judith meskill - soc.media.rocks

David Kirkpatrick has a Fast Forward column for Fortune in which he recently writes: Document Overload: Managing the Digital Paper Chase.
This article is primarily about Enterprise Content Management (ECM) and a recent tutorial that David Kirpatrick received from Tom Jenkins, CEO of Open Text, on this topic. The part that caught my eye was David's mention of Knowledge Management as a "hot area" within ECM. The following quote from David's article also includes a unique description of Knowledge Management through the eyes of Tom Jenkins at the end of the following first paragraph:
 
The latest hot area in ECM is what's called Knowledge Management - KM to those in the know, of course. What that's about is figuring out how or why something happened in an organization. Government investigators, for instance, may need to know exactly what decision-making process a company went through before launching a drug or building an aircraft part in a certain way. Says Jenkins: "This becomes, in a catch phrase our industry uses, the 'corporate memory.' Knowing how things were decided is absolutely critical." He describes knowledge management as "like a Google search that comes with a video of how the document you found was actually created."
ECM is approximately a $2.5 billion industry growing at 20% to 25% a year - one of the fastest-growing parts of a still-sluggish IT industry. As consolidation continues in this rapidly maturing business, Jenkins holds that Open Text will be a consolidator and survivor...

A June 2, 2004 Business Wire press release announces: Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. Announces PSIMedica Contract with Lockton Companies, Inc. to Control Health Care Costs.
Here is an excerpt from this press release regarding Bio-Reference Laboratories' Clinical Knowledge Management (CKM) system:
 
Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRLI) announced today that its PSIMedica division has executed a multiyear contract with Lockton Companies, Inc., a leading insurance consulting and brokerage firm, to provide healthcare information analytics through its Clinical Knowledge Management (CKM) solution. As part of its full-service offering to customers, Lockton includes informatic analytic services that enable Lockton's customers to control healthcare costs and improve healthcare benefits. CKM is a proprietary solution that will enable Lockton to provide comprehensive analysis of healthcare costs and benefits.
 
"Claims analytics is a key component of the strategic services we provide our clients", said Mike Brewer, Lockton Benefit Group President. "InfoLock's disease management, cost modeling, financial analysis and overall flexibility will enable us to help our clients identify and manage claims costs at a level that was previously unattainable".
 
PSIMedica CKM is a web-based application that integrates all available health data, costs and quality information on employee benefit experience from sources including health carriers, pharmacy, disability, workers compensation, laboratory, dental, and absence data. By providing unfettered access to all the relevant data in one easily useable, web-based format, CKM makes employee benefit decision processes far more efficient. The value to the employer is control of the critical information upon which major benefits procurement and spending decisions are based.

edocs Acquires Brightware eService Business from Firepond, Inc.
NATICK, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 1, 2004--edocs, Inc. (http://www.edocs.com/), a provider of customer self-service and e-billing software solutions, today announced that it has acquired the Brightware business unit of Firepond, Inc. Brightware is recognized as a pioneer in delivering eService software solutions for inbound e-mail response management, knowledge management and chat. The acquisition complements edocs' existing e-billing, web self-service and assisted care offerings, enabling companies to provide the most effective and efficient customer care regardless of which channel their customers choose for service.
 
...edocs is acquiring the following products with the Brightware suite:
 
-- "Answer" for e-mail Response Management - an automated response management system that determines the intent of incoming e-mail messages and composes personalized answers that can be automatically dispatched to customers or routed to service agents for a single click review.
 
-- "Converse" for Real-Time Chat Management - a real-time assistant that provides immediate interactions between customers and contact center agents.
 
-- "Concierge" for Knowledge Management - an intelligent knowledge management solution that leverages the Brightware knowledgebase to automatically direct inbound customer requests to the most appropriate information or resource.

For InfoWorld, Ephraim Schwartz writes--HP helps users meld business with IT
What stands out in this article for me is that HP has:
"...regrouped all the functions that touch customers in one organization," Kohler said, adding that the goal is to help customers synchronize business and IT in order to capitalize on a changing business environment.
 
