Information Ingenuity

SaaS needs to meet the customer requirement.

2008-07-18T21:42:00.000-07:00

Businessweek.com has the article about SaaS (Ondemand) software business , titled On-Demand Computing: A Brutal Slog . It details the current state of the SaaS business model. Here are some of the questions SaaS provider should answer in the context of their future viability :

1. Are the SaaS providers targeting the right market or they focusing the same market as the traditional software companies ?
2. Is the value proposition based only on the monetary cost of ownership ?
3. How does SaaS meet the challenges when hosted application requires complex integration with existing legacy and other 3rd party applications ?
4. Do they meet the requirements of compliance and regulatory requirement ?
5. How portable the SaaS application -if the customer wants to move from one service provider to another ?
6. How flexible and agile the SaaS provider is to meet the dynamic business needs of the customer?

Only those SaaS ventures, which meet these customer requirements will be able to sustain itself as future alternative.

Personal Information Management Tool

2008-04-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

We are dealing with verities of digital information in our day to day life. It has been pretty difficult to manage this where the information could be very critical as well as useful to us. I have used different tools to manage these information , but I am yet to come across a tool which meets my requirement. Most of the tools are technology centric without keeping the end user in mind. I will be building up a set up requirement over time and validating that with people with similar product in mind. The slide here gives a preliminary idea of tool , I have in my mind.

| View | Upload your own

Top 10 challenges for IT in rolling out enterprise content management

2008-02-10T19:23:00.000-08:00

What are the 10 top issues that Enterprise IT leaders face when they try to take the path of the Enterprise Content Management roll out ? Here is my take:

Decision between single technology vs multiple technology for content management ( suite vs best of breed)
User experience vs backend technology
How much to spend on customization on a vendor supplied content management product
Do we need to justify by ROI for each content management application
Meeting the demand of web experience by end users
Marrying enterprise security approach with the content management products functionality
How to on board the users and get a quick adoption of the new system ?
Challenge of consolidating the requirement of different business line to provide single user experience.
Content migration : cost and risk
IT scaling up to managing multiple projects and defining an enterprise governance architecture.

Debate - Enterprise 2.0

2008-01-13T17:44:00.000-08:00

If you are interested in Enterprise 2.0 debates . .. here you can follow its two version..

2006: Debate 0.1 ....Carr vs McAfee

2007: Debate 1.0...McAfee vs.Davenport

2008: Debate 2.0 .... McAfee vs.Davenport

Do you have a view...please comment.

DRM-free movies - is it a possibility ?

2008-01-04T20:09:00.000-08:00

Here is posting by Paul Artiuch in Wikinomics about DRM-free music.

Do you think DRM-free movie is possibility in new future? How it is different from DRM-free Music ? What are the industry dynamics in play for a DRM-free movie ?

Free shipping from stores

2008-01-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

Will you buy more from a brick and mortar shop if they provide free shipping for your gift from the store? Is there a business opportunity for a service provider ? Let me know if somebody provides this.

Did you get your open id ?

2008-01-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

I got mine at Myopenid.com

Can I invite friends from one social network to another ???

2008-01-04T15:27:00.000-08:00

I was just wondering if one can be a friend to another person who is in a different social network..e.g. a Linkedin.com member can invite a person in Facebook as a friend ??? Do not you think this is the real world wide web ...of friends , for that matter network of social networks ???

Should not google reader and blogger integrate ?

2008-01-04T14:57:00.000-08:00

i am not sure if there is any blog / rss reader which also allows you to blog from the similar interface. i do not know why industry has looked blog reading and blogging as two different activities ? why they should not be combined ......

Speedlinks for Aug 12 2007: Enterprise Records Management

2007-08-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

Links for Records Management white papers , RFPs and articles:

1. White Paper from NASCIO ( represents state chief information officers and information technology executives and managers from states of US) Electronic Records Management and Digital Preservation: Protecting the Knowledge Assets of the State Government Enterprise:
PART I: Background, Principles and Action for State CIOs
PART II: Economic, Legal, and Organizational Issues

2. Email Archiving RFP for State of Maine
http://ent01.state.me.us/EmailSolutionRFP/Download.asp

Is FAST a candidate for acquisition?

2007-08-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

Forrester Research’s 2006 Leader in Enterprise Search Platforms- FAST has come out with a Q2 result below forecasts on lower sales and higher bad debt. The analysts comment in Forbes is here. Is it a candidate for take over by large content management vendors like EMC ? EMC Documentum has been using FAST as the embedded search tool and does not have a search engine as part of its product portfolio.

