Hold onto your socks - there are fourteen knowledge management 'stories' in this post. From iPhrase's One Step application, to Kent State's collaboration with Sheffield University, United Kingdom, to Line56 Media and Plumtree Software's new survey results, to articles on Content Management, the UN, Document Management, to the release of new enterprise suites by both Hummingbird and Generation21 Learning Systems, Global Knowledge's new CEO, Primus' first profitable quarter, and the list goes on... Enjoy...
SearchCRM.com :: A better search creates a site for sore eyes
By Barney Beal
...The difference between a frustrated customer slogging through a maze of site links and one quickly finding the necessary information can be the difference between a sale and someone logging off.
That has companies taking a closer look at enterprise-search technology for their customer-facing applications.
Countrywide Financial Corp., in Calabasas, Calif., recently invested in the One Step application from iPhrase Technologies Inc. Countrywide, a mortgage lender that is branching out into banking and insurance, wanted to create a common style for its 110 external-facing Web sites. Much of the firm's business goes through the online channel, including about 45% of its mortgage lending, according to Larry Gentry, first vice president of business technologies.
Countrywide bought into One Step in May and has rolled it out on its corporate communications and investor relations sites.
"So far, it looks great," Gentry said; "iPhrase has a good reporting module, so you can instantly see what people are searching for [and] the number of clicks. It's insight we never had before."
Already, the company has seen unexpected traffic for job listings and career information. Additionally, many users are looking for branch locations. Armed with that information, Countrywide was able to move the link to that information further up the FAQ site, saving customers a step.
Customer-facing search technology is just one segment of the overall enterprise-search market, according to Tim Hickernell, an analyst with META Group, Inc., in Stamford, Conn. Others include traditional, enterprise-wide search technology and categorization, and there's also information-discovery technology, such as that used by large agencies such as the CIA and FBI.
Laura Ramos, a director with Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., said the market for search technology is just beginning to sort itself out.
"Enterprise search is still very crowded with vendors and crowded with technology," she said. "There's a lot of opportunity for growth. It's difficult to sort out the players."
Analysts say Verity, Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., and Autonomy Systems, San Francisco, are two of the bigger players in the overall enterprise-search arena...
...KENT, Ohio, Oct. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The Center for Executive Education and Development (CEED) at Kent State University announces an exclusive collaboration with ThinkTank Consortium, an Action Learning Consortium working with Sheffield University, United Kingdom. This first-time alignment between the two consortiums will launch a new block of training programs and global best practice initiatives never before available to businesses. The combination of practical knowledge and implementation strategies created by this venture is unprecedented. Businesses will have the opportunity to access these global best practices through new programs and initiatives offered by CEED. Courses will begin January, 2004 with curriculums such as Innovative Thinking for Management, E-Business: Global Best Practices, Knowledge Management Fundamentals and Process Management for Healthcare. A complete course schedule is available at: ThinkTank Consortium: Partners in Best Practice.
"The benefits of synergy from this collaboration between ThinkTank and CEED are incalculable and obviously desirable to any business" states Richard Jackson, principal of ThinkTank Consortium.
Mr. Richard Jackson recently spent two weeks on the Kent State University Campus for meetings, presentations and keynote addresses. Mr. Jackson has implemented quality systems in business, the classroom and healthcare. Holding MSc's in both Operational Research and Business Intelligence, Mr. Jackson's premier expertise lies in the field of healthcare. (Note: European MSc's are equivalent to U.S. based PhD. degrees) He is currently in collaboration with the UK's National Health System (NHS) on the development of an automated knowledge management system for NHS.
"Combining the capabilities of these two organizations will, unequivocally, result in the invaluable sharing of global intelligence" states Lucinda Welch, Outreach Manager of CEED. "We are proud to present this caliber of knowledge, application and research to our clients."
