Oxford, MI — May 8, 2013 —Alcove9 today announced it is now listed on the Informatica Marketplace, the largest open ecosystem for data integration applications. With a user base of over 125,000 across the globe, the Informatica Marketplace provides partners with the ideal platform to provide data integration and management solutions such as Alcove9’s search, view and access tools.

“Launched in 2010, Informatica Marketplace has become the preferred destination for our partners to provide applications that support all phases of the data integration lifecycle,” said Scott Geffre, vice president, Cloud Business Operations and Marketplace, Informatica. “Alcove9’s data search, view and access solutions can significantly accelerate customers’ efforts to search across disparate data sources, helping them find the data they need quickly and easily.”

Alcove9’s a9 Hub is the cornerstone component of the Alcove9 suite of products. It provides the core capabilities through a single, browser-based point-of-access – to quickly search and display all needed data and file types regardless of its location within the organization. It contains the search engine that provides the indexing capability and thumbnail viewing of various file formats.

“Alcove9 and Informatica together are providing the world of data with a9 Hub and our presence on the Informatica Marketplace will enhance our ability to provide customers with the best search, view and access tools on the market,” said Sam Abu-Hamdan, president of Alcove9. “For years, organizations have accepted the status quo of how they go about searching for data within their own data silos. Today’s data explosion trend makes it difficult to find what you need, when you need it, but our search solutions help to take much of the effort out of these activities.”

In addition to a9 Hub, Alcove9 has developed add-on products to enable the extension of a9 Hub search solution to find, view and access data in other databases and hard to find data sources. Add-ons cover PLM and PDM systems, CAD data repositories, among others. Alcove9 has also developed an infrastructure for its search software solution to allow it to access data within proprietary and ad-hoc databases via the use of API thus making the a9 Hub a true central data access site within any corporation.

About Alcove9

The Alcove9 suite of solutions provides on-premises advanced search solutions for teams to resolve the daily challenges of data accessibility. Since its initial release in the mid-2000s, it has helped more than 100 companies and 120,000 users quickly and easily find, view and use their data for timely decision-making and data reuse. Search results include information from deep within each file, independent of its content, format or location. No data migration or client-side installation is required, negating costly implementations and disruptive deployments. For more information, visit www.alcove9.com.

About Informatica

Informatica Corporation (Nasdaq:INFA) is the world’s number one independent provider of data integration software. Organizations around the world rely on Informatica for maximizing return on data to drive their top business imperatives. Worldwide, over 5,000 enterprises depend on Informatica to fully leverage their information assets residing on-premise, in the Cloud and across social networks. http://www.alcove9.com/alcove9-now-on-the-informatica-marketplace http://www.alcove9.com/alcove9-now-on-the-informatica-marketplace http://www.alcove9.com/alcove9-now-on-the-informatica-marketplace http://www.alcove9.com/alcove9-now-on-the-informatica-marketplaceFor more information, call +1 650-385-5000 (1-800-653-3871 in the U.S.), or visit www.informatica.com. Connect with Informatica at http://www.facebook.com/InformaticaCorporation, http://www.linkedin.com/company/informatica and http://twitter.com/InformaticaCorp.

For more information, press only:

