Knowledge management news and trends
31.3.05
The 5-step plan for global success!
The 5-step plan for global success!: "The old, restricted view that you can start in your domestic market and then progressively expand, taking countries one by one, is completely obsolete. There's a new wave of managers and leaders who can quickly build a company and take that company global.
They start up in many countries at once, so that after twelve months the company has a balanced business in Europe, the United States and Asia.
Companies of all sizes and almost all industries are growing internationally. They know that success depends on serving clients worldwide. On access to the best ideas and leading talent. On finding the lowest costs of inputs.
Yet international growth is extremely difficult. The problem is not just the complexity of doing business abroad: local consumer habits, currency risks, government regulations, and cross cultural management. It is more fundamental.
In recent years, the process of international growth itself has changed. For decades, companies could expand in a slow, incremental manner, entering nearby countries and eventually expanding farther and farther away. That approach to international growth no longer works.
As Didier Benchimol, CEO of iMediation, says, a new wave of managers can build a global position quickly. iMeditation launched the company simultaneously in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
How do such companies do it? Over the past four years, I have worked with dozens of growing firms in industries ranging from telecommunications to lodging, from packaging to software. I found that the best of them -- large companies like Accor, DHL and Cisco, as well as many smaller companies -- have built a new set of capabilities.
They do five things well:
*
They think strategically on a global basis;
*
They manage partnerships well, including acquisitions and alliances;
*
They build staff rapidly, both through expatriation and localisation;
*
They share expertise globally; and
*
They adapt their organisation design to support growth.
Let us look more closely at each one.
1. Strategic thinking: grasping the globe
The first necessary capability is mindset. It means thinking about strategy in a new way. For lots of companies, global strategy used to mean identifying the country to enter next. Great companies like Colgate-Palmolive, Matsushita and Danone expanded incrementally, one country at a time.
In each new market they performed roughly the same set of activities. Today, the best companies do not think one country at a time: they grasp the entire globe at once. They do not replicate their business model in each country, but look for the best way to spread their business system across the world.
They're guided by one broad question: How can I best reconfigure my business system on a global basis? They ask questions without regard to geography like:
* Where in the world shall we locate manufacturing?
* Where in the world shall we sell our products?
* Where in the world shall we hire talented managers?
* Where in the world shall we raise capital?
* Where in the world shall we procure our inputs?
* Where in the world shall we conduct research and product development?
*
Where in the world shall we locate customer service, data entry, and other labor intensive activities?
Questions like these lead in two directions. They lead to a dispersed business model, with different activities spread around the world, rather than a series of local clones.
They also lead to an emphasis on rapid growth, since a dispersed business model only works when all the pieces are in place -- meaning that you have to grow simultaneously rather than incrementally.
This sort of strategic thinking is only a starting point, of course, but it is the basis for everything that follows. Unless companies grasp opportunities on a global basis, they will never achieve rapid international growth.
2. Managing partners: acquisitions and alliances
Many excellent companies from the 1970s and 1980s, including Hewlett-Packard and Sony, expanded abroad mainly by setting up greenfields. Today, relying exclusively on that approach is too slow. Rapid international growth calls for partnerships, whether acquisitions or alliances.
Acquisitions are the fastest way to growth. Daimler Benz went from being the nineteenth largest automaker in 1992 to the third largest in 2000 thanks to acquisitions of Chrysler, then Mitsubishi, and next Hyundai.
Renault was limited to Europe until it bought Nissan and most recently Samsung. Acquisitions were the only way forward for Daimler Benz and Renault -- adding capacity in the auto industry would have been suicide.
In telecommunications, Vodafone grew rapidly through acquisitions including AirTouch and Mannesmann. Of course, finding an attractive takeover candidate is not enough, companies have to manage the integration process, capturing operational advantages and cultivating the skills and expertise of a new workforce.
Partnership management, not just financial acumen and analysis, are needed.
Alliances, non-equity alliances as well as joint ventures, are another way of building a global position rapidly. Alliance partners bring expertise about the local market, reach an established base of customers, and have connections with local stakeholders including government authorities, schools and universities, and more.
Alliances also help share costs and reduce the risk of foreign investment. Yet countless firms have discovered that making alliances work is tough. Some look at alliances as 'deals': they complete one deal, then move on to the next. But successful alliances are based on effective relationship building among partners.
