PLM and Comprehensive Search

March 30, 2011

For the last few months, I’ve been asked multiple times about the role of Enterprise search and PLM. Since last year, after Exalead a French search company was acquired by PLM giant Dassault Systemes, the interest for search among people in manufacturing increased. In the past, I had a chance to share my opinion about PLM interest to Enterprise Search. All PLM vendors having deep relationships with search products. They are having OEM or partnerships relations with companies like such as Endeca, Autonomy, SharePoint.

The following publication by Martin Butler Research caught my attention few days ago. It provides a short, but very pragmatic view on what is Exalead as well as what are benefits of Exaled usage by companies like PLM or other enterprise software vendors. Here is my favorite quote:

Although Exalead can be used to provide an out-of-the-box search solution, it’s true strength is to provide an information access platform for creating highly customised search-based applications. For organizations looking at embedding search functionality into new or existing applications Exalead should be high on the agenda. It’s patented results navigation interface, which uses advanced clustering and refinement techniques, also adds to it’s pedigree.

In my view, the comprehensive PLM implementation requires a better set of technologies to accomplish their implementations. High end PLM is swamping in non-efficient technologies developed 15+ years ago. To bring a better search infrastructure can help PLM vendors to improve the quality of data management and information processing for companies like Boeing, Toyota, Renault and other. On the flip side, it is going to make existing PLM implementation even more complex.

What is my conclusion? Search is an important infrastructure. The demand for search is in manufacturing growing as well. To be competitive, software vendors in this space such as PLM, CAD and others are trying to bring new technology to solve old problems. This is a good sign, in my view. However, one of the biggest problems in PLM and enterprise software is the complexity of solutions. This is quite important. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Freebie. (Exalead didn’t pay me to write this publication)

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Swearch and the Future Applification of PLM

November 10, 2010

I spent my yesterday on Dassault Systems Customer conference (DSCC 2010). I had a chance to talk with DS executives and learned a lot of things about DS vision. When I’m still digesting this information, I’d like to share some of my thoughts about what I call – Applification of PLM. I used this term once, when I wrote about PTC Creo Launchlast week.

Swearch – Dumb Simple?

Before talking about PLM, I want talk give you an idea of what I called a dumb simple application. Navigate your iPhone on the following link – swearch.me. What you can see is a very elegant and dumb simple user interface that allows you to swipe search option between Google, Twitter, Wikipedia and Flikr. You can tell me – so what? It is simple…

However, I think there is one thing that Swearch is doing right is supporting the simplicity of switching between different search options without going to a complex word of choice.

DS Exalead and Search Based Application

Dassault is talking a lot about the power of Exalead these days. Exalead was a search company DS acquired few months ago. Navigate your browser on this link to read about my view on DS/Exalead acquisition. The technology behind Exalead had some Alta-Vista historical roots and, according to DS, it is powerful and can change a lot, from the standpoint of delivery of so called “Search Based Application” to the enterprise. Where the idea of Enterprise Search is not new and company like Autonomy, Endeca and FAST are in this market for the long time, DS demoed few examples of public websites (i.e. Yakaz) that can be used as a prototype of future search applications.

PLM Apps Store Miracle

One of the things I learned yesterday is that DS folks are working on their App Store. The foundation of this App Store is future DS 3D SWYM collaborative platform. 3DSWYM is a website / application DS is experimenting for a quite long period of time. DS was doing doggy-food process of 3DSWYM internally. You can register and get access to 3DSWYM current online version using this link.

What is my conclusion? I think PLM companies got the point of Apps. The idea is simple. I can see the first signs of movement into this direction. Autodesk and DS made some initial apps available of iOS App Store. PTC is talking about Creo Applications, DS is creating 3DSWYM platform of their future App store. I can see a silence moment from Siemens PLM (maybe I’m just not aware?). However, I don’t think a simple copycat of App Store can be applied. The application is the most important thing in this story. In my view, App store is not about PLM Apps department store. I’d be thinking about Swearch as an example of how to execute “dumb simple” things that work.

Best, Oleg

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PLM Life-like Search Injection

June 10, 2010

An interesting turn in PLM trajectory of Dassault Systems – the acquisition of French based Exalead. With this acquisition, we can expect new life-like energy injected into PLM life-blood. In some announcements, Exalead was mentioned as French Google. Exalead indeed shares some Google DNA coming from early days Alta Vista and DEC search experiments. DS-Exalead deal made me think again about an enterprise search trajectory in Product Lifecycle Management. Actually, I already touched this topic at least two times in my blog before: PLM and Enterprise Search: Can We Leverage It In Downstream Applications and What Is The Role Of Search In Enterprise Systems and PLM?

