BITSoftware / Blog

From Government departments through small local companies, information can be extremely valuable to organizations. However, this useful information often ends up trapped in files or databases, inaccessible to the average employee or user. Also, the explosion of information stored in multiple formats that needs to be accessed by both internal staff and a distributed workforce (dealers, vendors, etc) only complicates the problem. The need for organizations to quickly respond to market changes, innovate, and accelerate their time to market increased in direct proportion to their structural complexity. So, it’s no wonder that 39% of a knowledge worker’s time is wasted on searching for information or recreating existing content.

To help those organizations to discover information that previously were not „findable”, Google developed Google Search Appliance (GSA). With its ability to search for information stored in over 220 file types across multiple enterprise systems (CRM, ERP, financials system, business intelligence systems, Google Docs, Google Sites, graphic file format, etc), GSA is a relatively simple, highly scalable intranet search solution that has brought universal search capabilities to several different organizations.

Using Google Search Appliance, your company can increase employees productivity by making it easy for them to find what they’re looking for, when they need it. Also, it can improve customer satisfaction by providing fast, reliable search results and seamlessly integrating with common contact center applications. GSA can also reduce administration time, because some of the more powerful features are available right out of the box, so less time and resources are spent implementing a world-class enterprise search solution.

But this is not all. Because in the last years, more and more companies started using cloud-based applications from Google (more than four million businesses already run Google Apps), Google Search Appliance got a new feature, Cloud Connect, which lets employees search across on-premise and cloud-based content from a single search box, delivering more comprehensive results and improving productivity.

Cloud Connect displays relevant, personalized results from Google Docs and Google Sites alongside results from more traditional repositories, like file shares and content management systems. Easier access to collaborative documents, spreadsheets, presentations and sites with Cloud Connect speeds up how quickly coworkers can complete projects. For companies that already deployed Google Apps and Google Search Appliance, the Cloud Connect feature brings “universal search” to another level, with more accessible business systems and content now spanning from cloud to ground.

As you move your business to the cloud, Google Search Appliance can be an important bridge between on-premise and cloud-based systems, while enhancing employee collaboration and strengthens your company`s ability to access and disseminate organizational knowledge.

Sources: google.com/enterprise, Google Official Blog, Computer World, PC World

Not long ago, enterprise social media used to be quite simple. Some blogs, used sporadically by a few employees to explain to what use or how to use a certain product/service of the company. Or a bit of social media for marketing purposes.

Now, social media is a growing component of enterprise communication and collaboration. Increasingly, the world is using social networks and other social media-based services to stay in touch, communicate, and collaborate.

In a recent survey realized by Frost&Sullivan PR Agency on 200 C-level executives in North America, sixty-nine percent were closely tracking „social media, placing it ahead of telepresence, VoIP, shared team spaces, soft phones, and even unified communications and unified messaging”. Almost half of the respondents say social media is used within the organization, and 41 percent use the technology personally. Among executives who report social software in use within their company, 67 percent say it is used extensively at all levels of the organization, and another 26 percent say it is used mainly by senior management. The message is that companies are going to use social media as a primary channel in the very near future, if they aren’t already. It’s time to get strategic.

Therefore, both Gartner and Forrester Research said that in 2012 just integrating BI with Excel isn’t good enough any longer and users will demand BI tools that are integrated with email and collaboration platforms. As I said in an earlier post, Gartner predicts that by 2013, 15% of BI deployments will combine BI, collaboration and social software into decision-making environments.

MicroStrategy, the largest independent BI provider, which is present in Romania through its partnership with BITSoftware, has taken already ahead of „predictions” and provides a platform for analysis and synchronization of data business and Facebook! „MicroStrategy Social Intelligence”, which contains three modules (Wisdom, Alert & Gateway), lets your company more effectively engage and monetize your Facebook fans.

MicroStrategy Wisdom allows you to get to know your Facebook fans as well as their friends do. You can segment your users based on their interests and motivations (they are, where they come from, and what they like, what activities they enjoy, places they like to go, etc), so that you can target each segment with more relevant and valuable offers and increase engagement with individualized content and recommendations.

With MicroStrategy Alert, you can add marketing and commerce features to your brand’s Facebook page to personalize the consumer experience, increase fan engagement and monetize your fan base. Also, you can turn Facebook fans into friends by delivering highly relevant offers, content and promotions to them, encouraging frequent page visits and drawing their attention away from competitor’s pages.

With MicroStrategy Gateway, you can gain a 360-degree view of your Facebook app users, combine your corporate view with their social view to see the complete customer and use it to create a one-of-a-kind experience for your customers.