In the mean time , it is interesting to see vendors providing solution to exit a FAST installation for customers concerned over its future uncertainty.

FAST has added few more search and business intelligence technology modules keeping in line with industry trend of personalization, recommendation and BI integration. They are:

Agent Arts - personalization and recommendation engine technology
bWise - Specialist in delivery of business intelligence services and software

Let’s FAST forward to Q3 to see where we stand !!!

Key board short cuts in web sites..

2007-07-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

People like to use keyboard short cuts than mouse clicks as they grow familiar with a tool or a software . For example, as I started becoming familiar with MS Office in my early days of computer use, I started using more and more of the keyboard. I also created my own custom shortcuts too.

In the web, one sees few keyboard shortcuts. But recently when I started using Google Reader - which strictly speaking is an application rather than a website- I started using the shortcuts to move from posting to posting as well as viewing the original site. This greatly improved my experience of using the tool.

This makes me wonder why website should not provide key board short cuts. It might be impossible to have a short cut for each link on the a web page - but there should be some innovative way to assign shortcuts.

Employee 2.0 - is it the driver for Enterprise 2.0?

2007-07-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

Though the IT 2.0 world is busy focusing on Enterprise 2.0, it is refreshing to see Bertrand Duperrin's emphasis on the living element that makes an enterprise i.e. Employee 2.0.

It is interesting to read his comments here.

ECM market will hit US$3.5 billion in 2012

2007-07-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

Based on the study by Research and Market , CMS Wire reports that ECM Market was $1.6 B in 2006. The market will be doubled at US$ 3.5 B in 2012. The report attributes the growth to the business with small IT budget. Does this indicate the this is an opportunity for SaaS CM to ride the growth with Small and Medium Businesses?

ECM market will hit US$3.5 billion in 2012

2007-07-02T13:35:00.000-07:00

Employee 2.0 - is it the driver for Enterprise 2.0?

2007-07-02T13:33:00.000-07:00

Can Google become an Internet Content Management repository ?

2007-06-28T09:25:00.001-07:00

Steve Bryant of eWeek comments about the new Google Docs and Spreadsheet shows how Google is following different approaches of classification to mails and documents.

Some of my thoughts what more Google can do:

Google currently allows uploading few types of file format.

As it says in the site:

Types of files that you can upload (up to 500KB):

Documents
* HTML files and plain text (.txt).
* Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text (.rtf), OpenDocument Text (.odt) and StarOffice (.sxw).

Spreadsheets
* Comma Separated Value (.csv)
* Microsoft Excel (.xls) files and OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).

I do not see any reason for Google not allowing other file format to be saved in the same folders where you can store Google Docs and Spreadsheets. These non -supported files can be opened in the native applications in the user's computer. But this will help user to share the documents using the same approach as for the Docs and Spreadsheets. Also, gradually Google can take step towards becoming your Internet repository with content management functionalities.

Can Google become an Internet Content Management repository?

2007-06-28T09:25:00.000-07:00

Steve Bryant of eWeek comments about the new Google Docs and Spreadsheet shows how Google is following different approaches of classification to mails and documents.

Some of my thoughts what more Google can do:

Google currently allows uploading few types of file format. As it says in the site:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Types of files that you can upload (up to 500KB):

Documents
* HTML files and plain text (.txt).
* Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text (.rtf), OpenDocument Text (.odt) and StarOffice (.sxw).

Spreadsheets
* Comma Separated Value (.csv)
* Microsoft Excel (.xls) files and OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I do not see any reason for Google not allowing other file format to be saved in the same folders where you can store Google Docs and Spreadsheets. These non -supported files can be opened in the native applications in the user's computer. But this will help user to share the documents using the same approach as for the Docs and Spreadsheets. Also, gradually Google can take step towards becoming your Internet repository with content management functionalities.

Building blocks of Enterprise 2.0 - Looking through Google offerings

2007-06-27T21:17:00.001-07:00

Recently I have been seriously looking at various services that is being provided by Google. It is interesting to see how Google is shaping up its vision in the enterprise IT space. At least its services can run an medium size business.

I looked at the Google Docs and Spreadsheets ( in fact I am typing this blog using the Google Docs and then directly posting to my blog) . It provides all the functionality a normal user uses for day to day business activity. At the same time, it leverages the power of Internet to share the document to a group. Same is the case with the spreadsheets. I also started looking at other services that Google provides and started thinking how all these services can be combined meet enterprise requirements. At this point, these services looks as if they are stand alone services , but I am sure Google would be combining these functionality to make an comprehensive application for businesses.