They call for skilful negotiation and preparation; communication, trust building and conflict resolution; staffing and resource sharing during the alliance's formative stages and the ability to secure resources at later stages.
3. Rapid staffing: expatriation and localisation
The scarcest resources for companies expanding internationally are often human resources. A strong global position demands excellent local staff. Attracting and retaining outstanding talent is hard enough for a domestic company, but the challenges multiply when expanding abroad. The best companies have built two capabilities: expatriation and localisation.
Expatriation used to mean sending managers abroad on a long-term assignment. That approach is slow, wasteful and expensive. Today, many companies take a more fine-grained approach.
MTN, the South African mobile telephone network operator, entered three new African markets in 1998. Within days of receiving the license, MTN's human resource department determined the staffing needs in each new market.
Next, they met those needs with a combination of short-term technical visits, six month secondments, and a handful of two-year assignments. MTN made another smart move by creating a special pool of employees who were hired and trained with the expectation of going abroad. That way, MTN's domestic operation did not feel its employees were being poached.
Localisation means quickly bringing local citizens into responsible positions, making full use of their talent and also reducing the need for expatriates. Historically, firms are poor at localisation. They are stuck in a cycle of sending expatriates abroad, then replacing them with new expatriates.
Several years after entry, they still have expatriates in key slots -- expensive, demotivating and out of touch. Companies like Motorola and BOC Gas make a deliberate effort to localise management, either by hiring local managers from the outset, or by insisting that expatriates replace themselves with local managers.
4. Sharing knowledge globally
The best global companies excel at sharing knowledge. 'Knowledge management' and 'organisational learning' are nothing new, of course, but rapid international growth calls for two particular skills.
Entering many countries simultaneously means we cannot rely on individuals, posted in one country and then moving to another, to transfer expertise. Rapid entry means a systematic approach to start-ups. At DHL, for instance, a clear set of steps means that each new office is quickly and predictably put in place.
After entry, companies have to apply the experience of one market to others. New countries are sites of knowledge creation, and become sources of expertise for elsewhere. Already a large global firm, BP (formerly known as British Petroleum) continues to expand internationally, both upstream in oil and gas exploration (Angola, Azerbaijan, Algeria, Colombia) and downstream in petrol retailing (Central and Eastern Europe).
BP's chief executive, Sir John Browne, insists that each new action must benefit from acquired learning elsewhere in the world.
"In 1995, we spent 100 days on average drilling deepwater wells. [In 1997] we spent 42. How did we do it? By asking every time we drilled a deepwater well: What did we learn last time and how do we apply it next time? The key to reaping a big return is to leverage that knowledge by replicating it throughout the company so that each unit is not learning in isolation and reinventing the wheel again and again."
How does BP excel at sharing knowledge? Partly thanks to information technology -- in this case, a common operating environment (COE) that lets computers all over the world talk to each other. But that is not all.
BP also invests in information processes like user communities that allow employees facing common issues to share information immediately, and instills norms of open communication and sharing behavior among its employees worldwide.
5. Adapting organisation design: facilitating growth, not impeding it
As companies expand abroad, their organisations have to adapt. The wrong structure is like a straightjacket: it inhibits growth. As companies grow internationally, they often find their organisational or product line structure does not offer much support.
The solution is often a separate division, called the international division. But over time the international division may become counter-productive, separating domestic from international activities precisely when they need to be coordinated.
In fact, the more successful the international division becomes in stimulating growth abroad, the earlier it may need to be disbanded!
Becton-Dickinson, the US-based maker of medical and analytical devices, offers a good example. In the 1980s, when international revenues were 5% of the total revenues, Becton-Dickinson formed an international division to focus attention on its growing markets. By the 1990s, when international revenues had grown to 45% of the total, the international division had outlived its usefulness, and the company shifted to worldwide business lines.
Importantly, Becton-Dickinson monitored its strategic needs and amended its design to match the current needs. Failing to create an international division in the 1970s would have stifled growth in Europe and Asia; but failing to disband the division in the 1990s would similarly have impeded continuing growth.
The road forward: assessment and action
How can you develop these new capabilities for international growth? By implementing the following three steps:
a. Are all five capabilities important to us? To begin, be clear that all five steps are important to you. If you rely mainly on greenfield entry, partnership capabilities may at least for now be less important. If you have recently designed your organisation to support rapid growth, you may conclude that organisational issues are not pressing.
