Up to speed on search

It occurred to me the other day that technology is probably the only industry in which the lingua franca of the day is so rapidly displaced by a new set of buzz words, which end up confusing buyers and making marketing men lots of filthy lucre. Enterprise Content Management is so broad a term it lets the vendor community brand their products as "ECM", when they may only cover one small part of the full functionality needed to provide a holistic solution. And enterprise search is another. When you hear the term enterprise search it sounds like you're getting a Google-type experience for behind the firewall – but of course it's a little bit more complicated than this, despite what some of the vendors may tell you.

Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch was particularly keen to tell me the difference between his firm's technology and those of some of the smaller players in this market. In fact, he went so far as to compare certain search technologies to planes, and others to mere bikes: the latter being fine for a trip back from the shops, he said, but probably not a great way to get to the States. Analogies aside though, the difference between the incumbent high end players and the likes of Sinequa, Exalead, Vivisimo and others at the mid to low end can be significant, despite these less-well known firms offering functionality that will suite many organisations just fine thanks very much.

Lynch waxed lyrical in particular about implicit query functionality, which could redefine what we understand by search. Gone is the search box on a user's screen, and instead the technology works in the background to automatically read the information on a user's screen, retrieving and displaying enterprise materials related to that content.

Then there is Autonomy's own Automated Query Guidance, which presents the user with queries based on different contexts, so that the user can be sure the most applicable one is returned. Lynch also pointed to audio and video search as two other areas the company is investing resources in.

Search has really grown in sophistication over the last few years. For some these extra bells and whistles won't be important, but increasingly enterprise search is an inadequate term to describe all that's out there. Autonomy itself is moving more and more into the e-discovery space, for example – a canny move given the potential size of the market and legislative drivers at play.

eLearning (etc) with Adobe

In the dim and distant past, when Adobe first announced Acrobat and I was a snidy journalist, it gave me huge pleasure to rib the company about the inflationary nature of its software. It would take simple text and inflate it to six or more times the size and say "now it can be read on multiple devices." My view then was that plain text could be viewed on multiple devices anyway.

But, of course, I was a words man and an ex-programmer whose first computers had the equivalent of just 2.4k of memory. We ran things like accounts, payroll and stock control on those things. I was a) not interested in presentation and b) paranoid about wasting computer resources. The idea that the Gettysburg address would require 6.4 times the storage in .pdf compared with .txt appalled me.

Of course, life moves on. Computer equipment has become cheaper and storage more plentiful and Adobe has spent its life delivering what real people want, rather than pandering to minorities like me. And, for what it's worth, I've been a consumer and creator of Acrobat and Flash materials for some years. I know my screencasts and invoices (for example) can be understood by anyone who has a Flash player or Acrobat reader, respectively.

This week, the company previewed some upcoming products and services, in particular Connect Pro 7  and Presenter 7 which are imminent. Adobe also mentioned a consumer-level conferencing system due in June and extended IM interoperability for Connect Pro later in the year. Connect Pro is a suite of web conferencing and eLearning facilities while Presenter is an authoring tool which adds things like quiz compilation, audio and video editing to PowerPoint 2007 and can publish the results to Connect Pro.

The end result is a powerful eLearning environment which runs from authoring, through conferencing, break-out group management, collaboration, quizzing and assessments. Live sessions can be recorded and edited and published for self-paced learning later. There's much more - security, APIs, integration with existing directories and so on. But best to visit the Adobe site for more details if you're interested.

Because Flash and Acrobat are available on multiple operating systems and run in different browsers, it means that just about anyone can participate in these conferences and learning experiences.

It turns out that the concepts that I scoffed at all those years ago, were actually smart in the extreme.

Information: Who owns it? Who has the skills and who needs them? PI Panel Discussion

When Hamilton Matthews, chair of the Perfect Information panel debate, began the final session of the conference asking us who we thought was high-jacking information from the professionals, you knew it wasn’t going to be a dull session.

Were the main culprits IT teams, outsourcing firms, or the role company intranets play? Is the information centre going to be obsolete? He asked.

