Webseiten und gedruckte Medien bedient. Beispielhaft für die Qualität dieser Funktionen sind die Portalintegrationslösungen.
13.03.2007, Marc Kleine
e-Spirit präsentiert auf der CeBIT High-End-Funktionalitäten für effektives Content Management großer und weltweit genutzter Webseiten
FIRSTspirit ab sofort auch nahtlos in den Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2007 integrierbar
FIRSTspirit, das Content-Management-System des Dortmunder Softwarehauses e-Spirit, zeigt sich auf der CeBIT 2007 mit einem Leistungsspektrum, das für Unternehmen mit komplexen Inter- und Intranet-Projekten noch mehr Vorteile bietet. in|SHARE, ein Tool der adesso AG für umfassende Integration in den Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2007 (MOSS), vervollständigt FIRSTspirits Integrationsfähigkeit und macht es zu einem perfekten Content-Management-System für Unternehmen mit SAP-, IBM- und Microsoft-Portalen.
Perfekt im Portal
Neu im Bereich der Portalintegration ist in|Share, die Integrationslösung für den Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Gemeinsam entwickelt mit der adesso AG, komplettiert in|Share die Produktpalette der Integrationslösungen. FIRSTspirit verfügt somit über eine perfekte Anbindung an das SAP NetWeaver und das IBM WebSphere Portal und nun auch in den Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Selbstverständlich kann FIRSTspirit all diese Portale auch gleichzeitig bedienen und so den gleichen Content in verschiedene Portale ausgeben.
In allen Portalen profitieren die Anwender vornehmlich von der Möglichkeit, Inhalte ohne das entsprechende Portal-Know-how pflegen zu können. Inhalte können in FIRSTspirit komfortabel bearbeitet und anschließend inklusive Navigationsstrukturen, Berechtigungen und Sprachen automatisch ins Portal übernommen werden. Die Ausgabe erfolgt in allen gewünschten Sprachen und Schriften sowohl auf Webseiten als auch in PDF-Dokumente.
Die Portalfunktionen auf einen Blick:
- Pflege mehrsprachiger Inhalte direkt am Seitenobjekt
- Generierung der Inhalte in beliebig viele Ausgabeformate
- Anlegen und Pflegen von Portal-Menüpunkten direkt aus FIRSTspirit heraus
- Personalisierung der Inhalte durch die Redakteure
- Frei definierbare Redaktionsprozesse
- Automatische Erzeugung von Druck- oder PDF-Versionen der Portalinhalte
- Wiederverwendung von Inhalten für Internet- und Extranet Projekte
- Keinerlei Portal-Know-how für Redakteure erforderlich
- Keinerlei FIRSTspirit Know-how für die Portal Administratoren erforderlich
High-End Content-Management
FIRSTspirits High-End-Funktionen sind vornehmlich für große und international agierende Unternehmen interessant, für die eine hohe Leistungsfähigkeit und Flexibilität des Systems ebenso wichtig ist, wie dessen Benutzerfreundlichkeit.
FIRSTspirit ist eine 100% in Java implementierte Client/Server-Anwendung, eine seiner zentralen Funktionen ist die Trennung von Struktur, Inhalt und Darstellung. Inhalte können einmal gepflegt und in verschiedenen Kontexten wieder verwendet werden, d. h. eine Webseite ist in sekundenschnelle beliebig umstrukturierbar. FIRSTspirit basiert auf Unicode und unterstützt daher alle Sprachen und Zeichensätze.
Fast alle Datenbanken werden mit wenig Programmieraufwand ohne Redundanzen integriert und die Erstellung der Datenbank-Schemata unterstützt ein grafischer Editor. Als revisionsbasiertes Repository erlaubt FIRSTspirit überdies das lückenlose Nachvollziehen aller Änderungen und Zugriffe auf einen Systemzustand in der Vergangenheit. Die hohe Skalierbarkeit und Performance stellt sicher, dass die Stabilität des Systems auch bei der gleichzeitigen Nutzung durch mehrere Hundert User konstant bleibt.
Ein besonderes Augenmerk legt FIRSTspirit auf die Usability. Es lässt seinen Anwendern die Wahl: regelmäßige Nutzer können auf einen komfortablen Java-Client, Gelegenheitsnutzer auf einen intuitiv zu bedienenden Web-Client zurückgreifen - unnötiger Schulungsaufwand wird so vermieden.
Aus den medienneutral im XML-Format abgelegen Inhalten kann FIRSTspirit beliebige Ausgabeformate erzeugen und diese an frei wählbare Live-Systeme ausgeben. Aber natürlich werden auch Webseiten und gedruckte Medien bedient. Beispielhaft für die Qualität dieser Funktionen sind die Portalintegrationslösungen.
13.03.2007, Marc Kleine
Thursday, March 08, 2007
The 3D Internet; New “Knowledge Services”
We’re always on the lookout for the next new thing. In some cases, the impact of innovation is obvious at first glance. Other times we need someone to take us beyond the obvious.