But most companies will conclude that each of these capabilities is vital for rapid international growth -- if not right away, then in the near future -- and that they deserve attention.
b. How good are we today? Next, assess your present level of each capability. Where are you strong? Where is improvement most needed? For example, are you able to staff with a combination of expatriates, but reluctant to turn the reins over to local management? Does your organisation structure prevent you from coordinating product lines on a global basis, or from serving customers globally?
There is no magical diagnostic instrument. Managers simply have to take the time to assess where they need to improve -- and have the courage to realize where they come up short.
c. What should we do differently? Once you have identified your priorities, you can take action. But none of these capabilities will happen automatically -- they will require focused effort.
Sometimes the breakthrough comes as soon as you recognize the weakness. I know a European firm that claims it wants to grow through alliances, but has a dismal record.
On reflection, managers concluded they were not giving enough importance to managing relationships, and were avoiding important discussions rather than working together constructively. They changed course right away, assigning a different mix of managers to negotiate alliances, placing greater emphasis on communication, and measuring alliance performance along 'soft' as well as 'hard' dimensions.
For other firms, improvement comes from looking outside the firm for best practices. Studying what the best companies do about, say, expatriation and localisation, is a good way forward.
Are these five capabilities a ready formula for growth? Of course not!
No company can build a strong global position by just following a fixed set of steps. Flexibility, pragmatism, and persistence are vital. But as a way to focus efforts on a few major priorities, and as a way to underscore that old traditional approaches are not enough, these five capabilities are an excellent way to pursue international growth.
Philip Rosenzweig is Professor of Strategy and International Management at IMD (International Institute for Management Development). He was formerly with Harvard Business School.
" ¶ 14:35 0 comments
They start up in many countries at once, so that after twelve months the company has a balanced business in Europe, the United States and Asia.
Companies of all sizes and almost all industries are growing internationally. They know that success depends on serving clients worldwide. On access to the best ideas and leading talent. On finding the lowest costs of inputs.
Yet international growth is extremely difficult. The problem is not just the complexity of doing business abroad: local consumer habits, currency risks, government regulations, and cross cultural management. It is more fundamental.
In recent years, the process of international growth itself has changed. For decades, companies could expand in a slow, incremental manner, entering nearby countries and eventually expanding farther and farther away. That approach to international growth no longer works.
As Didier Benchimol, CEO of iMediation, says, a new wave of managers can build a global position quickly. iMeditation launched the company simultaneously in Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.
How do such companies do it? Over the past four years, I have worked with dozens of growing firms in industries ranging from telecommunications to lodging, from packaging to software. I found that the best of them -- large companies like Accor, DHL and Cisco, as well as many smaller companies -- have built a new set of capabilities.
They do five things well:
*
They think strategically on a global basis;
*
They manage partnerships well, including acquisitions and alliances;
*
They build staff rapidly, both through expatriation and localisation;
*
They share expertise globally; and
*
They adapt their organisation design to support growth.
Let us look more closely at each one.
1. Strategic thinking: grasping the globe
The first necessary capability is mindset. It means thinking about strategy in a new way. For lots of companies, global strategy used to mean identifying the country to enter next. Great companies like Colgate-Palmolive, Matsushita and Danone expanded incrementally, one country at a time.
In each new market they performed roughly the same set of activities. Today, the best companies do not think one country at a time: they grasp the entire globe at once. They do not replicate their business model in each country, but look for the best way to spread their business system across the world.
They're guided by one broad question: How can I best reconfigure my business system on a global basis? They ask questions without regard to geography like:
* Where in the world shall we locate manufacturing?
* Where in the world shall we sell our products?
* Where in the world shall we hire talented managers?
* Where in the world shall we raise capital?
* Where in the world shall we procure our inputs?
* Where in the world shall we conduct research and product development?
*
Where in the world shall we locate customer service, data entry, and other labor intensive activities?
Questions like these lead in two directions. They lead to a dispersed business model, with different activities spread around the world, rather than a series of local clones.
They also lead to an emphasis on rapid growth, since a dispersed business model only works when all the pieces are in place -- meaning that you have to grow simultaneously rather than incrementally.
This sort of strategic thinking is only a starting point, of course, but it is the basis for everything that follows. Unless companies grasp opportunities on a global basis, they will never achieve rapid international growth.
