KMWorld Trend-Setting Products of 2008

What makes a trend-setting product?

When we first started identifying products six years ago, we were still seeing some radical new technology and tried to select solutions that would be embraced by the marketplace and gain wide adoption.

A few of the companies that developed the products have gone belly up; more have been acquired by other vendors. However, all things considered, we’ve been quite accurate selecting products that deliver customer value, which is the underlying principle that defines this year’s list.

You’ll note search offerings are prominently mentioned. Solutions continue to become better and better, more and more sophisticated. And there is no single solution for every situation, no uber offering. Nevertheless, there is nothing more fundamental to information management than first locating and then retrieving data. The other products demonstrate how that information can be managed, organized and exploited (in the best sense of the word). The same holds true for the content management products we’ve included.

You might also notice that we have relatively few Web/Enterprise 2.0 offerings, not because the products are weak. Rather, it’s because in most cases we don’t believe they are yet seamlessly integrated into enterprisewide environments. But they are here to stay, especially as the work force gets younger. They hold great promise, so check next year’s list for the ones we believe have set themselves apart from the pack.

It’s all about customer value.

5280 Solutions Dynamic Payables—integration solution for document, imaging, records and workflow management.

A2iA DocumentReader—classification of digitized documents into categories (letter, identity papers, contract, etc.) based on both their geometry and their content.

Abbyy Software FineReader 9—optical character recognition and PDF conversion software.

Access Innovations Thesaurus Master/MAIstro—ISO-, NISO- and W3C-compliant taxonomy and thesaurus creation software.

Adenin IntelliEnterprise—a complete, robust enterprise intranet suite.

Adobe LiveCycle ES—integrated server solution combining data capture, information assurance, document output, process management and content services.

Agent Logic RulePoint—suite of complex event processing products.

Anacomp CaseLogistix—litigation management solution that allows legal teams to quickly review and produce any amount of digital evidence.

Aquire OrgPublisher—enterprise organizational charting to visually analyze, manage and model work force information.

ArborSys Group EDM RapidDeploy—allows organizations to realize the business value of a base content management solution; an integrated and extendable platform to meet business priorities.

ASG Software Solutions ViewDirect E-mail Manager—captures e-mail while retaining the original format, with body and attachments together.

Astute Solutions RealDialog—natural language-based search, knowledge management and Web self-service solutions.

Attensity Text Analytics Suite—integration technology, knowledge engineering tools, a scalable server platform, patented extraction engines, business user applications and turnkey business solutions.

Attivio Active Intelligence Engine—combines enterprise search and business intelligence capabilities from internal and external sources, both structured and unstructured information.

Autonomy Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) Server—collects indexed data from connectors and stores it in its proprietary structure, optimized for fast processing and retrieval.

AXS-One Compliance Platform—end-to-end management of electronic records throughout their life cycle for regulatory, governance, privacy and discovery requirements.

BA-Insight Longitude—extends the search usability, relevance and connectivity capabilities of Microsoft SharePoint and Search Server.

Baynote Collective Intelligence Platform—on-demand recommendations and social search for Web sites.

BEA Systems (an Oracle company) AquaLogic—service-oriented infrastructure products that enable deployment of portals and user interfaces with Web 2.0 technologies and optimized business processes.

Brainware Globalbrain Enterprise Edition—locates information on PCs, enterprise databases, file servers, the Internet, etc., supports more than 250 file formats.

CA GRC Manager Solution—complete design implementation of an integrated governance, risk and compliance system.

Captaris Alchemy—full document management software for small and midsize businesses, providing scanning, imaging and archiving, as well as fax archiving and electronic records management.

CaseCentral Corporate Edition—hosted e-discovery life cycle management for the enterprise and law firms.

Citrix Online GoToWebinar—flexible, stable Web seminar platform that includes GoToMeeting for further collaboration functions.

Clearview ECM Suite 4.1—SharePoint-based enterprise content management with content services and document imaging based entirely on Microsoft technology.

Collexis Collexis Search—discovery software allows users to identify and search for documents, experts, trends or other insights that might not otherwise be located.

Connectbeam—Connectbeam Central Tag Repository—unleashes collaboration capabilities of SharePoint by capturing and using actual day-to-day and historical human experience in an organization.

Connotate Agent Community GEN2—allows non-technical users to create powerful, customized intelligent agents to access high-value content deep on the Web or in the enterprise.

Content Analyst C.A.A.T. (Content Analyst Analytical Technology)—enables organizations to organize, access and share information across multiple languages without the need for extensive human intervention.

Contextware Contextware KM—helps codify the multiple dimensions of business activities, enabling users to capture a significantly deeper view of their organizations.

