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Embrace Information Chaos and Focus on Findability

By Word of Pie Author Laurence Hart

We are living in a world where we will always have content in multiple systems. Despite our best efforts, chaos is going to reign in our work and personal lives as we deal with the constant fluctuation of systems. After failing for the last two decades to tame this Information Chaos, we need to find a new approach.

We need to embrace the Information Chaos.

The real problem with this chaos is that we keep fighting against it. We try to force people to comply with arbitrary boundaries. Information is assigned systems to live. That works great until people and processes that require that content cannot reach that system. Content proliferates, adding to the chaos.

One approach is to focus on the findability of content. If people can go to a single place to find and work with content, the specifics of where that content resides matters less.

Sure, there needs to be a default location that is endorsed by the organization, but forcing every piece of content into the same system is a strategy for failure. When you allow people to focus on working with content is a recipe for getting things done.

Find the Answer

Imagine you are four months into a project when a discussion arises about one of the requirements of the project. You remember discussing it and documenting the decision, but you cannot remember where.

You have to search emails, the project site, your local desktop, and your corporate repository. This could take a while as you would have to sort through any conflicting results. It could easily take hours to find right version of the needed document.

What is needed is a way to search across all the systems you use. This includes your local computer and cloud solutions like Box that your organization doesn’t officially support. As long as the documents eventually get into the approved systems and the work is getting done, the organization turns a blind eye to those systems.

The search should be flexible enough to allow the narrowing of the search by the timeframe, format of the document, and other characteristics. A well-constructed search interface would allow the document to be found in minutes, not hours. You can look at the matches and confirm finding the right document without having to go the underlying system.

One Place, One Answer

The key to this approach is not having to go multiple locations. Moving between systems causes confusion and creates potentials for inadvertent lapses in security. It also drives people crazy when they have to keep switching between applications to get a single task completed.

Having one place to search, interact, and store content is one of the key goals of Enterprise Content Management (ECM). The aspect that has always frustrated implementers is the need to keep everything in a single system to maintain that one-stop-shop for finding content.

What needed is a way to bring those places together into a single application that makes things simple for people.

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How Oris4 Turns Chaos into Productivity

By Word of Pie Author Laurence Hart

The challenge of having content in multiple systems is not a new one. The preferred solution has always been to a single Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system to as a single point of truth. Over time, we have learned that we live and work in a world where all the answers are never located in a single system.

When the challenge of accessing and finding all your content in one location needs to be solved, the first thing ECM professionals think of is Federated Search. The concept is simple. Provide people with an interface from which to search multiple systems at the same time. Once a document found, the person would click on the document and be redirected to the system holding the document.

It is a great concept that didn’t solve the problem well. The search results were difficult to understand as the search application was collecting results from incompatible scoring systems. The content from people’s laptops and external systems were not included. Even if all of those challenges were overcome, Federated Search solutions still require people to switch applications to work with the content once discovered.

What is needed is a single interface that allows people to not only find content everywhere, but seamlessly work with it once found. By not requiring people to constantly switch applications, work is not only streamlined, but the complexity of the underlying ECM systems is hidden from people that simply need the basic Content Management.

By taking the concept of Federated Search and advancing it forward into a fully functional interface, Oris4 is working to remove Information Chaos for people and organizations. Instead of simply helping you find content and then sending you to a separate application with no context, Oris4 lets you start working with content the minute you locate it. There is no need to switch applications and learn multiple interfaces. You can work with your content no matter its location.

Beyond simply providing a way to quickly find content, the chaos of content from multiple systems is organized. As new content is added to your ECM system, received in email, shared in a file sharing application like Box, or simply placed within Oris4, the content is automatically indexed and categorized.

Access, versioning, security, and collaboration can all be done from a single application. There is no need to move content between systems in order to work with it. Sharing can be done from within the application with both internal and external people. This frees people from having to remember the “right” process and permits them to get work done.

More importantly, people who live in only one system can continue to do so. The security and updates are transparent to everyone involved.

