Biographical Information

Articles by Judith Lamont, Ph.D.

What’s next in KM: All roads lead to AI

KM and AI are a natural team—their combined value can only be expected to increase in the future. As AI-powered technology becomes more integrated with both daily work functions and strategic planning, enterprise knowledge will come closer to achieving its full potential.

Taxonomies: Foundational to knowledge management

As the volume of digital content increases, the ability to manage it becomes more important. Taxonomy and metadata are vital to finding products, conducting scientific research, and keeping track of organizational information. They also enable a wide variety of analytics on unstructured data. We can see the results of a well-designed taxonomy, but behind the scenes, there's a lot more going on than meets the eye.

Taking the leap: Migrating to a new platform

The key best practice is upfront planning, including having an understanding of the potentially far-reaching impact of migration.

Cloud technology: A synergistic environment for KM and generative AI

Cloud technology may have become a commodity to some extent, but it is not a simple commodity. The technology that allows cloud computing to be dynamic and agile is composed of many interrelated components, which means that when one thing goes wrong, the problem can cascade.

Personalization to support customer engagement and boost revenue

Over time, consumers have become accustomed to personalized results when they search for products and services. They are demanding that the brands they deal with have a deep understanding of their individual needs.

Overcoming data silos: A range of options

The options are many and varied when it comes to taming silos. The specific approach should depend on the use case, the organization's existing knowledge assets, and the strategic goals.

KM leverages data mesh

An underlying premise of data mesh is that business units should be able to control their own data and interact with one another by sharing data.

Data governance solves multiple KM challenges

Organizations are recognizing that effective data governance is ultimately more of a benefit than a burden. It increases efficiency by delivering trusted data, improves business processes, decreases data downtime, and reduces compliance risk. It also promotes data literacy throughout the enterprise.

MANAGING KNOWLEDGE COMPLEXITY THROUGH VISUALIZATION

The flexibility of current visualization tools makes them an asset to any analytical initiative. These products can visualize data contained in relational databases or graph databases, and they provide engaging opportunities for exploring data to reveal information that predefined queries would not. As AI capabilities are incorporated and natural language interfaces become the norm, visualization will only become easier and more valuable in the coming years. 

IoT forging new pathways to innovation

The value in using IoT for knowledge management and decision support is found in the analytics conducted on the data that comes in from the sensors.

ECM evolves to support business goals

Even with the prevalence of ECM systems, many people still rely on personal, folder-based filing systems. This makes collaboration difficult because information is not accessible to others.

New tools provide deep insights from customer feedback

The text analytics market in 2021 was approximately $6 billion, and it is expected to grow about 18% per year, reaching $17 billion by 2027, according to the iMARC Group, a market research firm.

BPM: The value of process mining

As usage of BPM grew and multiple processes were added, many enterprises were no longer able to track their diverse set of processes. The complexity of enterprise applications, some new and some legacy, made it difficult to do so, as did the lack of process documentation. Visibility into processes was limited, especially for the ones that cut across different enterprise systems. Process mining emerged as a new class of enterprise software.

Data Visualization provides rapid insights

One of the advantages of visualization as an analytic tool is its ability to summarize very large amounts of data in a consumable way.

Chasing the Omnichannel Experience

Companies need to be fully aware that customers do not want a fragmented approach, but a smooth and well-informed one, and act on that knowledge.

Making smarter connections with knowledge graphs

Data fabric is the next level of maturity for data integration, and it can make very effective use of knowledge graph technology.

INTERNET OF THINGS: IT TAKES TWO (OR MORE) TO TANGO

With the large volumes of data available, patterns can be detected that would not be revealed by monitoring individual pieces of equipment.

Enterprise search— an evolving technology

Today's search technology is much more intelligent, and capable of returning concept-based results rather than simple word matching based on indexed content.

Workflow automation: Fast growing across the enterprise

To meet the increasing expectations posed by sophisticated, cross-departmental workflows and more complex buyer journeys, it is necessary to have shared, unified data.

Modern customer service—More social, more intelligent

Efficiency has been a big motivator for the use of RPA; in customer support applications, a goal has been to use bots to help agents reduce handle time for customer calls.

The growing role of AI in the modern contact center

The global market for contact center software was $20.5 billion in 2020 and is predicted to grow 21% per year until 2028, according to Grand View Research. Within this market, interactive voice response (IVR) accounted for 23% of revenue and services for 42%. Despite a steady move to the cloud, on-premise solutions still accounted for 59% of the market. This proportion is likely to reverse within a few years, however, because of the agility, ease of maintenance, and ability to support remote workers that cloudbased contact centers provide.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT Industry Trends 2021

The need for technology-supported collaboration increased dramatically due to COVID-19—and a hybrid work environment is likely to remain the norm even after the impact of the pandemic subsides.

Cognitive computing: Building blocks

Machine learning is a part of many AI applications. The learning process is iterative; first, part of a dataset is input and analyzed, and a model is developed based on patterns and correlations among the factors in the analyses.

Graph databases team up with BI: It’s all about relationships

BI software, which is widely used and deeply embedded in many enterprises, can be enhanced bygraph databases that focus on connections.

Intelligent search: On-site search fine-tunes customer experience

Intelligent search has an integrative function, allowing information to flow throughout the enterprise.

Text analytics reaches new territory

If you only want to sort through documents and classify them, text analytics may not be necessary, but if you are interested in understanding the meaning of the text for purposes such as concept extraction, then text analytics provides the best approach.

Knowledge graphs enhance customer experience through speed and accuracy

Although knowledge graphs have been deployed by major companies such as Google, Amazon, and LinkedIn due to their ability to incorporate relationships in their analyses as well as their speed, only in the last 5 years has their use become more widespread.

Healthcare: Managing the information flow from wearables and remote monitoring devices

With broader use of wearables, routine monitoring of even asymptomatic high-risk groups such as the elderly may become the norm, allowing earlier intervention and improved outcomes.

The expanding world of knowledge management

As one of the most mature of the technologies that supports knowledge management, search solutions have changed so much from the days of keyword searching that they are now often referred to as "insight engines."

BI and ANALYTICS sustain smart city initiatives

Despite the challenges, cities of all sizes have succeeded in setting up smart city programs, although most consist of one or more point solutions rather than a full ecosystem.

The critical role of enterprise content management in digital transformation

The ability to personalize is an indicator that an organization is managing its content well enough to deliver what each individual needs.

The expanding compliance technology market

Even though compliance may be the initial pain point for a technology implementation such as speech analytics, additional benefits may ripple through other parts of the enterprise.

Life sciences: Increasing speed-to-insight in pharma

Many real-world studies include analyses of data from sources such as anonymized electronic medical records (EMR) and insurance claims.

Compliance and quality assurance: Pieces of a complex supply chain puzzle

Despite the benefits of automation and streamlined workflow on supply chain management, the human element is also very important.

Unified communications and KM are finally collaborating

The trend is now toward unified communications as a service (UCaaS), with a cloud model that allows for quick and flexible deployment. Ideally suited for a dispersed workforce, UCaaS accounts for slightly less than half of the global $52 billion unified communications market.

Enriching text analytics with graph databases

Graph databases are ideally suited for storing information about relationships among entities, for accessing diverse types of information, and for easily incorporating new information.

E-discovery: What metrics reveal

The role of metrics in helping to predict costs for cases and to plan budgets for future years is becoming more important because legal departments in corporations are increasingly being seen as business units rather than cost centers.

Search Technology: Greater power, but increasingly simple to use

In the future, expect greater use of conversational interfaces, and search functions that are fully integrated with other applications and highly context-sensitive, with help readily available.

