Information Management

From isolated data to shared information

Paradoxically, the migration by companies to electronic processes and digitised information - originally driven by a desire to improve efficiency - has resulted in the creation of vast information silos that are difficult to use and share.

PolySpot's information management solutions can be used to extract and enrich raw data, so that these data can be used by and distributed to users.

Excessive, fragmented information from multiple sources that is also difficult to access…

Rapid growth in data volumes
According to a study by the Gartner Group, the volume of data stored on companies' hard disks doubles every six months. The IDC confirms this trend, suggesting that every employee generates around 800 MB of data per year, amounting to some 10,000 pages. With this explosion in data, both online and within companies, manual processing has become impossible.

Multiple data formats
Companies handle both structured (databases, XML) and non-structured (documents, text, web) data in multiple different formats (Microsoft Office, Open Office, PDF, ZIP, images, video, audio, HTML, XML, etc.). Data in multiple formats and from multiple sources is difficult for decision-makers to interpret and use directly.

Information silos
There are many different types of application in which data are hosted, located both within and outside a company's information system.

• Internal applications: e-mail systems, shared directories, business-specific applications, intranets, extranets, document management systems, databases, etc.
• External applications: websites, RSS feeds, blogs, forums, social networks, wikis, online services, etc.

Within companies, information is locked away inside information silos, requiring multiple points of access.

... posing serious risks to companies if not managed properly

Reduced productivity
According to IDC, information system users waste 25% of their time searching for information using multiple applications and spend several hours each week recreating content which, unbeknown to them, already exists.

Increased financial risk
As a result of this, a company that employs 1,000 people and is ill-prepared to manage its assets may waste up to $6 million each year! (Source: IDC). There are several types of cost involved:

• time spent searching for or reproducing information
• key decisions not implemented due to a lack of information
• making source applications available to all users, resulting in increased licensing costs

Strategic and decision-making risks
Poor distribution of knowledge and information prevents decision-makers from making informed judgements and can have a severe impact on key strategic areas of any business, such as internal and external communication, sales, customer support, marketing, merchandising, business and regulatory intelligence and quality, safety and environment.

Information management solutions provide a single point of access to knowledge

Universal, long-term connectivity
Connectivity with the various applications that a company uses is essential for raw data collection. With a library of over 100 application connectors, PolySpot Silo Breaker can easily be connected to the majority of market-standard content (DMS, CMS, WCMS, DBMS, web, RSS), guaranteeing long-term access from a single point to all of a company's applications.



From raw data to enriched information
Freshly-produced, out-of-context data is neither useful nor meaningful. PolySpot has developed conversion and semantic enrichment modules to standardise and contextualise raw data to produce information that can instantly be used by a range of different search services. 
In order to combine high information availability and maximum indexing versatility, PolySpot has developed a unique architecture, capable of managing a variety of processes in both synchronous and asynchronous mode.

• Find out more about PolySpot Information At Work

Shared and distributed information... guaranteed
Enriched information is distributed via a range of different search services, each of which is capable of providing users with all available information from a single interface. 
PolySpot's enterprise search applications can be adapted to suit business-specific requirements, with unrivalled configuration and display options (simple search interface configuration, relevance fine-tuning, specific settings based on the user's profile and context) and intelligent searching and browsing functions (auto-complete, spelling suggestion, thesaurus/ontology integration, property-based browsing, multi-view management, alerts, collaborative functions, etc.).

• Find out more about PolySpot Enterprise Search

Key benefits

• Unlocks dormant information
• Converts raw data into intelligent, usable information
• Accelerates information production
• Supports decision-making
• Facilitates knowledge distribution and transfer

	Related Product  PolySpot Information At Work is an innovative infrastructure component for PolySpot's search applications, providing a single, quick and easy point of access to documents and data. With its ultra-scalable web services architecture, it is capable of processing an unlimited volume of raw data, producing "intelligent indexes" which can be used by a range of different enterprise search applications.   PolySpot Enterprise Search is an innovative enterprise search application, which can be used to deploy business- or department-specific cross-functional search applications quickly and cost-effectively. It provides authorised users with a full overview of information from multiple different sources, stored and secured both within and outside the company.   Technical overview Simplified integration: with its search API's (Java or XML/HTTP) and indexing Web Service, PolySpot Enterprise Search is easy to integrate into the company's existing information system. Compliance with security rules: PolySpot's search solutions naturally inherit the company's existing security rules by comparing the access control lists (ACLs) for the data extracted from each application with user authentication directories (LDAP, Active Directory). High-availability architecture: multi-thread processing to guarantee rapid data availability, SOA, distributed architecture (distribution, replication and sharding). Flexibility and performance, the best of both worlds:  the performance of an index (PolySpot SearchMart) and the versatility of a semi-structured database (PolySpot Infowarehouse).