Information Technology News

Semantra announced general availability of Semantra 2.0 for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The application is a business intelligence tool that enables common language commands to retrieve specific information from back-end databases. Semantra 2.0 was specifically created to extend the value of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, enabling users to make ad hoc inquiries to retrieve precise results from any Microsoft Dynamics CRM database. Microsoft Dynamics CRM users can turn critical questions into precise and actionable information by entering familiar business terms into a search box. Semantra 2.0 will be distributed and supported by a national network of VARs and system integrators through the Semantra Reseller Program, which includes many of Microsoft's "Gold Certified" partners. Members of the program network are pre-qualified to install the product, conduct user training and provide a broad range of customization for users with specialized requirements. Semantra has initiated integration work with a variety of ERP and CRM applications, including Oracle Siebel and other Microsoft Dynamics solutions. http://www.semantra.com

Posted by NewsShark at 7:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, CRM, language, semantic technologies, Semantra
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Lawson Software (Nasdaq: LWSN) introduced Lawson Smart Office, a personalized user interface that allows users to directly access Lawson and Microsoft applications and update data pervasively and instantly across the applications. Lawson is bringing together Microsoft productivity, mobility and collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint and Groove, with Lawson enterprise applications and business intelligence capabilities. Lawson Smart Office places the business software user at the center of the "information workplace" and the multiple processes they work with. Smart Office helps people access the information they need, when they want it, in the context required, combined with the analytic and Smart Notification capabilities of Lawson Business Intelligence. It also promotes greater collaboration and real-time information sharing across various business applications. Lawson developed Smart Office around the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation, to support any business processes using Microsoft applications. http://www.lawson.com

Posted by NewsShark at 7:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, Lawson Software, office software
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Researchers at IBM's (NYSE: IBM) India Research Laboratory have developed software technology that uses sophisticated math algorithms to extract and deliver business insights hidden within the information gathered by companies during customer service calls and other interactions. The new business intelligence technology, called ProAct, is a text analytics tool, which automates previously manual analysis and evaluation of customer service calls and provides insight to help companies assess and improve their performance. ProAct provides an integrated analysis of structured information such as agent and product databases and unstructured data such as email, call logs, call transcription to identify reason for dissatisfaction, agent performance issues and typical product problems. Based on the Unstructured Information Management Analysis (UIMA) framework that IBM contributed to the open source Apache Software Foundation in 2006, the ProAct technology was initially developed as a service engagement. Now the new algorithms are being packaged in software and deployed in many IBM call center customers around the world. UIMA is an open source software framework that helps organizations build new analysis technologies that help organizations gain more insight from their unstructured information by discovering relationships, identifying patterns, and predicting outcomes. IBM uses UIMA to enable text analysis, extraction and concept search capabilities in other parts of its portfolio of enterprise search software products, including OmniFind Enterprise Edition, OmniFind Analytics Edition, and OmniFind Yahoo! Edition. http://www.research.ibm.com/irl/