2. Managing partners: acquisitions and alliances
Many excellent companies from the 1970s and 1980s, including Hewlett-Packard and Sony, expanded abroad mainly by setting up greenfields. Today, relying exclusively on that approach is too slow. Rapid international growth calls for partnerships, whether acquisitions or alliances.
Acquisitions are the fastest way to growth. Daimler Benz went from being the nineteenth largest automaker in 1992 to the third largest in 2000 thanks to acquisitions of Chrysler, then Mitsubishi, and next Hyundai.
Renault was limited to Europe until it bought Nissan and most recently Samsung. Acquisitions were the only way forward for Daimler Benz and Renault -- adding capacity in the auto industry would have been suicide.
In telecommunications, Vodafone grew rapidly through acquisitions including AirTouch and Mannesmann. Of course, finding an attractive takeover candidate is not enough, companies have to manage the integration process, capturing operational advantages and cultivating the skills and expertise of a new workforce.
Partnership management, not just financial acumen and analysis, are needed.
Alliances, non-equity alliances as well as joint ventures, are another way of building a global position rapidly. Alliance partners bring expertise about the local market, reach an established base of customers, and have connections with local stakeholders including government authorities, schools and universities, and more.
Alliances also help share costs and reduce the risk of foreign investment. Yet countless firms have discovered that making alliances work is tough. Some look at alliances as 'deals': they complete one deal, then move on to the next. But successful alliances are based on effective relationship building among partners.
They call for skilful negotiation and preparation; communication, trust building and conflict resolution; staffing and resource sharing during the alliance's formative stages and the ability to secure resources at later stages.
3. Rapid staffing: expatriation and localisation
The scarcest resources for companies expanding internationally are often human resources. A strong global position demands excellent local staff. Attracting and retaining outstanding talent is hard enough for a domestic company, but the challenges multiply when expanding abroad. The best companies have built two capabilities: expatriation and localisation.
Expatriation used to mean sending managers abroad on a long-term assignment. That approach is slow, wasteful and expensive. Today, many companies take a more fine-grained approach.
MTN, the South African mobile telephone network operator, entered three new African markets in 1998. Within days of receiving the license, MTN's human resource department determined the staffing needs in each new market.
Next, they met those needs with a combination of short-term technical visits, six month secondments, and a handful of two-year assignments. MTN made another smart move by creating a special pool of employees who were hired and trained with the expectation of going abroad. That way, MTN's domestic operation did not feel its employees were being poached.
Localisation means quickly bringing local citizens into responsible positions, making full use of their talent and also reducing the need for expatriates. Historically, firms are poor at localisation. They are stuck in a cycle of sending expatriates abroad, then replacing them with new expatriates.
Several years after entry, they still have expatriates in key slots -- expensive, demotivating and out of touch. Companies like Motorola and BOC Gas make a deliberate effort to localise management, either by hiring local managers from the outset, or by insisting that expatriates replace themselves with local managers.
4. Sharing knowledge globally
The best global companies excel at sharing knowledge. 'Knowledge management' and 'organisational learning' are nothing new, of course, but rapid international growth calls for two particular skills.
Entering many countries simultaneously means we cannot rely on individuals, posted in one country and then moving to another, to transfer expertise. Rapid entry means a systematic approach to start-ups. At DHL, for instance, a clear set of steps means that each new office is quickly and predictably put in place.
After entry, companies have to apply the experience of one market to others. New countries are sites of knowledge creation, and become sources of expertise for elsewhere. Already a large global firm, BP (formerly known as British Petroleum) continues to expand internationally, both upstream in oil and gas exploration (Angola, Azerbaijan, Algeria, Colombia) and downstream in petrol retailing (Central and Eastern Europe).
BP's chief executive, Sir John Browne, insists that each new action must benefit from acquired learning elsewhere in the world.
"In 1995, we spent 100 days on average drilling deepwater wells. [In 1997] we spent 42. How did we do it? By asking every time we drilled a deepwater well: What did we learn last time and how do we apply it next time? The key to reaping a big return is to leverage that knowledge by replicating it throughout the company so that each unit is not learning in isolation and reinventing the wheel again and again."
How does BP excel at sharing knowledge? Partly thanks to information technology -- in this case, a common operating environment (COE) that lets computers all over the world talk to each other. But that is not all.