Google Enterprise Application group offers a set of services either as hardware and software bundled appliance or SaaS option. Some of the existing Google Services can be provided as a product to the customers. One of the potential services is Google Base. Currently Google Base is a public database where users / organization can upload their public data which can be searched over Internet. At the same time Google can provide the option to keep certain data private ( like Docs and Spreadsheet) and allow selective data to be public. This will help business to 1) use a free database and 2) provide the flexibility to make information available in public domain. Business can use Google Base Data Api to leverage both public and private data. The question that may come up whether business will really buy this idea - well that is a topic for another posting.

Building blocks of Enterprise 2.0 - Looking through Google offerings

2007-06-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

Online Annotation - ready for Enterprise 2.0?

2007-06-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

Recently I came across Fleck - the online annotation services which allows to annotate the web pages and share with others. I have been looking for this feature for long time.

Annotation has been a widely used functionality in enterprise - starting with the notes in the word comments. Adobe's annotations is one of the widely used functionality.

I searched for few other similar services:
MyStickies
Annotation Engine
Wikialong
Diigo
Trailfire

After trying out Fleck, I remembered of one of my previous consulting assignments where the client was looking for the ways to improve its web based manual for its call center employees. In a call center, the agents can mark the manual with online annotations which can be visible by everybody who comes back to the page - thus helping knowledge sharing. Also, the administrator of the web site - can easily find out the web pages which the users have commented for any correction or any other questions.

I was wondering if Fleck had a enterprise version yet. I am also not sure if any other vendor has a product which is enterprise ready .

Some of the functionality which could help this web 2.0 to an enterprise 2.0 solution are:

Multiple types of annotation ( i.e suggestions, questions, errors , etc)
Mailing of the specific annotation to a pre-defined email id
Administrative panel for a web site administrator

I will be researching further on this topic and posting more about Online Annotation.

Search - the key elements for organization information leverage

2007-04-06T17:51:00.000-07:00

Recently, I received the free paper edition of the Enterprise Search Source Book. The digital edition of the book is available here.

I tried to skim through all the articles in the booklet. The essence of the articles , I would summarize in the following statements:

1. Search input needs to be more contextual while capturing user intentions

2. The search result presentation should be innovative enough to efficiently deliver what user is looking for.

3. The core search mechanism has not changed over time.

4. Making the content search-able is the core to have an effective search feature in an organization.

5. Search tools effectiveness depends on the quality of the information it searching upon.

6. Search tool should fit into the enterprise business and IT architecture .

7. Organization's business strategy, information culture and internal leadership plays a big role in making Search tool an effective approach to information leverage.

I have attempted to link these elements in an organizational context. Let me know your comments.

IDAR : Integrated Document Archiving and Retrieval System

2006-12-23T19:39:00.000-08:00

Gartner has recently published its Magic Quadrant Reports for IDAR systems.

Currently, I am involved in implementing an IDAR system , also called Enterprise Report Management System. I will be focusing to write about IDAR as I move ahead in this project.

ECM has to be process oriented , but which process ?

2005-08-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

ECM has to be process oriented. How do you find out the processes? Are all processes are same ? Would organizations treat all the processes similar way ? Can a process be looked as intertwined with multiple processes ? Do your ECM implementation team is aware of these questions ? These questions has answer to ECM Implementation strategy ?

Look out this space more on these topics !!

Business case for ECM

2005-08-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

It is easy to get carried out by the pitches of ECM vendors. But organization should look beyond the vendor taglines, and look what is the real case for ECM. The ECM business case can be looked from different perspectives. Some of them are :

Organizational perspective

IT perspective

Departmental perspective

Legal Compliance and overall productivity improvement may be the key driving force from an organizational perspective, where as IT cost consolidation and better enterprise information architecture compliance can be the business case at CIO level. Does individual departments gain from ECM ? It depends ! . Is your business process well established so that an ECM can bind the departments with business information ? Do the departments find value in sharing info across departmental boundaries ? If this is the case, it makes a business case for the departments to support an ECM implementation.

Finally, business case is live value proposition which needs to be revisited as you move in the ECM journey.

There is so much debate about ECM ! What is correct and what is wrong ? This blog attempts to talk about the real life scenario of ECM Implementation .....Less about product ....more about solution and the experience of doing it ...