“Yes” said fellow panellist, Mark Janssen, a senior consultant with Smartlogic, “You have been hearing for a long time from Outsell reports and the like ‘change or die!’ the information broker will go, yes – but that’s no to say there isn’t a role for information professionals.

Alison Harman, Executive Director, Global Info centre, UBS added that change needs to be embraced. "The information centre seems out of date" she said, adding that in her organisation the information resources sit alongside the bankers, they work with their so-called threats, the IT department, communications and marketing people and that should be seen as an opportunity. ‘It’s a collaborative effort’ Harman said, asking us to consider some points...

1) Don’t bury your head in the sand
2) Don’t be reactive as a researcher
3) Get to the forefront and sell your skills

If that all sound horribly familiar it’s because the issue of the information professional promoting themselves has never adequately been addressed, it’s a challenge that arguably should have been addressed long ago.

Before I get to that, Alun Davies, Head of Knowledge Management at Lovells, explained what he thought was the wider problem, saying “Information professionals are in a difficult position. Are we comfortable with where we are? – no, we are seen as being an obstacle to information, the gatekeepers.” He went on to add that for a long time information professionals prided themselves on being there for the user, now users are searching for their own information, even though they don’t appreciate the complexities involved with what you do. Information professionals can be seen as barriers to information with their logins and licences. It seems rather unjust as these measures are vendor led.

“They don’t help with heavy restrictions on the information – they use old business models,” added Harman, “The Google generation aren’t necessarily aware of the difference in quality of information, often free will do.”

Davies also criticised professional bodies for not raising the bar in terms of skill sets, with universities also not giving enough room to developing the right information courses.

With this in mind the topic got back to information professionals needing to improve ‘selling’ and ‘marketing’ themselves around the organisation. This side of the pond those can be seen as dirty words, maybe more so in the information world.

“Why should we!?” demanded one audience member.

I won’t go into the nitty-gritty of that debate, its been chasing its tail for so long now, suffice to say that the general consensus in the end was that promoting the behind the scenes work and skills of the information professional was a good thing. The question was how.

From the suggestions being kicked around by the panel and audience, which I liked a lot, there was no intention of turning info pros into braying, extrovert monsters.

My favourites include:

 Spot opportunities, explain what you will do to show value (ask how will this affect the client).
 Do this even if it is out of your typical remit
 Bring what you do to the attention of the decision makers, if they know your value they will fight your corner in strategic decision-making
 Get closer to the financial department, they are part of the inner-circle of decision makers but don’t have any research skills – can you help them?
 Tell war stories, let people know the trials and tribulations you overcame. They are a valuable way of promoting your role and importance.

Maybe an altered mindset is what is needed? The final comment of the session came from an audience member who pointed out that information professionals consider themselves support staff rather than executive material. Is there any reason that can’t change?

Think clever about competitive intelligence

After some technical glitches preventing a regular update to the blog yesterday, we were all back online at this morning's opening session of Perfect Information Conference, day 2.

The stage was opened up to Trevor Foster-Black, the founder and CEO of Coalition, who had come to tell us about how his organisation delivers competitive intelligence to his clients. What this involved was an outline of the general model they use and a few anecdotal pointers that are worth considering if you are tasked with a similar responsibility. As information professionals you may well have access to much of this corporate business information.

Knowing who knows what in your organisation is vital when approaching the task of telling an organisation more about itself. Finding out what its assets are and how it compares to its competitors isn’t necessarily a straightforward task.

By examining your internal information in the guise of staff knowledge and then combining that with what is available publicly you can start the process of getting your hands on some very valuable data.

Rather than detail the complex metrics and statistical analysis models that Coalition use, I’ll ad-lib on the more general advice Foster Black offered us.

For a start, defining the metrics and language used in the initial brief is critical first step. Agree with the client on certain meanings so you don't go off and fail to answer their actual question. Consider your framework and what you want to achieve as well as where you are going to get your information. 

Take publicly available information of the organisation, then at the back end fill it with relevant data and research you don't yet have, the net effect is quite powerful apparently.