Data quality goes mainstream

As organizations continue to recognize the value of data as an asset, the market for data quality solutions will grow.

Information governance: Managing complexity

The global market for information governance is expected to grow by more than 20% per year over the next 5 years, reaching $3.62 billion by 2023.

Healthcare: The importance of making connections

Only a minority of healthcare companies have a solution for using unstructured clinical information contained in electronic health records, although a majority of companies are either implementing one or exploring their options for doing so.

Cognitive computing: A diverse and fast-growing market

The applications for cognitive computing and AI are numerous and heterogeneous. Among the more mature applications are virtual sales assistants and chatbots, which are already in use on many websites.

ECM: Transition to content services continues

The content services platform serves as a hub to ingest, manage, and distribute information. AI is expected to be an increasingly standard part of content services.

BPM: Meeting the GDPR challenge

BPM vendors have seen opportunities for implementing GDPR, both for identifying existing processes and developing new ones for compliance.

Accelerating breakthroughs: Platforms for life sciences R&D

Software products that help expedite the R&D process are playing an important role in speeding the development of new drugs.

New approaches for smarter collaboration

Regardless of the variations, the fundamental message is clear: Collaboration is a growth industry. Most solutions offer enterprise-grade features that allow even the largest enterprises to share information securely within and outside of the organization.

Behind the scenes in search

New solutions are emerging that help connect searchers with content, but established principles also need to be followed. "In the past, users might go to a company's home page and look for information, but now, they are asking questions like what time a store in a particular location is open," noted Erin Jaeger, director of product marketing at Yext. Ideally, onsite search should be integrated with enterprise systems that also help pro­vide as complete a picture of the user as possible.

Digital asset management: an upbeat option for marketers

The ability to manage rich media has become essential for departments throughout the enterprise. DAM systems bring efficiency to the search process.

Government: GIS provides a road map

Although GIS has been in use for more than a half century, for much of that time it was a specialized discipline, and its potential in knowledge management was not widely recognized. Its dramatic growth and movement into the mainstream was a result of several forces, including greater computing power, the advent of big data, mobile devices and sensors and an increasing awareness of how much GIS has to offer.

TEXT ANALYTICS gains clout to capture insights from the data maze

As a foundational technology, text analytics has a lot of versatility, but its broad potential use can make it difficult to explain to prospective users. Whatever a company's pain point, chances are that text analytics can be part of the solution, and there is plenty of room for growth, both across different industry verticals and horizontally within an organization.

The IoT: Security and integration are key to success

Among the markets expected to lead in the use of IoT are factories, smart cities and healthcare. If the high end of the range is reached, IoT-related business would account for 11 percent of the global economy.As significant as the numbers are, the impact on how organizations and society in general operate will be even more dramatic, bringing new business models and new ways of serving customers. Along with those opportunities are additional obstacles, however, including the need to maintain security for the pervasive technologies and to integrate the information so it provides meaningful knowledge.

COGNITIVE COMPUTING: Is neuromorphic AI the next big thing?

Despite the many successes that cognitive computing has had, researchers see potential for improvement and are pushing forward to develop more capabilities. Among the cutting-edge technologies of interest are neuromorphic systems, which are modeled after the human brain. They have the potential to be more generalizable than existing cognitive systems, which are often limited to a narrow domain. That could allow for more use cases to be developed from the same system.

ECM— more options for efficient processes and better digital experiences

Content management is becoming more user friendly and presentation options more flexible as the requirement for omnichannel delivery becomes the norm.

Business intelligence: managing data complexity with analytics

When BI is pervasive, it becomes part of the mainstream and an integral part of each worker's job.

Data visualization: the power to produce an engaging, insightful experience

Visualization serves a vital role not just in providing insights about the existing state but also in measuring the impact of actions taken based on those insights.

KM: looking to the future

"Knowledge management is the transformative catalyst that will get us into the knowledge age."

BPM: not just for workflow-An intelligent enterprise platform

Rather than simply automating repetitive processes, BPM platforms are now aiding digital transformation through their ability to integrate easily with other enterprise applications, analyze data and adapt to changing needs and circumstances.

KMWorld Conference 2017-KM strategies, insights and innovations

KMWorld 2017 offered conference sessions over three days on three tracks that focused on KM strategies, the digital workplace and collaboration. Several sessions looked at the impact of cognitive computing and AI on KM. The role of KM in enabling innovation was also a theme in several sessions. Developing a culture of learning, harnessing organizational knowledge and capturing lessons learned were discussed as ways of creating smarter organizations.

Collaboration: paths to success

The residential housing market is a $350 billion industry with thousands of builders and suppliers. Constructing a single home requires collaboration by dozens of companies, and many steps in the process are complex and interdependent. If completion of one task is delayed, others are affected.

Quintessentially search, no matter what the terminology

Today's search is providing a progressively richer and more informative experience. Users can now see in one interface all the relevant information about a customer, a product or a research topic. In the age of big data, the growing number of data types and ever-increasing demand for rapid access to and understanding of content, search will only become more essential.

Digital asset management: diverse and expanding

Current DAM technology is mature and effective, but interesting advances are also being made that incorporate geolocation, artificial intelligence (AI) and other capabilities.

Emerging content formats challenge e-discovery

The sheer volume of potential discovery information from the IoT will tax the technical capabilities of those responsible for that task, whether they are in-house legal departments or litigation support services.

Innovation: managing ideas at scale

Innovation is a hot topic these days, with disruptive business models and new products challenging established leaders. It covers a wide range of diverse concepts and processes....

Text analytics: not just for customer sentiment

Sentiment analysis is one of the most prevalent uses of text analytics, but the technology has many other valuable uses. Text analytics finds a range of applications in scientific, medical and technology development.

KM and the environment: Water management uses analytics, big data and collaboration to handle complexity.

The goal was to create a decision support system that would integrate data from multiple sources, including weather predictions and sensors that measure water quality.

ECM, at your service!

There was a time when just getting control of enterprise content was a big achievement—knowing where the content was, being able to search a central repository, identifying the latest version of a document and so on. Even now, that control cannot be taken for granted. Many organizations struggle to manage content that is scattered across multiple devices, departments and SharePoint sites

Crowdsourcing: friend or foe of KM?

Often used for innovation, crowdsourcing can bypass organizational structures to obtain insights from large groups of individuals either within the company or outside it.

Records Management - Overcoming barriers to gain rewards

Records management has been compared to taking out the trash—no one likes to do it, but if you don't, the house will start to smell.

Charting a better user experience with health insurance -
Old infrastructure and new challenges complicate the customer journey

The nature of customer experience management has changed dramatically for health insurance companies in the past few years, driven by the evolving composition of the customer base and a new focus on value-based care.

KM education: Data science takes the lead

The term "data scientist" has been around for a decade, and the job function has existed even longer, but only recently has awareness really hit the mainstream. The primary reason for its growing relevance is the need to analyze large amounts of data.

KM resurgence in life sciences

The popularity of the term "knowledge management" has waxed and waned over the past couple of decades and continues its cycle. At first, KM promised comprehensive understanding and management of enterprise knowledge, but fell short of that goal and lost some of its standing as a concept.

Internet of Things:
IoT platforms create value in connectivity

Although the Internet of Things (IoT) is early stages of the maturity curve, more than 70 percent of enterprises are already collecting information for IoT initiatives, according to a recent study.

Cybersecurity: practical advice for SMBs

It would be fair to say that 2016 was a banner year for computer breaches.

AI takes hold in the legal profession

Over the last few years numerous artificial intelligence (AI) solutions have been developed for legal use, and the profession has begun to embrace, or perhaps be embraced by, those tools.

