Happy New Year to Competition too

Happy New Year 2010. All my wishes for happiness and success.
2009 ended well for Sinequa with the signing of new contracts and the release of Sinequa Enterprise Search V7. Many videos of customers, partners and Sinequa management can be seen at the following link - thank you to TiViPRO for producing these videos (in French). http://www.sinequa.com/ressource,video,77.html

For those who will attend, Sinequa will be in Orlando next week for the annual Lotusphere event. We'll be accompanied by our partner and customer Sogeti. Let us know if you would like to meet our team there.

Last year Sinequa was the only vendor to enter the Magic Quadrant, and we also entered the vendor analysis of IDC. Among other things, CMS Watch highlighted the quality of our technology: http://www.cmswatch.com/Trends/1737-Death-of-Taxonomies-Revisited

Our presence is steadily increasing in the area of Homeland Security, by the size of the contracts we sign and the depth of functionality that we provide:
http://www.cmswatch.com/Trends/1764-Searching-Terrorists

Last year we advanced with courage (including the employees of our company, but also some customers and partners) through a difficult crisis. At Sinequa we have achieved many successes, growth and profitability in 2009. I hope this year will be one of the revelations with the maturation of Search Based Applications and with more mature "main stream" offers: Microsoft, Google and Open Source.

We will speak less about vision, product roadmap, feelings about what's happening, and instead we will increasingly experience the reality of changing organizations, next generation workstations, and companies being redesigned around the Search Bus. We no longer speak of enterprise search engines handling one question per employee per week, but up to 10 or more questions per hour per employee.

There are great opportunities ahead for all and especially for those who have persevered in this demanding but exciting industry of enterprise search. I also wish a happy new year to Sinequa's competitors.
With a product like ours, if they do well, we can only do great.

Adieu Monsieur Seguin

It was January 8th, 2001, that was 9 years ago. President of Silicon Sentier at the time, I met with the main candidates in the Parisian municipal election in a theater in Paris for a debate/interview around the theme "what will you do to develop broadband in Paris."

The meeting on January 8th marked me. All the candidates for the City of Paris did the exercise. His human and political stature was obvious. During the discussion with a few dozen people on a subject that did not overly excite him, he feverishly chained smoked a few cigarettes (a time when you could still smoke in certain public places). I remember his modesty and courtesy.

He exuded a lot of humanity in addition to being a man of great status ansd intelligence. These things you can feel and they make an impression on you. He was a man of great strength.

Adieu Monsieur Seguin, with all my admiration.

Sinequa Enterprise Search V7 launch first feedbacks

We had almost 200 attendants to the Sinequa Enterprise Search V7 Launch. That was a great moment and thanks to the participating sponsors, IBM, Logica, Atos Origin and Edifixio.

I think among other things, everybody was impressed by the live demo performed by Luc Manigot. He configurated live a Lotus connector in just a few clicks, and – among other things - demonstrated Sinequa ES7 capacity to extract relations through its text-mining agents.

Then we stayed around quite late with Champagne and "petits fours"… thanks to all of those who could make it.

Thanks to Theresa Regli who took the time to interview a few early adopters of Sinequa ES7. She actually wrote an interesting article than mentions how Sinequa uses metadatas. I can only recommend it http://www.cmswatch.com/Trends/1737-Death-of-Taxonomies-Revisited?source=RSS

Sinequa Enterprise Search 7.0 launch in Paris the 24th of November

I'm pleased to announce we already have close to 200 registrants for the official launch of Sinequa Enterprise Search at L'Echangeur in Paris, the evening of November 24th.

This event hosted by Frederick Simottel, editor of 01 Informatique, will begin with a welcome from Philip Lemoine, Chairman of the Groupe LaSer, who is a leader, an intellectual and a visionary in new technologies and their appropriate use in society.

We then have a presentation by Antoine Gourevitch, Managing Director of the Boston Consulting Group, who heads the IT practice in Paris. He will address issues of collective intelligence and the consequences of the info explosion on the role of the CIO in business today.

Following this strategic insight, Patrice Fontaine, Market Manager, IBM Lotus, will illustrate the transition from a standard enterprise to a collaborative enterprise, presenting IBM Smart planet and Smart workplace vision and how search fits into that.

I will then present Sinequa's vision on these topics, how Sinequa Enterprise Search transforms the enterprise and its Information Landscape. How Sinequa affects everyday life and the workplace of our users. I will include some interesting results from a recent study from IDC in passing.

Last but not least, there will be a demonstration of Sinequa Enterprise Search 7.0, the simple and revolutionary product that triggers standing ovations when in production (yes it's true and this is an important part of the value of our solution: re-motivating people who have lost the desire to work in a professional environment that has become too complicated and cumbersome - tell your account managers, your clients or acquaintances who are engineers, consultants and project managers).