Copyright Clearance Center Rightsphere—bridges the gap between knowledge sharing and copyright compliance, giving employees direct answers to their content usage questions while promoting collaboration.

Coveo G2B Information Access Suite—search-powered solutions for intranets, data silos, e-mails (and e-mail archives), CRM systems, ERP, databases, e-commerce and multimedia.

Cuadra Systems Cuadra STAR Hosted Service—customizable, task-oriented knowledge management solutions. 

Dieselpoint Dieselpoint Search—combines full-text and linguistic techniques with sophisticated data navigation to yield intuitive user interfaces.

Earley & Assoc./Wordmap Wordmap Search Integration Framework—allows rapid development and integration of taxonomies with applications that combine content from search and document management systems.

eGain eGain SME—enterprise collaboration tool that enables subject matter experts (SMEs) to contribute their expertise.

Ektron CMS400.net—a single application with the necessary functionality to create, deploy and manage your Web sites.

EMC/Legato/Documentum/Captiva EMC Documentum Content Server—robust content management services and infrastructure for all content applications.

Endeca Information Access Platform—combinessearch and business intelligence through tools and techniques forinformation discovery: search, Guided Navigation, ad hoc analysis, visualization and text analytics.

Exalead exalead one:search—unifiedsearch technology platform designed for all search forms (desktop, theWeb and across an enterprise, regardless of size or type).

EXSYS Corvid—allows non-programmers to rapidly build online applications that capture the logic that process experts use to solve problems, and deliver it tousers via their browser.

FAST (a Microsoft subsidiary) FAST ESP—full-featured, robust enterprise search platform.

Global 360 Insight 360—enables businesses to capture and leverage process intelligence in three perspectives: historical, real time and predictive.

Google Google Apps—continually evolving enterprise suite.

Groxis Grokker Enterprise Search Management—multisource federation, data clustering/visualization, dynamic filtering and collaboration tools designed to make research actionable.

Hoover’s Hoover’s Premium Select—reliable competitive intelligence service providing information on customers, competitors and prospects.

Hot Neuron Clustify—organizes documents by grouping them into clusters of similar documents, analyzes the text and identifies the structure that arises naturally without predetermined keywords or taxonomies.

HP HP TRIM—captures, manages, accesses and secures all information forms from electronic to physical records for the distributed enterprise.

Hyland Software OnBase Product Modules—wide variety offering for distributing stored content, including enterprise storage solutions, Web publishing, fax, e-mail, printing and CD/DVD.

IBM OmniFind Enterprise Edition—highly scalable, powerful search and text analytics.

Idatix iSynergy ECM—full integration of process definition, human resource allocation and document management.

IGLOO IGLOO Enterprise Edition—social networking suite with integrated content management, secure collaboration and Web 2.0.

InQuira InQuira 8—knowledgebase management, semantic search and advanced analytics and reporting.

Insightful S-PLUS 8 Enterprise Developer—platform for statistical data analysis and predictive analytics to enhance programming efficiencies and change management.

Interwoven Interwoven Universal Search Professional Services Edition—unifies content across multiple internal and external content sources, optimized for professional services firms.

ISYS Search Software ISYS 9 Suite—significant enhancements to an already robust, broad-spectrum group of search solutions.

Jive Software Clearspace—pioneering collaboration and business social software.

JustSystems XMetaL—XML-based software for structured authoring and content collaboration using industry standards such as DITA.

KANA Web Self-Service—"intelligent" software designed to empower self-service customers to find and escalate answers on their own, as well as anticipate their needs.

Kapow Technologies Kapow Mashup Server—enables building composite applications using both presentation-centric and data-centric mashups.

KNOVA (a Consona CRM company) KNOVA 7.2 Customer Service Suite—self-service, forums and guided selling application built on a flexible search and knowledge management platform.

Kofax Capture 8—state-of-the-art, production-level document and data capture with stable, deep document content and workflow.

Kroll Ontrack Engenium—conceptual search technology that automatically classifies documents by meaning rather than keyword.

Mark Logic MarkLogic Server—enterprise-grade database built specifically to store, index and retrieve XML content natively.

Mediasurface (an Alterian company) Morello CMS—Web content management system that offers non-technical users the ability to manage Web sites through a Windows-like interface.

Metastorm Roundtrip BPM—automates, controls and enhances human-centric and system-based business processes.

Microsoft Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007—integrated suite of server capabilities providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search.

Mindbreeze Mindbreeze Enterprise Search—designed for small- and medium-sized businesses, a quickly deployable information discovery solution.

MuseGlobal Content Integration Solutions—extends and enhances an existing technology platform when fast response to integrating searchable content sources is required.

NetDocuments SAAS Document Management—solid, secure software-as-a-service document and content management.