KMWorld 2016 recap-making connections, sparking innovation

KMWorld 2016 drew more than 1,200 people from 32 countries in addition to the United States.

KM past and present: making the most of your resources

It would not be an exaggeration to say that knowledge management is experiencing a quantum leap. With the advent of big data, forays into AI and great volumes of sensor data from the Internet of Things (IoT), there is a new frontier that deserves exploring.

Governance: a mandate for the data-driven enterprise

Organizations are increasingly recognizing the value of corporate data as a resource and consequently are focusing more on governance of that data. Governance includes keeping track of who owns which data, deciding what needs to be retained and for how long, and ensuring that it is protected. In that context, governance is a component of risk management...

Web analytics: insights into the customer journey

Most companies have tons of valuable content that is collecting virtual dust, and it could be used for customer engagement.

Collaboration becomes more consumer-like in its ease of use

Little or no work is done in isolation these days, so nearly every task requires some degree of collaboration—the real question is what kind of collaboration. Is the teamwork mostly about sharing documents to produce a final report or is it a process in which different people need to perform sequential actions to complete a task?

E-commerce: managing complexity

In general, retailers have done a good job with e-commerce storefronts and consumer interfaces, but they have not invested in the backend for order management, warehousing and logistics, a Gartner analyst says.

Digital asset management turns the corner

"If a company is doing a product promotion, they can personalize it on the fly for different audience segments, regions and languages."

Measure for measure: assessing performance

The broad sweep of performance measurement encompasses everything from individual product performance to the success of marketing campaigns and overall corporate achievement. The key is identifying the right measures and knowing what to do with the results.

Understanding cognitive computing: How much is enough?

In combination with a human, cognitive computing can leverage information and help scale up the human part of the process.

Text analytics and beyond

According to Forrester, more than 200 companies are providing text mining or text analytics products, so it is a crowded market.

Multiple trends in e-discovery intensify use of technology

The market for e-discovery technology and services will grow at a rate of approximately 12 percent per year from 2013 to 2018, according to Gartner.

ECM: preparing for the future

"Content management, semantic and big data analytics and cognitive computing are coming together, and we are seeing some truly amazing use cases emerging from that confluence."

Social media: a heterogeneous market with mixed messages

The vision of having employees more connected with each other and promoting knowledge sharing often conflicted with the straightforward need to complete work tasks.

Integration and usability raise the bar for BPM

Although business process management (BPM) systems initially functioned as a way to improve efficiency in various transactions, they are now central to digital transformation that includes seamless access to documents and data, use of machine learning and development of models to improve performance across a broad range of enterprise activities.

Evolving data issues challenge RM approaches

Ongoing RM issues include big data, master data management and how to deal with unstructured data and records in unusual formats.

Big data in the hands of users

In an environment of increasing volume and data types, combined with often inadequate infrastructure, bringing information into the hands of business users can be a major challenge. That is where a number of big data software vendors are focusing their efforts.

Searching for relevance

"We now have much better insight about what our users are searching for, and we are able to use that data to surface relevant content that was otherwise hard to find."

Thwarting risks in the energy industry

In Lights Out, reporter and author Ted Koppel makes the case that the United States is unprepared for an attack on the electric power grid and that we have entered the era in which a laptop can be a weapon of mass destruction.

Information security: It takes an ecosystem

"Encrypting sensitive personal information might add a bit of complexity, but recovering from breaches is very expensive."

Gaining KM “cred” in graduate school
Academic programs help forge career paths

Knowledge management spans numerous disciplines, so it is not surprising that graduate level programs in KM have their roots in diverse fields.

Legal applications of KM trend toward flexibility, simplicity

Marketing automation’s role in personalization and contextualization

KM past and present:
The focus is on integration, scope and analytics

A Forrester analyst says four primary forces are driving change in the ECM market: transforming the customer experience, turning big data into business insights, embracing the mobile mind shift and accelerating digital business.

Big data: expediting and validating analyses

"The biggest shift since 2013 is that the hype has subsided."

KMWorld Conference 2015 engages, enlightens

Agile knowledge sharing and innovation were the themes of the KMWorld 2015 Conference held in Washington, D.C., in November and co-located with three tracks on taxonomy, enterprise search and SharePoint.

Text analytics: greater usability, less time to insight

"The point now is to get to the root cause, not just documents that are related to certain topics. We want to provide the right context so that users are getting the answers they want, reducing the time to insight."

Collaboration: Enterprise social takes root

The main catch is that although enterprise social software can support collaboration, it is not effective in the absence of a collaborative culture.

Creating a cohesive customer experience

The customer experience encompasses a wide range of activities, from the moment of an initial search for a product or service to marketing, sales and follow-up care. A diverse range of technologies supports customer experience management for each of those phases.

Digital asset management: Video advances!

Enterprises can stand to gain more if they begin to view video not as a separate entity, but as a knowledge asset just as they do documents, graphics and structured content.

Innovation: What are the real metrics?

"Many business models under which organizations operate do not truly accommodate the requirements for today's knowledge economy. They do not incorporate the learning cycle or the process of innovation, and without a valid model, metrics are difficult."

Cognitive Computing: Real-world applications
for an emerging technology

"Cognitive computing is the solution to big data. Companies are collecting a lot of information and are having trouble processing it, but if there is a cognitive layer you can more accurately detect an issue."

Text analytics broadens its reach

Enterprises are using only about 25 percent of their unstructured data for insights and decision-making, while they are using 35 percent of their structured data for those purposes, according to a survey conducted by Forrester. One reason for the lag is that unstructured data is not as straightforward to analyze and interpret.

E-discovery powers up legal processes

Several trends are contributing to strong growth in the e-discovery market, including the ever increasing amount of litigation, greater volumes of data and a move toward adding in-house e-discovery capabilities.

Social media: bringing it all together

Social media has become pervasive, playing important roles in such diverse activities as monitoring brand perceptions, detecting important trends in the economy and supporting marketing initiatives. Few business leaders, whether in customer service, HR or product development, are taking the risk of ignoring social media.

ECM: an evolving process

The global market for enterprise content management is expected to reach over $9 billion by 2018.

Records management in the cloud: a multidimensional issue

Case management provides positive customer experiences

While many knowledge management solutions have supported business by making it run more efficiently, only a few have directly addressed the daily needs of knowledge workers. Business process management (BPM) software, for example, automates predictable processes so they run more quickly and consistently than they did when handled manually. However, they can lack the flexibility required for a process that may have variable sequences, paths or information requirements.

Big data: New options for implementation

"When business units are working together toward the same goal, data can be transformed into information, and continuous improvement through big data-driven analytics projects is possible."

Search: Specialized strategies yield results

Each user group could have a different perspective on the data that requires it to be searched and viewed differently....

Information security goes mainstream

Formerly the exclusive domain of IT, information security is now a mainstream issue, as major retailers and government agencies have suffered data breaches, denials of service and destructive intrusions. Millions of individuals have been affected, and organizations are now forced to devote more resources to prevention and remediation. Everyone in the information chain, from consumers to CEOs, has become acutely aware of the hazards of failing to protect information.

Risk management: Reputation is everything

News travels fast these days, and bad news travels faster. Most companies are now attuned to the fact that a few disgruntled customers or employees can leverage their opinions into a movement.

Extending enterprise systems
for a more positive customer experience

Not that long ago, the "customer experience" might have been a trip to the store to purchase an item and a subsequent conversation with a call center to inquire about how to get the item repaired. Now it usually entails online research to compare features and prices, a look at ratings by other customers, purchase of the product from a store or e-commerce site, and a round of technical support by phone, e-mail or chat.

Marketing automation: an accelerating solution

Major software companies have added marketing automation products to their suites.... Personalizing messaging and performing complex workflows are important characteristics of marketing automation.