Posted by NewsShark at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, IBM, search, text analytics, UIMA
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SAS announced the acquisition of privately held Teragram. The acquisition will enhance SAS' own text mining and analytical BI offerings, and extend them to enterprise and mobile search. Teragram, a 40-person firm headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., will be run as a SAS company. Terms of the acquisition deal were not disclosed. Teragram's natural language processing (NLP) technologies help turn text - in many languages and from many sources - into useable information. NLP enables richer data processing at the level of words, linguistic relations and word meanings. Teragram has developed and maintains large annotated dictionaries containing several hundred million words in more than 30 languages. Teragram's categorization technologies provide instant classification of documents according to custom criteria, applied throughout the organization. For enterprise search, Teragram's NLP technologies scan structured corporate databases and unstructured sources including text-based reports and Web pages to provide answers from these multiple information sources. Teragram's search capabilities deliver an easy-to-use environment for BI, extending the availability and use of BI throughout organizations. The combination of SAS and Teragram technologies provides indexing driven not just by a report's header, but by its actual content and the metadata associated with it. Teragram also brings SAS mobile search, helping individuals scan information remotely and get answers faster. Using Teragram's mobile search technology, individuals can store and retrieve information, connect to outside applications such as BI systems, and search databases from their BlackBerry, smart phone or other mobile device. http://www.sas.com, http://www.teragram.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: business intelligence, SAS, search, semantic technologies, Teragram, text mining
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Fast Search & Transfer ASA (FAST) announced it has selected Informatica's (NASDAQ:INFA) PowerCenter to help enable new data interoperability. Under the terms of the agreement, FAST will embed Informatica's data integration software within the FAST Adaptive Information Warehouse (AIW) to simplify access to structured enterprise information. In addition, FAST has developed a PowerCenter adapter to capture extracted metadata in AIW using linguistic analysis techniques. The ability to deliver trustworthy data collected from disparate systems enhances AIW, making AIW, with its flexible retrieval-centric architecture, a platform for Business Intelligence (BI). FAST's Business Intelligence Built on Search allows business users to simply, explore and analyze enterprise data. The addition of Informatica's complementary data integration software eliminates some of the complexity associated with accessing information from various enterprise systems. http://www.fastsearch.com/, http://www.informatica.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 7:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, FAST, Informatica, search
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Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) announced that it will make an offer to acquire Fast Search & Transfer ASA (OSE: “FAST”) through a cash tender offer for 19.00 Norwegian kroner (NOK) per share. This offer represents a 42 percent premium to the closing share price on Jan. 4, 2008 (the last trading day prior to this announcement), and values the fully diluted equity of FAST at 6.6 billion NOK (or approximately $1.2 billion U.S.). FAST's board of directors has unanimously recommended that its shareholders accept the offer. In addition, shareholders representing in aggregate 37 percent of the outstanding shares, including FAST's two largest institutional shareholders, Orkla ASA and Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe, have irrevocably undertaken to accept the offer. The transaction is expected to be completed in the second quarter of calendar year 2008. In addition to bolstering Microsoft's enterprise search efforts, this acquisition increases Microsoft's research and development presence in Europe, complementing existing research teams in Cambridge, England, and Copenhagen, Denmark, with new capabilities in Norway. http://microsoft.com, http://www.fast.no/

Posted by NewsShark at 7:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: acquisition, enterprise, FAST, Microsoft, search, SharePoint
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Datawatch Corporation (NASDAQ-CM: DWCH) announced that its web-based report mining and analysis solution, Monarch|RMS (Report Mining Server), is now integrated with IBM DB2 Content Manager OnDemand (CMOD). Monarch|RMS bridges the gap between business intelligence and content management, giving users the ability to analyze and work with the data in reports and other documents. Companies that utilize and store large amounts of text-based reports can mine and transform their report data online for analysis, either through a web browser or their favorite productivity tool. Users can sort and filter relevant report data, summarize hundreds of megabytes of data with sub- and grand-totals and perform multidimensional cube or OLAP-style analysis. Monarch|RMS also enables users to export data to applications, including existing templates and spreadsheets, and transform all report data into XML for browser-based forms presentation. http://www.datawatch.com

Posted by NewsShark at 7:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: analytics, BI, content management, Datawatch, IBM
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Fast Search & Transfer (OSEAX: FAST.OL) (FAST) announced that its browser-based Business Intelligence (BI) portal, FAST Radar, will be available in Japanese in the first quarter of 2008. FAST Radar is a key component of FAST's Business Intelligence Built on Search, a business intelligence solution built on an underlying search platform by combining Radar with FAST's Adaptive Information Warehouse (AIW). As the business intelligence interface into FAST AIW, Radar brings information and statistical analysis to decision-makers throughout the organization. This provides them with insight into data through personal dashboards that move intelligence in the enterprise from IT and business analysts to everyday business users. They have three main focuses in the Japanese market: Monetization, Information Discovery and BI Built on Search. http://www.fastsearch.com

