Complexity driven collapse applied to information management/access

Dare not be a documentalist.

We create more documents, more information and data, need more servers, more system units, more network bandwith, more regulation to manage data and information. More and more, ever...

Surrounded by process and business rules, this generates need for always more complex information access system. And complex consulting to manage the technical and organizational challenge around this.

I so enjoyed Clay Shirky's excellent new essay: "The Collapse of Complex Business Models" thanks to twitter: @mathewi and @rdeclermont

What Clay Shirky demonstrates is that when complexity is such that any move will be by nature very complex and generate negative value, collapse is the only solution to create value.

In the case of data and information, collapse could be shutting down tons of servers, loosing information and knowledge to become agile again (just like Bergson explained that we need to forget the past to be able to apprehend the future).

A "smart" collapse could be not shutting down the servers, but simply pretending to forget them and... setting an intelligent search to give access to everything.

To make a long story short : if organizing and archiving your emails and files is too time consuming and would make your job worthless, why not use a search that makes the relevant connections between all elements.

A fresh new start for your work habits if you accept to set aside your documentalist skills.

Techno-diversity is good, and right

I enjoyed reading the "I Can't Wait for NoSQL to Die" post of Ted Dziuba cf. his blog.

Indeed, technology generates so much dogmatic statements.

What if .Net AND Java leaved happily together, what if Sharepoint did not absorb the whole CMS market, what if Windows and Linux continued to co-exist. What if technology focused on solving problems and not creating buzzwords and dogmas.

What if there was a little bit less testosterone when it comes to technology, and more pragmatism. Customers would be better served, business would be better run.

Enteprise Search Bus : the intelligent fondation of the entreprise 2.0

The Enterprise Search Bus is becoming key in the information and IT infrastructure of organisations. It announces a decline in the strategic importance of the relational database, emphasizing its greatest weakness: its rigidity that seen from an intelligence perspective makes it a rather dumb tool. Here's why and here are some consequences to the software ecosystem.

The context has two axes: the content and the container

Axe 1: there are three main types of data:

1. Structured (numbers, values, positions…),
2. Unstructured (contracts, catalogues, documents…),
3. Issues of exchanges and collaboration (messages, discussions, directories,...).

Axe 2: containers of all types of content share three main missions:

1. The first is historically their main purpose: to guarantee transactions, because this is ultimately where the data is born and/or makes sense in the real economic activity of the company.

2. The second is a corollary to the first but has grown increasingly important with the growth of volumes to be searchable, for one must be able to put the right data in front of the right operator or to ensure a good transaction.

3. And the third arises from the info-explosion and issues of cost and energy control: managing the archiving, and organized retention of data.

In a predictable Darwinian phenomenon, each of these major functions has become a playing field for specialized players. Depending on whether the data is structured or unstructured, the actors may be different. But there is a groundswell of interest: the database was the backbone of the company and this is now changing. The success of the database was based on its ability to organize and secure transactions. These are now, at the time of redundancy and the Cloud, fairly basic if not commonplace qualities.

To sum up the software landscape, the table below explains how software has emerged at the 9 key intersections of the two axes mentioned above.

Function/ type of data	Structured	Unstructured	People
Transaction and process management	ERP, CRM, business applications + Database.	BPM + CMS + Database	Mail tool, enterprise social network
Search and navigation, analysis	Business Intelligence + Data warehouse	Integrated Search Engine	Integrated Search Engine
Archiving, backup,…	Dedicated archiving tools	Dedicated archiving tools	Dedicated archiving tools

The info-explosion is relativizing the hegemony of the relational database

Until the info-explosion, it was vertical integration: Oracle is a good example starting from the relational database and going to the business application managing structured data. Those prospered inside a silo. For this to work, application servers with the ambition to make apllications talk to applications were the next logical step in this paradigm. This was the core fondation of the enterprise 1.0 information system. Such a system was busy properly handling its transactions, and counting and analyzing its business data: its core component was naturally the relational database. Outside the File System and the email box, long regarded as tools reserved for minor office uses, almost all enterprise computing has been built around the relational database.

But the relational database system is cumbersome and expensive on one hand, when in addition Business Intelligence tools lack agility. On the other hand, the info-explosion of unstructured data (emails and files in directories that are stored "flat" without a relational model) has stimulated the advance of the technology of search and navigation. As unstructured data has become increasingly business critical, the tools to access data have become increasingly professional. Finally, if one can say ‘who can do more can do less’. The relational database becomes a source of information as any other, it is moving from the status repository of system information to a simple container of structured data. It is as such, neither more nor less important and strategic than the CMS.