To that end, the HP.com Business to Business extranet will give HP enterprise customers global visibility into catalogs, purchasing, and order status, allowing them to procure products across multiple HP regions from a single site. Catalog data will be personalized by industry and customer profile, as will the extranet, which will include account-specific content.
 
An opt-in component will also allow HP to monitor and analyze in real time customers' activities on the Web site, giving HP the ability to link what is happening in support with what is happening in terms of purchasing, for example.
 
...According to HP's Kohler, ECO will also reduce HP's operational costs by streamlining the company's ability to serve customers. HP's efforts at consolidation will help "normalize" the number of calls into HP call centers by giving customers "global consistency," Kohler said.
 
..Perhaps stealing a page from Dell's knowledge management book, HP will also offer a central repository of information that can be accessed globally...

Bob Brewin writes a Sidebar for Computerworld--Keep Mobile Apps Simple, Say IT Managers.
Wherein he cites some advice from a law firm that makes use of handheld devices to feed input to their knowledge management backend:
 
...Companies that want to deliver data to end users who have devices smaller than laptop PCs need to make sure it is "concisely formatted" to fit on a 3-inch screen, said Justin Hectus, director of information at Keesal, Young & Logan, a law firm in Long Beach, Calif.
Hectus said attorneys at the firm use mobile devices that are hooked into the back-end knowledge management system. Simple but powerful text fields let the users enter small amounts of information on the fly and quickly share the data with other workers...

Cisco's Stephanie Carhee, in an article provided courtesy of Cisco Press to informIT, writes: Migrating to IP Telephony? Top Ten Tips for Guiding a Successful IP Telephony Implementation.
Embedded in Tip 6, Follow the 80/20 Rule for Implementation are ten steps to engagement success:
The fruit of managing several implementations, Cisco's "IP Telephony Steps to Success Engagement Guide" is a knowledge management portal designed to help Cisco IP telephony partners in creating their own implementation plans (cisco.com/go/stepstosuccess, Cisco.com login required). Following is a condensed version of the high-level steps that should be considered when beginning and completing the implementation phase:
Step 1. Facilitate Implementation Planning
Step 2. Hold Implementation Planning Meeting
Step 3. Define Project Monitoring and Control
Step 4. Develop Status Reporting Structure
Step 5. Begin Site Preparation
Step 6. Conduct Install and Configure
Step 7. Manage Test and Acceptance
Step 8. Deliver Knowledge Handoff
Step 9. Ensure Customer Acceptance
Step 10. Complete Closeout
 
A comprehensive depiction of the key implementation steps, the "The Road to IP Telephony" mini poster, is available to download free.

Europe's Largest 'Knowledge System' for Remote Diagnosis of Vehicle Faults Unveiled
LONDON, May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Vehicle mechanics across Europe will be able to share their expertise and experience of specific vehicle faults thanks to an internet-based 'knowledge system' unveiled by TRW, the world's tenth largest automotive supplier.
 
It's the largest knowledge system of its kind in Europe and will allow technicians to diagnose and repair vehicle problems much more quickly and efficiently.
 
The system is based on knowledge software from eGain Communications, the leading provider of customer service and contact centre software.
 
eGain's knowledge system will be offered as part of TRW's 'Internet diagnostic' programme, called Id. It is forecast that over 4,000 garages in the UK and France will be using Id by the end of their launch year. Id is based on 'remote diagnostic' technology, which analysts believe will revolutionise the automotive industry for years to come.
 
Remote diagnostics takes advantage of the fact that almost all modern vehicle systems are governed by computers. 'Id' accesses all of the diagnostic information collected by those in-vehicle computers and makes them available to technicians on desktop PCs or laptops...

In the Australian version of Computerworld, Infoworld writer David L. Margulius posts: Government veers onto the Web.
...The ultimate goal of self-service government is to combine a set of time-consuming interactions into a single, seamless experience. But most agencies start with a more modest aim: putting a simple information request process or transaction online. Even this requires the successful implementation of basic technology ranging from knowledge management applications to Web and e-mail self-service tools.
"In many government organizations, the same information gets requested over and over again," RightNow's Gianforte says. "This is really the largest opportunity for doing more with less." But, as Gianforte notes, the content people seek is often spread out over many different systems.
 