Meghan Polando
Marketing Strategist
Meghan@alcove9.com

(248) 287-1444Related: sklzIm, dNxEd, FQyZZR, GPFU, heJ, hypvG, nafL, zusPr, kGuk, bhkwFt, joEoH, Jfjsik, YuXaG, bpQ, zWwtsY,Related: famous camel characters, delphi murders witness list, home health pta pay per visit rates, tennesseans for student success salaries, wells fargo severance package 2021, gta 4 military base location on map, steve mills 6pr wife, dallas cowboys autograph signings 2021, how many jewish people died in the holocaust, seahawks offensive line ranking 2019, boat trips from lindos to symi, why isn’t dangerously in love on apple music, west virginia wendigo, length of a rectangle calculator, lego marvel 2022 leaks,Related: fire emblem: three houses church route, can i substitute tater tots for hash browns, chiswick nursery fees, neurosurgeon salary lenox hill, rockshox 35 gold travel adjust, menards patriot lighting replacement parts, jay lynch footballer salary, state farm coverage codes p10, is carol ann conroy still alive, powerline shell theme, orleans county, ny property search, html comments start with and end with true or false, verified boot is deactivated xposed installer, wendy rieger heart attack, mugshots waco, tx 2020,Related: laryngospasm scenario, hawaiian culture when someone dies, margaret o’brien daughter, breakers west palm beach wedding, obituaries in the fitchburg leominster massachusetts area, where did philip the apostle preach, gallup twins now, ella brennan net worth, thousand acre farm owner racist, 2022 solid waste collection calendar, why did the african buffalo population increase, crawley magistrates’ court results 2021, houston texas mugshots, dragon ball final remastered discord, ferry from ohio to canada,Related: lindsey kurowski brothers, spacebourne best ship, lincoln ca police activity today, josh heupel house knoxville, tino chrupalla vorfahren, king trell brother allan, positive words to describe a police officer, uc berkeley dining hall menu, oklahoma christian university board of trustees, parking near st john the baptist cathedral savannah ga, the monkey and the turtle conflict, northern shores aquatic plant removal, asl gloss generator, silent way method advantages and disadvantages, mark hanson obituary,Related: navy federal rehire policy, $39 universal studios tickets, william smith obituary florida, elizabeth waters lymon obituary, best fragrance dupe brands, michael jackson thriller album sales, matthew mcconaughey brothers, dain turner the jeffersons, agency master academy, bj’s employee benefits, fred arbogast company, command and general staff college redstone arsenal, fresno obituaries this week, did ja morant father play basketball, how did david hayman get his facial scars,Related: pacific sports and spine patient portal, national passport processing center philadelphia phone number, can an unvaccinated cat be around a vaccinated cat, how much can aaron rodgers bench press, nancy covey obituary, what religion is the collingsworth family, , lake tillery fishing report 2021, horsfall v thomas, capuchin monkey for sale california, puregym maidenhead retail park, joann hauser older sons, samsung board of directors email address, random prediction generator, abandoned places in tulsa oklahoma,

KillerStartups.com took time to speak to Alcove9 founder Sam Abu-Hamdan recently about the overwhelming amount of data on parts and general product data in the world of engineering or manufacturing.

Read the full article at killerstartups.com

URL: http://www.killerstartups.com/rising-startup-stars/interview-with-entrepreneur-sam-abu-hamdan-alcove9-founder/

The problem: the huge amount of money people have to put up front to implement a search solution, such as PLM. But this costs too much and takes too long to implement + the pressure from the vendor to buy more licenses and services..

The solution: an open source enterprise model. Alcove9 does enterprise search for CAD and manufacturing, and has a close relationship with Aras, the open source PLM system.

The technology: Apache’s open source SOLR search engine running an integration framework using Google’s REST APIs. It processes CAD data and images, running inside AutoCAD, Inventor, ARAS Innovator, and so on. Just click the Search button. Or, use it through a Web browser interface. It searches files stored on internal servers, Vault, Sharepoint, and other sources.

Alcove9 CEO Sam Abu-Hamdan told me that he wants Alcove9 to be a one-stop shop. “How can you guarantee this?” I asked. He replied, “We now access text, meta data, and so on in structured and unstructured formats. In the case of proprietary databases, we build connectors using our APIs. We can accesses PMI and other data from CAD models.”

Mr. Abu-Hamdan had such a complete presentation that I could barely think of any questions to ask. One of his slides, for instance, listed his competitors, a topic most other firms I interview are unkeen to discuss. Competitors suffer from these drawbacks:

Inforbix lacks embedded CAD and viewers
Actify is not in quite the same space
Projectwise is very focused on AEC
And similar software from CAD vendors, such as Exelead from Dassault, tends to be focused on the vendors own CAD offerings.

History of Alcove9

The company began in 2004 as Verity, which embedded its search engine MatrixOne. By 2006 120,000 licenses were sold through MatrixOne accounts. In 2007, Autonomy bought Verity at the same time that Dassault bought MatrixOne, and this was the opportunity for the search engine to get into markets beyond MatrixOne.

In 2009, they added unified search, and sold the product through Tata Technologies. In 2011, it was renamed A9 Hub and sold by the Alcove9 company itself. In 2012, it went to open source, and integrated with AutoCAD and Aras Innovator.