Is this the final step in our journey to finally achieving the goals of ECM? That is hard to say. This is a new approach that has the promise to make content easy to find, share, and manage across both the organization and external partners. That is something that we haven’t been able to do effectively before now.

We need fresh ideas to tame the Information Chaos. It is time to try something new.

[oris4]

One Place for all Your Documents is a Shattered Dream

By Word of Pie Author Laurence Hart

You have finally done it. You have successfully rolled out a new Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system to your entire organization. People are using the system and you can take a moment to sit back and enjoy having beaten the odds.

An alert on your computer breaks you out of your reverie and you see that you have a new email from your implementation partner. Attached to the email is the proposal you requested for automating a few processes as part of the next phase. As you prepare to review the proposal, some questions occurs to you:

How should I collaborate on this proposal with my partner?

Shouldn’t I be using our new ECM system?

Should I keep the documents in email?

Using the new ECM system would require creating accounts for the vendor’s employees. That would consume more license money. Granting system access to external people would also make the IT team nervous from a security perspective. Working in email would just create a mess similar to what you had prior to the new ECM system. It would also defeat the goal of effectively managing Content.

After a long talk with the partner, it is agreed to keep using the original project site. It is a public cloud site, but it is secure and allows everyone to keep track of everything.

And just like that, your dream of one system for all your work documents is shattered.

You Are Not Alone

The situation above is simpler than the one most organizations face. Many organizations have an ECM repository for a majority of their content but they have one or more specialized systems that are ideally suited for specific business processes. In addition, there is usually at least one legacy system that has a few documents that are always needed the moment the system is unavailable.

Despite all of this, or maybe because of it, some people still email documents back and forth. This is especially true when people are out of the office and they need someone to email them a document that they need right away.

We are living in a world where no matter how hard we try, we cannot get down to just one system for all our content. The closest I have ever seen is one organization that had only one ECM system. They still had documents in email and on local drives. Email was where they worked with external parties and local copies were kept for when they were out of the office.

This works well enough until something becomes lost.

Remembering the Safe Place

I often store things in a ‘safe place’. Sometimes the place is so safe that I cannot find it. That item has now become completely safe from me.

Content is the same way. Even with only a handful of locations, remembering where the latest version of a document is located can be tricky. When you are not the owner of a document, it can be even trickier.

The problem we are facing is simple. We have content in stored in multiple systems, owned by multiple organizations, and spread out across multiple geographical and virtual domains. How can we realize the productivity gains Content Management promised?

If having a single repository isn’t the answer, how do we free ourselves of the resulting chaos?

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Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) - Is your company prepared?

November 25th, 2013 Our Internship Blog series is written by Jenelle Tremblett, a 3rd year student at Dalhousie University Work flexibility is at an all time high with the increasing cloud technology. Long gone are hefty desktop computers and strict 9-5 work days. In exchange we have wireless devices which we can use anytime and anywhere. With these changes in the workplace it is not always convenient to have a second work phone or laptop for professional use. Today, many employees would much rather use their own devices for work purposes, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. Now you can do work at home, anytime of the day or night. This flexibility has led to the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomena which has allowed employees to use their own personal smartphones and laptops for professional purposes.  

Gartner predicts that by 2016, 38% of organizations will have stopped providing mobile devices to employees, instead allowing employees to choose and use their own devices in the workplace. By 2017, half of employees will be using their own devices for work.

There are both pros and cons to using your personal devices for professional use, but the bottom line of whether BYOD is beneficial depends on your company. Some companies will need strict sets of rules; others may require more relaxed policies that are keeping within their corporate culture. Nonetheless if your company is allowing BYOD, implementing a policy or strategy of some kind is in everyone’s best interest. In order to do this, companies should consider how BYOD could impact the organization. Below I have listed various pros and cons that need to be examined before a BYOD policy is put in place.

When employees bring their own devices to work they are generally happier and more productive. If they are an avid Apple user they will be more productive when using a MacBook as opposed to a PC. (And they probably won’t even know how to turn on a Blackberry.)  Accenture states, “BYOD erases time boundaries, allowing employees not only to be productive after working hours but also to time-shift commitments, allowing them to attend a child’s soccer game in the afternoon and work later in the evening”.