Take Second Life, for example. In January, David Kirkpatrick, a senior editor at Fortune, wrote about IBM’s $10M investment to help construct the 3D Internet. He described how, at a presentation in Beijing, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano walked up to a PC and logged into Second Life, the best known of the 300 or so three-dimensional “metaverses” (a contraction of metaphysical universe—think virtual worlds).
While on stage, Mr. Palmisano, via his avatar, entered the virtual version of The Forbidden City and attended an internal meeting where employees were discussing supercomputing. He joined other avatars representing employees from Australia, India, Ireland, the United States, and other sites.
To be honest, my initial reaction was, “Why are corporations wasting time and money on virtual worlds?” At the same time, though, I printed Mr. Kirkpatrick’s article and kept it on my desk.
This week I ran into a friend from IBM at an SAP conference in Germany. He told me that if I continued thinking that Second Life was only about creating a new persona, I was missing the bigger picture significance of the 3D Internet. He then described some of IBM’s uses as well as some of the projects that it has worked on for clients.
Some of his ideas were intriguing. Imagine one day there is a 3D representation of your house—inside and out—in a virtual world. In the future, you might receive an e-mail from a vendor saying, “I visited your house in Second Life,” and an invitation to see how a new kitchen would look in your house will be included. Without leaving your PC, you can see cabinets, countertops, flooring, appliances, windows, and the like that fit within the dimensions of your home.
To some it sounds creepy, but others will think of how 3D will bring us closer to one-to-one marketing.
My IBM friend also talked about its value as a tool for marketing. For example, some car and clothing companies use Second Life to test new products ideas. IBMers also use Second Life for meetings, distance learning, and internal “innovation jams.” My friend wants to use it as a tool for visualizing core business processes. Imagine seeing a real-time 3D view of your supply chain.
3D customer service: seeing, not hearing, what to do
It would also be great for customer service. Recently, I spent nearly an hour on the phone with Dell customer service in an unsuccessful attempt to get my father in law’s PC to work. The poor service rep had me take the PC apart and remove memory boards and a video adapter in an attempt to get it to work. I would have preferred to go to a Dell website where I could see what he was trying to tell me to do. Of course, without a working PC, that visit would be moot.
When Mr. Kirkpatrick wrote his article, Second Life had received 2.6 million visits. When I visited this week, that number had grown to 4.4 million. No doubt, many people are joining for fantasy reasons—it’s the web, after all. Still, whether Second Life succeeds or not, the 3D Internet concept is an intriguing idea for selling, marketing, customer service, education, and running your business. In a future column, I’ll tell you more about IBM’s plans.
Closer to earth—“knowledge services”
Returning back to Planet Earth, I’ve been rereading my notes from last month’s trip to India. Here are some of the innovative new knowledge services being created and offered by services firms. They are being made available as consulting engagements or through knowledge process outsourcing services.
HCL
Most of the meeting with HCL president Vineet Nayar was spent discussing the company’s remote infrastructure management services. HCL lays claim to having a 76% share of this market.
What’s most interesting is what might come next. HCL sees opportunities to bring the same virtualization expertise to the applications market. We spent a fair amount of time talking about the concept of application appliances. Look for further coverage in an upcoming column.
Intelligroup
The SAP upgrade market is a huge opportunity for nearly every Indian firm. For its part, Intelligroup is creating an Upgrade Factory model to standardize, create reusable code, and make productivity improvements in SAP upgrade projects. It also will include prebuilt templates that incorporate best practices and frequently asked questions. Intelligroup told us that it can reduce the cost of upgrades by up to 40%.
ITC Infotech
You may have read about what ITC Infotech is doing for Indian farmers. The company has implemented SAP’s IS-Retail applications at Choupal Sagar, its parent company’s “shopping mall” for Indian farmers.
Farmers can sell their soybeans, wheat, and produce here, as well as buy fertilizer, pesticides, diesel oil, pumps, clothes, appliances, and life insurance. Other services available include training and banking. This is a huge improvement from how commerce was previously conducted.
Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Parent company Larsen & Toubro describes itself as a “technology-driven engineering and construction organization.” It’s also one the largest private companies in India.
Our meeting began with a discussion with Vijay Magapu, a member of parent company L&T’s board. Fitting his company’s engineering heritage, we spent most of the time talking about a range of new outsourced engineering services, including warranty analysis, engineering change, manufacturing problem resolution, and price management.
NIIT Technologies
Chairman Rajendra Pawar described several interesting projects in the insurance, transportation/airlines, and retail industries. What caught our attention most was the knowledge portal built for a well-known European retailer. Over the holiday season, more revenue came in through the portal or website than the stores. We intend to follow up and report on the details.
Satyam
Over coffee with Ram Mynampati, president of Satyam’s commercial and healthcare business, we talked about the company’s entry into several new markets, including pharmacogenomics (new services around clinical trial analytics and drug discovery), “pack management” or labeling for life sciences, animation, and new analytic services for the financial industry as a result of the acquisitions of Citisoft and Knowledge Dynamics in 2005.
Siemens Information Systems Ltd.
