2008 News Coverage

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	Borders brings online interactivity into the store In these fast-moving times, the idea of browsing a bookshelf can seem like a luxury. But what if that shelf was "magic" tailor-made to reflect the visitor's specific interests, with relevant recommendations and "I-hadn't-thought-of-that" suggestions? Thanks to a partnership between Borders Group and enterprise search solution provider Endeca, the virtual Magic Shelf is the first thing visitors to the bookstore's website see.
	E-retailers showing off with innovation Borders Group Inc., for example, moved off Amazon.com Inc.'s platform and launched its own site a robust, feature-rich shopping destination. The goal was to present much of what shoppers loved about browsing in a Borders bookstore, plus add the magic of e-commerce to create a unique shopping experience.
	Scripps Taps Endeca For Intelligent Site Search Scripps Networks Digital has deployed Endeca Technologies' site search, navigation and content publishing tools on HGTV.com, allowing the publisher to trigger contextual ads and serve up product offerings to consumers with every search.
	One on One with Daniel Tunkelang of Endeca In web search, we expect to type a query and get an excellent response in the top handful of results. In enterprise search, that is rarely our experience. There are a variety of reasons for this breakdown, but the consequence is that we must get away from the paradigm of the search engine as a mind reader, and instead promote bi-directional communication.
	Report says SCM technology spending to increase One example of this trend is Ford Motor Co., which AMR says in another report, is using spend analysis software from Endeca to reduce direct material costs, identify opportunities for parts consolidation and supplier rationalization; and find efficiencies for existing and new vehicle programs.
	Ford Motor employ's solution to consolidate parts across car platforms The solution integrates data from more than seven different source systems. These include purchasing, finance, supplier, engineering, and part catalog applications, offering sourcing professionals 360-degree visibility of part and supplier related data.
	Future launches new web strategy Rob Birse, vice president of product marketing, says it is Future's goal to provide customers throughout the world "with a stratified product knowledge database that meets and exceeds the needs of engineers at every level, regardless of whether they are early adopters, domain experts or those taking the first steps into a new technology."
	Doing Dashboards Right "In the intelligence and defense communities, the ability to do off-road analysis is a fundamental requirement," Eichner said. "So dashboards must provide exploratory capabilities that any person can use. They must provide high-level summaries but also guide users through the next step process of drilling into the individual pieces behind it."
	Borders gets a 62% hike in conversion rates from new Magic Shelf feature Shoppers who use the Magic Shelf, which lets them browse images of books and other products along scrolling shelves without leaving the page, place 62% more orders per shopping session than shoppers who don't use the Magic Shelf, Ertell says.
	Scripps Networks Selects Endeca Cambridge, Mass.-based Endeca Technologies--a search and information access software company--incorporated a new tool called Page Builder, which empowers editors and business users to create, customize and manage dynamic landing and topic pages, without the need for IT or developer resources.
	Customer interaction is in the bag at eBags Not only can visitors sort searches by top rated products on product pages, they can instantly see how many customers would recommend buying the product, customer ratings of its durability, organization and overall quality. Search technology is from Endeca Technologies Inc.
	BI Crystal Ball Next Gen BI May Be Closer Than You Think Even with the most intuitive point-and-click BI GUI, many of these casual users still have difficulty translating a business question they have in their minds into BI application facts and dimensions. Some of these users may not even have a question well formed in their minds. Guided search to the rescue!
	Why Google Isn't Enough An increasingly popular approach is faceted search, in which results are grouped based on various means of classification. For example, a search for Yankees at the ESPN Web site returns over 30,000 results, but allows users to narrow down by date, columnist and type. Similarly, a search on an e-commerce catalog like Home Depot (nyse: HD - news - people ) groups results by product type, brand, price and so on.
	Endeca debuts engineering and sourcing solutions Both product introductions are part of a focused effort by Endeca to bring new information visibility solutions to aerospace & defense, automotive, high-tech and industrial manufacturers. And both solutions reportedly solve long-standing challenges not addressed by today's product life-cycle management, spend management, supply chain management, and business intelligence applications.