Healthcare: anatomy of telemedicine systems

The many forces that affect telemedicine are converging to create significant momentum, and the environment is now conducive to broad implementation.

KMWorld 2014: Enterprise knowledge & customer value

A new feature of KMWorld 2014 that may well be continued in the future was a company showcase designed to elicit input from conference attendees.

KM past and present: Five megatrends

"In a different way, customer support has become personal again."

Collaboration: multipurpose solutions

"Salespeople are enthusiastic users of collaboration solutions because they have a strong incentive to do things more quickly."

Managing marketing: putting the puzzle together

""We interviewed many CMOs and asked them where their overall marketing plan was. Surprisingly, most of them did not know."

Customer experience management-promoting loyalty

Founded 80 years ago, Aeromexico is the largest airline operating in Mexico. The company built its reputation on service, but when low-cost airlines entered the market about 10 years ago, Aeromexico began experiencing intense competition. "Our costs were higher than those of the new airlines," says Edouard Piquet, senior VP of customer experience at Aeromexico, "and our customer service was not at the level it needed to be in order to create strong customer loyalty."

Digital asset management: It’s a visual world

"Customers need to be able to engage with the product by zooming in to see the features close up, rotating the item or even watching a video about it, especially on a mobile device."

Measuring campaign performance: Attribution models hit the spot

In the ongoing quest to improve performance, organizations have sought reductions in process cycle times, enhancements in supply chain efficiency, greater quality assurance and many forms of cost savings. Recently, interest in obtaining better measures of advertising campaign performance has shown a noticeable uptick.

Federal government’s ‘Cloud First’- FedRAMP brings security to the cloud

According to IDC, the federal government will spend $118.3 million on public cloud solutions in FY14, and more than $1.7 billion on private cloud solutions. The private cloud expenditure is slightly lower than it was in FY13, while the public cloud figure reflects an increase of about 33 percent. Looking ahead a few years, however, private cloud expenditures are expected to grow dramatically, reaching $7.7 billion by FY17.

Delving into customer thoughts: TEXT ANALYTICS provides insights

E-discovery: sifting through the evidence

Making sense of Social

ECM moves on: managing the flow

It’s a multichannel, mobile world!

"Today's users are born multichannel, and they demand a smooth, positive experience."

Records management: an expanding role

"Companies should think about how they organize information, revise it and move it through the whole lifecycle. A key part of governance is moving policies to the beginning of this cycle instead of waiting until the end to classify a record."

Search technology: a spectrum of options

A mainstay of knowledge management technology, search has been growing in sophistication at the enterprise level, but also still offers traditional products for keyword searching and desktop use.

Big data: hype or transformation?

IDC predicts that the market for big data technology and services will hit $32.4 billion in 2017, nearly doubling the predicted size for 2015 and an impressive 10 times the size it was in 2010.

The complex dynamics of compliance with privacy regulations

"You should know not just how you are protecting personal information but also why you are collecting it in the first place."

Life sciences: the quest for innovation through collaboration

"Since a lot of research is conducted outside of pharmaceutical firms, a globalized approach is required. Extremely collaborative networks are needed."

Creating a positive customer experience

Extensive research into customer experience shows (and common sense affirms) that those who have a positive customer experience are far more likely to purchase again from the same company, less likely to defect and more likely to promote the company to others. What might be a surprise is the dollar amount into which the positive ratings translate.

BPM: keeping it flexible

"Our clients are carrying out transactions such as processing credit card data, so we have to ensure a high level of compliance in our support.

KM past and future: It's about the customer

Customer experience management is at the vortex of a set of forces that are driving customer engagement like never before, and KM is there to play its part...

The role of analytics in the evolving healthcare market

With healthcare spending at about $3 trillion per year and accounting for nearly a fifth of gross domestic product (GDP), managing costs and improving outcomes are top priorities for healthcare providers, insurance companies and consumers alike. KMWorld interviewed five experts in the field, who offered insights into how business intelligence solutions can help organizations take on the challenge of a new and sometimes confusing environment.

The KMWorld 2013 conference—Building collaborative enterprises

Workforce analytics offers insights into performance

Although workforce analytics is a small portion of the overall analytics market, IDC identifies it as a growth area, reporting a 15.8 percent increase in 2012...

Collaboration: file sharing made secure

Users can go right from their mobile device to connect to a backend repository such as SharePoint or Windows file shares. They gain access through their existing permissions on the network...

DAM: Go with the flow

"Clients often approach us believing they have an asset management problem, but they really have a creative workflow problem that is more significant. We routinely reset the conversation to focus on workflow with asset management as part of the overall dialog."

Today's applications are saying to content: "Don't just sit there, do something!"

There is a new desire to author once and have reusability throughout multiple sites or channels. From a marketing perspective, it makes sense to streamline the process because that enhances productivity as well as effectiveness.

KPI: Leveraging corporate data with key performance indicators

"In this age of social media, if people get upset about something a company does, they can easily tell everyone in a very public way."

KM software tailored for government

"We keep customers moving forward but don't force them to adopt the most recent versions of software."

Text analytics: versatile and growing

Text analytics is a vital tool in coping with big data.

Visualization solutions advance wind energy development

The total value of the worldwide wind energy market will grow from $74.2 billion in 2012 to $109.8 billion in 2017. The resulting installations will almost double the amount of the world's electricity that is generated by wind...

On the cutting edge of social networking

"Social networking was initially user-driven, but is now being supported at the corporate level."

The changing face of ECM

"Improved options for sharing content as well as support for mobile devices are signature characteristics of a new breed of ECM solutions that is showing rapid adoption..."

Process automation gets the job done!

"The appeal of process automation systems that address a single business issue is that they can be implemented quickly, modified easily and deployed at a modest cost..."

Searching for results

"It is important to choose the right search technology for the content, and to recognize the need for ongoing tuning..."

In the realm of big data

Many legacy data warehouses are slowing down because they are stretched to capacity and their reporting is inflexible.

Search: power tools that leverage corporate knowledge

Search has to be more than finding documents. It needs to integrate complex content from multiple sources and provide the output as an information resource to decision makers.

Health information exchanges support disaster preparedness

"In October 2012 when Hurricane Sandy struck New York City, the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) was as ready as an organization can be, given that the storm was considered a "500-year" event. The New York eHealth Collaborative has the largest ‘queryable' medical database in the country. It includes records for 14 million New York residents."

Lenders bank on mortgage compliance software

"If the bank complies with the regulations and can demonstrate that it has done so, then it is not vulnerable to allegations of predatory lending practices or other detrimental activities."

Customer sentiment analysis: A shift to customer service

Social media is the canary in the coal mine. It provides early warning of issues that can become major problems if they are not detected quickly....

BPM'S expanding horizons

...new features such as social media and mobile applications are making BPM more robust and versatile...

BIG DATA interviews with the experts

Senior writer Judith Lamont interviews Kapil Bakshi, chief architect, Cisco; Anjul Bhambhri, VP of big data, IBM; Charles Sedlewski, VP, Products, Cloudera and Dan Vesset, program VP, business analytics solutions, IDC.

KM for the future: strategic outlook, smooth launch

"KM is about sharing and leveraging collective knowledge. We view it as the ‘boundaryless' flow of knowledge."....

2012 KMWorld Conference: A social, interactive view of KM

Collaborate, innovate, adapt!
Collaboration taps into social networks to aid productivity

"Enterprise social software solutions are being used in 67 percent of organizations surveyed in 2012, up from 43 percent in 2011..."

Web analytics and beyond ... it's a multichannel world

"Marketing through mobile and social channels is growing, and one of the challenges is to measure the effectiveness of such initiatives..."