Manage expectations on what competitive intelligence can offer to the client. Also be prepared that the results you get indicating a clients position in their market might not actually match up with where they think there are, ‘no one likes to be told they’re not as good as they think they are’ said Foster-Black.

To get around this, he advised getting all stakeholders involved, to provide feedback and ensure any data differences are reconciled or highlighted in advanced. Be prepared to show on your audit trail of information why you have the results you do – people will disagree with results so you must be able to show why you have reached the conclusion you have. This means highlighting methodology error margins and un-reconciled issues at the start.

When presenting the results, consider that the executive summary of your research will be the most read part. Few people will read a report from start to finish even if they do use it as a reference manual.

If in your competitive intelligence research you are surveying comments from a variety of people about the company, it’s ok to include factual statements alongside opinion and pure gossip, providing you clearly indicate which is which. This makes for a much richer piece of content, and provide an alternative insight.

If I would take anything away from this, it is that with complex data-crunching, competitive intelligence is a combination of a huge disciplined research effort and a bucket of common sense.

Outsourcing your information? Think about this

Kicking off proceedings at his organisation’s fifth annual conference, Greg Simidian, CEO of Perfect Information, reminded us what a surprising 12 months it has been. Who would have predicted the Thomson Reuters merger would happen or the dramatic collapse of the Bear Stearns bank? With the ongoing credit crunch, ‘these are uncertain times,’ he said.

This was all the more appropriate, given the first presentation examined the tricky topic of outsourcing. As UK information professionals are all too aware, a range of information research roles are now being outsourced, it’s a fact of life. Recruits will tend to be based in India, but can also hail from the Philippines and China as well as Eastern block countries, but what does that mean for the information profession as a whole?

The idea of the presentation was to advise delegates considering the options of outsourcing and guide them around the pitfalls as well as the impacts it has on the profession.

Rishi Khosla, co-founder and CEO of Copal Partners (a financial analytics outsourcing firm) ran an informal (and rather courageous) presentation, deciding to ditch his pre-prepared slides for a more conversational presentation with the audience. You don’t normally see events opened this way, but it worked well enough as attendees were grateful to have a platform to voice their concerns.

How do you deal with the problems of staff retention asked one? Khosla admitted this was a problem, with banks offering big-bucks to researchers, the poaching of staff after a year or so of service, meant that the company actively recruits from the second and third tier universities. Not ideal really, but the information industry isn’t awash with cash.

An audience member was quick to point out a glaring problem facing information outsourcing right now. What concerned her, she said, is that there is no commitment to information research, ‘we are being replaced with people who don’t care. We have been replaced with cheap labour and this will erode innovation and expertise in the information industry.’ Murmurs of consent could be heard around the room.

Of the other voices, it was suggested that because the idea of an information researcher in India didn’t exist 5 or 6 years ago, it will take 10 to15 years to build up a cadre who care and will be experts. ‘I think we will see people who want to do it, and will build up expertise’ a more positive voice ventured.

Of areas with potential outsourcing growth, New Zealand, Australia and South Africa were all touted. Researchers from there will tend to be highly educated, relatively cheap with the country providing a good exchange rate. They also may well have experienced UK processes. The downside would be a much, much smaller population to draw from.

Closing comments from the chair suggested that if you are considering outsourcing then don’t do it as a cost saving exercise, rather think of it as a way of scaling information, getting more for your money. 

IWR looks at the info pros toolkit

As Phil mentioned in his post yesterday it’s inevitable for a business journalist to spend much of their professional life trawling endless exhibition halls and attending facsimile conference venues. Last week I attended the launch of our sister show e-Publishing Innovation Forum, which although you may think I am bound to be a little biased about, I honestly thought was rather good. If you work in the field of publishing and attended, I’m sure you’ll agree there was  good material and ideas circulating around both speakers and fellow delegates. Something to chew over and start formulating your next big strategies.

So with myself and Peter at the e-Publishing innovation event, Phil at Internet World, and David out and about discovering the latest technological-buzz, we have all been networking mercilessly. It also looks set to continue, as for the next couple of days I will be blogging from the heart of Warwickshire countryside for the Perfect Information Conference.