CEED specializes in customized training and consulting services. Located at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio USA, CEED helps today's executive leaders rise to the challenges of this highly competitive marketplace. CEED strives to provide business clients with highly targeted and effective training/development programs and consulting services that focus on growth, productivity and organizational excellence. For more information regarding CEED, contact Lucinda (Cindy) Welch, Outreach Manager at 330-672-1176, lwelch@bsa3.kent.edu or visit CEED - Kent State's Center for Executive Education and Development.
...LOS ANGELES and SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Line56 Media and Enterprise Web leader Plumtree Software (Nasdaq: PLUM) today published the industry's first comprehensive survey of organizations deploying Enterprise Web software. Survey results indicate that the average mid- to large-sized organization supports over four development standards, nearly three application servers and over three content repositories. The survey also found that organizations are using this heterogeneous infrastructure to build
an enormous number of applications, averaging over 120 applications per respondent. The report, which also includes market-share and ROI data, is available at Line56.com | E-Business Research Reports. Line56 and Plumtree will discuss the survey results in an online seminar this Wednesday, October 19th at 11:00 a.m. PT with registration at Line56 and Plumtree Discussion Registration.
eWeek :: Content Management is King
By Dennis Callaghan
...Enterprises with diverse content management needs will have new options from IBM and Open Text Corp., following announcements from those companies regarding new products and an acquisition, respectively.
IBM last week rolled out new content management software for small and midsize businesses and Linux shops, as well as new content management integration offerings and records management product enhancements. ...
Meanwhile, Open Text last week acquired German enterprise content management software developer Ixos Software AG, which is expected to add content management and archiving to Open Text's core strengths in collaboration and knowledge management. The $225 million deal comes on the heels of Open Text's August purchase of another German content management software developer, Gauss Interprises AG...
UN News Centre :: UN reform proceeding on many fronts, Frechette tells General Assembly
...A new report on providing technical cooperation identifies UN system agencies active on certain issues and clarifies roles and responsibilities to eliminate duplication, she told the Assembly. "It is hoped that this compendium will be a useful source of information for programme countries and the donor community."
The UN's work in developing countries "is being made more effective through simplification and harmonization of procedures, joint programming, the pooling of resources, better knowledge management and improvements in the (development) Resident Coordinator system," she said.
This year's UN budget proposals represent "a major effort to realign activities with priorities and to increase attention to development issues, in particular the Millennium Development Goals," she said.
The goals, approved in 2000 by a summit of world leaders, aim to eliminate extreme poverty by 2015.
Alongside the efforts to reform the international civil service, General Assembly President Julian Hunte of St. Lucia has been campaigning to improve the working of the 191-member body.
Speaking at the opening session of the Inter-Parliamentary Union hearing today, he said, "We seek to foster the building of a 'global parliament,' more efficient in its decision-making process and more capable of taking effective decisions. Above all, we need a United Nations General Assembly whose decisions are respected and have a decisive influence on the actions of member states."
In the General Assembly later, he appointed "facilitators" to move the process of gathering reform proposals along and he asked delegates "to demonstrate a combination of imagination in proposing solutions and of willingness to be flexible during the process of negotiation."...
Transform Magazine :: Document and Content Services: From Plain Vanilla to Super Deluxe
by Sam Diamond
...Things sure have changed at service bureaus. It's not that they're offering 39 flavors of service; they're more like the new "old fashioned" ice cream stores that start with plain vanilla and then mix in toppings to create whatever concoctions customers want. Most service bureaus still start with basic document-oriented services, such as scanning and data entry, but it's the added services that really bring value to customers.
"The role of service bureaus has evolved from one of just enabling companies to save space by making electronic copies of documents, to one of empowering them to leverage the content in those documents," explains John Solomon, president of Input Solutions, an imaging-oriented service provider in Gaithersburg, MD. "Increasingly, companies want value-added services like database design, sophisticated indexing schemes and knowledge management capabilities." ...