GRC: the upside of risk

"Companies that succeed are the ones that take risks. However, the risks need to be understood and managed..."

Digital asset management: a solution for marketing

"With the exponential growth of online marketing channels, digital assets can easily get out of control in most enterprises..."

KM helps local governments do more with less

Local governments have responded to staffing shortages and declining property taxes by leveraging KM solutions.

Targeting KPIs for better business performance

"KPIs (Key performance indicators) are best chosen and understood in the context of strategic plans that identify goals at a higher level..."

Knowledge management energizes green initiatives

"The system helps a great deal with knowledge retention, because the outcomes are stored in a central location that everyone can access."...

TEXT ANALYTICS: Compelling products that pack a punch!

"The volume, complexity and importance of medical information used in support of diagnosis and treatment of illness, as well as the dramatically rising costs of healthcare, drive initiatives to improve information use" ...

ECM: solutions for diverse content

Flexibility flourishes in the cloud

Cloud technology allows organizations to simplify their use of software and reduce IT staff, but perhaps more importantly, they can achieve greater agility and remove a non-core function...

Three hot issues in records management

"The user should not be a de facto records manager, now that methods of doing it automatically are available."...

KM supports open government

"Now that everyone can see the data and come to their own conclusions. the concept of transparency is proving to be very effective."...

Big data has big implications for knowledge management

A goal of knowledge management over the years has been the ability to integrate information from multiple perspectives to provide the insights required for valid decision-making. Big data provides unique challenges and opportunities for achieving that goal.

Finding meaning in search

Search has been a mainstay of knowledge management since the discipline was first defined, but is not yet a perfect technology. Organizations that spend time analyzing their content and establishing metadata are able to leverage their intellectual capital more effectively.

Ubiquitous Mobility

A year or two from now, more people will be accessing the Internet from their mobile devices than from desktop computers...

Governance, risk management and compliance — Protecting critical business assets

With governance in IT, "the big picture is how critical content is protected and managed."

Tuning in to customers: Optimizing the online experience

Customers are increasingly impatient with cumbersome purchase processes or unresponsive service...

BPM works for business-Efficiency and insight are some of the benefits

According to the consulting firm IDC, the market for BPM software and middleware grew over 9 percent in 2010, to $16 billion...

Categories blur ... cloud, social and mobile dominate

KMWorld columnist Judy Lamont discusses trends in the workplace that are driving enterprises to cater to the information needs of workers who are not only mobile but smart-device enabled and cloud integrated.

Adaptive case management: Process takes a detour

Making connections at KMWorld 2011

Rich options expand the collaborative horizon

"Many companies are placing a big bet on collaboration to support their business activities. In particular, the workplace is moving toward one in which many business applications are integrated through collaboration and exposed through the social layer."...

Competitive intelligence—
Gaining insight to enhance decision-making

"Companies should decide on their goals, articulate the key decisions that will be made in the next couple of years and define the audience for the information."..

Digital asset management supports a world of rich media

The DAM market has been thriving despite the economy.

ECM expands its reach

"The cloud is a major factor for enterprise content management."

Knowledge sharing supports the military's mission

The U.S. military deals with an enormous volume of information, myriad processes and a variety of analytical needs. In that respect, effective knowledge management is essential...

Business intelligence ramps up the power for business users

KM supports green initiatives worldwide

Text analytics finds dynamic growth in e-discovery and customer feedback

"Previously we were using key words to identify relevant documents, but text analytics gives us a much clearer picture of the data set..."

Social software sustains collaboration

"The best way for people to share knowledge and be creative is by working closely in a community environment, so we wanted a solution that brought people together..."

GRC and performance: toward an integrated view

Governance, risk and compliance...
Failing to maintain GRC best practices increasingly has the potential for devastating consequences.

RM—the changing role of technology

KM supports the business of higher education

ECM should not be viewed solely as a way to store information, but also as a "business transformation and optimization engine..."

Search evolves to solve business problems

Search solutions have been a mainstay of knowledge management since document management software first entered the scene. During the last decade, the emphasis has shifted from using keywords to find a particular document or list of documents, to solving business problems and answering questions...

E-mail: still the one

Despite its drawbacks, e-mail continues to be the primary mode of collaboration for work teams...

Information sharing—new options emerge

ECM supports healthcare

BPM gets flexible

Law firm websites gain marketing traction

KM past and future—Fixing the pain points

"Organizations put themselves at risk because they don't know what's out there or where it is."

Cloud computing: It can work for you

Collaboration: A new picture develops

Historically, collaboration has been document-centric, but right now many solutions are focusing on connections between people...

Competitive intelligence: Capturing a wider view

In much the same way as other KM tools, CI solutions have focused on allowing business users to extract and disseminate competitive information from Web sources....

ECM: What’s your angle?

Like many things in life, enterprise content management is what you make of it...

DAM: getting creative with rich media

Shopping for a digital asset management solution a la carte can take more expertise than some organizations have...

Teamwork pays off for government and industry

Partnerships between public and private sectors improve the range of services available to citizens and make efficient use of resources. About 200,000 people leave the military each year, and many face difficulties when transitioning back to civilian life. They may have medical or housing needs, or require job training to become employable. Each branch of the military provides resources to assist with the transition, but they may not encompass all the services military personnel require to experience a successful transition...

Business intelligence—Changing to a new solution

Many well established business intelligence (BI) solutions are available and new ones are emerging. For a variety of reasons, the best match for a customer at one time may not be the same at a later time. Cost considerations and performance are two of the primary reasons why an organization that is using BI may make a change...

E-discovery is integral to the enterprise

Sustained by a nationwide propensity for litigation and an increasing volume of electronically stored information (ESI), the market for e-discovery software products seems destined to continue its dramatic growth for the foreseeable future...

Financial services: Real-time fraud countermeasures

From the simple to complex, fraud committed against financial institutions costs them and their customers billions of dollars per year...

Compliance: strategies for healthcare

A significant portion of healthcare information governance entails monitoring and controlling the way in which patient information is accessed and shared. UMass Memorial Medical Center, which serves central and western Massachusetts, is applying its resources to governance efficiently by managing its data in a hybrid way, leveraging both central and federated data capture. Data is shared according to carefully defined specifications that meet both regulatory and hospital policy requirements...

Social networking helps sustain innovation

Social networking took root in the consumer market with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Now, the same capabilities have moved into the enterprise environment. One of the most promising areas for social networking is innovation, which often depends on finding and collaborating with the right colleagues. Social networking can help individuals find others in their company who share common interests and answer the important question of "who knows what."...

ECM, social software, mobile technology
and more at AIIM 2010
Room for large and niche players alike

Expediting education—Blogs and wikis go to college

Blogs and wikis are augmenting traditional publishing and classroom teaching, speeding up the pace of information exchange for both researchers and students...

Records management: a journey, not a task

Automating records management offers greater accuracy, lower costs and consistent application of rules, but the complex nature of the endeavor means that records management is a journey, not a task...

CRM analytics–an array of options

"CRM is a business strategy first, and at the highest level there must be a vision. After that, the organization needs to discover the best way to support the vision..."

Search-based applications support critical decision-making

KMWorld columnist Judith Lamont reviews the state-of-the-art in search technology, highlighting solutions that are helping enterprises support knowledge workers in making critical decisions.

Open source ECM platforms bring mobility to market

To realize the potential of remote access to ECM, developers must design effective interfaces to applications that are responsive to the needs of workers on the go...

Data drives decision-making in healthcare

The growing availability of electronic medical records will lead to increased evidence-based medicine and smarter healthcare...