Creating a centralized knowledge base that both covers the most common questions and is easy for citizens to navigate is crucial. These knowledge bases must be kept organized and updated through strong knowledge-management processes, an area where government struggles, according to Anurag Juneja, vice president of services and solutions at eGain Communications.
 
"People are a little hesitant to make the investment" in a centralized knowledge authoring team, Juneja says, adding that such a team is crucial to creating "an experience that customers would actually like to come back to."
 
Juneja notes that users searching the Internal Revenue Service's Web site for information about the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) might find as many as 100 documents, get frustrated, give up, and call the agency's hotline. If instead they had found a simple case-based approach to explaining the AMT, they'd be more likely to use self-service the next time, Juneja says.
 
"Listening to what people want to know and putting the answer in language they will understand" is crucial, agrees Janice Mosher, manager of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Customer Service Center, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. In 2003, Mosher's group implemented a knowledge base to provide Web self-service answers to import immigration- and agriculture-related questions. She believes that in addition to providing clear answers agencies must enforce usage of self-service channels by making it difficult to go straight to assisted support...

Susan Pinker of The Globe and Mail has a "Dear Susan" column. Yesterday's title for Susan's column was "Satisfaction is a moving target". And while this is not exceedingly germane to my typical 'knowledge notes' topics, it did make me chuckle to compare choosing peanut butter to choosing a career in KM.
A reader, 'Just Me' asks (after a detailed explanation of her hiatus from working due to a number of reasons):
 
Should I take more college courses in knowledge management? I don't seem to have a passion or can't define one. Where should I go from here? Is it even viable for me to start over?
--Just Me and My Cats
 
To which Susan Pinker replies:
 
Dear Just Me,
 
Your predicament reminds me of shopping for peanut butter in a big supermarket. Should you buy the one you liked as a child? The one without fat, sugar or salt, but perhaps without taste? What about the organic one; it's better for you but you read somewhere that it contains a weird toxic mould. Smooth? Crunchy? The one with the peanut on top or the oil slick on top?
...While I'm not suggesting that choosing a career is as trivial as buying peanut butter, there is a limit to how much your happiness hinges on making the perfect choice.
 
...To extrapolate to your situation, now that you're healthy and your parents are settled, I don't think it's critical whether you work part-time, full-time, in business, library science, knowledge management or a combination of the above. What is critical is that you get back into the labour market and away from your cats, at least for a few hours a day.

In a press release on Yahoo! today: LexisNexis(R) Technology at the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Wins Knowledge Management Award.
DAYTON, Ohio, May 26 /PRNewswire/ -- LexisNexis U.S., a leading provider of legal, news, public records and business information services, is proud to announce that the LexisNexis database network technology solution provided to the IRS won the E-Gov Institute's 2004 Knowledge Management Award. The Award was presented at the E-Gov Institute's Knowledge Management Conference in Washington, D.C.
 
...The Internal Revenue Manual Knowledge Base, is a linkable, searchable electronic network of information and data repositories with the online Internal Revenue Manual at the core. Combined with tax and legal research services, this network provides a comprehensive suite of tax administration tools for all IRS frontline employees. LexisNexis provides tax solutions to over 35,000 IRS employees and started working with the IRS to refine this network in early 2000.

Something to watch out for...
 
While perusing my news feed this morning I came across an announcement from Penn State Live regarding Penn State University Leaves of Absence 2004-05.
Among the numerous leaves listed was one:
 
Richard R. Young, associate professor of business administration, to conduct research and develop further the concept of the application of knowledge management to the functioning of supply chains; to develop a manuscript for publication in an academic journal; and to compile research necessary for the publication of a book, Knowledge Management for Effective Supply Chains.
Best of luck Richard... (-:=

On May 17, 2004 Gartner announced vendor placement in its 'Magic Quadrant for the Smart Enterprise Suite, 2004'. By browsing the press releases of a number of the proud 'Magic Quadrant' leaders, I was able to ascertain that IBM, Open Text, SAP, Vignette, Plumtree Software, and Hummingbird landed in the 'Leader' category this year. And Microsoft sits alone in the 'Challenger' category. Hmm...
 