On the other hand, when employees are using their own devices, employers have very little control over what data is being produced, accessed, and shared. If the employee’s device is lost or stolen, there may be a huge risk of leaking very important and possibly sensitive data. If employers are monitoring devices, they also have to make conscious efforts to respect the employee’s privacy.

So, when implementing a BYOD policy, what questions should a company consider before jumping on the bandwagon. Here are a few to get you started:

Who is required to pay for the phone bill? What happens if the phone breaks?

What are the policies on international usage and data?

What happens if an employee leaves? How do you access their data and past work?

With security risks in mind, how much of the device does your company control and when would it become a privacy issue?

Do you want or expect your employees connected and available 24/7?

Overall, a BYOD policy should complement the needs of your company as a whole. For the policy to be beneficial, there are many steps that need to be taken to outline your policy so that the company and employees can manage their expectations and expenses. Companies need to be aware of the security, resource, and privacy implications and employees need to understand the security and legal issues of using their own devices. By taking time to plan an effective policy, you may just save your company time, energy, and money, and make employees more productive in the process.

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Do you ever wonder how much money your company wastes per year just searching for documents? 

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This is a video of one of our Senior Developers, Keith Harrison doing flatland tricks on his BMX bike in different locations around Halifax. For those who don't know, flatland is a form of freestyle BMX performed on a smooth flat surface without the aid of ramps or other obstacles. It's super fun and it's also a great physical and creative outlet. Keith likes to practice his stunts and learn/create new ones during his lunch breaks at Oris4.

[oris4]

Meet Abdel Eliwa, Quality Assurance Intern

Meet Abdel Eliwa. Abdel is a fourth year electrical engineering student at Dalhousie University. Abdel was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt and went to high school in Kuwait. Coming to Canada for education and work has been a great experience for Abdel because of all the people he met along the way.

Abdel is looking to get some experience in software testing to have it as a skill in his career. This is why he is working at Oris4 as a quality assurance intern. Abdel says that he enjoys working with the quality assurance team here at Oris4. As for his free time, Abdel likes to live in the moment. He enjoys doing pretty much anything such as chilling with friends, trying to cook, and going for long walks around Halifax. 

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Meet Yong Wei, Quality Assurance Intern

Meet Yong Wei. Yong graduated from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish as a international student. He was born and raised in a very beautiful town in China and is very thankful for the opportunity to study in Canada. This great opportunity has given him a chance to learn different cultures and meet so many new friends. 

Yong has a really good knowledge in the field of cloud computing. He spent almost one year studying Google maps reduced algorithm, simulated it on his own server, and tried to improve it. Because Oris4 is cloud based, Yong is very happy to be working with the Oris4 team and helping to improve the product.  In his free time, Yong enjoys playing ping pong with friends and he will be representing PC Financial in an upcoming ping pong league match here in Nova Scotia.

[oris4]

7 Tips to Get People Buzzing About Your Product

October 23rd, 2013 Our Internship Blog series is written by Jenelle Tremblett, a 3rd year student at Dalhousie University When you go to buy a new product or check out a new restaurant, how do you know which one to choose? Do you ask your friends, family, and co-workers or do you grab your computer and start some serious google searching? I personally do both. The main reason for this is because I am always wary about companies paying people to write positive reviews on their products and negative reviews on competitors’ products. Given the choice, I’d much rather ask friends and family what they think about a product or service. If someone who is very similar to me has great words to say about a product, then there’s a good chance it will appeal to me too. This brings me to the long forgotten gem of marketing - word of mouth and how it is your best form of advertising. Think about it; how many times have friends raved about something they bought and you instantly went and bought it too? All it takes is one happy customer to create a buzz about your product. A large part of word of mouth marketing has moved online and now comes to us through social media. It still works in the same way, but is even easier to rave about a product to millions of people in just one click, without actually ever having to talk to them. A lot of the news, companies, and brands we know come from hearing the buzz from others. But the real question is: how do you get consumers buzzing about your product? Here are 7 tips to help you get people buzzing about your product and company. 1. Identify which social media pages your target audience uses. Right now there are so many social media pages to choose from: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr... And the list continues. Yes it is important to have a social media presence, but it’s not important to have an account for every single page. Choosing which social media page you populate all depends on the type of audience you want to attract to your product. If your target audience is business professionals, then LinkedIn is a good choice. If your audience is teens/young adults, Instagram may be a better option for you. Big department stores such as Target use Instagram to showcase various items that may not be in their flyer. Here is an example of how Target uses Instagram.

