KM World Year in Review

Ramblings by Steve Goodfellow

KM more than a buzzword

Although many companies feel that KM is another buzzword, they still have a strong belief in the foundation of KM - better access, dissemination and reuse of the collective organizational knowledge base for a competitive advantage.

The mad rush for every consultant and vendor to add the words "knowledge management" to their brochures and marketing pitch has fueled the belief that KM is just a passing fad. But can you blame them? If the goal of KM is to increase the sharing of organizational knowledge that will increase innovation and reduce the reinventing of the wheel, wouldn't you want to be a part of this great movement too?

Instead of managing knowledge, the general feeling received from clients is that the focus should be on increasing knowledge sharing in order to stimulate creativity and avoid past mistakes. The "management" word in KM can imply controlling an employee's thoughts that may lead to be less than an enthusiastic response to the practice.

KM is garnering greater attention from those outside the usual AIIM and KM Expo crowds and this year had its own KM Pavilion at Comdex, the largest computer show of the year. Hey, KM must be getting popular - it even made it into Dibert!

1998

In 1998, we saw the promotion of the new tools that can assist companies in their KM initiatives. This proved to be both good and bad for the industry. With too much focus on the tools, the belief that KM is a just hardware or software solution that can be bought off-the-shelf seemed to be the message, with little attention on the practices and the culture of an organization. With concentration on just tools, the chances of a successful KM program are lessened.

It is only natural to have the tools highly promoted since vendors are a key ingredient to help an industry take off. There are more vendors that offer tools for KM that vendors that help in building a culture or practice that supports KM. With better KM tools and vendor marketing, the awareness of KM by senior executives will become more pervasive and help the market grow.

Success Stories

In 1999 we will see an increase in the publicity of KM solutions that will emphasis the why, how and what of KM programs. Why a company started KM? How they started KM? And What where the results? Since KM has not been recognized as a specific practice for that long, there are not many tangible success stories that are widely known outside the KM community. The publicity the "what were the results" part receives in 1999 will determine how KM fares down the road. The what, provides a tangible story that can be told by anyone that is starting a KM program and needs to justify the program to their bosses.

Customer examples are the real story. We need to get the success stories noticed outside of the KM community! We need to get the word to top executives to justify new and expanded KM initiatives.

MetaServer

1999 will be the rise of the "metaserver." Vendors that provide the software that allow one query to search a company's other information silos - corporate databases, word processing/document management systems, ERP systems, e-mail/collaboration repositories, etc. - and utilize tools to filter results to present relevant information will be the winners in 1999. Since these systems can be implemented with minimal impact on the rest of the organization (both on systems and people), they can provide a quick win for any KM program. They leverage the investment made in existing systems while side stepping the short-term negative productivity effects that a system change can cause.

Content Management

More attention should and will be placed on content management and people in the position of Content Managers. The past mistakes organizations made by attempting to capture vast amounts of explicit information their companies produced led to systems that quickly became overwhelming and cumbersome to use.

Greater emphasis on the quality of information placed in a repository as well as the better classification of the added material into more useful taxonomies. Corporate Librarians, Records Managers and "company experts" with cross-departmental knowledge will take the lead in this important role in corporate KM programs.

Consolidation

Consolidation, consolidation, consolidation! As it has been and is still happening in other industries, larger vendors will buy specialty companies (particularly in the content analysis area) to increase the breadth of their total offering. In order to compete in today's marketing intensive world, the deep pockets of the larger organizations will be needed to bring the technologies of these small vendors to the forefront of the public's mind and into existing clients.

Companies to watch in 1999:

Dataware

Dataware has a strong product line with its DataWare II Knowledge Management Suite, and with the introduction of the Knowledge Query Server that should open up a few more corporate doors for them. Query Server can provide organizations with "a quick win" in accessing disparate information silos. With minimal impact to a company's existing systems, Query Server can be implemented without the normal short-term negative affect to worker productivity. Once the Query Server is implemented, then the door is open for Dataware to introduce their other suite of solutions. By starting small with the Knowledge Query Server, companies can get their KM initiatives rolling and provide a building block approach to even greater knowledge sharing. By using Query Server as the door opener, Dataware should be able to offer their other more profitable solutions and services to help build on the momentum they stated in 1998.

Open Text

By purchasing Information Dimension, Open Text has "opened" a new market with access to the corporate libraries and records managers, where Basis has always been strong. This market exposes Open Text to a wider corporate audience than just the traditional document management and IT oriented groups. Livelink 8, which received a strong welcoming and their new president John Shackleton, should lead to a banner year in 1999 for Open Text.

Optika

Optika's eMedia is now shipping and should provide the revenue vehicle for a strong 1999. Instead of continuing to upgrade and tweak their existing product line, Optika gambled and created a whole new architecture for business-to-business commerce that links employees, customers as well as suppliers. Optika's bold move with eMedia leverages the web to move business transactions closer to a paperless environment as well as create a stronger bond between companies and their customers.

Microsoft

Microsoft will continue to expand its presence in the KM space in 1999 with Site Server, third party enhancements to Exchange and additional acquisitions and alliances. As KM vendors see Exchange gaining footholds as a corporate messaging vehicle, more enhancement tools will be introduced that utilize Microsoft products as the underlying architecture. Keyfile and Eastman Software have led the charge by betting their companies upon the Microsoft backbone - and should reap the benefits from it in 1999. As additional enhancements and add-ons to Site Server are introduced such as grapeVine's Vocabulary Wizard, the potential of Microsoft's KM movement gain more corporate mind share.

IBM/Lotus

Lotus president Jeff Papow kicked off 1998 with his keynote address at the January 1998 Lotusphere conference in which he stated that "collaboration is the DNA of knowledge management." Lotus seems again poised to grab the attention of the corporate mindset with the much anticipated release of version 5 of their product to start off 1999.

Further leveraging IBM's platforms and text mining strength, along with key acquisitions of Databeam and Ubique in 1998, will continue to make Lotus the vendor always mentioned in KM discussions.

KM made great strives in 1998, but 1999 will be the year that KM shines!

Stephen F. Goodfellow is the President & CEO of Access Systems (www.AccessKM.com), an independent consultancy in Knowledge Management education. Steve can be reached via e-mail or (315) 682-1188.

 January 1999

KM World Magazine