Service bureaus understand that to remain successful, they must offer a range of services that match the changing needs of the market. What does the menu include so far? Conventional document services include scanning, data entry, database design, indexing, creating sub-databases for specific interest groups within an enterprise, knowledge management, and delivering images on secure Web sites, via secure transfers or on CDs or DVDs.
In the content-oriented services arena, taxonomy development, content tagging, and XML/HTML transformation services are commonplace, and value-added services now include integration services and site hosting. Outsourcing, too, is gaining popularity, with companies turning to service providers to take on complete business processes.
"Businesses today are trying to meet increasingly complex information needs with manual and fragmented document and records management practices," says Larry Wash, vice president, managed services operations at Rochester, NY-based Xerox Global Services. "To address this issue, organizations are focusing on how to more effectively capture, manage and deliver unstructured information in order to facilitate productive collaboration among employees, make more effective decisions and reduce embedded process costs."...
Transform Magazine :: Moving Closer to True ECM
by Marvin Pyles
...Hummingbird Enterprise 5.1, the latest version of Hummingbird's suite, is aimed at meeting compliance mandates as well as most, though not all, of the challenges of enterprise content management (ECM). While it's not a major upgrade, release 5.1 offers many improvements in usability and application performance that will translate into better productivity for end users.
Hummingbird Enterprise is a suite of integrated applications including document management, records management, knowledge management, collaboration, search, business intelligence (BI), data integration and a unifying portal. Hummingbird was among the first ECM companies to integrate records management functionality, so it can draw on extensive experience in meeting today's heightened compliance demands. The company's records management technology is DoD 5015.2-certified, and the company has more recently added an Automated E-Mail Management solution to provide classification, indexing, search and retention of messaging content in Exchange public folders and Lotus Notes repositories. ...
Hummingbird's strongest customer bases include legal, professional services, government agencies, financial services and utilities. According to Shruti Yadav, an analyst with Wellesley, MA-based Nucleus Research, "Companies seem to choose Hummingbird because it has the most out-of-box functionality you can use without excess consulting or customization costs. This gives companies a shorter implementation time and can have a huge impact on ROI."...
Business Wire :: Global Knowledge Appoints Joseph W. Cece President and CEO
...CARY, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 2003--Global Knowledge Inc., a worldwide leader in IT education and learning solutions, today announced the appointment of its president and chief executive officer, Joseph W. Cece. A seasoned senior executive with more than 20 years of experience growing and managing companies in highly competitive sectors, Cece was selected by the owners of Global Knowledge -- New York investment firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe -- to lead Global Knowledge's future strategy and growth in the worldwide IT education and learning marketplace.
Before joining Global Knowledge, Cece served as the CEO of BTI Telecom Corp., a Raleigh, N.C.-based telecommunication provider that recently merged with West Point, Ga.-based ITC DeltaCom. Prior to his tenure at BTI, Cece held executive management positions at Digital Access, Suburban Cable, Cablevision Systems Corp. and TV Guide...
...GOLDEN, Colo., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Generation21 Learning Systems, a leading developer of enterprise learning software, has completed load testing on its new Generation21 Enterprise Version 5.0 and the results are unprecedented. Generation21 Enterprise version 5.0 will be released in November at TechLearn in Orlando.
The load test, conducted on Generation21 Enterprise Version 5.0 baseline product, simulated 66,299 users and 397,794 transactions over the seven-day testing period resulting in zero errors. Performance on the application server and database server were monitored over the seven-day period with memory usage never exceeding 25 percent of capacity, with the exception of a couple of spikes at 40 percent.
"We have made great strides with Generation21 Enterprise Version 5.0," said Dale Zwart, Generation21's founder and chief technology officer. "But all of the new advances would be for naught if we weren't able to offer a stable system to our customers. The results of our testing have been phenomenal."