Of Gartner's definition of the Smart Enterprise Suite, Judith Lamont, writes for KMWorld--The smart enterprise suite - Gateway to the KM vision:
"...The prospect of being able to bring all the technologies that have been labeled as knowledge management enablers into a unified environment is enticing to vendors and customers alike. The smart enterprise suite comes closer to fulfilling the KM vision than anything else to date..."

An eMediaWire press release announces--Europe's semantic web projects start to mesh.
Galway, Ireland (PRWEB) May 23 2004 - An international audience of over 220 semantic web specialists and enthusiasts from Europe, USA, Australia and Japan attended the 1st European Semantic Web Symposium (ESWS 2004) on 10-12 May in Heraklion, Crete.
ESWS 2004, which featured academic research papers, industrial papers, tutorials, posters and demonstrations, also showcased three major EU-funded semantic web projects - SEKT (Semantic Knowledge Technologies), DIP (Data, Information and Process Integration), and KnowledgeWeb. These projects form part of a natural "cluster" collectively referred to as SDK.
 
...SEKT (SEmantic Knowledge Technologies), another of the EU-funded projects featured at ESWS, is coordinated by BT the UK telecoms operator and a leader in the information communication technology market. Dr. John Davies, the SEKT project director said: "The World Wide Web today is full of unstructured text. That's fine for people, but useless for computers. In this scenario, the computer isn't actually doing much computation - it is really a presentation device. The Semantic Web will make web-based information machine-processable - a key area of research in SEKT. SEKT envisions knowledge workplaces where the boundaries between heterogeneous data sources are broken down, and where knowledge management is fully integrated into day-to-day business tasks. Appropriate knowledge will be automatically delivered to the right people at the right time at the right granularity via a range of user devices."
 
Professor Rudi Studer from the University of Karlsruhe, SEKT's Technical Director, explained that the project will integrate 3 key Semantic Web technologies: "The synergy between human language technology, machine learning techniques as well as ontology management methods will be exploited in order to generate in a semi-automatic way the ontological structures and related metadata that are needed for realizing Next Generation Knowledge Management solutions". The end result will be to enable greater productivity for knowledge workers across a wide range of professional disciplines and industrial sectors.
 
KnowledgeWeb, the third project in the trio of semantic web projects, is also funded by the Information Society Technologies (IST) Priority for Research, Technology Development & Demonstration under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission. The mission of KnowledgeWeb is to strengthen European industry and service providers in one of the most important areas of current computer technology: semantic web enabled e-work and e-commerce. The KnowledgeWeb network of excellence will focus effort around the outreach of semantic web technology to industry, education and research in order to ensure critical mass, maximum impact and full support from industry...

Stacy Cowley, IDG News Service, writes of New Web Structure Promoted in PCWorld.com.
Stacy writes about the Semantic Web vision that Tim Berners-Lee's unfolded in a keynote speech at the 13th annual World Wide Web conference, along with an important milestone for Semantic Web--the development of two foundational standards, the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the OWL Web Ontology Language (OWL).
 
...Projects involving Semantic Web technologies are already under way at several organizations. Boeing is exploring semantics-based applications for information and application integration and interoperability, and for knowledge management. Adobe Systems has built into its products Adobe Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP), an RDF-based metadata system that links contextual information with content files...
Berners-Lee urged the conference attendees to pitch in on the Semantic Web-enablement of online artifacts to help "bootstrap things in the short term".

Sion Barry, The Western Mail, writes about the University of Glamorgan's Welsh Institute for Competitive Advantage (WICA) and its aim to translate the latest research and development in strategic management into sound organisational principles in--ic Wales - University turning theory into workplace reality.
...Simon Brooks, senior lecturer at the university' s business school and head of the new unit, said, "We have surveyed over 130 businesses and assessed them on their use of strategic tools and techniques, strategic decision making, use of knowledge management, corporate social responsibility and organisational culture and leadership issues.
"We will be presenting an overview of what the key strategic issues facing businesses are and how they are dealing with them."
 
WICA, although based in Wales, will work with clients across the world on a collaborative basis.
 
Mr Brooks said, "We insist on engaging clients in the process, to ensure that they feel a greater sense of ownership of the findings and solutions and that the project remains within their requirements."...