Posted by NewsShark at 1:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, enterprise, FAST, Japan, search
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IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN) (TSX: CSN) announced that the two companies have entered into a definitive agreement for IBM to acquire Cognos in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately $5 billion USD or $58 USD per share, with a net transaction value of $4.9 billion USD. The acquisition is subject to Cognos shareholder approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. It is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. The acquisition of Cognos accelerates IBM’s global Information on Demand initiative to unlock the business value of information for our customers. IBM will provide broader reach for Cognos solutions across multiple industries and geographies with a more complete set of offerings, including consulting services, hardware, and other middleware software. Cognos provides a BI and performance management platform, integrated on a service oriented architecture (SOA). The combination of IBM’s information management technology and Cognos could help organizations discover new ways to use trusted information spread across their enterprises to identify new business opportunities. IBM intends to integrate Cognos as a group within IBM's Information Management Software division, focused on Business Intelligence and Performance Management. IBM also will appoint current Cognos President and CEO, Rob Ashe, to lead the group, reporting directly to General Manager, Ambuj Goyal. http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/cognos, http://www.cognos.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: acquisition, BI, Cognos, IBM
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Liferay and Pentaho Corp. announced a technology partnership to enhance integration between their product lines. By working together, Liferay and Pentaho will leverage standards to simplify deployment for enterprise organizations looking to leverage commercial open source software to securely enable access to BI content as part of an overall enterprise portal strategy. Portals provide a framework to integrate business intelligence with other enterprise applications and content. An enterprise portal framework helps deliver the benefits of business intelligence to large numbers of users, while enhancing BI with application context, integrated collaboration, and a multi-application user interface. Portals can also make it easier for users to create personalized views of information, including dashboards that integrate BI with other enterprise content. Pentaho and Liferay both support the JSR-168 portal integration standard. The companies are planning to work together to make integrated deployment even easier with minimal customization and configuration effort. The next phase of integration is expected to be delivered in Q1 of 2008. http://www.liferay.com, http://www.pentaho.com

Posted by NewsShark at 10:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: Bitstream, content management, Liferay, open source, partners, Pentaho, portal
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SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) and Business Objects S.A. (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 – BOB) announced that the companies have reached an agreement that will bring together two of the information technology industry’s leaders. Under the terms and conditions of the tender offer agreement, SAP will make a cash offer of € 42.00 per ordinary share and for American Depositary Shares (ADS) at the US$ equivalent based on the EUR/US$ exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers. The transaction volume taking into account the transaction costs will be slightly above €4.8 billion. The Business Objects board of directors has approved the tender offer agreement between the two companies and anticipates recommending the offer to its shareholders subject to fulfillment of certain regulatory requirements. Together, SAP and Business Objects intend to offer high-value solutions for process- and business-oriented professionals. The solutions will be designed to enable companies to strengthen decision processes, increase customer value and create sustainable competitive advantage through real-time, multi-dimensional business intelligence. The closing of the transaction is expected within the first quarter of 2008. Business Objects will operate as a stand-alone business as part of the SAP Group. When the transaction is complete, John Schwarz will continue as the CEO of the Business Objects entity and is expected to become a member of the SAP Executive Board. Doug Merritt, Corporate Officer, Business User, SAP, will then join the Business Objects entity and report to John Schwarz. Subject to the closing, SAP’s Supervisory Board intends to propose to elect Business Object founder Bernard Liautaud to the SAP Supervisory board at the company’s next shareholders meeting. Until that time, Liautaud will have an advisory role to Henning Kagermann on aspects of strategy and integration.

Posted by NewsShark at 9:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: business intelligence, Business Objects, SAP
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Business Objects (Nasdaq:BOBJ) (Euronext Paris ISIN code: FR0004026250 - BOB) announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Inxight Software, Inc. Based in Sunnyvale, Calif., Inxight is a provider of software solutions for unstructured information discovery, including text analytics, federated search, and data visualization. Financial details of the transaction, which is expected to close in July of 2007, were not disclosed. Inxight Software is a privately-held company, with more than 120 employees and 2006 revenues in excess of $25 million. The combination of Business Objects and Inxight Software will provide organizations with a BI solution to address all of their data assets. With the combined technology, companies will now have access to both structured information within databases and data warehouses, and unstructured information such as emails, documents, notes fields, and web content. Inxight brings a combination of text analytics, federated search, and visualization capabilities to the BusinessObjects XI platform to enable customers to discover, manage, and analyze unstructured content inside and outside of their organization. http://www.inxight.com, http://www.businessobjects.com