We spent most of the time discussing Siemens’s SAP expertise. Per my notes, the company has 1,300 SAP consultants and has completed 200 engagements. Siemens appears to be very strong in process industries, especially the Indian pharmaceutical companies, and automotive. In addition, the company has also developed two NetWeaver certified products.
SISL is also unique in that it has built a consulting group around Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints to serve the Indian market. To date, the company has completed 15 projects for clients in consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, steel, steel plant equipment manufacturing, and engineering software.
TCS
We started our conversation with N. Chandrasekaran by catching up on hardware virtualization. He described a project for one company in which TCS shrunk the server base from 640 boxes to 40 boxes. The conversation segued into three areas to watch for virtualization: multichannel management, mobile, and applications. More on this in a future column.
Next stop: Washington, DC
While many of us may be tempted to go to Washington to protest the early start of daylight savings time, I’m actually going to attend Servigistics’ user conference. As it turns out, Dell is a customer of Servigistics strategic service management software. I hope to test out my idea of 3D customer support on Dell and other customers. Look for my findings next week.
In the meantime, I welcome your comments and insights on metaverses, knowledge services, and the next big deal in the business intelligence/performance management space—brichardson@amrresearch.com.
Take Second Life, for example. In January, David Kirkpatrick, a senior editor at Fortune, wrote about IBM’s $10M investment to help construct the 3D Internet. He described how, at a presentation in Beijing, IBM CEO Sam Palmisano walked up to a PC and logged into Second Life, the best known of the 300 or so three-dimensional “metaverses” (a contraction of metaphysical universe—think virtual worlds).
While on stage, Mr. Palmisano, via his avatar, entered the virtual version of The Forbidden City and attended an internal meeting where employees were discussing supercomputing. He joined other avatars representing employees from Australia, India, Ireland, the United States, and other sites.
To be honest, my initial reaction was, “Why are corporations wasting time and money on virtual worlds?” At the same time, though, I printed Mr. Kirkpatrick’s article and kept it on my desk.
This week I ran into a friend from IBM at an SAP conference in Germany. He told me that if I continued thinking that Second Life was only about creating a new persona, I was missing the bigger picture significance of the 3D Internet. He then described some of IBM’s uses as well as some of the projects that it has worked on for clients.
Some of his ideas were intriguing. Imagine one day there is a 3D representation of your house—inside and out—in a virtual world. In the future, you might receive an e-mail from a vendor saying, “I visited your house in Second Life,” and an invitation to see how a new kitchen would look in your house will be included. Without leaving your PC, you can see cabinets, countertops, flooring, appliances, windows, and the like that fit within the dimensions of your home.
To some it sounds creepy, but others will think of how 3D will bring us closer to one-to-one marketing.
My IBM friend also talked about its value as a tool for marketing. For example, some car and clothing companies use Second Life to test new products ideas. IBMers also use Second Life for meetings, distance learning, and internal “innovation jams.” My friend wants to use it as a tool for visualizing core business processes. Imagine seeing a real-time 3D view of your supply chain.
3D customer service: seeing, not hearing, what to do
It would also be great for customer service. Recently, I spent nearly an hour on the phone with Dell customer service in an unsuccessful attempt to get my father in law’s PC to work. The poor service rep had me take the PC apart and remove memory boards and a video adapter in an attempt to get it to work. I would have preferred to go to a Dell website where I could see what he was trying to tell me to do. Of course, without a working PC, that visit would be moot.
When Mr. Kirkpatrick wrote his article, Second Life had received 2.6 million visits. When I visited this week, that number had grown to 4.4 million. No doubt, many people are joining for fantasy reasons—it’s the web, after all. Still, whether Second Life succeeds or not, the 3D Internet concept is an intriguing idea for selling, marketing, customer service, education, and running your business. In a future column, I’ll tell you more about IBM’s plans.
Closer to earth—“knowledge services”
Returning back to Planet Earth, I’ve been rereading my notes from last month’s trip to India. Here are some of the innovative new knowledge services being created and offered by services firms. They are being made available as consulting engagements or through knowledge process outsourcing services.
HCL
Most of the meeting with HCL president Vineet Nayar was spent discussing the company’s remote infrastructure management services. HCL lays claim to having a 76% share of this market.
What’s most interesting is what might come next. HCL sees opportunities to bring the same virtualization expertise to the applications market. We spent a fair amount of time talking about the concept of application appliances. Look for further coverage in an upcoming column.
Intelligroup
The SAP upgrade market is a huge opportunity for nearly every Indian firm. For its part, Intelligroup is creating an Upgrade Factory model to standardize, create reusable code, and make productivity improvements in SAP upgrade projects. It also will include prebuilt templates that incorporate best practices and frequently asked questions. Intelligroup told us that it can reduce the cost of upgrades by up to 40%.
ITC Infotech
You may have read about what ITC Infotech is doing for Indian farmers. The company has implemented SAP’s IS-Retail applications at Choupal Sagar, its parent company’s “shopping mall” for Indian farmers.