The content you make will all depend on what your audience wants. If you are a big clothing store, just looking at items on your website may not suffice. Customers may want to see how it’s worn, or deals that are happening right now. Keep in mind, your customers want to hear what YOU have to say. Creating a Tumblr or Blog account and having your company write their own views, then reposting to your Facebook page can be effective. Also remember to update and post frequently - don’t spam people, but don’t go for more than a few days without adding in some new content.

3. Put a human face behind your company. It’s also very important not to use your social media pages to constantly self-promote. Your customers want to get a benefit out of following you. Provide them with everyday tips, recommend a book you read recently, or post pictures of the people on your team. Many companies use Instagram for pictures of behind the scene shots, which helps give their big company a more down to earth/friendly feel. And other companies use Facebook for various quotes related to their company.

4. Encourage feedback from customers. As a business, feedback allows you to find out what’s important to your customers. What they like, what they dislike, and if your product is helping them in any way. Satisfied customers can create many more customers. If customers feel comfortable asking questions then they will have more trust in your brand and company. Welcome customers and people of interest to post comments via social media, and make sure to engage in conversation with them on your pages. Not everyone wants to call your toll free line and hear automated voice recordings when they have a question. DAVIDsTEA does an amazing job of interacting with their customers on their Twitter page and answers questions very quickly. (I even had them reply to me once.. *Starstruck*)

5. Connect your social media networks. If you connect your various social media pages together then depending on which one your prospective customer uses, they can follow you via that social network. If you go to many company websites, there is usually an area with all the links to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blog, etc. People won’t like your Facebook page if they don’t know there is a Facebook page to like. No matter which page your prospective customer lands on, there should be a way for them to view your other social networks.

      6. Get people to share your content. The whole word of mouth strategy works online by just a quick click of a Share button. When people like what you are posting they will often share it to their own pages for their followers to see. For example with a blog post, many companies have an option for you to “Tweet it” and “Share it”. If it is an image there is often a “Pin it” button in the corner. A great example of this is when companies encourage customers to participate in contests they have by clicking “Like” and “Share it”, which is a fantastic way to get more people to know about the contest.

Twitter is a great way of getting a message around because it only takes 1 click for a customer to RT your photo/message. 7. Make a fantastic product. Spending millions of dollars in advertising isn’t going to force people to talk about your product and company. There are many companies that get extremely famous by just having a Facebook page. They get thousands of likes without shelling out the big bucks for advertising. How do they do it? Because their product is worth talking about. You could have the best social media and sales team there is, but if you don’t have a great product to go with it, then the buzz will not last long. Take the time in developing your product to the best of it’s ability before jumping into the social media scene.

Bottom line you want people to know about your product. You want your product or company to come up in conversations online and offline, and most importantly you want people to instantly recognize your company name. Getting people to know about and buy your product is what marketers spend each and every day strategizing about. And as a marketing intern, this is where I come in. It’s only easy to post a bunch of things via twitter, Facebook, etc. But my content means absolutely nothing if it’s not reaching the right people. I hope these 7 tips give you a heads up on your social media practices and whether or not your time and energy is being used productively. For the next 9 weeks of my internship at Oris4 my goal is to make sure the right people are actually finding the stuff I am creating. And this goal essentially ties back to the whole purpose of Oris4, doesn’t it? 

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Meet Jenelle Tremblett, Marketing Intern

Meet Jenelle Tremblett. Jenelle is from a small town in Newfoundland and after living in Halifax for two years, it takes a little bit of getting to know her to pick up on the newfie accent. Jenelle is in her 3rd year of Commerce at Dalhousie University, studying a mix of finance and marketing courses. After her degree, Jenelle wants to focus on a career in sales and maybe even real estate. 