BPM, enterprisewide and beyond

Organizations have a broader vision of how BPM can be used across the enterprise. They may still start with one department, as has been typical in the past, but the plan is to deploy BPM pervasively...

Lawyers and technology: a vital connection

The economic downturn has made organizations more conscious of legal costs for both in-house and outside counsel. The impact has been reflected in increased attention to fixed-price models, low-cost outsourcing and use of automation. In addition, companies in highly litigated industries are attempting to reduce risk through e-discovery readiness...

KM past and future: closing the knowledge loop

Although emerging technologies are contributing substantially to greater exchange of information, much of the progress can be credited to mature KM solutions that are being used more effectively...

SaaS: integration in cloud

Microblogging eases into the enterprise

Social networking has moved into the enterprise market in a big way over the past year, with blogs and wikis becoming ubiquitous, and more recently, a trend toward enterprise microblogging. According to IDC, the market doubled between 2007 and 2008, although on a small base, and is expected to grow to $1.6 billion by 2013...

DAM takes on many roles

"The market for digital asset management (DAM) solutions remains robust, driven by increasing demand for rich media on Web sites, for marketing materials and in technical documentation. Ideally, assets for those purposes are managed centrally and published as needed to different destinations...

Compliance simplified

GIS helps government chart a forward course

Government agencies are using geographic information system (GIS) solutions in combination with other applications to consolidate information and help reduce stovepiping. Those solutions have proven to be highly effective at visualizing information to make data-driven decisions...

BI works and plays well with others

Business intelligence (BI) software products are becoming increasingly sophisticated and valuable to companies through their ability to integrate with other applications, including geographic information system (GIS) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Such integration helps companies arrive at the data-driven decisions that are urgently needed in today's economic climate...

Managing the Web 2.0 life cycle

As more and more information is communicated through informal channels such as blogs and wikis, the importance of incorporating those electronic documents into a formal life cycle strategy also increases. An area of particular vulnerability is the issue of knowledge retention as the baby boomer generation moves into retirement...

KM provides transparency for stimulus funds

The magnitude of stimulus funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, combined with mandated requirements for accountability and transparency, has posed significant challenges to organizations that are either distributing or receiving funds. The total amount authorized was $787 billion, not all of which has been distributed. Federal agencies must report on how much funding has been authorized, awarded and spent in each category. States are in the process of allocating the funds to various projects. ARRA requires that expenditures and progress must be tracked and presented on a public Web site....

Social networking gets down to business

Social networking software gives users the ability to create individual profiles that foster interaction among people based on their interests, expertise or work activities. First made available on consumer-oriented sites such as Facebook, social networking is beginning to find a solid niche in the business world...

KM challenges fraud

Financial institutions, healthcare insurance companies and government institutions all have been victims of fraud. Eventually, consumers pay the costs of fraud. The good news about fraud is that about $10 is recovered for each dollar spent fighting it...

Government: leveraging resources for greater effectiveness

When it comes to data sharing by law enforcement agencies, the primary obstacles are not usually technological, but territorial. Agencies understandably want to retain authority over areas, both geographical and functional, for which they are held responsible. Still, at a time when resources are scarce and demands are many, more law enforcement organizations are participating in data sharing systems, and have reaped significant benefits...

Managing critical knowledge in higher education

Through their research and teaching activities, academic institutes are at the forefront of knowledge creation and dissemination. Nevertheless, they have not necessarily been early adopters of knowledge management solutions. In order to manage a rapidly expanding base of knowledge and work more efficiently, however, professors are turning to software solutions to help organize and present information...

Insights from AIIM

Roundtable Discussion: E-mail management for e-discovery

Give your search a boost

Search is an ongoing endeavor in most knowledge-driven organizations. Workers spend a lot of time searching for information, and often don't find what they want. If the search solutions available to an organization are not achieving the desired results, several options are available to enhance performance without the need for a complete overhaul.

High-powered ECM platforms do the job

Most organizations now understand that they have a lot of content, that it's growing at a relentless pace and that it must be managed...

ECM targets verticals

Vertical solutions are geared to be functional right out of the box and can often be up and running in a matter of days...

Knowledge management: naturally green

"Going green" has become a topic of increased attention lately, but it's nothing new to knowledge management. By its nature, knowledge management promotes efficiency and optimal use of resources, which often reduces the amount of energy required to achieve a given goal. What has changed is the heightened awareness of those benefits...

BPM: from modeling to implementation

Despite the troubled economy, business process management (BPM) software products seem to be headed for robust growth...

An Expert Panel Discussion
Examining E-Discovery in Detail and Overview

KMWorld magazine recently hosted a roundtable discussion that focused on e-discovery. We reproduce the conversation here because of its uniquely comprehensive view of e-discovery, from the nitty-gritty details to the overall impact...

SaaS: flexible, efficient & affordable

Software as a service (SaaS) continues to make inroads into enterprise knowledge management, its progress fueled by the low cost of entry and minimal impact on internal IT resources. In addition, applications can be up and running in a very short time. That combination is helping to support a substantial growth rate for a number of SaaS vendors despite the overall economic climate...

KM past and future: Solutions for a changing world

Despite today's economic difficulties, there is reason to be cautiously optimistic about the KM industry. Many functions it supports will continue to be needed, perhaps more than ever...

The Art of Digital Asset Management

The global market for digital asset management (DAM) solutions was more than $330 million in 2007, according to ABI Research and is predicted to reach $1 billion within the next five years...

Enterprise-friendly social software

Products with Web 2.0 capability are making steady inroads into the enterprise environment. A primary factor for success is having a clear understanding of the purpose of the implementation...

ECM: Collaboration rules!

Web 2.0 promises to add value to enterprise content management, particularly in creating a more collaborative workplace...

Transaction-oriented content: taming ERP

Content flowing in and out of enterprise resource planning systems gets some help...

Government agencies build stronger foundations for sharing information

The benefits of better information sharing among departments within government agencies have long been self-evident, but difficult to achieve. Yet, significant steps are being taken to improve such sharing. Also, collaboration with entities outside the government is becoming more feasible as easier-to-use collaboration platforms emerge.

BI, in good times and bad

Business intelligence (BI) seems to thrive in tough economic times almost as well it does in good times. Based on a survey of IT and business leaders in Europe, China and the United States, AMR Research predicts that the global market for BI will be $57.1 billion in 2008, with the U.S. market accounting for $25.5 billion of the total. The growth rate is expected to be somewhat slower than in the past at about 5 percent, but increasing over the next several years.

Perspectives on information life cycle management

Information life cycle management (ILM) is a critical component of nearly every business. The efficiency with which information assets are managed—from creation to review, distribution and storage—significantly determines success.

Contacts and connections: an array of options

Business is built on relationships as much as it is on information, and an increasing number of software options are available to help establish and develop relationships. They range from contact management products that collect information while running in the background to Facebook-like enterprise solutions for proactive sharing of professional information.

Social networking: KM and beyond

The range of software products encompassed by social networking is so extensive and diverse that sorting out the options can be difficult.

Mashup essentials

Most computer users have had the experience of wanting to view sets of information side by side but being thwarted because the information comes from different sources. An emerging technology for overcoming that barrier is so-called "mashup" software, which provides a unified view of information from different sources. Although a small market now, those products are increasingly providing an alternative to time-consuming manual processes or expensive custom integrations.

Laying the groundwork for federated records management

The case for federated records management (RM) is strong—leave records in their native repositories, but manage them centrally. That way, the records do not need to be physically moved into a single location, yet a single set of retention rules can be applied. Records are "virtualized" so that they all appear to be within the federated records management application, from which they can be searched, placed on hold, or acted on in other ways.