Finally, Franck Peyramaure our VP of Alliances, will conclude and thank our partners, event sponsors, including Platinum Partner IBM, and Gold Sponsors Logica, Atos Origin and EdifiXio, before inviting our guests to enjoy a glass of champagne and a buffet. If you're in the ecosystem of Sinequa business and not a competitor, sign up quickly – you're welcome to join us.

htpp://www.sinequa.com/events,lancement-de-sinequa-corporate-search-v7,97?html

Existing and working in the extended enterprise

In an excellent article published in Le Monde Monday October 12th, Pierre Baqué, Enterprise Consultant, retraces the evolution of the enterprise which he claims "by losing its skin is emptied of its substance" (click here to read article in French), or in other words with the increase of externalization there is no longer the notion of 'internal or external.'

The enterprise is no longer the social body which sought among many other objectives the pursuit of profit and service to customers. It is no more that "thing" forming a group around a shared project, values and common experiences. A group forged around a myth related to its pioneers, inventors, etc. (such as HP, Bell, JP Morgan…), a trade or a technology (as for Microsoft, Saint Gobain…), a social function (i.e. The French Post, EDF…), of accrued benefits the envious would say.

As Pierre Baqué says, the enterprise is a bloodless body both literally and figuratively. The enterprise has been emptied of its meaning, because the satisfaction of the shareholders and the clients has become the main, if not the only, goal. Emptied of its role as a social body, since the "We" does not mean much anymore, the enterprise is still defined by a chain of value creation. However those involved are not necessarily employees (as Fabrice Bregier explains that Airbus, like its rival Boeing, has more external subcontracted engineers than employees). Duly noted, the enterprise is emptying... of its meaning and therefore can no longer provide its employees a sense to their actions within it. There is at first look, an alarming and depressing fact. In France/Europe where the work is statutory, one imagines that this can be destabilizing for employees. It's easier then to understand the social tensions, the refusal to change, the increases of suicides as were pointed out at France Telecom…

In addition, there is another more pragmatic reason for employees to feel bad and less passionate: it's a question of tools. I dare to use the word suffering that I often hear from my prospects. Their staff cannot do their jobs, and this is actually horrible to experience: being paid to do a job you cannot do. The objectives are perceived as unrealistic or arbitrary, difficult to reconcile with the vision or the overall strategy and too often this boils down to "do more, do it faster, do it cheaper, do it better....". Plus, these "goals" are distributed by a management that doesn't know us anymore and with whom we work less (as a result of the extended enterprise). All this is combined with an explosion of information to be processed, produced by systems or by correspondents (we don't know how to describe them anymore), increasingly numerous and difficult to understand. Furthermore, the employees must use more than ten different applications to work (Debra Logan of Gartner, Inc. announced last month in London an average of 14 different applications). Volumes, zapping, incoherence... it makes heads spin.

As any problem, it may be seen through the eyes of yesterday or tomorrow. But do we have a choice? Like Oscar Wilde, I think we should be optimistic, at least by heroism.

On the absence of meaning (and I thank Antoine Rebiscoul, President of ANVIE for his brilliant presentation on the brand 2.0 and positive externality), we have to accept the enterprise as a being, therefore, take into account its soul as much as its body. We have to concentrate on positive externalities, outside of the products and cash flow generated. What define Google, Apple and Amazon are not their products, but their way of looking at the world and their desire to change it. Their brand has taken on a spiritual dimension. For example, BMW sells pleasure today, not cars. We recall that Arcelor lost the battle against Mital because the company simply defined itself as a (good) producer of steel when it could have, for example, defined itself as a transformer of the world of objects that surround us. So we will find meaning in working for companies/brands that may employ us or not, because they give us a sense of belonging to a great design that transcends the products or services sold. We become part of communities that make the world a different/better place. Clearly, this is also the issue of the French Post, the only way to overcome the legitimate debate today around its status and its privatization. That is certainly what Orange pursues with its communication on "its" internet that is "different" from the Internet… Now that the planet is in danger, that economic growth is going to be shared by all, that religions are no longer enough, all this is not a pitch from the ad agencies, all this is essential in the true meaning of the word. I should also comment on the enterprise and its duty to guarantee the material welfare of the population, but this is a subject of political economics out of my reach. In a global and delocalized economy, I would think it is up to the state to take charge, more than before.

On how to successfully work once you have found meaning, I think we should move urgently to 2.0 tools in the enterprise, not least because they already exist outside the enterprise. Stop the torture by stacks of poorly interconnected application silos where the employee as a worker is caught between several chains of assembly lines to infernal cadences. The fate of Prometheus seems almost enviable in comparison. It is high time to establish a unified search engine that communicates with all enterprise sources and applications, as well as social networking and collaboration tools... We have to provide a humanly manageable working environment. It's not a question of return on investment even if the said return is huge; it's about respect for employees or subcontractors. When enterprises offer such tools, a sticking point is resolved. It's just tools, but what can a good workman produce without the right tools...