Two important consequences on the value of the search engine in the structured world

1. The Business Intelligence tools are being marginalized by the search engines to access information and provide a 360° view. In 90% of the time, the search engine is more flexible and better than the BI tool. See the recent testimony of the Laser Group in 01 Informatique in French (the recent choice of Sinequa in a database offload bench against a known French rival. A very interesting project which aims to index the entire transaction history of the 22 million credit cards of Laser / Cofinoga).
2. With server virtualization, not to mention the gradual migration to the Cloud, the challenge is not to allow applications to talk to each other, but to enforce a consistent repository of data. From this perspective, this is the announcement of the victory of the Enterprise Search Bus. An intelligent Enterprise Search Bus is capable of ensuring the consistency of all data by making it searchable by business relevant categories/metadata, either inherited from the source or generated on the fly. In this respect, one can imagine that a vision based on the Enterprise Search Bus will absorb MDM (Master Data Management) type approaches that are in fact a very accomplished, but very specialized response to the question.

The Enterprise Search Bus becomes strategic for the enterprise

The important point for the construction or development of an information system is - but it is not surprising to see me push this argument - that the search engine has gone from a fun gadget (it’s true, who really needs a search engine to find data a little faster on the Intranet or to find lost documents on shared directories?) to an essential element of the enterprise information system. The Enterprise Search Bus is:

• Key to unify the data by structuring it within the business context,
• Essential for help not in searching but to achieve effective results with the right information in the right place within the right application.
• Major in the logic of supporting a simple work ethic. Simple as it digests the real complexity of our business ecosystem by reducing it to a logical layout, that is easy and intuitive. Talk to consultants from Atos Origin, who have recently selected Sinequa to access their unstructured data, or consultants from Mercer (see Press Release attached).

Consequences on the market of the enterprise search engine

To be up to the challenges, your Enterprise Search Bus will have to validate several key criteria:

1. Integrate the generation of smart technology and metadata processing. If the relational database is losing ground, the search engine needs to provide the necessary business structure more than ever. In this area, you have the choice of linguistics (Sinequa, FAST) or Bayesian (Autonomy).
2. Absorb all the volumes and heterogeneity of your information system. You needlinear scalability and secure connectors that are rapidly deployable without any specific development.
3. Integrate in a logical and portable platform. You are Java or .Net, private servers or Cloud: your Enterprise Search Bus must be agnostic on the subject.
4. And many other criteria such as ergonomics as simple as an iphone. A true 2.0 product in the way it is used (interactivity) and in its way of being deployed (pilot site), ...

Sinequa validates these criteria better than anyone I think. Our vision for many years, the work we have with our customers in particular since 2005, and our flexibility allow us today to have the right product at the right time.

I must confess: 5 years ago, we thought the topic was to translate the value proposition of Google in the enterprise. Our technical department was obsessed with Google. Today, this seems ridiculous, because our mission is at the heart of a business increasingly virtualized, both literally and figuratively (Cloud computing, outsourced supply chain management, outsourcing of most enterprise processes, offshore development, outsourced marketing, etc.). The heart of the intelligence and agility of a company needs an Enterprise Search Bus. Some speak of meaning-based computing; I dare to say simply Intelligent business. The following definition from Wikipedia seems eloquent to me.

“Intelligence comes from the Latin Intelligentsia (ability to understand), derived from Latin intellegere meaning understand, and whose prefix inter (between), and the radical legere (to choose, pick) or ligare (link) suggests essentially the ability to link elements who would otherwise be separated.”

“Intelligence is all mental faculties to understand things and events, to discover relationships between them. Intelligence is also recognized as being what in fact it allows: adaptability. Also, practical intelligence is the ability to act appropriately to situations. In terms of evolution of human understanding cannot be conceived without a diversified coding system. It therefore comes to conceptual intelligence, inseparable from a mastery of language (and therefore "words") to complex reasoning and the reasoning is the mental process of analysis for determining the relationships between elements. Finally, and at this level, the purpose of intelligence is the conceptual and rational knowledge.”

The market for Enterprise Search is exciting. We realized that Google was a mediated and talented follower, little present in value-added projects. Today, all eyes are turned to FAST / Microsoft. But I think that innovation and value this time will still come from others. I think the winning visions cannot be based on an Enterprise Search Bus choked by a complete proprietary chain from the OS to the browser through the portal, CMS and database.