New Idea Engineering SearchTrack—server application that works in conjunction with an existing enterprise search engine to provide analytics and directed results.

NewsGator Technologies Editor’s Desk 2.1—widgets to enhance brand recognition and content engagement, drive site traffic and improve monetization of Web sites.

NextPage NextPage Edge Applications—compliance and information risk management solutions.

nGenera nGen Collaboration—on-demand software for knowledge and talent management.

Noetix Generators for BI Solutions—business intelligence reporting facilitators for Business Objects, Cognos BI, Oracle BI and Oracle Discoverer.

Northern Light SinglePoint—portal integrating market research from diverse sources through a single interface with a single login.

Nstein Web Content Management (WCM)—content-centric development framework that facilitates the management, enrichment and publication of content in online formats.

OneSource OneSource Synergy—delivery of business information along with Web subscriptions to internal enterprise systems.

Open Text Open Text ECM Suite—broad enterprise content and knowledge management solutions addressing every aspect of the content value chain, tailored to virtually all vertical industries.

Oracle Universal Content Management—designed to complement business applications, a unified enterprise content management platform featuring document management, Web content management, digital asset management and records retention systems.

PaperThin CommonSpot—an inherently easy-to-use, intuitive Web content management system.

QL2 Market Intelligence—on-demand delivery of business-critical information from the Web and other third-party sources about the market, including customers, competitors and channels.

RedDot (an Open Text company) RedDot CMS—proven content management with content authoring, navigation management,collaboration, digital asset management, workflow and multilingual site capabilities.

SAVO Sales Enablement Solution—employs Web 2.0 concepts to allow content contribution, insight and feedback.

SDL Tridion R5 Content Manager—a central CMS that adapts to the structure and roles of the organization.

Search Technologies Search Project Assessment Methodology—evaluation of current state of system and existing configuration combined with analysis of organization objectives and project/staffing recommendations and road map.

Serebrum Axon Collaboration Portal 2.0—Wiki-based portal built on J2EE architecture and an Ajax interface.

Servigistics Strategic Service Management—integrated solutions built to enable companies to mitigate the risk associatedwith delivering on the service commitments made to their customers.

Sinequa Sinequa CS—the search and navigation engine of the company’s enterprise search offering, providing dynamic and contextual classification of client knowledgebases using semantic technology to automatically detect providers, themes and associated dates.

Socialcast Socialcast 3.0—a micro-blogging-based corporate social networking tool for internal collaboration and knowledge sharing; built on a self-service model for small- to medium-sized businesses and offering enterprise scalability.

Socialtext Socialtext Appliance—feature-rich, secure enterprise collaboration using Wiki technology.

Soffront Software Soffront CRM—integrated customer relationship management software, with support for sales, marketing, customer service, knowledgebase, help desks, project management and defect tracking.

SpringCM On Demand Document and Workflow—complete enterprise content management (ECM) solution delivered via Web-based software as a service.

Symantec Norton 360—robust, all-encompassing PC security.

Talisma (an nGenera company) Talisma Knowledgebase—24x7 access to information through a self-service portal.

TEMIS Luxid 5.0—interactive information processing allowing users to understand, analyze, enrich and share information to turn it into actionable knowledge.

Teragram (a SAS company) Categorizer—in tandem with Teragram Taxonomy Manager, classifies documents and organizes information into categories that fit the structure of an organization.

TheBrain PersonalBrain 4.5—powerful personal knowledge management tool.

Traction Software TeamPage 4.0—combines wiki-style group editing, blogging and commenting capabilities.

Trampoline SONAR Dashboard—robust enterprise social networking.

Vignette Business Integration Studio—an approach to out-of-the box, relatively light load, smooth integration of wide sources of enterprise content.

Vital Path PathBuilder—content integration software enabling users to map, replicate and migrate security and collaborative information.

Vivisimo Vivisimo Velocity Search Platform—highly scalable, full-featured enterprise search for complex environments.

Vorsite Integration Solutions for MOSS—knowledge framework addressing integration requirements between SharePoint and backend enterprise systems.

X-1 Enterprise Search Suite—includes Enterprise Server, Professional Client and Content Connector to provide comprehensible, highly scalable search.

Xerox DocuShare—document management, collaboration, review, approval and Web publishing to support information sharing throughout the large, distributed organizations.

XyEnterprise Contenta 4.0—leading-edge, full-featured XML content management solutions.

Xythos Enterprise Document Management Suite—allows secure access, management and content sharing over the Web, along with secure, solid records management and integrated workflow capabilities.

ZyLAB ZyIMAGE Information Access Platform (IAP)—complete content life cycle management with proven capture, archive, search, security and context-specific content management functionalities.