	Endeca courts discrete manufacturers with new apps The Endeca offering delves into more-granular information, Reale said, by tying into PLM systems, component supplier management catalogs, and other sources of data. That data extends beyond basic top-level information into specific attributes, such as the canister's capacity, its material composition, and its connection type. A procurement specialist might see that the company is using 25 different canister suppliers across all of its manufacturing programs, and can choose to consolidate the buy for more efficiency.
	Better BI: Harris Corp Mashing search capabilities into BI environments is a trend that has gained traction over the past few years, but isn't yet widespread, says Dan Vesset, an analyst at IDC. Mashups like the one in use at Harris "are a key component to making BI more pervasive, more visual," he says.
	Nuts & Bolts : Eliminating Dead Ends eBags has been working with the Cambridge, Mass.-based information access software firm Endeca to blend search technology with merchandising to leverage the best aspects of retail shopping with the power of the Web. Here, Cobb discusses how "searchandising" tactics have helped eBags maximize the value of its site traffic.
	BI hots up For example, Endeca has revolutionized search with its Guided Summarization experience, added Mallikarjunan. Endeca's BI search capabilities allow people to ask open-ended questions, such as "How can I consolidate purchasing?" "The approach widens the BI audience in an organization, as the user does not need to have a detailed understanding of underlying metadata or data models."
	Kiddicare to go live with social networking tool Kiddicare partner Scott Weavers-Wright said that, in addition to a forum, the social networking tools will allow customers to browse reviews using the same navigation technology from Endeca that the site uses to allow customers to browse products.
	Revving the procurement engine Harris's engineering search application helps engineers make choices that support the company's supply chain goals. Implementing the solution resulted in cost savings, reduced component obsolescence, and shorter product development cycle times. "While the Endeca search capability is just one piece of the pie," Lindsay says, "it's the linchpin to our entire supply chain transformation."
	The Red Queen of E-Commerce Shopping by an arbitrary product feature, such as size, color or fit requires specialized search engines (like that provided by Endeca) which do a ton of high-tech wizardry to pre-calculate all the ways a shopper might wish to search for products. HomeDepot.com, for example, now allows you to filter for items that are actually in stock at a particular
	Autonomy, Endeca rate among top enterprise search vendors Endeca is a small but fast-growing vendor that focuses on searching databases and data warehouses as well as XML, RSS and documents.
	Product Review: Finding needles in a haystack made easy with Endeca Built on the Endeca Information Access Platform (IAP), atVantage integrates four data sets - three internal and one external - that can be explored and analyzed. These combined sources provide insight into 43 million public and privately held companies and 1,200 industries.
	FTI Consulting shares spike following acquisition FTI will use Endeca software to create new applications for searching financial information and databases and other electronically stored data, to help clients assess information relevant to litigation, mergers and acquisitions, government investigations and other matters.
	Merchandising, One Customer at a Time In the case of special branding, Eichner said Merchandising Workbench allows e-commerce retailers to do anything from placing a special banner at the top of the screen to creating microsites that replicate kiosks or sections of stores that promote certain brands.
	Borders.com launches with tech from Sterling Commerce, Endeca, Allurent A major feature of the new site is its "Magic Shelf," which runs with Web 2.0 technology from Allurent and the Endeca search-and-navigation platform and was designed to mimic the in-store shopping experience of browsing for books, Ertell says. "We wanted to bring the book store experience to our web site," he says.
	Borders launches new retail website Borders today launched a new retail website, and Endeca Technologies Inc. said it was among the firms that helped Borders in developing the site.
	BabyUniverse.com improves natural search rankings and lowers bounce rates BabyUniverse also lowered its bounce rate on natural search landing pages after shoppers saw better organized and more useful information, he adds. The retailer worked with its site search and navigation technology partner, Endeca Technologies Inc., to design 30 product category and brand pages — such as for car seats, or specifically Britax brand car seats — with sub-categories for more shopping options.
	Forrester Sees Convergence Trend In BI, Search Another advantage in the convergence of BI and search is the ability to discover things "you didn't know you didn't know," Forrester said. "As search gets more powerful and begins to understand the meaning behind unstructured text, entity extraction and other linguistic analysis methods will be able to be used to reveal unforeseen and highly illuminating connections among documents or between documents and data."