Alcove9 plans for the rest of 2012 to enhance the UI of Alcove9, improve semantics, and add video search (in which spoken words are synthesized). In 2013, it plans to release integrations for Synergis Adept, SmarTeam, Sharepoint, and for ERP software, such as Inforbix and SAP.

Customers Using Alcove9

The biggest customer is Honda in automotive, and M7 parts supplier in aerospace. Alcove9 is now entering medical equipment field.

“Where does the name come from?” I wondered. It turns out that the US Library of Congress has eight physical alcoves, plus a ninth one that is virtual.

“What is involved in a typical setup?” I asked. To implement Alcove9, it takes just 5-10 minutes to set up the Web browser, but then depending on the customer’s data, the indexing process can take days or weeks, a process that happens in the background. At a major Japanese automotive company, for instance, it took about a month to get all R&D data indexed and thumbnailed. This is a one-time setup; after this, spiders and triggers do immediate updates of new data.

In the demo that Mr. Abu-Hamdan gave, I was impressed at how easily he could narrow down the search parameters to find specific data. It’s a little bit like using Google Search, in which you can specify “in the last week” and “dwg files.”

You pay for the software through an annual subscription, with a la carte pricing. A gold membership gives you upgrades, helpdesk access, online chat, and email support. Platinum level adds any services you need.

http://www.alcove9.com

Mr. Opsahl, Newest Member of the Alcove9 Advisory Board

“Since its inception, the Alcove9 Advisory Board has sought a group of refined professionals with a compelling background in their particular fields,” said Alcove9 President, Sam Abu-Hamdan. “Mr. Opsahl is renowned in the manufacturing software industry and I am delighted to express the utmost gratitude toward him for joining our initiative.”

Startup Alcove9 Soars High in Making Data Easily Accessible and More Usable

Monday, August 13, 2012

SAM ABU-HAMDAN, PRESIDENT
ALCOVE9

Editor’s note: Alcove9’s product suite makes companies’ data easily accessible and more usable, no matter where it resides in a company. Alcove9’s president, Sam Abu-Hamdan, discusses how companies benefit from its products and provides advice for other entrepreneurs.

SandHill.com: Your company name is intriguing. What’s the meaning behind it?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: Of course we wanted a distinctive name. The idea of “alcove” struck us; it means a recessed section of a room, or bay. The Library of Congress has eight alcoves that identify physical bays that house all of the library’s records, books and documents. The Library of Congress contains a ninth alcove, which is virtual in nature. So, we coined Alcove9 to represent a virtual bay of knowledge to act as a unified access for companies to get to their own information.

SandHill.com: How did your company originate?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: Just before launching Alcove9, I led a team for the aerospace and defense unit for Tata Technologies. I’m a mechanical and aerospace engineer by education. I started my career in automated engineering and manufacturing consulting, then helped start an automotive powertrain company in southern Mich. before going back again to the consulting world to help companies become more productive in their data management processes.

When I was working with data management customers, I truly came to grasp the difficulty users had accessing data from all sorts of files and in all sorts of formats. People who needed access to data to make informative business decisions couldn’t seem to find what they needed or, worse, they made costly mistakes by referencing outdated information. The larger companies I was working with demanded design re-use and accessibility to legacy data for an immense number of projects, but they were handicapped by lack of information.

It was at that time that I realized what a great opportunity existed for a firm focused on solving this challenge.

Alcove9 officially opened its doors in Oxford, Mich. a year ago — August 15, 2011. We are a talented and passionate team of people with many years of experience developing integration products for CAD, PLM, and ERP systems and the motivation to change for the better the way people interact with data.

SandHill.com: Is your market companies of all sizes?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: Yes, all industry sectors of any size. One of our newest customers is a one-man design shop and our largest customer has over 6,000 employees.

SandHill.com: Please give me an overview of your products and differentiation.

Sam Abu-Hamdan: Our suite of products has a base module called a9 Hub that enables deep searching for all sorts of formats and files. It’s browser-based and offered on an open source platform.