Perfect Information are billing their event as the Information Professionals ToolKit. This conference is intended to act as an all round master-class for the info pros attending. A cursory glance through the list of attendees reads like a who’s who in the information professional world, with representatives from the financial, legal, corporate, and technological fields dominating.  After tomorrow’s opening remarks from Merger Markets Director, Hamilton Matthews, the first session of the morning will be examining the implications of outsourcing and what impacts that could mean for information professionals. Advice on developing authentic leadership will follow and should give everyone there something to think about. I'll be blogging on what is being said and how it relates to you. Keep checking back for further updates over the next two days.
 

ECM in a mess?

Another week, another trade show. It's a lonely existence, living off dry press room sandwiches and free vendor-branded Gummi bears handed out on the stands by women not wearing very much. Alright, it's not all that bad, events like Internet World are not only valuable for lead-generation from a vendor perspective, but the keynote speakers can illuminate some interesting themes.

While most of the crowd gravitated to keynotes by MySpace, Mozilla, Google and other such cool names, I found myself in a darkened corner of the ECM theatre where Alan Pelz-Sharpe of analyst CMS Watch explained why the current enterprise content management space is "a mess". A lot of the blame was laid at the feet of the vendors, and to an extent it should be – although the technology is as mature as it's ever been, many vendors can be guilty of over-hype in this space, and creating a siloed view of the market which leaves many customers confused.

So what's new, you might ask? Well, probably more than most industries, ECM can be a minefield for the uninitiated buyer, partly because there are at least ten or more components to an ECM solution, any one of which or combination could, and usually is, touted as a holistic ECM solution. Problem is they're not. Case in point: SharePoint – it may be a great collaborative tool and has the user community well onside, but it's not a "proper" ECM product really, is it now?

Well, this is all very well and good but IT buyers have got to take some of the responsibility too. If they take the time to understand where vendors' strengths lie, what kind of customers the vendor has had before and in what sectors, and if they draw up a list of priorities – what they will need the technology to do – then they will be starting out on the right foot. Organisations also need to pay more attention on the relationships they form with their vendors, said Pelz-Sharpe, demanding who they will actually be working with on implementation for example.

Elsewhere, Ben Richmond, founder of consultancy The Content Group said end users need to work towards a best practice guideline for ECM. This would involve defining the term, developing and implementing a strategy and then creating a means to continually measure its effectiveness. Best practices around ECM are few and far between, and given the buyer confusion that leads to most projects failing, they would be a welcome addition.

Big Broadband Bournemouth

The lucky citizens of Bournemouth are soon to get 'up to 100Mbps' internet access from their homes and businesses. If the project goes according to plan, it could either make Bournemouth an attractive place to work and live or it could give a kick up the bottom to BT et al to bring high speed broadband to the rest of the country.

Talking of bottoms, I should mention that the cabling is being installed in the city's sewers by the misnamed H20 Networks. Shouldn't that be CH4 Networks? Oh well. At least the Bournemouth project itself goes under the moniker 'fibrecity'.

In terms of speed, impact on the environment, security and cost, this approach beats the digging-up-of-roads method hands-down. A couple of kilometres of broadband can be laid in four hours at a cost of less than a third of conventional approaches.

The backbone capacity is described as 'unlimited', which suggests that 100Mbps is theoretically possible. So what would it mean in everyday life? Video, videoconferencing and IP telephony without hiccups for a start. Fast uploads and downloads of all manner of information, suggesting the possibility of offloading hefty computing activities to the 'cloud'. Remote visual monitoring of people, equipment or property. And, for those so-minded, vastly improved multiplayer games and other virtual experiences.

Without wishing to be a wet blanket, I should point out that not every provider of services to the internet wants to gear up for high speed. It will cost a lot of hard-to-recoup money. Others will see an immediate commercial value - video rentals, online training etc - and will move swiftly. We'll end up with a two-tier internet in the short term and the good citizens of Bournemouth will be watched as closely as laboratory rats.