BP also invests in information processes like user communities that allow employees facing common issues to share information immediately, and instills norms of open communication and sharing behavior among its employees worldwide.
5. Adapting organisation design: facilitating growth, not impeding it
As companies expand abroad, their organisations have to adapt. The wrong structure is like a straightjacket: it inhibits growth. As companies grow internationally, they often find their organisational or product line structure does not offer much support.
The solution is often a separate division, called the international division. But over time the international division may become counter-productive, separating domestic from international activities precisely when they need to be coordinated.
In fact, the more successful the international division becomes in stimulating growth abroad, the earlier it may need to be disbanded!
Becton-Dickinson, the US-based maker of medical and analytical devices, offers a good example. In the 1980s, when international revenues were 5% of the total revenues, Becton-Dickinson formed an international division to focus attention on its growing markets. By the 1990s, when international revenues had grown to 45% of the total, the international division had outlived its usefulness, and the company shifted to worldwide business lines.
Importantly, Becton-Dickinson monitored its strategic needs and amended its design to match the current needs. Failing to create an international division in the 1970s would have stifled growth in Europe and Asia; but failing to disband the division in the 1990s would similarly have impeded continuing growth.
The road forward: assessment and action
How can you develop these new capabilities for international growth? By implementing the following three steps:
a. Are all five capabilities important to us? To begin, be clear that all five steps are important to you. If you rely mainly on greenfield entry, partnership capabilities may at least for now be less important. If you have recently designed your organisation to support rapid growth, you may conclude that organisational issues are not pressing.
But most companies will conclude that each of these capabilities is vital for rapid international growth -- if not right away, then in the near future -- and that they deserve attention.
b. How good are we today? Next, assess your present level of each capability. Where are you strong? Where is improvement most needed? For example, are you able to staff with a combination of expatriates, but reluctant to turn the reins over to local management? Does your organisation structure prevent you from coordinating product lines on a global basis, or from serving customers globally?
There is no magical diagnostic instrument. Managers simply have to take the time to assess where they need to improve -- and have the courage to realize where they come up short.
c. What should we do differently? Once you have identified your priorities, you can take action. But none of these capabilities will happen automatically -- they will require focused effort.
Sometimes the breakthrough comes as soon as you recognize the weakness. I know a European firm that claims it wants to grow through alliances, but has a dismal record.
On reflection, managers concluded they were not giving enough importance to managing relationships, and were avoiding important discussions rather than working together constructively. They changed course right away, assigning a different mix of managers to negotiate alliances, placing greater emphasis on communication, and measuring alliance performance along 'soft' as well as 'hard' dimensions.
For other firms, improvement comes from looking outside the firm for best practices. Studying what the best companies do about, say, expatriation and localisation, is a good way forward.
Are these five capabilities a ready formula for growth? Of course not!
No company can build a strong global position by just following a fixed set of steps. Flexibility, pragmatism, and persistence are vital. But as a way to focus efforts on a few major priorities, and as a way to underscore that old traditional approaches are not enough, these five capabilities are an excellent way to pursue international growth.
Philip Rosenzweig is Professor of Strategy and International Management at IMD (International Institute for Management Development). He was formerly with Harvard Business School.
" ¶ 14:35 0 comments
Talisma Acquires KnowledgeBase.net
Talisma Acquires KnowledgeBase.net: "Talisma(TM), a leading provider of Multi-channel CRM solutions, today announced the acquisition of KnowledgeBase.net, a market-leading provider of hosted and on-site Knowledge Management (KM) software for Customer Support and Self-service. Talisma will incorporate KnowledgeBase.net's technology, intellectual property, and customer base into its operations, fueling its strategy of organic and acquisition-based growth. The acquisition is the culmination of over eighteen months of technology, product, and business collaboration between the two companies and has already resulted in several product and service offerings. The acquisition of KnowledgeBase.net will further enhance Talisma's award-winning suite of CRM solutions and strengthen Talisma's position in the fast growing Customer Interaction Management (CIM) segment of the CRM market.
" ¶ 14:33 0 comments
" ¶ 14:33 0 comments
29.3.05
Deborah Elizabeth Finn: In the nonprofit sector, we need better knowledge management...of our knowledge management
Deborah Elizabeth Finn: In the nonprofit sector, we need better knowledge management...of our knowledge management: "In the nonprofit sector these days, we certainly have a better class of knowledge management problems.