Then, there are add-on modules; a9 CADViz provides visualization of over 15 CAD formats without having to tie up a CAD license. That’s a cost saver for companies that do not want to extend their CAD licenses to cover casual users or viewers of the data. And we currently offer two embedded versions of our search solution for Aras Innovator PLM and AutoCAD users. More embedded versions are in the works.

Our pricing and subscription model allows a customer to select only what they need for their particular organization. The entire suite is based on the Solr search engine, a flexible, scalable and well-proven search engine.

SandHill.com: How much of your current product design is due to changes made because of customer feedback?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: Our a9 CADViz add-on product had an embedded licensed technology in it that was a bit limiting for some companies where CAD usage encompasses both 3D and 2D drawings. The customer feedback we received was very valuable and encouraged us to add more flexibility to our solution offering so we can answer our customers’ needs. As a result, our a9 CADViz product now comes with a number of optional CAD viewing technologies that accommodates customers’ varying CAD-viewing needs.

SandHill.com: What is a not-well-known pitfall that you encountered as a startup, and what is your advice to help others avoid it?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: That’s a tough question. Although I helped start a manufacturing company early on in my career, I still have learned a great deal since leaving a large, well-established firm with all the support help I needed. It’s a world of a difference that you don’t fully realize until the safety net has been pulled from beneath you — everything affecting my company’s success is now entirely on my shoulders.

Not-well-known? Maybe it’s a case of entrepreneurs being optimistic souls, not recognizing the differences before they leap. My advice is pretty basic. Talk to as many other successful entrepreneurs as you can. And, don’t allow yourself to think, “I’m different.”

SandHill.com: What is your advice to other entrepreneurs regarding how to become inspired again after encountering a difficult challenge or set-back?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: The road to success is rarely a straight line, and a set-back doesn’t necessarily mean failure as long as you learn from it. For me, daily goal-setting keeps me on track for when challenges arise, and it gives me something constructive to focus on when faced with a set-back. We set goals as a team each Monday morning and assess progress at the end of the week.

SandHill.com: How did you hire your first employee?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: I first hired Rudy Reyes as our Director of Customer Success. He had an exceptional blend of creating customer centric experiences and an extensive IT background. I knew this because he had been a highly respected colleague of mine at a former firm, and I automatically knew that I wanted to bring him on at the very beginning.

SandHill.com: How did you acquire your first customer?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: Much like hiring my first employee, I created our initial base of clients by leveraging a comprehensively cultivated database of connections I’d worked and networked with over the years (way before LinkedIn, no less!). After more than 20 years in the industry, I’d nurtured relationships that fostered opportunities to introduce our product suite in a diplomatic way.

SandHill.com: You mentioned earlier the CAD-licenses and the subscription-model aspects as cost savers in your products. What other aspects make Alcove9 products a cost-effective solution?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: Using Alcove9 avoids any costly effort to extract, transform and load data into a new scheme. There are numerous surveys that identify the extent of time wasted by individuals because they couldn’t remember where their data was stored. That’s the basic value; however, the key is that the saved time is then invested in activities that are more productive.

In most manufacturing companies, using product data that already exists avoids cost of recreating such data. That can be expensive, especially when users end up duplicating data within the company where downstream users could potentially be using outdated information. At the highest level, we can say that our product helps gain the benefits of design re-use and, therefore, helps achieve such key objectives as reduced time to market.

SandHill.com: Where do you turn for advice?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: We are fortunate to have an advisory board that brings us a broad view of the market and its direction. Our board members have extensive experience in our industry and have started multiple successful businesses of their own.

In addition, we rely on constant contact with our partners who also bring perspective to our efforts. Currently, they include Razorleaf, a CAD/PLM services firm Aras, the open source PLM company, and The vdR Group, a leader in engineering and manufacturing integration solutions, among others. We are always on the lookout for more partners with a compatible focus.

SandHill.com: What does your company hope to accomplish over the next 12 months?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: As a startup, we need to gain recognition for Alcove9 as a proven product, not some bleeding-edge vision. To do so, we will concentrate on expanding our marketing. We need not only creative promotions that can help our products stand out but also our publicity must answer one question: Did we solve the need that triggered the customer to engage with us in the first place? We recognize that a solved need is our measure of successful marketing. All aspects of our branding, promotion and engagement are developed as opportunities to let our products speak for themselves.