Farmers can sell their soybeans, wheat, and produce here, as well as buy fertilizer, pesticides, diesel oil, pumps, clothes, appliances, and life insurance. Other services available include training and banking. This is a huge improvement from how commerce was previously conducted.
Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Parent company Larsen & Toubro describes itself as a “technology-driven engineering and construction organization.” It’s also one the largest private companies in India.
Our meeting began with a discussion with Vijay Magapu, a member of parent company L&T’s board. Fitting his company’s engineering heritage, we spent most of the time talking about a range of new outsourced engineering services, including warranty analysis, engineering change, manufacturing problem resolution, and price management.
NIIT Technologies
Chairman Rajendra Pawar described several interesting projects in the insurance, transportation/airlines, and retail industries. What caught our attention most was the knowledge portal built for a well-known European retailer. Over the holiday season, more revenue came in through the portal or website than the stores. We intend to follow up and report on the details.
Satyam
Over coffee with Ram Mynampati, president of Satyam’s commercial and healthcare business, we talked about the company’s entry into several new markets, including pharmacogenomics (new services around clinical trial analytics and drug discovery), “pack management” or labeling for life sciences, animation, and new analytic services for the financial industry as a result of the acquisitions of Citisoft and Knowledge Dynamics in 2005.
Siemens Information Systems Ltd.
We spent most of the time discussing Siemens’s SAP expertise. Per my notes, the company has 1,300 SAP consultants and has completed 200 engagements. Siemens appears to be very strong in process industries, especially the Indian pharmaceutical companies, and automotive. In addition, the company has also developed two NetWeaver certified products.
SISL is also unique in that it has built a consulting group around Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints to serve the Indian market. To date, the company has completed 15 projects for clients in consumer packaged goods, food and beverage, steel, steel plant equipment manufacturing, and engineering software.
TCS
We started our conversation with N. Chandrasekaran by catching up on hardware virtualization. He described a project for one company in which TCS shrunk the server base from 640 boxes to 40 boxes. The conversation segued into three areas to watch for virtualization: multichannel management, mobile, and applications. More on this in a future column.
Next stop: Washington, DC
While many of us may be tempted to go to Washington to protest the early start of daylight savings time, I’m actually going to attend Servigistics’ user conference. As it turns out, Dell is a customer of Servigistics strategic service management software. I hope to test out my idea of 3D customer support on Dell and other customers. Look for my findings next week.
In the meantime, I welcome your comments and insights on metaverses, knowledge services, and the next big deal in the business intelligence/performance management space—brichardson@amrresearch.com.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
IBM's Google Gadgets Support Validates 'Mashup' Concept
IBM's Google Gadgets Support Validates 'Mashup' Concept
IBM's planned support for Google Gadgets in WebSphere Portal 6.0 signals the potential of the "mashup" concept in the enterprise. Other leading horizontal portal vendors will likely follow quickly in implementing similar functionality.
IBM's planned support for Google Gadgets in WebSphere Portal 6.0 signals the potential of the "mashup" concept in the enterprise. Other leading horizontal portal vendors will likely follow quickly in implementing similar functionality.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google chief dismisses rivals’ criticism
FT.com / Companies / Media & internet - Google chief dismisses rivals’ criticism
Google chief dismisses rivals’ criticism
By Aline van Duyn in New York
Published: March 6 2007 19:41 Last updated: March 6 2007 19:41
Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, on Tuesday shrugged off criticism being heaped on the internet company by rivals and some media companies over its approach to copyrighted content, dismissing it in barbed comments as a form of negotiation.
“The kinds of comments you’re referring to [criticising Google] are in the context of a business negotiation,” Mr Schmidt told investors at a Bear Stearns conference.
“I have learned that as part of being a player in the media industry, the way one negotiates is everything is leaked and you’re sued to death. So the lawsuits...appear to be in the course of doing normal business,” he said, adding this might reflect the preponderance of lawyers in the media industry.
“It is not normal in the technology industry, I can assure you,” he added.
Mr Schmidt’s comments follow a fierce attack on Google by its rival Microsoft over its “cavalier” approach to copyright. Tom Rubin, associate general counsel for Microsoft, earlier accused Google of exploiting books, music, films and television programmes without permission.
A number of book publishers have sued Google for making digital copies of copyrighted books from libraries without permission. In addition, a number of media companies have stepped up pressure on Google to remove their video content from the popular video sharing site YouTube as some negotiations to license the content and share advertising revenues have stalled.
Among the companies facing difficult negotiations with Google are Viacom, CBS and NBC Universal. The discussion started last year after Google paid $1.6bn to acquire YouTube, the most popular online video sharing site. As well as large amounts of videos created by YouTube users, people also share illegally copied videos.
Google has grown to be one of the world’s biggest media companies on the back of strong growth in search advertising, a market it dominates around the world. Google is working to extend its ability to target advertising to other online sectors as well as traditional advertising markets, such as television and radio.
Mr Schmidt said on Tuesday that there was a “genuine disagreement” between it and media companies about the value of copyrighted video material.
“The value is determined by whether people view it, and in our world value is measurable,” he said. “People say: my product is worth x, and Google says: prove it. In that context there is a genuine disagreement.”
