IBM acquires KnowledgeX

Emerging market or not, the knowledge management space may be seeing the first stages of consolidation with IBM's just-announced acquisition of KnowledgeX. IBM, which recently staked its claim in the KM market through a joint announcement with Lotus, plans to integrate KnowledgeX's technology into its DB2 database and business intelligence software. KnowledgeX's software will allow users of IBM's DB2 database to bring structured information from legacy database systems into their corporate knowledge base, where it can be connected with other unstructured information to expose new relationships.

The need to gather and process information from legacy systems ­ especially structured data sources, i.e. databases ­ is common among those evaluating their KM initiative, and with this acquisition IBM has taken steps to address that need. "Through its legacy, IBM's users are sitting on a massive repository of knowledge in the DB2 environment," according to the Delphi Group. "The ability to merge this structured resource with document collections significantly enhances IBM's knowledge management solution set."

With its newly-enhanced Intelligent Miner for Text product, Lotus Notes' foothold in the groupware/collaborative work environment, and now KnowledgeX's technology, "IBM is putting on a full court press to dominate the knowledge management market," says Delphi.