Being a university student definitely does not take up all of Jenelle’s time. She also works part time at a retail store and is always involved in other extracurriculars. Since April, Jenelle has been a part of organizing a breast cancer fundraising event called A Toast to the Coast. She was a big part of getting sponsorship items and donations which will be auctioned at the event tonight. Jenelle has also had a range of experience in other areas such as lifeguarding and teaching swimming lessons, working at a nature camp, and helping students become entrepreneurs. 

At Oris4 Jenelle works as the Marketing Intern for this semester and can be found at the desk with all of the colorful pens. She really enjoys working here and has recently been learning how to code. Outside of work and school Jenelle enjoys running, making her moms amazing banana bread, and dreaming of owning a boston terrier. She looks forward to the rest of her semester at Oris4!

[oris4]

Some things can't be googled

October 17th, 2013 by Leslie Flemming, Project Manager

It's 2013. And the files are INSIDE the computer. (If that reference is lost on you, please take 2 hours and watch Zoolander ASAP).

Fortunately, that means we can store a lot more information in a lot less space. Unfortunately, that means that finding the specific piece of information that we are looking for hasn’t gotten any easier. In fact, we’re pretty sure that for most people it’s become harder.

Now this might be the part where you would expect a product plug, but I’m not going to do that. What I will do, however, is share some actual scientific studies about how people manage, recall and find information. If we can determine just how people go about looking for information, then maybe we can sort out a way to help them actually find what they're looking for.

1) Effective keyword searches are difficult to construct and are often unsuccessful - An observatory study from a team of researchers from UNC Charlotte and the Palo Alto Research Centre demonstrated that employees are not very successful when it comes to finding targeted information via a keyword search, because people often find it hard to describe the things they want to find with keywords. The study stated:

“… although current commercial products present efficient methods for keyword-based searches, they are not as effective in an enterprise environment, where information is hard to find by keywords alone.”

People are able to recall information like who sent them the document, or approximately when they received an email, but struggle to remember specific details and keywords.

2) When people do use keywords, it’s usually a part of an orienteering strategy – A 2010 study from MIT examined the steps that people take when looking for corporate information. Their results showed that when looking for information, people navigated to their target with small, local steps using contextual knowledge as a guide instead of jumping directly to their information target using keywords. An example given in the study:

“Although she knew exactly what document she was looking for (i.e., her information need was not evolving), she could not describe the document, its contents, or its location in advance… Because she could not specify her information need, a “perfect” search engine probably would not have helped her. Nonetheless, she successfully found her target through a series of small steps, using the local context at each stage of her search to inform her next step." 

3) As humans, we need contextual clues – An experiment in the 60’s examined peoples' ability to recall a list of words.  Participants were given the list and then split into 2 groups and then asked to recall the words (eg: pigeon, apple, etc.). One group was given category names associated with the words (bird, fruit, etc.) and the other was not. The group that had the category names outperformed the free recall group 75%-40%, demonstrating that humans are much more capable of information recall when they have a contextual clue to guide them. 

Based on some of the research, it looks like keyword search isn’t always the best solution, especially in the enterprise. People tend to use (and need) contextual clues to help guide them on their path to information retrieval. By using this research, we can start to develop systems that work with people (instead of against them) by allowing them to search for information in a way that's natural.

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Meet Nan Kang, Intermediate Developer

Nan is from Shanghai, China and moved to Halifax in 2010. He graduated out of Acadia University in 2011 with a Master of Science degree in Computer Science. He joined the Oris4 team in September of 2011. Nan plays a crucial role in our development team, working mainly with Mac Sync Client and API integrations. 

Nan is a big fan of music and movies, quoting “the Smashing Pumpkins” to be his favorite band (rock on!). Robert enjoys working in Halifax because of its nice people and his love for “lobster pizza”

[oris4]

Meet Christien Lomax, Senior Software Architect

Christien was born in Toronto but spent most of his childhood growing up in Annapolis Valley. He attended the Center of Geographic Sciences College here in Nova Scotia and graduated in 1999, with a degree in software development. Christien was part of the originating team when 2nd Act was first founded and is the Senior Software Architect and Manager of Development on our Oris4 team. Christien plays an integral role in our office, overseeing all product development as well as leading our product design and structure management. 