So, PLM+Search=? What can be hidden behind this question mark? First of all, I wanted to put some historical perspectives in the relationships of PLM and search vendors. This is actually not the first time, PLM is catching a search wave. In 2006, Autonomy and Agile Software PLM created a partnership to provide a solution together . In 2007, Dassault made the announcement about a future use of Autonomy as a technology for search in DS and ENOVIA solutions. Endecca, another enterprise search vendor signed an agreement with Kalypso PLM solution provider. The same Edecca signed an agreement with PTC, one of the major DS completitiors. The same PTC by their significant move to SharePoint over the past 2 years, have an access to Microsoft SharePoint search solution. The same Autonomy, one of the leaders in Enterprise Search solutions is providing full stack of connectors that allow them to handle PLM related information too by their IDOL platform.

So, I wanted to put some thoughts towards possible mix of PLM and Search solutions. What can be advantages of PLM and Search merger and what need to be done to analyze previous solutions?

Usability
This is the first thing, in my view. PLM will try to fix the usability problem with application of some search techniques. All PLM applications today are surviving from user adoption rate in the organization due to the complexity in user experience. To have a search solution in this space is an interesting approach. However, what is good for web search not always can work in the same way inside of the organization. This will be an interesting to challenge for search solutions .

Content Processing
Search solutions have a different perspective on how to work with data. It is really not the same as to do it for enterprise application and business process management. How it will fit? What web search is doing by manage data is not really the same as enterprise data processing. Lots of interesting questions are coming here. I assume, we’ll have chance to see soon in the  in DS-Exalead story.

Integration
Crawling data from multiple sources, enterprise search has a potential to become a federated access point for PLM apps. This is the most interesting turn, in my view. However, to execute this route, a significant shift in PLM openness needs to be done.

What is my conclusion today? DS acquisition proved again, that PLM space is alive and will continuously provide innovative solutions for enterprises. As one of the leaders in PLM and 3D, Dassault just confirmed it yesterday. The next important step will be technological convergence and new solutions coming from Dassault.

Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg

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Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM Alert: Google Image Swirl User Experience

November 18, 2009

Short alert on Google Labs Releasing Swirl. Google Image Swirl allows you to organize and search images. Official Google’s blog announcement is here. You can run Google Swirl from here.

I think, this user experience can be kind of beneficial for engineers working on 3D and 2D drawings.

Just my thoughts. What is your opinion on that?

Best, Oleg

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Posted by olegshilovitsky

Will PLM Move Beyond Search?

August 3, 2009

plm-beyond-searchWhat is the role of Search in PLM? This is question I want to discuss today. This year is busy for search community, Microsoft Bing and now Microsoft Yahoo agreement. I had chance to hear so many opposite opinions about search, so I decided to put this question in PLM Think Tank. On the one, very extreme side, I read Stephen Arnold is saying – search is a commodity or give away for free. On the other side of the street vendors like Autonomy is creating OEM alliances with Siemens, which include Siemens PLM business. I’m sure will not be able to put all opinions about search in this blog post, therefore, will be focusing on areas of search that relevant to what PLM is trying to achieve in organization.

I think for many years, Search was considered as simple function in CAD, PDM and lately Product Lifecycle Management interface. This is not true anymore! I’d expect search will start to play much more significant role in everything that happens in enterprise space. There are few reasons for that. First, search was very successful during that past few years in consumer’s applications. Second, enterprise landscape becomes extremely complex. Third , enterprise vendors will look for differentiation and search will be one of them.

These days, search vendors are trying to find special way for their solutions to enterprises. Some of them, I’d like to mention here:

Social Search. Since everything social becomes very popular, search is also here. There are many vendors focusing on searches in social networks. The key focus of these products is to insure real-time search capabilities in changed social networks. I don’t think real-time is extremely important for product lifecycle, but to be able to resolve complexity of social relationship in enterprise can be very interesting and beneficial.

Enterprise Information Search. In traditional approach, enterprise search vendors were focused on indexing of documents in enterprise content management system, enterprise vaults in beyond. Today’s trends show more interest from these vendors to go beyond document indexing and to show more functions to aggregate information and present it to the users.

Visual Search. You better will see it once… Yes, to be able to see results visually becomes important. I had chance to speak about 3D searches, and visual searches on my blog before. There are multiple aspects of visual effects and capabilities. From being able to see 3D models, to visualize graphically results and dependencies.

So, what is my conclusion so far? Success of search in a consumer market will continue to put demand from customer’s side and drive vendors to put more energy to search space. The solution is not there yet.

Best, Oleg.

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Posted by olegshilovitsky

3D Perspectives: How we can search and tag rich media and 3D?

July 31, 2009

My new blog post of DS 3D Perspectives Blog. From 1998 searches circa to Search Media, Tag Results, View Examples.

how-we-can-search-tag-media-3d

voxalead-google-example

Enjoy!