Google plans to introduce targeted advertising to the US radio market this year and it is experimenting with introducing it to the television market. Mr Schmidt also said that mobile advertising could become a huge new market sector.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Google chief dismisses rivals’ criticism
By Aline van Duyn in New York
Published: March 6 2007 19:41 Last updated: March 6 2007 19:41
Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, on Tuesday shrugged off criticism being heaped on the internet company by rivals and some media companies over its approach to copyrighted content, dismissing it in barbed comments as a form of negotiation.
“The kinds of comments you’re referring to [criticising Google] are in the context of a business negotiation,” Mr Schmidt told investors at a Bear Stearns conference.
“I have learned that as part of being a player in the media industry, the way one negotiates is everything is leaked and you’re sued to death. So the lawsuits...appear to be in the course of doing normal business,” he said, adding this might reflect the preponderance of lawyers in the media industry.
“It is not normal in the technology industry, I can assure you,” he added.
Mr Schmidt’s comments follow a fierce attack on Google by its rival Microsoft over its “cavalier” approach to copyright. Tom Rubin, associate general counsel for Microsoft, earlier accused Google of exploiting books, music, films and television programmes without permission.
A number of book publishers have sued Google for making digital copies of copyrighted books from libraries without permission. In addition, a number of media companies have stepped up pressure on Google to remove their video content from the popular video sharing site YouTube as some negotiations to license the content and share advertising revenues have stalled.
Among the companies facing difficult negotiations with Google are Viacom, CBS and NBC Universal. The discussion started last year after Google paid $1.6bn to acquire YouTube, the most popular online video sharing site. As well as large amounts of videos created by YouTube users, people also share illegally copied videos.
Google has grown to be one of the world’s biggest media companies on the back of strong growth in search advertising, a market it dominates around the world. Google is working to extend its ability to target advertising to other online sectors as well as traditional advertising markets, such as television and radio.
Mr Schmidt said on Tuesday that there was a “genuine disagreement” between it and media companies about the value of copyrighted video material.
“The value is determined by whether people view it, and in our world value is measurable,” he said. “People say: my product is worth x, and Google says: prove it. In that context there is a genuine disagreement.”
Google plans to introduce targeted advertising to the US radio market this year and it is experimenting with introducing it to the television market. Mr Schmidt also said that mobile advertising could become a huge new market sector.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Monday, March 05, 2007
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Friday, March 02, 2007
CeBIT: RedDot zeigt umfassende Content-Integration und individuelle Inhaltsauslieferung in Webmedien
CeBIT: RedDot zeigt umfassende Content-Integration und individuelle Inhaltsauslieferung in Webmedien
RedDot, die Open Text Web Solutions Group, zeigt auf der CeBIT in der Halle 3 am Stand D09 einfache Wege, um Informationen über Websites, Portale, Extra- und Intranets zur richtigen Zeit den richtigen Personen im richtigen Kontext bereitzustellen. Dabei spielt die Integration beliebiger Inhalte und Applikationen eine tragende Rolle: Content-Quellen, Drittsysteme, Anwendungen, Sprachen und Web 2.0-Funktionalitäten lassen sich mit der RedDot ECM Suite out-of-the-Box, ohne Programmieraufwand integriert nutzen.
RedDot, die Open Text Web Solutions Group, zeigt auf der CeBIT in der Halle 3 am Stand D09 einfache Wege, um Informationen über Websites, Portale, Extra- und Intranets zur richtigen Zeit den richtigen Personen im richtigen Kontext bereitzustellen. Dabei spielt die Integration beliebiger Inhalte und Applikationen eine tragende Rolle: Content-Quellen, Drittsysteme, Anwendungen, Sprachen und Web 2.0-Funktionalitäten lassen sich mit der RedDot ECM Suite out-of-the-Box, ohne Programmieraufwand integriert nutzen.
Forrester Research: Microsoft's 2007 Enterprise Content Management Platform
Forrester Research: Microsoft's 2007 Enterprise Content Management Platform
March 2, 2007
Microsoft's 2007 Enterprise Content Management Platform
What Information And Knowledge Management Professionals Should Know
Microsoft's enterprise content management (ECM) support in Office SharePoint Server 2007 represents the vendor's formal entry as an ECM platform provider. No longer focused solely on document collaboration, SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single environment for collaborative document management, Web content management, records management, workflow, and eForms support. But Microsoft is not a single source provider for all ECM needs. Information and knowledge management professionals should look at Microsoft Office as a platform for their business content initiatives and be patient while Microsoft matures its ECM capabilities to meet enterprise needs.