Only a decade ago, there was little in the way consolidation of information (or wisdom!) pertaining to how technology could be used to support, document, analyze, and expand our programmatic goals.
Now, we are experiencing a proliferation - not only of technology resources for programmatic goals, but of collaborative efforts to manage this knowledge (and wisdom!) in various ways that are easily accessible to those that need it.
We may have more knowledge than we can easily find, classify, or absorb - but that is certainly a better problem than a dearth of knowledge.
In addition to TechSoup (a definitive web site), TechFinder (a searchable database), the Del.icio.us nptech Tagging Project (a folksonomy), the N-TEN 501 TechClubs (regional face-to-face gatherings), the Information Systems Forum (an email distribution list), CompuMentor has launched a very promising new project: ConsultantCommons.Org.
Here's the official mission of ConsultantCommons.Org:
ConsultantCommons.org provides an online collaboration space and community for non-profit technical assistance providers to collaboratively build and share knowledge. " ¶ 09:44 0 comments
Only a decade ago, there was little in the way consolidation of information (or wisdom!) pertaining to how technology could be used to support, document, analyze, and expand our programmatic goals.
Now, we are experiencing a proliferation - not only of technology resources for programmatic goals, but of collaborative efforts to manage this knowledge (and wisdom!) in various ways that are easily accessible to those that need it.
We may have more knowledge than we can easily find, classify, or absorb - but that is certainly a better problem than a dearth of knowledge.
In addition to TechSoup (a definitive web site), TechFinder (a searchable database), the Del.icio.us nptech Tagging Project (a folksonomy), the N-TEN 501 TechClubs (regional face-to-face gatherings), the Information Systems Forum (an email distribution list), CompuMentor has launched a very promising new project: ConsultantCommons.Org.
Here's the official mission of ConsultantCommons.Org:
ConsultantCommons.org provides an online collaboration space and community for non-profit technical assistance providers to collaboratively build and share knowledge. " ¶ 09:44 0 comments
Knowledge Management Doesn't Come in a Box
Knowledge Management Doesn't Come in a Box: "in day-to-day life, there are many examples of how components can be interconnected to create a desired solution. Although Apple Computer has now hidden the computer inside the monitor, there is still a host of external components that will likely come together before a basic desktop configuration is complete. Along the same lines, a home entertainment center that includes a TV, multimedia receiver, VCR, CD/DVD player and speakers is im-practical and generally not available as one all-inclusive unit because the cost would be relatively high and odds are that one or more of the component parts would not be exactly what you were looking for."
¶ 09:43 0 comments
23.3.05
Improved data dealing drives drug discovery
Improved data dealing drives drug discovery: "Drug research and development is facing a major problem with the sheer influx of data generated, which threatens to further slow down productivity, if its management and interpretation is not efficiently dealt with.
That was the verdict from Sheryl Torr-Brown, worldwide safety sciences for Pfizer Global R&D, who was speaking at the Drug Discovery Technology Europe conference in London this week. Her concerns stemmed from the idea that pharmaceutical companies were not fully extracting and understanding relationships between genes and diseases or compounds and side effects - the fundamental essence in drug discovery." ¶ 07:20 0 comments
That was the verdict from Sheryl Torr-Brown, worldwide safety sciences for Pfizer Global R&D, who was speaking at the Drug Discovery Technology Europe conference in London this week. Her concerns stemmed from the idea that pharmaceutical companies were not fully extracting and understanding relationships between genes and diseases or compounds and side effects - the fundamental essence in drug discovery." ¶ 07:20 0 comments
22.3.05
Knova Software Formed by Merger of ServiceWare and Kanisa; New Powerhouse in Customer Service Software Sets Standard for Service Resolution Management
Knova Software Formed by Merger of ServiceWare and Kanisa; New Powerhouse in Customer Service Software Sets Standard for Service Resolution Management: "Knova Software(TM) (OTCBB:SVWN), today launched its new identity, following the merger of ServiceWare Technologies, a respected industry veteran in Knowledge Management (KM) for customer support, and Kanisa, the technology pioneer of Service Resolution Management (SRM). The merger closed in early February, forming the new combined entity, a leader in Service Resolution Management.