I think that the winning vision will be an intelligent and flexible Enterprise Search Bus, able to keep up with new innovative technologies, delivering a capacity to create the link between the user and the data. It is a Darwinian market, it is not enough to be right, we must constantly adapt. So see you in 5 years, when the Cloud is ubiquitous.

The rock star is the founder, not the CEO

To be or not to be ... the boss. An existential question or a matter of efficiency?

In the U.S., the founder is a rock star even if he loses the leadership of the company. In France, if he is no longer the CEO, he is ousted, damned, frowned upon. He is thrown to the wolves. We toss out the baby with the bathwater. Founder not CEO anymore = Samson deprived of his hair. In the U.S. the CEO is the person who manages the business, the shift manager who coordinates the steering of the boat, not necessarily the owner, nor even the captain. He is much better paid for his job than in France (I mean in a start-up not in a large corp.), but he is not sacred. It's just a job, somebody has to do it and that's all. It should not be our job title but what we really do in our work that should define us. As noted in TechCrunch by Cedric Giorgi on the replacement of the CEO of deezer.com, this French phenomenon provokes an unnecessary crisis between managers and shareholders (we also remember NetVibes, Glowria, etc.). But is it really the fault of the French founders as suggested perhaps too fast by Cedric Giorgi?

An interesting topic, another French exception? A bit similar to what has long limited the French cinema in its industrial progression? After the Nouvelle Vague, the director who had to be both the author and editor wouldn't give the final cut to the producer, because he was a "business guy" meaning a "bad guy."
The filmmakers, however, do not handle the launch of the film, which is critical for its "full media" success and value. To take one recent example, Avatar is a great film (so great!!!), but also an incredibly successful global launch. James Cameron is a director and a business mogul, however, not necessarily the CEO of all companies he works with. I hope he's not; otherwise what's the point of having all this money and talent. On the other side, in a successful hexagonal industry, Yves Saint-Laurent has left the management to Pierre Berger. Bernard Arnaud or François Pinault are not designers. What does this mean?

Firstly, perhaps it's a baseless accusation to say that the founders and creators of French start-ups refuse to hand over to a new CEO; it's too easy to blame them for showing signs of immaturity. For more French start-ups to become world leaders, they would then need to hire a coach or a psychoanalyst on the Board of Directors. It's too easy and too obvious, perhaps, to label the founder as a "scapegoat."

In psychoanalysis, we talk about false belief. This is a distorted vision of the world, because we were educated with this in mind. A cultural heritage which tends to fossilize society and prevent evolution. A self-perpetuating circle. For example: women are bad managers, so I recruit men in management positions, so actually, good managers are men (and bad for that matter, but that doesn't prove anything about women except that we must urgently call for affirmative action). The false belief about the CEO founder in France comes from a society where we want to believe and suggest that the leader does everything, he is everything and decides everything. If as a CEO you dare say simply that you believe in collective intelligence, that you are a leading influencer, manager, motivator and a developer of talent. If you admit that vision can come from anywhere and not only from you. If you admit that you are not the alpha and omega of your product and of your business, in France you will be looked at sideways. This is perhaps not the right leader? In the U.S. people will think they are dealing with a professional, and that's all.

This very archaic vision of how business works and the role of leadership is a reflection of our institutions of the 5^th Republic in France seen from afar: We would like the leader to be everything, to decide everything and know everything about everything. If the President of the Republic abandons the Napoleon style story-telling, and if he admits his lack of technical expertise on any subject, he begins to look like an incompetent. The French like divine power. Yet it is ultimately reassuring that the leader focuses on what he should do well: to govern, to manage. And he surrounds himself with people (more) competent (than himself) without micromanaging what they do.

We must integrate the cultural reality of our society and businesses of the 21st century as soon as possible. Accept networking and collective intelligence. The founder may have the intelligence of the product, but not be the right person to lead the business and make management decisions. It seems obvious, yet we often see businesses lacking the emotional intelligence to understand, accept and live with what they have. This is true at the executive level and it's true at the management level. And it's not necessarily the shareholders who don't see it, it's more in the business environment where the "wiring" is inhabited by these false beliefs that I mentioned above.

So it must be said: the rock star is clearly the founder. And whether he remains CEO or not, he's just the same a rock star. As a non CEO founder, he's faithful to what he is and to what he loves to do. If society was willing to accept this, rock stars would be more fulfilled and prosperous, and would create more jobs and wealth. By extension (it's often said that there is a lack of positive role models for managers or bosses), many experts who have no desire to become a Director or Manager, would no longer feel that they have failed in their career, simply because they love their job.

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