E-learning: options for delivery

Learning doesn't stop when people graduate from college, and, in fact, an individual's most relevant knowledge acquisition often begins when he or she enters the work force. Knowledge developed on the job or in preparation for a job change can give a worker a competitive edge and can benefit the employer through increased performance levels. One of the most convenient delivery formats for adult learners is e-learning, which is usually available "anytime, anywhere."

KM World Best Practices Award 2008
Florida community college excels at BPM

Web self-service: searching for answers

Few people who visit self-service Web sites have escaped unscathed from the frustrations that all too often accompany their use or attempted use. Simple transactions such as checking a bank balance can usually be accomplished efficiently, but more complex needs such as finding information about a health insurance policy or how to obtain replacement parts for a product can throw the visitor into an inescapable loop.

E-mail archiving: options for SMBs

The market for e-mail archiving has experienced remarkable growth over the past several years, driven by compliance requirements and burgeoning volumes of messages. Both Gartner and IDC reported worldwide growth rates exceeding 40 percent in 2006. More modest growth rates over the next few years are still expected to push the market past $1 billion by 2011.

KM on the road: mobile applications

No matter how light a laptop is, carrying it around, opening it and booting up is never entirely convenient for a mobile knowledge worker.

ECM: New facets of a changing market

Enterprise content management (ECM) is an increasingly complex sector of knowledge management, with new options and issues arising steadily.

KM for legal apps: Time is money

Law offices handle most of their documents electronically, but a substantial minority of their work arrives in paper form, and getting it to the intended recipient can create a bottleneck in the workflow.

BPM takes on the tough challenges

Business process management (BPM) has been one of the most successful types of enterprise applications. Rather than becoming shelfware, it tends to proliferate throughout an organization once its capabilities are demonstrated.

KM PAST AND FUTURE: Web 2.0 kicks it up a notch

The primary technologies that support knowledge management (KM) are well understood and widely used, but have been limited in the past by lack of flexibility. Incorporation of social networking capabilities derived from Web 2.0, however, is now enhancing those foundational solutions and adding greater interactivity into the KM environment.

Leveraging SOA for Business Value

Service-oriented architecture provides services, both simple and complex, that can benefit users of a broad range of business applications, and enhance productivity.

Text Analytics: on the trail of business intelligence

Business intelligence (BI) solutions have typically focused on analysis of quantitative data to measure and predict organizational performance. The analyses help drive decisions about staffing, R&D, marketing and other business activities. However, quantitative analyses do not always provide an indication of causality...

DAM with a video spin

Digital asset management (DAM) is one of the most dynamic areas of software today, with organizations increasingly seeing its value in reducing costs and producing revenue streams. "These software solutions are now considered ‘must have' products,"...

Employing ECM in human resources

Human resources (HR) is both document- and process-intensive—a perfect scenario for using enterprise content management (ECM) technologies.

ECM: Handling the complexities of CAD

The U.S. economy is now considered to be knowledge-based, with much of its value derived from intellectual capital and service activities. However, even a knowledge-based economy depends on a physical infrastructure supported by energy, transportation and other tangible components.

Keeping pace with compliance

Compliance is marked by ever-increasing complexity and an abundance of information. Software solutions are helping to ease the burden by automating and documenting the processes that are required for compliance.

Taking Control of the e-discovery process

Without good planning, organizations may not be ready for the challenges of the e-discovery process. Among those difficulties are the huge quantities of electronic data, the myriad formats in which the data is stored, and the requirements in the amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) to produce any documents that are “reasonably accessible.”

Multichannel data capture matures

Data capture is steadily becoming more intelligent and flexible, and customers are enjoying substantial productivity enhancements from the technology improvements. In particular, invoice recognition and handwriting recognition have both taken off, benefiting from today’s more sophisticated software.

All roads lead to RM

The case for records management (RM) gets more compelling every day. Perhaps the most commonly mentioned driver is compliance, although that buzzword has a broad range of meanings.

SaaS in perspective

Few trends in the software world are attracting as much attention as "software as a service" (SaaS).

KM tackles tough e-gov challenges

Knowledge management tools and techniques are helping to support e-government initiatives aimed at some of the world’s most challenging issues, including poverty, national security and healthcare.

Leveraging KM tools for public schools

Business process management, predictive analytics and document management are three core KM technologies that are increasingly finding their way into the public schools.

E-MAIL in law firms: a case in point

Law firms face all the same problems with e-mail that other industries do, only more so.

Search: sophisticated yet simple

Enterprise search solutions have traditionally been ahead of Internet search in terms of sophistication and effectiveness. Now some of those technologies are being directed toward the Web, with much success.

ECM: Managing invoices pays off

Enterprise content management (ECM) systems are best known for handling documents that represent the intellectual capital in organizations—documents such as project deliverables, research reports and reference materials. In recent years, however, ECM systems have diversified to accommodate such content...

Data-driven decisions: The View from the dashboard

Decision-making in organizations is based on a complex mix of rational and intuitive thinking. Amidst abundant data, organizations find it difficult to make decisions in which they are confident. One way to help make sense of enterprise data is to use a dashboard to support business performance management...

Decision support systems prove vital to healthcare

Doctors on TV might get the diagnosis wrong a few times to fill up the broadcast hour, but in real life, things go much better if the doctor is right the first time.

Semantic Web holds promise for KM

The Semantic Web is relevant to knowledge management because it has the potential to dramatically accelerate the speed with which information can be synthesized, by automating its aggregation and analysis.

BPM evolution brings automation, integration and analysis

Evolving business process management (BPM) capabilities are improving process automation, allowing deeper integration with Microsoft Office, and offering a better understanding of process efficiency through use of business intelligence (BI).

Blogs and wikis: ready for prime time?

Blogs began springing up more than a decade ago as a way for individuals to maintain online diaries, voice their opinions on politics and vent about consumer products. They proliferated rapidly, and thousands became millions. Tainted perhaps by the image of bloggers as gossipmongers, blogs were not taken seriously as enterprise applications until fairly recently.

Appian in sync with Vista and Office 2007

Business Intelligence: The text analysis strategy

DAM: agile and effective

Compliance: the hazards of e-mail

Why is the e-mail part of compliance such a headache?

Compliance: process and content

Compliance with laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act HIPAA) entails both process and content. Information must be seen and validated by specific individuals, and controls must be set up, which implies a workflow, whether automated or manual.

Managing Web content: ECM or pure-play WCM?

By most definitions, Web content management (WCM) is a subset of enterprise content management (ECM), which in turn also includes document management, digital asset management (DAM) and records management (RM). Yet in many ways, WCM remains distinct from other ECM components in how it functions in the enterprise.

Value-added relationships

If you are a user of KM software, chances are that a third party implemented your system, not the software vendor.

Transportation: Communities of practice leverage knowledge

The U.S. highway system is a part of the nation’s critical infrastructure, one on which our economy and security are highly dependent. A complex mix of legislative, technical and environmental information goes into sustaining that infrastructure. Keeping the highway system running smoothly is an ongoing challenge, best accomplished when information is shared quickly and efficiently.

KM for law firms--legal or not?

Law firms have lots of choices when it comes to software; dozens of programs are available for such functions as case management, practice management, document assembly and trial presentation. Those popular products often are a great match for a law firm's needs. However, sometimes a solution based on a generic KM platform, rather than a dedicated legal product, works best.

AIIM '06: good news for KM users

Finding experts--explicit and implicit

Several years ago, expertise location was a fast-growing branch of KM, helping to find the human repositories of specialized knowledge. Then it seemed to recede as an application of interest, perhaps because some of the solutions were narrowly focused, too hard to maintain or not well integrated with other enterprise applications. But the requirement to locate experts has not gone away.