The combined company is widely recognized for combining powerful search and KM technologies with rich customer service applications and true business process support. By automating the service resolution process across multiple channels, Knova applications reduce service costs and increase revenues through improved customer satisfaction. More than 170 market leaders including Cingular, EDS, Ford, HP, H&R Block, Novell, Merrill Lynch, McAfee, Reuters, and QUALCOMM rely on Knova's award-winning solutions to deliver first-rate customer service.
'The creation of Knova Software through the merger of ServiceWare and Kanisa is a win for the company, its stockholders and its customers. Knova is a perfect example where the combination of two market leaders is far greater than the sum of their parts,' said Mitch Kramer, senior analyst for Patricia Seybold Group. 'With rich and flexible content, adaptive and self-learning search technologies, and strong navigation and business process support, Knova has an attractive suite of cross-channel customer service applications that can help customers answer questions and diagnose, report, and resolve problems. These product strengths, combined with a large customer base and good financial performance, position Knova for success.'
'Our experience working with the world's leading customer service and IT organizations has confirmed that true business solutions, not tools and point technologies, are required to deliver excellent assisted-service, self-service, and collaborative-support,' said Bruce Armstrong, president and CEO of Knova Software. 'Our new name reflects the company's strength in knowledge management and search technologies, while conveying innovation, growth, and strength. Knova's comprehensive application suite for SRM is the choice of industry leaders because it enables world-class customer service and support.'
Built on a next-generation search and knowledge management platform, Knova's suite of customer service applications automate the resolution process across multiple channels including contact centers, help desks, email, communities, and self-service sites. Regardless of where information resides, Knova empowers customer service agents and end users with universal knowledge access, rich application capabilities, and personalized, guided resolution processes. Knova's product highlights include:
-- The highest-ranking solution in Web self-service according to Gartner
-- A powerful natural language processing (NLP) search engine ranked by Gartner as 'Visionary' in its Enterprise Search Magic Quadrant
-- The first integrated suite of collaborative support applications for agent-assisted service, self-service, and peer-service communities
-- The Cognitive Processor(R), a patented self-learning, self-organizing knowledge management technology
-- The Resolution Flow business process engine that integrates all applications to guide users step by step through the optimal resolution process
-- A strong patent portfolio for KM and search technologies
'In order to exceed expectations in today's customer service and support environments, organizations must provide KM as part of a comprehensive service resolution framework,' commented Liz Roche, vice president, META Group. 'Customer service and support organizations are best served by technology solutions that combine industry-leading technologies, comprehensive applications and providers with impressive customer bases. Knova Software certainly fits this criteria.'
Knova6, Knova's award-winning application suite is built on a next-generation search and knowledge management platform. Knova6 applications include:
-- Knova Contact Center: An assisted-service application that automates the resolution process for customer service agents and support analysts
-- Knova Self-Service: A next-generation self-service application that enables customers to help themselves with a personalized, proactive self-service experience
-- Knova Service Desk: A robust knowledge management solution that empowers service desks to quickly resolve problems and questions
-- Knova Forums: An integrated forums application for peer-service that enables customers to help each other while providing valuable feedback
" ¶ 13:47 0 comments
The combined company is widely recognized for combining powerful search and KM technologies with rich customer service applications and true business process support. By automating the service resolution process across multiple channels, Knova applications reduce service costs and increase revenues through improved customer satisfaction. More than 170 market leaders including Cingular, EDS, Ford, HP, H&R Block, Novell, Merrill Lynch, McAfee, Reuters, and QUALCOMM rely on Knova's award-winning solutions to deliver first-rate customer service.
'The creation of Knova Software through the merger of ServiceWare and Kanisa is a win for the company, its stockholders and its customers. Knova is a perfect example where the combination of two market leaders is far greater than the sum of their parts,' said Mitch Kramer, senior analyst for Patricia Seybold Group. 'With rich and flexible content, adaptive and self-learning search technologies, and strong navigation and business process support, Knova has an attractive suite of cross-channel customer service applications that can help customers answer questions and diagnose, report, and resolve problems. These product strengths, combined with a large customer base and good financial performance, position Knova for success.'