Sinequa enters the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology

Sinequa is the only new entrant this year in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Information Access Technology. I'm happy and proud for the whole Sinequa team and for our partners and customers.

I believe we have an incredible product. We are soon going to reveal new customers in the US and major deals.

I can't wait to see the traction that Sinequa Corporate Search 7.0, our revolutionary Scalable and Linguistic Enteprise Search Platform will generate on the market.

If Bing + Yahoo = Microhoo THEN Google ~ Microsoft and THEN Facebook + Twitter = $$$

Bing + Yahoo clearly make Microsoft a formidable competitor to Google on the Internet.

As Don Reisinger points out in "10 Reasons Why Is Microhoo Good for Enterprise Search", all the ingredients are now combined for balanced competition between Microsoft and Google: 1) critical market share (Microsoft + Yahoo account for nearly 1/3 of the market), 2) technological know-how (I hope the transition for our dear friends who have gone from Sinequa to Yahoo a few years ago will not be affected by the new restructuring), 3) financial resources, 4) strategic envy.

 

This war is finally on a level playing field (awaiting the regulatory approval which may take a small year) and will have a clear positive effect for users of Internet search engines. It is expected to force the two competitors to increase their innovation and user benefits to retain their customers and grow their market share. There should be less pressure on monetization of each user, for fear of losing them to the competition.

 

This will be an opportunity for Google to return to its roots, as in the days of "No Evil", and to pay even more attention to its products and customers, from the user point of view. Don Reisinger thinks that Microhoo will prevent Google from becoming a Microsoft. In this regard, I see no problem to become a Microsoft, it would be quite a compliment, but it is my personal view.

 

Nevertheless there is another way to look at the subject. Indeed, Google and Microsoft are two giants engaged in a titanic tug-of-war, a race for power and functional wealth. That is, who will be the best search engine on the Internet? But it is interesting to note that (see the excellent Wired article about this on Facebook's plan to dominate the Internet at the expense of Google) there could be a shift from the paradigm of complete search on the Internet with the emergence of social networks and social search. Indeed, taking the technological point of view, remaining in the logic of engineering pioneers, we can do a remarkable job technologically and industrially but risking to forget one small thing: the customer, the user.

 

Finally, what the user needs are answers to their questions, they don't care whether it comes from the best search engine; most often I prefer information that comes from a trusted third party: a friend on Facebook or LinkedIn, a media source that I like, the twit of a known person. Is it better to find a pizzeria in the yellow pages (yes, they still exist ...) or on Google Maps, reading a dozen unknown comments on the quality of their pizza, or is it better to find a post, a twit or other from a friend who recommends the Pizzetta, a nice pizza place just a few steps from where you are (because Manu the server is very nice and the whole wheat pizza dough is organic and the Buffalo mozzarella is so good you'll believe you're at the heart of Puglia...). Personally, I prefer the second approach if it's possible. Interesting that Twitter has just released an internal search function this week.

 

And the business model you say? I don't worry; years of entrepreneurship have taught me one thing: satisfied users are worth something; just as one cannot indefinitely prefer their operating accounts to their clients, everything gets paid for one day or another. I therefore believe that the two giants will differentiate themselves as much by their intrinsic qualities as by their ability to find ways to work with social networks, especially Facebook, Twitter, and why not LinkedIn. From this point of view, Google has a small disadvantage in my opinion, this attitude of "fake cool". This slightly condescending way of looking at others like a child prodigy who would not want to grow old and see other young emerging talents. If Facebook has refused their offer and sold a stake to Microsoft, it may be because of this immodesty. But Google is a great company lead by very smart people motivated by humanist ambition, they will surely soon correct this and it will certainly help to manage their strategic partnerships better.

 

I wanted to write about this subject because it has lots of parallels with what we are experiencing in the enterprise search engine market. Those who know Sinequa know that one strong focus of our product is people search and integration of enterprise search into the enterprise social networking tools (see my post Searching What or Searching Who). Using text-mining, we are trying in particular to enhance enterprise social networking by leveraging the data from other sources and vice versa. At Sinequa, we must simultaneously work hard on difficult technological issues sometimes close to infrastructure (management of very large volumes, speed, language relevancy, text-mining, security, real time, integration into or with heterogeneous applications...) and at the same time we are ultimately judged on something quite simple: the customer's smile. Apple is a good example of successful management of this paradoxical injunction, the iPhone is a technological feat, however, sometimes with choices that others would not have made (no 3G or no video for a very long time for example). Without technological excellence: no iPhone, but without a radical desire to satisfy the client at the expense of technology: no iPhone.

 

I cannot detail the choices and strategy of Sinequa, but those who know me have seen all the value that I attribute to the smiles of our customers.