Oleg

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PLM Prompt: SharePoint FAST Social Move

July 30, 2009

Short prompt - Steve Letford, technical solution specialist in Microsoft New Zealand mentioned that FAST Search Technologies will be mated with SharePoint for social networking. Looking on coming SharePoint 2010 it sounds like interesting statement. FAST, acquired by Microsoft in the beginning of the last year was targeted to reinforce Enterprise Search domain (also part of SharePoint). It will be interesting to see what will be meaning of social networking in context of SharePoint. In my view, it will make SharePoint even stronger, comapred to what exists today.

sharepoint-fast-social
In parallel, it will need to compete or co-exist with some PLM initiatives such as Social Product Development and Social Innovation announced earlier this year by PTC and DS.

What do you think about it?

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Posted by olegshilovitsky

Bing, Bong, BI… where is my PLM decision?

June 24, 2009

I watched many videos and demos related to Microsoft Bing during the last few weeks. Actually, I liked the idea of a “decision engine” behind a search. So, after experimenting with different types of searches, I finally came to the conclusion that the concept of Decision Management is very close to the discussions on Business Intelligence that we had before. If you haven’t had the chance to read them, here are a few of  the previous PLMtwine previous posts.

So, here is my idea – Business Intelligence for PLM. Enterprise PLM databases are absorbing a large amount of information about how products are designed, manufactured, built, used and disposed. PLM databases can be integrated with many other sources of information systems such as ERP, Supply Chain,  and Manufacturing Execution. Having all this information already in a Product Lifecycle Management system can be a good foundation for Business Intelligence systems. Today, BI can be implemented using various database technologies. If you are running on a SQL Server, you have a full stack of MS BI services. If you are on Oracle, you can use Oracle BI.  If you are on IBM, you can use IBM BI. There are also other, more specialized vendors.

So the question is – where is Bing? Here is my point. Bing is a decision user-oriented experience that lets you get this data. In the same way Bing presents you with travel price trends, Bing can let you get your PLM Business Intelligence data and provide it to your end users…

So, to review the main points:

  1. Enterprise PLM Database is integrating Product IP information
  2. You can get Business Intelligence by indexing PLM data and extracting specific KPI and data characteristics
  3. Access PLM BI data with Bing-like user experience

Wait a minute… Where is Bong? You need to get all product information under PLM roof. A lot of data is available, but PLM systems still provide very fragmented outlook on product information.

So, what is your opinion?

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Posted by olegshilovitsky

PLM Prompt: Explore Search Results with Google Wonder Wheel

June 23, 2009

To discover infornmation and search results is always Interesting problem. Especially when you deal with big amount of data. Short note on additional way to do it in Google you may find interesting – Google experiement with Wonder Wheel. You can access this option from search results -> Show Options -> Wonder Wheel. Take a look on pictures and video below.

What do you think? Do you like this option for our field?

Google Wonder Wheel - Regular Search

Google Wonder Wheel - Regular Search

Google Wonder Wheel - Video Search

Google Wonder Wheel - Video Search

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Posted by olegshilovitsky

What is the future of search for PLM?

April 28, 2009

There is no doubt a search changed the way we work today on the Internet. Remember how looked for  information in the pre-Internet and pre-Google age? It wasn’t so simple as today. 

So, the change of the user’s behavior regarding ‘search’ has created a lot of opportunities on the Internet surface. I’ve tried to look at how PLM and search intersects and perhaps find new ways to improve PLM system behaviors today. I touched on this before in my posts about Enterprise Search and PLM. So, I’ll do a deeper discovery into this space.

 What is available today? :

 1.    Enterprise Search.

This term is used to describe the application of search technologies inside of organization. This term is opposite two other searches – web search and desktop search – it is probably the most relevant to what PLM does inside an organization. The ability to find the right information about product, documentation, changes etc. is extremely important. I think that this area will grow in the near  future.

 Microsoft Futuristic View on Enterprise Search

2.    3D Space search.

This is a very specific area in search applications that allows you to specify your search criteria based on certain geometric characteristics of a product. Even if such capabilities already exist inside of many PLM applications, this search is interesting since it can connect to an enterprise search. Actually, it’s important to integrate 3D Space search into enterprise search and other applications.

 Dassault Systems 3DLive User Experience (UX)

3.    Visual Search / 3D search

If 3D Space search mostly uses 3D as a criteria for search (WHERE), Visual search (or 3D search, as I call it) is mostly about being able to provide a search with information about WHAT to search for. This can be interesting for the decision making and design process areas – because it allows you to find all information visually. Sometimes, however, it’s misleading as it can be hidden by wrong meta-information and additional data.

 Innovative solution from 3DPartBrowser 

The above are my top three perspectives for Search in the PLM domain. I’m going to discover search topic in context of PLM during these days on Infonortics Search Meeting in Boston. During this meeting, I had some casual talk with Steven Arnold and got some interesting perspectives on his Beyond Search Blog. I’m looking forward to speak more about this topic in the future…


3 Comments | Daily PLM Think Tank, PLM User Experience, Technology | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by olegshilovitsky

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