Generation21 pioneered the use of Universal Knowledge Objects -- "nuggets" of right-sized information -- and continues to enhance enterprise learning with innovations including performance support with context-based retrieval of knowledge outside of the classroom and on-the-job. Generation21 allows organizations to capture and share knowledge to generate measurable results in improved efficiency and productivity by allowing a company's knowledge base to be easily accessed by employees in diverse locations, thus allowing learning to be constant. Generation21 Enterprise Version 5.0 will be unveiled November 2-5, 2003 in Orlando, Fla. at TechLearn 2003...
RealMarket CRM News Release :: SupportSoft
...SupportSoft's Knowledge Center Suite Automates Self-Service for 25,000 Cox Employees
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SupportSoft (Company Profile, Past Stories, Case Studies), Inc. (Nasdaq: SPRT - News), a leading provider of real-time service management software, today announced the successful deployment of SupportSoft's Knowledge Center Suite(TM) within Cox Communications, a Fortune 500 and leading cable communications company. The Knowledge Center Suite leverages SupportSoft's Real-Time Service Management (RTSM) software platform that allows problems to be automatically put into context, their cause to be diagnosed and, once determined, resolved -- or even avoided altogether -- in real time...
...DULLES, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 28, 2003--Guardian Technologies International, Inc. (OTCBB:GDTI), an Intelligent Systems Solution Provider (ISSP), announces that it has reached an agreement to purchase the Intellectual Property (IP), which includes the radiology imaging, compression, and feature enhancement technologies of Difference Engines Corporation (DE), a privately-held company in Columbia, MD.
According to Michael Trudnak, CEO of Guardian Technologies, "we have long thought of Life Sciences as one of Guardian's primary markets for its advanced Intelligent Reasoning Information Systems (IRIS). This intelligent solution combined with imaging technologies, has applications across all areas of medical information."
"We feel this transaction provides Guardian with the most advanced platform currently available for penetrating the market for HIPAA compliance. This market is estimated to have a potential size of $160 billion. Our platform allows medical providers to store all medical records, documentation, and medical images in a secure 'point & click' software platform. It will be a significant contributor to our revenues in 2004," Trudnak continued...
...SUNNYVALE, Calif. and NEW YORK, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Factiva(TM), a Dow Jones and Reuters Company, and Verity Inc. (Nasdaq: VRTY), today announced an agreement that will help global enterprise customers to effectively and easily organize their intellectual capital assets.
The companies will jointly offer enterprise customers the opportunity to integrate a set of Factiva's industry-specific taxonomies with Verity's intellectual capital management software, K2 Enterprise. In addition, customers can gain access to Factiva's global collection of nearly 8,000 content sources, and engage the taxonomy and technical experts of Factiva Client Solutions.
Under the terms of the partnership, Factiva will offer its content and taxonomy expertise, including strategy and implementation -- adaptable to the specific needs and rules of an organization -- for use with Verity's flagship intellectual capital management solution, K2 Enterprise. Factiva will offer its established general business taxonomy for companies, industries, regions and subjects, as well as its recently announced specialized pharmaceutical and healthcare taxonomy. Factiva Client Solutions, including its taxonomy specialists, will now be available to assist with Verity implementations...
...ARLINGTON, Va., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CACI International Inc
(NYSE: CAI) announced that it has been awarded two prime contracts by the Department of Defense (DoD) to support TRICARE, the military's healthcare program. One contract calls for CACI to provide management planning and resources to help centralize TRICARE's marketing and education capabilities, while the second calls for CACI to support TRICARE's customer call center.
With a total estimated value of $60 million, both contracts have a duration of one base year and four option years. The awards increase CACI's DoD client base and support the company's growing business in DoD healthcare services...
Business Wire :: Primus Knowledge Solutions Reports Quarterly Profit and Revenue Growth
...During the quarter Primus added several new customers, including a significant wireless provider, First Consulting Group, Genentech, Red Hat and others and had repeat business with Airbus, Eastman Kodak, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Washington Mutual Bank and others.
Also during the third quarter, Primus received the 2003 STAR Award for "Best Support Technology Vendor" from the Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the leading industry association for IT support professionals...
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