March 2, 2007
Microsoft's 2007 Enterprise Content Management Platform
What Information And Knowledge Management Professionals Should Know
Microsoft's enterprise content management (ECM) support in Office SharePoint Server 2007 represents the vendor's formal entry as an ECM platform provider. No longer focused solely on document collaboration, SharePoint Server 2007 provides a single environment for collaborative document management, Web content management, records management, workflow, and eForms support. But Microsoft is not a single source provider for all ECM needs. Information and knowledge management professionals should look at Microsoft Office as a platform for their business content initiatives and be patient while Microsoft matures its ECM capabilities to meet enterprise needs.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Pressemitteilungen zu CMS und ECMS Lösungen von RedDot
Pressemitteilungen zu CMS und ECMS Lösungen von RedDot
CeBIT: RedDot zeigt umfassende Content-Integration und individuelle Inhaltsauslieferung in Web-Medien
Oldenburg, 01.03.2007
RedDot, die Open Text Web Solutions Group, präsentiert neue Lösungen
RedDot, die Open Text Web Solutions Group, zeigt auf der CeBIT in der Halle 3 am Stand D09 einfache Wege, um Informationen über Websites, Portale, Extra- und Intranets zur richtigen Zeit den richtigen Personen im richtigen Kontext bereitzustellen. Dabei spielt die Integration beliebiger Inhalte und Applikationen eine tragende Rolle: Content-Quellen, Drittsysteme, Anwendungen, Sprachen und Web 2.0-Funktionalitäten lassen sich mit der RedDot ECM Suite out-of-the-Box, ohne Programmieraufwand integriert nutzen.
Bei der Integration und personalisierten Auslieferung von Inhalten in den gängigen Portalen wie SAP, Microsoft oder IBM weist der CMS-Anbieter mit seinen neuen Produktversionen CMS 7.5 und LiveServer 3.5 besondere Stärken auf. So zeigt RedDot auf der CeBIT, wie Anwender des SAP Enterprise Portals mit den stark erweiterten RedDot for SAP-Lösungen sämtlichen Content und selbst Navigationen individuell pflegen und bereitstellen können. Die Integration der SAP TREX Suchmaschine in das RedDot System ermöglicht zudem das automatische Indizieren redaktionell gepflegter Inhalte und das einfache Finden relevanter Informationen auf Basis einer zentralen Suche über alle Portalinhalte.
Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt am RedDot-Stand bildet die Schnittstelle zur ECM-Lösung Livelink von Open Text sowie das Thema Social Computing, beziehungsweise Web 2.0. RedDot bietet vor allem mittelständischen Unternehmen interessante Ansätze und Konzepte, um Social Computing erfolgreich im Unternehmensalltag einzusetzen. Einfach nutzbare Web 2.0-Funktionalitäten, die im Content Management System vollständig integriert sind, sowie eine einheitliche Benutzerverwaltung und Datenhaltung gehören zum RedDot-Ansatz.
RedDot-Experten stehen am Stand für Produktpräsentationen und Gespräche bereit. Wenn Sie an einem Termin mit einem Spezialisten interessiert sind, können Sie sich gerne bei Marina Ziegler unter 0049 (0)89 173019-28 oder Linda Holz unter 0049 (0)89 173019-28 melden.
CeBIT: RedDot zeigt umfassende Content-Integration und individuelle Inhaltsauslieferung in Web-Medien
Oldenburg, 01.03.2007
RedDot, die Open Text Web Solutions Group, präsentiert neue Lösungen
RedDot, die Open Text Web Solutions Group, zeigt auf der CeBIT in der Halle 3 am Stand D09 einfache Wege, um Informationen über Websites, Portale, Extra- und Intranets zur richtigen Zeit den richtigen Personen im richtigen Kontext bereitzustellen. Dabei spielt die Integration beliebiger Inhalte und Applikationen eine tragende Rolle: Content-Quellen, Drittsysteme, Anwendungen, Sprachen und Web 2.0-Funktionalitäten lassen sich mit der RedDot ECM Suite out-of-the-Box, ohne Programmieraufwand integriert nutzen.
Bei der Integration und personalisierten Auslieferung von Inhalten in den gängigen Portalen wie SAP, Microsoft oder IBM weist der CMS-Anbieter mit seinen neuen Produktversionen CMS 7.5 und LiveServer 3.5 besondere Stärken auf. So zeigt RedDot auf der CeBIT, wie Anwender des SAP Enterprise Portals mit den stark erweiterten RedDot for SAP-Lösungen sämtlichen Content und selbst Navigationen individuell pflegen und bereitstellen können. Die Integration der SAP TREX Suchmaschine in das RedDot System ermöglicht zudem das automatische Indizieren redaktionell gepflegter Inhalte und das einfache Finden relevanter Informationen auf Basis einer zentralen Suche über alle Portalinhalte.
Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt am RedDot-Stand bildet die Schnittstelle zur ECM-Lösung Livelink von Open Text sowie das Thema Social Computing, beziehungsweise Web 2.0. RedDot bietet vor allem mittelständischen Unternehmen interessante Ansätze und Konzepte, um Social Computing erfolgreich im Unternehmensalltag einzusetzen. Einfach nutzbare Web 2.0-Funktionalitäten, die im Content Management System vollständig integriert sind, sowie eine einheitliche Benutzerverwaltung und Datenhaltung gehören zum RedDot-Ansatz.
