Insights

It is about understanding a user’s journey and machine learning. Keyword search as a primary signal is dead.  Machine learning killed it. The paradigm of keyword search is over 25 years old. Given the emergence of machine learning and advanced ranking models, it is not the primary source of relevance for insights. Keywords as a driver for information retrieval is outmoded and ineffective. Modern machine learning provides better mechanisms for improving the outcomes of information retrieval requests by providing predictive solutions based on user actions and context. In this article, we […]

Last month, Attivio took a moment to sync up with Michael Cizmar, our Managing Director, to ask him some questions and welcome MC+A on as an Attivio Implementation partner. JZ: Tell me about MC+A. MC: I founded MC+A in 2004 after a post “dot com” sabbatical to Brazil. MC+A is a boutique consulting firm focused on search and search derivative technologies since before it was cool. We help our clients deliver better experiences that happen to be driven by search. JZ: Your website says, “Changing the way you find answers

Photo by Tom van Hoogstraten on Unsplash In almost ten years in search consulting, you can’t help but encounter a good amount of requests for proposals (RFPs). These documents that formally solicit proposals from technology vendors and systems integrators (SI) serve as an integral piece for companies, non-profit, or government agencies interested in procuring a technology solution or service. In this article, we will discuss why technology RFPs need to focus on use cases rather than a list of questions/features in an excel or word document. Why now?  Insight engines and artificial intelligence

Originally posted on Coveo’s Blog Our first-ever customer event, IMPACT, is just around the corner and we sat down with one of our longest-running partners on the changes he has seen in the industry. Michael Cizmar is the founder and Managing Director of MC+A, an enterprise search consulting firm and Coveo partner for the last decade. Michael has 20 years of experience in business consulting, specializing in helping companies see more ROI through software design and development. Michael founded MC+A to help companies solve business challenges by empowering organizations with

Gartner has migrated the “Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Search” to the “Magic Quadrant for Insight Engines”. This migration follows a trend set by Google who announced the effectively its exit to the enterprise search space later to reveal an insight engine embedded within gSuite called Cloud Search. Gartner describes an Insight Engine as:“Insight engines provide more-natural access to information for knowledge works and other constituents in ways that enterprise search has not.”This is somewhat false because insight engines are typically built on a similar technology stack that enterprise search

Where to start with your search replacement strategy? Google Search Appliance replacement starts rethinking your overall strategy and approach to search. If you are one of the many Google customers who are currently struggling with Google Search Appliance replacement or playing out the waiting game with Google, this is your opportunity. The enterprise search market has evolved considerably over the last five years, and the new advancements, especially with artificial intelligence, have dramatically expanded the impact that your search practice can have. Use cases have gone from simply enabling the “single

WHEN: Wednesday, February 8th, 2017. 6:30PM – 9:30PM CDT WHERE: River North We Work. 111 W Illinois St, Chicago, ILL Join us for an upcoming Enterprise Search Meetup in  Chicago, “Selecting Your Next Search Engine with Coveo”. MC+A is pleased to host a discussion (and maybe demo) of Coveo search. We’ll review how Coveo, a magic quadrant leader, can proactively deliver relevant information to users in their existing workflow. Engage in an interesting conversation, followed by a Q&A session and some refreshments. Agenda A brief introduction to Coveo (if needed) Coveo Reveal Q&A

Following the shake-up in the industry caused by the announcement of Google winding down sales of the Google Search Appliance, 2017 sets up to be the year that enterprise search embracing the power of the cloud to finally deliver cognitive search.  After years of hype, the industry is poised to begin delivering the post keyword based search solutions.  Additionally, search will be the technology for processing large data sets for which the Big Data trend has emerged from within. Everyone fundamentally understands the technology and the high level business case

The ability to search and report analytics on an organization’s data are crucial to any digital strategy. While there are several platforms that enable this kind of data processing: ingesting, searching, analyzing, and visualizing organizational data the ELK (Elastic) Stack might be the most popular of them all and your organization should be using it. The Elastic Stack, or ELK Stack, comprises three related projects: Elasticsearch, a distributed search engine with highly refined analytics capabilities Logstash, a data-processing pipeline that collects data and delivers it to Elasticsearch Kibana, a visualization

Michael Cizmar, MC+A’s Managing Director was interviewed by Beyond Search on market trends and MC+A’s direction and goals for 2017. Here is a brief preview. Beyond Search learned that MC+A has added a turbocharger to its impressive search, content  processing, and content management credentials. The company, based in Chicago, earned a  gold star from Google for MC+A’s support and integration services for the now-discontinued Google Search Appliance. After working with the Yippy implementation of Watson Explorer, MC+A retains its search and retrieval capabilities but expanded its scope. “Search is incredibly important, but customers require