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Need Software?: How The Vendors' Approaches DifferNeed Software?: How The Vendors' Approaches Differ
Four elements are needed for a basic knowledge-management environment: an intranet, search capability, discussion forums, and a people-finder to locate expertise and contact information.
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Good news for companies that want to do knowledge management but worry about the software cost: They might not need any. "Most companies we deal with have what they need to leverage knowledge and make a difference," says Kent Greenes, senior VP and chief knowledge officer at consulting firm Scientific Applications International.
Greenes identifies four elements for a basic knowledge-management environment: an intranet, search capability, discussion forums, and a people-finder to identify employees' expertise and contact details. Most companies have at least the first three but lack processes for ensuring that employees learn before, during, and after a project. "Show me a company that's doing that, and then maybe they should look into technology enhancements," he says.
For those more-advanced companies, here are some of the most prominent knowledge-management vendors.
AskMe Best known for maintaining profiles, searching, and connecting people to relevant experts.
Autonomy and Verity Fierce rivals provide intelligent search to find relevant content; clients include U.S. intelligence and homeland-security agencies.
Enfish Cross-references an employee's E-mail, documents, and contacts with enterprise data to try to predict what knowledge workers will need.
Entopia Silicon Valley startup's suite uses familiar file structure format for project-specific knowledge and relies on sophisticated semantic search.
IBM Lotus Software Beyond E-mail, companies use Lotus tools for portal-building, collaboration, instant messaging, and document management to create a knowledge-management platform.
Kamoon Employees E-mail a request to the Kamoon app, and it checks information assets and expertise databases for resources.
Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services collaboration tool is the centerpiece, and pending release of Live Communications Server will add presence awareness integration.
Open Text LiveLink app enables collaboration around documents, connects people, and brings in enterprise data.
Oracle Oracle Collaboration Suite, now in its second generation, sets up Ellison & crew to become a KM player.
Tacit Knowledge Systems E-mail search tool has expanded into expertise brokering, trying to predict when people need to collaborate with an expert.
Tomoye Simplify app focuses on communities of practice with tight E-mail integration.
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Illustration by Terry Miura
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