RedDot-Experten stehen am Stand für Produktpräsentationen und Gespräche bereit. Wenn Sie an einem Termin mit einem Spezialisten interessiert sind, können Sie sich gerne bei Marina Ziegler unter 0049 (0)89 173019-28 oder Linda Holz unter 0049 (0)89 173019-28 melden.
Google Applies Itself - Week of 03/01/2007
Google Applies Itself - Week of 03/01/2007
Last week Google released Google Apps Premier Edition, an 'industrial strength' version of its free hosted applications suite. The earlier version, which is free, included Gmail accounts, a shared calendar, Google Talk instant messaging, access to Google Docs & Spreadsheets and a Web page creator. The new product, which is aimed at the enterprise, costs $50 a year per user and adds a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee for e-mail, additional e-mail storage, and new administration and business integration features.
Reaction to the release has been mixed. On the one side are those that believe this to be a serious threat to Microsoft's Office suite and their dominance in this arena. This camp believes the success of hosted applications such as those provided by salesforce.com, indicates a waning of concerns that existed for this model when it was first introduced a decade ago. Combined with a younger generation of users more comfortable with the Internet as a delivery mechanism, online hosted services will become mainstream. The other camp may not deny that the move to hosted applications is on the rise, but they hold that there are serious issues, primarily relating to security and performance, which need to be resolved before adoption by enterprises becomes widespread.
The reality of the situation is that there is a move toward hosted applications, one that will increase as familiarity grows and concerns are allayed. To deny that seems to be denying the future, but to think that the first iterations of a replacement to that model are themselves the future is not very realistic. Google Apps Premium Edition as well as Microsoft's Windows Live offering are the tip of the iceberg; not a whole lot has changed, it's just that the future has become a bit more clear and present.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt says, "Our product is so cheap that it's sort of no-brainer to try it out." However, the price difference between Google's offering and Microsoft's may not be as wide as it appears. Though the advertised price for Microsoft's Office Suite is indeed higher than Google's $50, enterprises often negotiate this down. Forbes refers to research released last year by Merrill Lynch analyst Kash Rangan which indicates, "that the average corporate cost for Office works out to about $60 to $120 annually per user, assuming the software is used over a two- to three-year cycle." Also, as Forbes aptly points out, in the end, "Price is rarely the only concern of large companies when they are deciding which software products to buy. Security, reliability and performance also sway corporate buying decisions."
There may be a change in the attitude toward applications such as Google's, however, these other concerns are still very real and do not belong to just a few. BusinessWeek states, "Many large corporations are wary of having an e-mail system run outside their own walls, where they can't be sure it's secure from hackers and spies. And even Google concedes its services don't have all the bells and whistles of Microsoft's products, such as centralized e-mail backups that help them comply with regulatory rules." Mark R. Anderson, an analyst at technology consulting firm Strategic News Service, concurs, “Google will have to prove itself in terms of security and in terms of quality."
To prove its product is worthy Google has touted the fact that it has over 100,000 small and medium sized businesses already using its hosted Apps solutions, and that this list includes some big names such as GE and Procter & Gamble. This was noted by BusinessWeek, "It's testament to Google's popularity that even though Google Apps is still in trial mode, hundreds of thousands of users at thousands of organizations are already using it. That includes a few big ones." However, for the most part, these are users of the previous version of the product, not the full service model, and though the numbers may be indicative of Google's popularity, the true testament will be how many businesses sign on to the new model, as well as how many continue to use it and to what degree; trials fall through all the time. Also, though 100,000 is a large number it should be put in perspective. According to the New York Times, "Google said more than 100,000 small businesses had been using Google Apps for Your Domain, as the earlier package of e-mail and messaging programs was known. Docs and Spreadsheets had 432,000 users in December, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Microsoft says Office has 450 million to 500 million users."
In addition, Google also has a long way to go before such a product can add to its bottom line. According to Forbes, "Software licensing accounted for slightly more than $100 million, or 1 percent, of Google's $10.6 billion in revenue last year." It takes a lot of $50 to put a dent in Microsoft's numbers or to raise Google's one percent. As Google tries to gain a foothold and raise its numbers, the company may find themselves challenged to make the product pay for itself. Donna Bogatin wrote on her ZDNet blog, "The Google version of Microsoft Office may be housed in the Google cloud, but it nevertheless must support service delivery on the costly real-world ground for telephone support, service guarantees . . . As Google acquires customers, Google’s incremental costs increase, and the more Google Apps users use the service, the more Google’s cost of delivery increase."
Forbes refers to AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy, "While Google's latest foray into the corporate software market seems unlikely to topple the status quo right away . . . it's only a matter of time before the Mountain View-based company becomes a major player." Though this area may be newer to them than search and advertising Google already is a major player, and they may just have the capital, the brand recognition, and the following to successfully branch out in an endeavor such as this. However, success is neither inevitable nor immediate; as Murphy points out later in the article, "This is just the beginning . . . The real impact of what Google is trying to do probably won't be evident for another five years." Five years is a long time in this arena, particularly when the major competitor is already established and has a similar product in place; according to BusinessWeek Windows Live has some 250,000 small business users. Half a decade from now the way users, many of whom do not yet exist, interact with their data may have drastically changed, who controls that bridge is still very much up for grabs.