	Endeca, Allurent Team Up for Online Shopping "It would cost millions of dollars to try and develop this functionality by hand, not to mention hundreds of millions dollars in lost sales opportunity," (Matt Eichner, VP of strategic Development at Endeca) said. "And if online retailing evolves beyond your initial expectation, you've got the right architecture in place to adapt quickly."
	Endeca Unveils Collaborative Approach for Multi-Channel Retail Innovation Steve Papa, CEO at Endeca, noted that recent economic conditions have accelerated efforts to finally tear down the artificial walls between the retail channels and create a personalized relationship with customers at every touch point.
	A Rave Review for Social Navigation Shoppers aren't just checking the reviews to validate a purchase — they're searching and browsing them to explore what to buy in the first place. As a result, reviews are evolving from window dressing on product detail pages into a central element in the online customer experience
	Manufacturers Warm Up to Enterprise Search "What we've found is that manufacturing systems are very complex — more complex than just about any other industry in terms of the variability of the information you're dealing with. And there's a big struggle for people to see what's going on," Papa said. That plays to the strength of Endeca's technology, he noted, which is optimized to handle the "combinatoric explosion of relationships" that can occur across the multiple complex and heterogeneous databases and systems found within many manufacturing enterprises and supply chains.
	Search Engine Optimization The Magic Shelf uses Allurent's rich media technology as a different interface to the site's search, navigation and merchandising capabilities, powered by Endeca Technologies, Inc. Endeca, whose technology is also used in Borders' in-store kiosks, is now working with Borders on ways to blend this concept with personalized recommendations. As part of this strategy, the contents of the "shelf" would change according to shoppers' preferences and purchasing histories.
	Center-led collaboration powers Harris Corp.'s strategic sourcing initiatives Purchasing Harris' use of Endeca's technology helps company engineers locate a part that meets certain technical requirements. "We can influence their decision-making and steer them to the components that are early in their lifecycle and that are readily available in the cost targets we are trying to meet with preferred partners," (Janice) Lindsay, (vice president of strategic sourcing at Harris) adds.
	Site search vendors partner with analytics provider Coremetrics "This expanded partnership has the potential to introduce new ways to automate contextual merchandising and promotions, and create self-optimizing functionality to maximize revenue," says Noah Maffitt, director of global e-commerce for office supplies e-retailer Office Depot Inc., No. 3 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Office Depot already uses technology from both Endeca and Coremetrics.
	Carsguide.com.au upgrades site search to support targeted promotions The new software will allow Carsguide to utilize dynamic merchandising that enables product images and promotions to change based on shopper activity. The upgraded site search system will also offer more targeted advertising and promotional opportunities for display advertisers, Carsguide CEO Ed Smith says.
	Alfresco Announces Winners of Alfresco Content Excellence Awards "The Endeca Community programs connect hundreds of users through regional meetings and the annual user event, Discover. To support our growth we needed a way to collaborate with tens of thousands," said Colby Dyess, Endeca Community Director.
	RS Components powers up e-commerce strategy with new website The move is part of its e-commerce strategy aimed at helping electronics designers enhance their efficiency. The enhanced search and guided navigation capabilities and the 500,000-odd products, one million individual product attributes in PDF format, exposed product pictures and related technical documents that have been made available on the website, will enable designers and maintenance engineers to save time and cut down their expenditure while browsing the website.
	The sales picture brightens after a redesign at The Artful Home As part of a site redesign begun in 2006, The Artful Home deployed a site search tool from Endeca, which provides results for commonly misspelled words. And, instead of giving visitors a long list of results, the search results pages now allow consumers to refine their searches, such as by best sellers, newest items and price. The tool also allows The Artful Home to promote items featured in its catalog, and the retailer increased the size of images on search result pages.
	Intel Investing $10M in Endeca "Its investment in a company such as Endeca is an investment in its future server business, given that Endeca is building its information access software around a new class of database technology, which undoubtedly benefits from high performance hardware," Spooner wrote.
	Endeca Gets $15M Embrace From Intel, SAP "The cash infusion into Endeca, whose clients include Ford, Wal-Mart, and the super-secret Defense Intelligence Agency, comes about two weeks after Microsoft acquired rival Fast Search & Transfer for $1.2 billion."