CMS Watch Coveo Feed

Enterprise Search Vendor Landscape, Circa 2008

tregli@cmswatch.com(Theresa Regli and Adriaan Bloem) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:16:00 -0500

You might be tempted to select enterprise search vendors for your shortlist based on their supposed "leadership" status in the market -- status either conferred by analyst firms or assumed by the vendors themselves. However, CMS Watch analyst Theresa Regli argues that you need to look more closely at product and vendor alike -- and understand where both are headed -- to properly evaluate your longterm risks and opportunities in an evolving marketplace...

Twelve Predictions for 2008

editor@cmswatch.com(The CMS Watch Analyst Team) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:01:00 -0500

It's that time of year again. The CMS Watch analyst team ponders what to expect next year, and offers 12 predictions that we think will shape content technologies in 2008 -- from Google to Microsoft, Web/Enterprise 2.0, Enterprise Search, Archiving, and more...

Enterprise Search: Trends for 2008

bloem@radagio.com(Adriaan Bloem) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:05:00 -0500

What's new in enterprise search? Very much and very little, argues CMS Watch Contributing Analyst Adriaan Bloem. Based on just-completed market research, Adriaan concludes that enterprise search customers and vendors alike are still grappling with key usability and technical challenges. But 2007 saw substantial marketplace ferment, and 2008 is likely to bring more...

Mondosoft's ride coming to an end?

bloem@radagio.com(Adriaan Bloem) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:25:00 -0400

According to the Danish financial newspaper Børsen, enterprise search vendor Mondosoft is now in liquidation (via Version2). Their best-known product is a SharePoint add-on called "Ontolica," whose free version provides MOSS with the ability to perform wildcard searches.

Hitching a ride with Microsoft may be profitable, but Redmond giveth and Redmond taketh: with the improved capabilities in SharePoint 2007 the advantages of a third-party search engine are less obvious than before. Others have been more prescient (Coveo dissolved their SharePoint-specific offering into their enterprise search product last August), but the success of MOSS2007 and scramble of major vendors to announce their "SharePoint strategy" may have clouded Mondosoft's vision. Mondosoft's investors, however, seem to have been less-than-impressed with the returns, leaving the technology up for grabs.

There is talk of private equity firm JMI Invest acquiring Mondosoft's assets for a sum "in the three-digit millions" of kroner, roughly tens of millions in USD. In an interesting twist, that would put Mondosoft in the company of IT FACTORY, a Danish company specializing in IBM-based SaaS solutions. If this were to materialize, Ontolica might end up making the switch from the Microsoft ecosphere to the IBM Websphere. In the meantime, Mondosoft customers should probably consider their alternatives.

And of course a broader lesson: Mondosoft technology was well regarded, but search is a tough business. Unlike other bouyant technology sectors, sometimes small search vendors do fold (witness the disappearance of Danish compatriot Speed of Mind, or Israeli search vendor Entopia).

Microsoft and search: the year of the dog?

search-analyst@cmswatch.com(Stephen Arnold) — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:38:00 -0500

Search engine vendors Coveo, dtSearch, Endeca, Fast Search & Transfer, Google, and Mondosoft, among others just did a little dance for joy. Why? As you've doubtless heard, Microsoft has delayed the release of Vista, as well as its next-generation Office suite and much-needed server-side rebuilds. Microsoft today has no single enterprise search system that can perform what customers with SharePoint, Exchange, and other Microsoft bits and pieces want to do: find disparate emails and documents. Microsoft is, in effect, leaving the 2006 enterprise search market to other systems that can work in the crazy-quilt frameworks of Microsoft products. Had Redmond hit its 2006 ship dates, it might have had a chance to slow the recent surge of third-party search systems. Both Fast Search and Google should be able to step in to help Microsoft-dependent organizations solve their "findability" problems. Smaller vendors like Coveo, dtSearch, Endeca, and Mondosoft reported strong gains in 2005. Microsoft's inability to get its basic product out the door could fuel these companies' growth. Indeed, they could not have asked for a better Chinese New Year's present. For Microsoft, 2006 is the year of the dog.

3rd-Party Search for SharePoint

tbyrne@cmswatch.com(Tony Byrne) — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 11:01:00 -0400

Enterprise Search vendor Coveo has launched a "Sharepoint" edition of its search product. Why create a commercial search engine specifically for SharePoint when the Microsoft portal comes with its own "Search Services" for free? As Enterprise Search Report readers know, SharePoint Search is relatively simple to configure, but somewhat complex to customize in depth; out of the box it is quite functional but not exactly feature rich. Check out this screenshot or this one from Coveo to get a sense for their value-add. At some point, Microsoft will surely add advanced search features to SharePoint, but in the meantime, you might want to try out Coveo's free trial.

Verity Acquires 80-20 Software

tbyrne@cmswatch.com(Tony Byrne) — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 11:35:00 -0400

"Big 4" enterprise search vendor Verity has acquired desktop search vendor 80-20. The growth of desktop search is compelling major vendors to provide solutions that span from desktop to enterprise indexes. Will independent desktop search vendors ISYS and Copernic be swallowed next? The latter has conveniently spun off its server-based search tools as a separate company.