We started Alcove9 with high aspirations and keep raising the bar for ourselves. Our long-term goal or vision is to become a market leader in product data searching for engineering and manufacturing companies. It’s important to note that Alcove9 sprang from a product developed in the mid 2000s with over 100,000 users.

SandHill.com: What is the last interesting book you read? What did you like about it?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: I’m currently reading Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell, which discusses the idea that there is a logical algorithm that determines why people become successful. It incorporates generational influences, your upbringing, and your demographic in addition to talent and thousands of man-hours as conclusive predictors of success. Being an engineer, I’m intrigued that Gladwell analyzes success and self-actualization with rationality and arithmetic.

SandHill.com: What is something you’ve wanted to do for a long time but haven’t done yet?

Sam Abu-Hamdan: Fly a plane. I always loved the feeling of flying. Since I was a little boy I had dreams of flying by spreading my arms and soaring up in the sky. (Yes, Superman magazine was a favorite of mine at that time.) I will be pursuing a pilot’s training program at the right time in the near future.

Sam Abu-Hamdan is president of Alcove9. Prior to starting Alcove9, he held many roles including consulting in the design and analysis field, leading a team of PLM architects in the aerospace and defense industry, and co-founding a design and manufacturing firm in Detroit.

“Google’s withdrawal from this market is not surprising. Although they pioneered the ‘out of the box’ search appliance, the Google Mini still didn’t solve structured data access, which even small businesses have nowadays,” said Sam Abu-Hamdan, President of Alcove9. “Over the last 8 years, the open source technology behind Alcove9 has been evolving and opened the doors for a wider connectivity and access, while the Google Mini remained entirely focused on unstructured data sources.”

Using a single point of access for exclusive use in enterprise search, Alcove9’s open source product suite offers lightning fast speed, security, and ease of integration that users of the discontinued Google Mini will appreciate.

Both the browser-based and embedded versions of the a9 Hub, Alcove9’s base module, have been designed to index and optimize search by going beyond naming conventions, metadata, and file attributes. This optimization allows the a9 Hub to return search queries in 2 seconds.

Alcove9 search solutions are developed to work seamlessly with existing enterprise systems. The intuitive interface eliminates the need for data migration or client installation and is ensured by a full team of technical professionals, the same experts who design and develop Alcove9’s on-premise software.

With subscription prices designed to fit most budgets, Alcove9 offers a great replacement for the Google Mini and a wise choice for anyone looking to enhance their enterprise search.

About Alcove9

The Alcove9 suite of solutions provides on-premise advanced search solutions for teams to resolve the daily challenges of data accessibility. Since its initial release in the mid-2000s, it has helped more than 100 companies and 120,000 users quickly and easily find, view and use their data for timely decision-making and data reuse. Search results include information from deep within each file, independent of its content, format or location. No data migration or client-side installation is required, negating costly implementations and disruptive deployments. For more information, visit www.alcove9.com.

“We always keep our clients up to date with the most cutting edge solutions that are available to them,” described Mark Schlicher, National Account Manager for Collaboration Systems Group and co-host of the series’ first installment. “We are very excited about joining forces with Alcove9 for these webcasts because they share our innovative philosophy for anyone in the AEC sector.”

CAD expert Sam Abu-Hamdan and BIM consultant Mark Schlicher will be co-hosting the live webcast on August 9th at 2 PM EST to explain how viewers can solve various information management and network problems. The webcast is targeted toward executives, business managers, and front-line personnel in the AEC sector, but is open to the public. To register, click here.

To sponsor the series or apply to co-host a segment, contact Meghan Polando at meghan@alcove9.com or by phone at 248-287-1444.

About Alcove9
The Alcove9 suite of solutions provides advanced search solutions for engineering and manufacturing teams to resolve the daily challenges of product data accessibility. Since its initial release, it has helped more than 120,000 users quickly and easily find, view, and use their data for timely decision-making and data reuse. Google-like, browser-based and application-embedded interfaces enable users to search beyond naming conventions, metadata, and file attributes. Search results include information from deep within each file, independent of its content, format, or location. No data migration or client-side installation is required, negating costly implementations and disruptive deployments. For more information, visit www.alcove9.com.