Christien enjoys working at 2nd Act because it has allowed him to voice and implement his ideas. He ADORES his close-knit and diverse development team, and loves working with exciting technology. On his off time, he enjoys spending time with his daughter, kicking back to some video games and catching up on some much needed sleep.

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Meet Kate Kinnear, Senior Software Developer

Kate is from Saint John, New Brunswick and moved to Halifax 4 years ago. Kate graduated from the University of New Brunswick in 2007, with a bachelor degree in computer science. In 2010, she completed her Masters of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo. Kate has been part of the development team since 2nd Act Innovations was first founded. As a Senior Software Developer, Kate’s day to day role includes application design and development. Kate enjoys working here at 2nd Act Innovations because there is always something new to work on and new opportunities to collaborate with her team. 

On her off time, Kate enjoys kicking back to a casual book or a video game, quoting the Legend of Zelda series to be her favorite game (note the Link doll on the desk). Kate enjoys working in Halifax because of its mix of big city and small town setting and of course, because of Halifax’s wide variety of amazing pubs (she recommends Rock Bottom).

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Meet Mustafa Ghani, QA Manager

Mustafa is from Karachi, Pakistan and moved to Halifax back in 2000. In 2004, he graduated from Dalhousie with a bachelor degree in Computer Science and is currently working on completing his MBA at Dalhousie, Rowe School of Business. Mustafa joined our Oris4 team back in early 2012, taking up the position of Quality Assurance Manager and Test Architect. In a regular day, Mustafa sees a range of responsibilities which include business analysis, systems integration, regression testing, change/release management, project planning and managing our QA team. Although he has a lot on his plate, Mustafa enjoys the responsibilities and challenges that come with being a quality assurance manager. 

Out of the office, Mustafa enjoys traveling, having recently traveled to Cancun and Dubai. He hopes to travel to Cuba in the near future. He enjoys watching cricket, and listening to his favorite artist, Yanni. 

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Meet Marek Lipczak, Researcher & Developer

Marek is from Plock, Poland and first visited Canada back in 2005 through an exchange program. Marek focused his education around his passion for technology, graduating with a Master’s degree in Engineering and Computer Science at the Warsaw University of Technology in 2007. In the same year, Marek decided to move permanently to Halifax to continue his studies. In 2012, he completed his PhD in Computer Science at Dalhousie University and joined our Oris4 team as a part of his fellowship program with Mitacs Elevate. As a Researcher for our team Marek is dedicated to solving problems related to text mining and information extraction. When asked why he enjoys working at Oris4, he simply smiled and stated that his work is “pure fun”. 

Marek has recently been accepted to speak at the upcoming Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Regina, Saskatchewan. The topic of his presentation will be on selective retrieval: extracting information from the web in an efficient way by predicting which links are most likely to give the user useful information. 

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Meet Vinod Ramachandra, QA Analyst

Vinod is from Bangalore, located on southern India. Although Vinod did not have much interest in computer science at an early age, his love of games led him to pursue an education in computer coding. In 2006, Vinod graduated from Amrita Institute of Technology with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and in 2007, he made the decision to move to Halifax to complete his Master’s. Vinod graduated from Dalhousie University in 2011 with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science. 

Vinod is fairly new to our company, having recently joined our quality assurance team in February. As a Quality Assurance Analyst, Vinod spends what seems like too much time with team lead, Mustafa, focusing on product quality and testing. He says that he very much enjoys working in this industry as it allows him to stay creative and create cool things out of nothing. Vinod is an avid cricket player (to many of us here in Canada, that is the sport that seems like baseball but that we can’t quite understand). Vinod greatly enjoys music, playing the banjo and loves the local music scene here in Halifax. Vinod would also like to take this opportunity to advise that if you are from a scorching hot city like Bangalore, do not move to Canada during the peak of winter.