Last week Google released Google Apps Premier Edition, an 'industrial strength' version of its free hosted applications suite. The earlier version, which is free, included Gmail accounts, a shared calendar, Google Talk instant messaging, access to Google Docs & Spreadsheets and a Web page creator. The new product, which is aimed at the enterprise, costs $50 a year per user and adds a 99.9 percent uptime guarantee for e-mail, additional e-mail storage, and new administration and business integration features.
Reaction to the release has been mixed. On the one side are those that believe this to be a serious threat to Microsoft's Office suite and their dominance in this arena. This camp believes the success of hosted applications such as those provided by salesforce.com, indicates a waning of concerns that existed for this model when it was first introduced a decade ago. Combined with a younger generation of users more comfortable with the Internet as a delivery mechanism, online hosted services will become mainstream. The other camp may not deny that the move to hosted applications is on the rise, but they hold that there are serious issues, primarily relating to security and performance, which need to be resolved before adoption by enterprises becomes widespread.
The reality of the situation is that there is a move toward hosted applications, one that will increase as familiarity grows and concerns are allayed. To deny that seems to be denying the future, but to think that the first iterations of a replacement to that model are themselves the future is not very realistic. Google Apps Premium Edition as well as Microsoft's Windows Live offering are the tip of the iceberg; not a whole lot has changed, it's just that the future has become a bit more clear and present.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt says, "Our product is so cheap that it's sort of no-brainer to try it out." However, the price difference between Google's offering and Microsoft's may not be as wide as it appears. Though the advertised price for Microsoft's Office Suite is indeed higher than Google's $50, enterprises often negotiate this down. Forbes refers to research released last year by Merrill Lynch analyst Kash Rangan which indicates, "that the average corporate cost for Office works out to about $60 to $120 annually per user, assuming the software is used over a two- to three-year cycle." Also, as Forbes aptly points out, in the end, "Price is rarely the only concern of large companies when they are deciding which software products to buy. Security, reliability and performance also sway corporate buying decisions."
There may be a change in the attitude toward applications such as Google's, however, these other concerns are still very real and do not belong to just a few. BusinessWeek states, "Many large corporations are wary of having an e-mail system run outside their own walls, where they can't be sure it's secure from hackers and spies. And even Google concedes its services don't have all the bells and whistles of Microsoft's products, such as centralized e-mail backups that help them comply with regulatory rules." Mark R. Anderson, an analyst at technology consulting firm Strategic News Service, concurs, “Google will have to prove itself in terms of security and in terms of quality."
To prove its product is worthy Google has touted the fact that it has over 100,000 small and medium sized businesses already using its hosted Apps solutions, and that this list includes some big names such as GE and Procter & Gamble. This was noted by BusinessWeek, "It's testament to Google's popularity that even though Google Apps is still in trial mode, hundreds of thousands of users at thousands of organizations are already using it. That includes a few big ones." However, for the most part, these are users of the previous version of the product, not the full service model, and though the numbers may be indicative of Google's popularity, the true testament will be how many businesses sign on to the new model, as well as how many continue to use it and to what degree; trials fall through all the time. Also, though 100,000 is a large number it should be put in perspective. According to the New York Times, "Google said more than 100,000 small businesses had been using Google Apps for Your Domain, as the earlier package of e-mail and messaging programs was known. Docs and Spreadsheets had 432,000 users in December, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Microsoft says Office has 450 million to 500 million users."
In addition, Google also has a long way to go before such a product can add to its bottom line. According to Forbes, "Software licensing accounted for slightly more than $100 million, or 1 percent, of Google's $10.6 billion in revenue last year." It takes a lot of $50 to put a dent in Microsoft's numbers or to raise Google's one percent. As Google tries to gain a foothold and raise its numbers, the company may find themselves challenged to make the product pay for itself. Donna Bogatin wrote on her ZDNet blog, "The Google version of Microsoft Office may be housed in the Google cloud, but it nevertheless must support service delivery on the costly real-world ground for telephone support, service guarantees . . . As Google acquires customers, Google’s incremental costs increase, and the more Google Apps users use the service, the more Google’s cost of delivery increase."
Forbes refers to AMR Research analyst Jim Murphy, "While Google's latest foray into the corporate software market seems unlikely to topple the status quo right away . . . it's only a matter of time before the Mountain View-based company becomes a major player." Though this area may be newer to them than search and advertising Google already is a major player, and they may just have the capital, the brand recognition, and the following to successfully branch out in an endeavor such as this. However, success is neither inevitable nor immediate; as Murphy points out later in the article, "This is just the beginning . . . The real impact of what Google is trying to do probably won't be evident for another five years." Five years is a long time in this arena, particularly when the major competitor is already established and has a similar product in place; according to BusinessWeek Windows Live has some 250,000 small business users. Half a decade from now the way users, many of whom do not yet exist, interact with their data may have drastically changed, who controls that bridge is still very much up for grabs.
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