About Collaboration Systems Group
CSG is a collection of CAD and IT professionals, working together with AEC firms across the U.S to allow remote office personnel and consultants to work together on project data residing in one location, from wherever the remote team may be. With their extensive CAD background, coupled with their experience in implementing Network Infrastructure, CSG has the ability to focus on solving process and delivery issues. CSG is not a “high volume” reseller, and they don’t try to be. Instead, they focus on solving their client’s problems and issues, and being a member of your team. To learn more, visit cs-grp.net.

A successful first day! Sam (left) and Patrick step outside to enjoy the afternoon sun and a photo in front of the Alcove9 office.

OXFORD, MI., June 26, 2012 — Alcove9, an integrative software development firm, announced that Patrick B. Griffis has joined the team as the Technical Support Manager.

In his new position, Patrick will lead the technical support department at Alcove9.  His practice will be primarily focused on ensuring that Alcove9 provides the highest quality support for client implementations and keeping customers’ environments running efficiently.  He will also support the sales and marketing teams in presenting customer solutions and delivering webinars to educate clients about how the Alcove9 software can increase the effectiveness of their business.

Mr. Griffis brings experience from both the IT and customer support worlds.  He started his career 13 years ago in the IT department at Chrysler.  Mr. Griffis then occupied many positions within IT departments in engineering and manufacturing organizations in the automotive industry in Detroit. Most recently, Mr. Griffis led the IT department for Grupo Antolin, an international automotive manufacturing company in eastern Michigan.

“Patrick is an exceptional worker and team player,” says Kristin Schroeder, Director of Services at his previous employer. “His people skills were a source of many compliments by our customers. He effortlessly motivates his coworkers and willingly shares his knowledge.”

“We are very pleased to bring Patrick onto our team,” says president, Sam Abu-Hamdan. “His background in IT in addition to his positive attitude is perfectly suited to construct a successful and lasting career with us at Alcove9.”

IT Social 5:01 events are targeted toward IT professionals but are open to anyone looking to be empowered by social networking with the best and brightest leaders from the greater Detroit area.  These industry leaders come together for networking, knowledge sharing, and professional career advancement opportunities.

Sponsored by Alcove9, and hosted by Erin Nicole of WXYZ Channel 7 News, the event will offer participants the opportunity to enjoy complimentary appetizers, delicious cuisine, and discounted beverages.  There will also be a raffle of Detroit Tiger tickets.

Sam Abu-Hamdan, President of Alcove9 stated, “I joined IT Social 5:01 recently and I quickly found out why the event attracts top IT talent in the area.  We at Alcove9 are happy to sponsor the summer event and look forward to meeting all of you.”

There will be no cost for the event but donations will be accepted to help Feed Hungry Kids in metro Detroit via Forgotten Harvest’s Cookies & Dreams Program. Chen Chow will also be showcasing the Erin Nicole celebrity sushi roll where proceeds of the month of June go to Forgotten Harvest.  Your contribution will help shape our local community and will be appreciated.

About Alcove9
Alcove9 is all about delivering results and this means more than just “search results”. As an advanced search solution addressing the needs of engineering and manufacturing environments, Alcove9 recognizes that organizations want out-of-the-box functionality that can be immediately deployed without the hassles, costly implementation activities, training, maintenance and support.  www.alcove9.com.

Join the Automation Alley Technology Committee for the first seminar in our Product Development series.

The morning will begin with a keynote address by Azam Khan, deputy chief of staff at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) who is responsible for the Detroit satellite office of the USPTO.  An in-depth discussion on the legal and intellectual property aspects of new product development throughout the product development cycle, from ideation to commercial launch, will follow. Next, three case studies will be presented. The session will conclude with a panel discussion and Q&A.
Attend this seminar to learn more about:

• The impact of the first USPTO satellite office in Detroit
• Invention disclosures
• IP strategy
• Patent searched and infringement analysis
• Utility and design patent application filing
• Trademark registration
• The cost of IP
• Joint development agreements
• Licensing and sales/distribution agreements

Sponsored by:

To register, visit http://www.automationalley.com/a2_nws_eventinfo?id=a086000000FC8uZAAT. ]]> http://www.alcove9.com/turning-intellectual-property-into-new-product-profits/feed 0