Posted by NewsShark at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: acquisition, BI, Business Objects, Inxight, search, text analytics
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Inxight Software announced the launch of the Inxight SmartDiscovery Metadata Management System (MMS), which allows users to review, cleanse and augment automatically extracted metadata – the entities, relations and event data trapped in electronic text. The Inxight SmartDiscovery Metadata Management System is designed specifically for the collection, exploration and cleansing of data derived from unstructured sources. It provides data quality assurance – the ability to profile data to discover inconsistencies and other anomalies and perform data cleansing activities (detecting, correcting or removing inaccurate records) – to improve data quality. The Inxight Metadata Management System includes three modules: The Metadata Connector, which directs extracted output from Inxight's SmartDiscovery text extraction; The Metadata Repository, which leverages and extends a standard Oracle database to hold Inxight-extracted information; The thin-client Metadata Editor, which allows users to modify and augment the results of Inxight's SmartDiscovery text extraction. SmartDiscovery Metadata Management System complements the rest of the SmartDiscovery platform, turning unstructured text into actionable information and bridging the gap between search and business intelligence. Other SmartDiscovery components include SmartDiscovery Awareness Server federated search and alerts, SmartDiscovery Extraction Server text processing, and SmartDiscovery VizServer visualization products, providing a platform for acquiring, extracting, storing, validating and exploring relationships, trends, timelines and more. http://www.inxight.com/

Posted by NewsShark at 8:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, Inxight, metadata, search, text analytics
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Clarabridge, a text-mining software company, announced its participation in the Oracle Secure Search Initiative. The company’s involvement in the initiative enables it to provide integration capability between Oracle Secure Enterprise Search 10g and business intelligence (BI) tools. The enhanced Oracle-Clarabridge offering will consolidate knowledge stored in various BI applications across the enterprise and make it securely available to business users from an Internet-like search box. Many organizations use multiple BI applications, often from different vendors, and the integrated Oracle-Clarabridge offering allows seamless search across all of these deployments. The Clarabridge BI connector retrieves all reports from enterprise servers and pushes them to an indexing engine, which automatically performs updates as necessary. Results from one BI tool can be presented against another to ensure that the user finds the precise report desired, no matter what the underlying technology. http://www.oracle.com, http://www.clarabridge.com

Posted by NewsShark at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, Clarabridge, Oracle, search, text mining
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Information Builders announced the release of WebFOCUS Magnify, a search navigation tool that dynamically categorizes search results and supplements them with analysis and reporting capabilities. Magnify uses the metadata from Google or other search engines to index structured data records and provide access to all WebFOCUS capabilities through the search interface to provide improved relevancy of results. A feature of WebFOCUS Magnify is that it captures data on a message bus. Using integration technology from iWay Software, an Information Builders company, it adds metatags, and submits it to the search engine indexing mechanism. This avoids the need for crawling data stores, particularly database records, combining structured data in databases with unstructured search. WebFOCUS Magnify leverages the metatags and provides results in a navigation tree to guide users to the information they need. Features of WebFOCUS Magnify include: Dynamic categorization of search results - provides enhanced ways to narrow down your search; Search-driven parameterized reports; Dynamic directories - uses search to data mine; and is search engine agnostic - can work with Lucene and Google. http://www.informationbuilders.com

Posted by NewsShark at 8:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, Information Builders, search
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Fast Search & Transfer (OSEAX: FAST.OL) (FAST) unveiled the FAST Adaptive Information Warehouse (AIW), a new approach that lets users capitalize on their entire universe of information to make better informed decisions for competitive advantage. Built on a search platform, FAST AIW integrates an end-to-end framework of products that unifies search and Business Intelligence. FAST AIW puts the Business Intelligence solutions on top of the search platform to integrate and orchestrate all of the information needed to make BI more effective. Users can directly search and navigate Business Intelligence data in an ad-hoc manner, then display relevant, usable information to users without the need for predefined report creation. The FAST AIW platform includes FAST Radar, a Web-based Business Intelligence portal and tool that brings actionable information and statistical analysis to decision-makers throughout the organization by means of a familiar search and navigation interface. FAST Radar provides insights into data through personal, flexible dashboards that move intelligence in the enterprise from IT and business analysts to every business user. Also included is the FAST Data Cleansing Solution, which provides up-to-the-minute access to all information, structured and unstructured, regardless of its source or location. It uses linguistics to improve data quality, enabling organizations to match, merge, and cleanse data automatically. The FAST AIW platform, including FAST Data Cleansing and FAST Radar, is available immediately. FAST Data Cleansing and FAST Radar may also be purchased as individual products. http://www.fastsearch.com

Posted by NewsShark at 3:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
and tagged: BI, FAST, search
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