E-government: enhancing national security

Since 2002, the Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security has developed a wide range of graduate education programs that help current and future homeland security leaders with strategies, policies and organizational elements to defeat terrorism in the United States. The CHDS, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, offers a homeland security master’s degree that was the

Education means business: the role of KM

Content management, search and business intelligence are among the core KM technologies being enthusiastically adopted by the academic world. Many of the tools being applied in educational settings help achieve such goals as enhanced customer service and greater productivity.

RM: Compliance rules, litigation advances

The records management (RM) market is projected to grow at a robust 25 percent per year over the next five years...

Search gets smarter

Over the past year, search technology has shown remarkable progress in both its features and in the interest from prospective users. Initiatives by high-visibility firms such as Google have drawn attention to it, and enterprises are aggressively seeking more powerful ways of accessing their content.

Research corner

While knowledge management (KM) practitioners design systems to support their organizations’ goals, and knowledge workers use them on a day-to-day basis to carry out their activities, researchers are engaged in developing new techniques and tools that may eventually be incorporated into these systems.

Getting personal with content management

One of the early goals of enterprise content management was to get all an organization’s intellectual capital into one place so that everyone would have access to it. That exercise was useful in revealing what information was already present and what was missing, and catalyzed more systematic methods of structuring and retrieving information.

Content management: Integrating the paper flow

It may seem surprising in this digital age that so many invoices arrive via the U.S. mail, and that so many insurance applications are filled out on a form attached to a clipboard. For many organizations and individual consumers, paper still brings a comfort level that digital data cannot match. But in order to make use of that data, conversion to digital form is a must.

Information sharing speeds healthcare advances

An avian flu pandemic could infect 90 million people in the United States and kill 2 million, according to a study released in December by the Congressional Budget Office. The economic effects could be equally devastating, with a reduction of about $675 billion in the gross domestic product.

Service-oriented architecture: a way of life

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) mirrors the goals of knowledge management in synthesizing information from disparate sources into a meaningful view.

BPM: from the user's perspective

Business process management (BPM) is proving to be a versatile and valuable solution for companies across many sectors. Its use can grow incrementally, and eventually interconnect multiple functional areas.

Consulting firms play a key role in context of KM

Recent figures from INPUT (www.input.com), a market research firm specializing in analysis of government business, indicate that federal spending on knowledge management (KM) will reach $1.3 billion per year within the next five years.

KM's role in the aftermath of disaster

Many technologies that fall under the purview of knowledge management have proved useful after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

A broader view of learning

Predictive analytics: an asset to retail banking worldwide

XML: a multipurpose solution

Insurance: next-generation claims processing

The insurance industry made great strides more than a decade ago when it began using imaging rather than paper for its claims processing. However, as the digital age advanced and information accompanying claims became more complex, some of the early systems were no longer up to the task.

Electronic medical records: a promising prognosis

Fewer than one in five U.S. physicians use electronic medical records (EMRs) to track their patients' histories, even though such products offer benefits to stakeholders all along the healthcare delivery chain. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a national health information network could save $140 billion per year by improving care and reducing costs.

Law firms reinvent KM

Collaborative commerce revitalizes supply chain

Broad suites, compliance rule AIIM

Collaboration: Web conferencing spans the distance

Government tunes in to RFID

Digital asset management: improving the revenue stream

Documenting government accountability

Smart by any name-Enterprise suites offer broad benefits

Unlocking enterprise data: Metadata holds the key

Managing content for compliance

Roundtable discussion—Enterprise search, Part 2

How KM can help cure medical errors

Roundtable discussion: Enterprise search, Part 1

A model performance from BPM

BI branches out

Idea management: Everyone’s an innovator

Customer service flourishes in insurance

Scaling up for e-discovery

Web services leverage legacy systems, enrich functionality

Roundtable discussion: Army Knowledge Online portal

Extending rich media management to the enterprise

Media companies manage their assets

Roundtable discussion: Records management

The smart enterprise suite - Gateway to the KM vision

Best Practices:Business intelligence helps Centra Health improve care and lower costs

Adapting ECM to enterprise goals

Web services-Bringing the virtual factory online

Roundtable Discussion: Enterprise content management

BPM: not just for the big kids on the block

Roundtable discussion: Collaboration

Roundtable Discussion: Business process management

Solutions in practice: Transportation pulls it all together

The human side of workflow

Today's workflow products have come a long way from the days when hard-wired routing products sent claims forms along a predictable path. Whether automating the flow of content, transactions or tasks to be done offline, workflow is more flexible, easier to change if processes change and employs far more sophisticated rules. Most importantly, human intervention can be focused on the more complex tasks, while automated workflow handles the rest.

Setting the stage for success— Information architecture earns performance kudos from customers

Behind the scenes at Wipro: How a KM vision became reality

Search plus: far-reaching and versatile in the enterprise

Innovative applications make government more responsive

Special Section: E-Learning World-Learning management systems bring integration, analytics to enterprise

Dynamic taxonomies: keeping up with changing content

KM Promise Award winner Kamoon Connects to process management

BI for the masses: user-friendly approaches

Prognosis good for KM in patient treatment

Law enforcement gains ground in data integration and analysis

Web services: practice and promise

Special Section: e-Learning World: Bridging the worlds of e-learning and KM

Special Section: e-Learning World: Words of Wisdom

Securing a vulnerable Web

Expertise location and the learning organization

Best Practices: January 2003 Power portal: Cal Poly sets pace with Web services

Competitive intelligence: ingredients for success

Port security: KM expedites commerce, thwarts terrorism

KMWorld Best Practices, Oct 2002: O'Reilly Auto Parts meets demand for all seasons

CRM around the world

Starting with the basics: KM for lawyers

Best practice Award, September 2002, Extranet pays off for EMC and its customers

Computer security meets KM—knowing when to worry

Software developers take their own medicine

Getting the message

Workflow: horizontal, vertical and all-purpose

Finding the right stuff

Best Practice Award, April 2002-Rooted in history, Deere & Co. forges content globally

Health insurance: Online options take root

Knowledge management: shaping the profession

KM ‘aids and abets’ law enforcement

Administaff enhances client service through extranets, KMWorld Best Practice Award 2002

CyberWatch: protecting critical infrastructures

e-Learning and the enterprise

Data capture: extending the net to new capabilities

Collaboration and R&D

Business intelligence: Gleaning a 360-degree view of the customer

Law firm enriches its IT infrastructure, KMWorld Best Practice Award 2001

Security: protecting customer information

Finding the right piece of information, Structure and meaning improve search results

Find the expert

KM and e-learning: a growing partnership

MITRE uses risk assessment to improve project outcomes:Best Practice Award

Adding e-commerce to legacy systems

A progressive approach: U.N. site grows content from experts

Behind the scenes, XML sizzles

Building a CI team

KM and the law: The verdict is in

Analytical CRM: capturing data to cater to customers

Tour the changing IP landscape

Harvesting success from e-commerce

Expert systems and KM are a natural team

Protecting information from would-be intruders

Image capture reaches out

Even-handed XML brings commonality to diverse applications

Software agents: proactive help for Web users

Really try to build a corporate Web site that works

Data warehousing in the telecommunications industry

CBT and WBT: less expensive than classroom training, but do they work?

CI tools enable more confident business decisions

Data warehousing from end to end

Managed care plays catch-up with IT

10 rules for successful data warehousing

Cost-effective computer-based training

A busy year for CD technology

Managing multimedia assets: evaluating the options

Decision support software

CD Storage, Part Two

Enhanced capability and competition drive market: CD storage technology (Part one)

TECH FOCUS: Video (and more) to the Desktop