Oh darn it. I didn't mean to mention rats.

Behaviour models: privacy issues and opportunities - e-Publishing Innovation Forum

Privacy issues, what privacy issue? Hugo Drayton, Chief Executive Officer of Phorm dismissed the privacy fears that have been levelled against his company even before it launches its behavioural advertising tool, writes Peter Williams…

Phorm – launch is soon– is just one example of how digital advertising is rapidly changing both the internet and the traditional world of advertising. The last few years has seen a tremendous growth in search and while it will continue to grow its share of the advertising, the market remains steady. The other area of advertising which is predicted to take off and which promises to be equally controversial is mobile: while there is no doubt it is coming it is still in its infancy and concerns remain over formats.

Behavioural advertising models, according to Drayton, are much misunderstood. The Phorm model is not sinister. It is an anonymous process which does not hold data. And it is a trend which is here to stay. Proof? Well the big IT companies (Google, Yahoo etc) are buying up specialist behavioural targeting companies so they must think there is something in the technology. And if you are still sceptical, would you have said two to three years ago that online advertising would have overtaken TV advertising? It has happened because of a multitude of factors but particularly because of the availability of the internet.

But while the internet continues to grow, the audience is no longer as homogenous as it was. Instead the audience is fragmenting and becoming harder to reach. So in a big and complex world, the idea of a technology which will send information to users depending on their previous interest sounds like an answer to an advertiser’s prayer. The internet currently has a long tail of small sites which are an unexploited commercial opportunity, but by using emerging technologies those backwaters are capable of bearing commercial fruit.

The Phorm model works by the ISP gathering data which publishers can tag via an exchange. It promises to offer a breadth and targeting opportunity which has not existed before.

Think of it, says Drayton, as a search engine for people.

One comment which may be of particular interest to information professionals is a final thought which Drayton left with the audience: if the Phorm models works for driving targeted and behavioural advertising on the internet, then it is perfectly possible that you can do the same for content. Drayton, an ex-newspaper man said he stood by the need for the editorial process (i.e. the editor making a judgement on what his or her readers want to see). But there may also be room for content sent to people determined by their previous search behaviour. The world of content and information may never be the same again.

Implementing digital into the workflow - e-Publishing Innovation Forum

The final session of today’s e-Publishing Innovation Forum had a more practical, rather than analytical slant to it. Josh Bottomley, Managing Director of LexisNexis explained to delegates how adopting efficient digital initiatives in the workflow can lead to new business opportunities.

Bottomley, who has previously worked for Goldman Sachs, McKinsey and the FT before moving to dominant legal information providers LexisNexis gave an insight not so much on how LexisNexis engage lawyers online, rather how the company has evolved how it works.

At the opening of the session, Chairman David Worlock asked delegates, “How do you move from just online research to the next thing?” It was a question that even the most successful of businesses need to consider. 

Bottomley outlined how LexisNexis moved from providing information in print, to print and online to now print, online and with knowledge driven solutions, risk and compliance, client development and practice management. Bottomley explained that even though the LexisNexis business model has been very successful for the company with customers relying on them for speedy information through an online model, the big question, which echoed Worlock’s, is how to keep that business growing?

LexisNexis believe this should be done through a number of ways, in particular, knowledge driven solutions, by quantifying the value of the information provided to their clients. Bottomley compared this to a traditional tech company that would say ‘here are the efficiencies we can offer you through our information’.

By offering risk and compliance, client development and practice management, Bottomley says “it’s kind of a combination with merging established content with effective technologies,” rather than a separate useful set of systems and a separate piece of useful content. 

What it takes to get this right is a huge amount of domain expertise said Bottomley; you have to pick the customers you want to serve and what issues you want to help them with. Choosing this is very difficult to do, especially if you try and do this across too wide a spectrum. Another crucial element is bringing in a concept of behavioural change management or convincing the customers to buy into a new initiative. Finally, he pointed out that technology and content skills are a must to get this happening. With the clients buy-in, a clear idea of what you are trying to do and effective technology, clients will be more efficient, agile and better cope with adversity.