'Our experience working with the world's leading customer service and IT organizations has confirmed that true business solutions, not tools and point technologies, are required to deliver excellent assisted-service, self-service, and collaborative-support,' said Bruce Armstrong, president and CEO of Knova Software. 'Our new name reflects the company's strength in knowledge management and search technologies, while conveying innovation, growth, and strength. Knova's comprehensive application suite for SRM is the choice of industry leaders because it enables world-class customer service and support.'
Built on a next-generation search and knowledge management platform, Knova's suite of customer service applications automate the resolution process across multiple channels including contact centers, help desks, email, communities, and self-service sites. Regardless of where information resides, Knova empowers customer service agents and end users with universal knowledge access, rich application capabilities, and personalized, guided resolution processes. Knova's product highlights include:
-- The highest-ranking solution in Web self-service according to Gartner
-- A powerful natural language processing (NLP) search engine ranked by Gartner as 'Visionary' in its Enterprise Search Magic Quadrant
-- The first integrated suite of collaborative support applications for agent-assisted service, self-service, and peer-service communities
-- The Cognitive Processor(R), a patented self-learning, self-organizing knowledge management technology
-- The Resolution Flow business process engine that integrates all applications to guide users step by step through the optimal resolution process
-- A strong patent portfolio for KM and search technologies
'In order to exceed expectations in today's customer service and support environments, organizations must provide KM as part of a comprehensive service resolution framework,' commented Liz Roche, vice president, META Group. 'Customer service and support organizations are best served by technology solutions that combine industry-leading technologies, comprehensive applications and providers with impressive customer bases. Knova Software certainly fits this criteria.'
Knova6, Knova's award-winning application suite is built on a next-generation search and knowledge management platform. Knova6 applications include:
-- Knova Contact Center: An assisted-service application that automates the resolution process for customer service agents and support analysts
-- Knova Self-Service: A next-generation self-service application that enables customers to help themselves with a personalized, proactive self-service experience
-- Knova Service Desk: A robust knowledge management solution that empowers service desks to quickly resolve problems and questions
-- Knova Forums: An integrated forums application for peer-service that enables customers to help each other while providing valuable feedback
" ¶ 13:47 0 comments
PRESS RELEASE Alcoa Streamlines Collaboration and Knowledge Management With PLM Solutions From IBM and Dassault Syst�mes
PRESS RELEASE Alcoa Streamlines Collaboration and Knowledge Management With PLM Solutions From IBM and Dassault Syst�mes: "IBM and Dassault Syst�mes (NASDAQ: DASTY) (Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA) today announced that Alcoa has chosen their Product Lifecycle Management solutions (PLM) to improve collaboration efficiency and increase integration between engineering and production. Alcoa will be presenting its collaborative facilities management solution at the COE Annual Users Conference in Phoenix this week.
Alcoa is a leading producer and manager of aluminum products and components. The supplier is active in the aerospace, commercial transportation and automotive industry, among others. It has experienced the benefits of SMARTEAM in two of its subsidiaries.
Alcoa's capital engineering for Cleveland Works deployed SMARTEAM for facilities management across four locations. The company is meeting the global challenges of a distributed enterprise by streamlining change management and providing unified access to the more than 60,000 AutoCAD and TIF drawings of presses, buildings, and support systems at its 30-acre Cleveland site, as well as at production sites in Virginia, Hungary, and Mexico.
'Setting up an enterprise PLM system will allow us to expand our capabilities,' said Dora Tripp, system administrator, Design Engineering Services, Alcoa Cleveland. 'SMARTEAM's flexible data model has enabled us to build a complex, scalable knowledge structure for accessing and collaborating with in our organization.'
In a successful two-year pilot program, the other subsidiary, Alcoa Wheel Products' Commercial Vehicle Wheel Division -- which serves the Class 8 truck and automotive OEM industries -- implemented SMARTEAM to vault and manage all its CATIA V5 product design data. Upon a successful production launch, the solution will be extended by introducing more optimized processes across additional locations, including multi-CAD legacy data, CATIA V4, SolidWorks and Pro/ENGINEER�, and achieving gateway interconnectivity with the company's ERP system." ¶ 13:46 0 comments
Alcoa is a leading producer and manager of aluminum products and components. The supplier is active in the aerospace, commercial transportation and automotive industry, among others. It has experienced the benefits of SMARTEAM in two of its subsidiaries.
Alcoa's capital engineering for Cleveland Works deployed SMARTEAM for facilities management across four locations. The company is meeting the global challenges of a distributed enterprise by streamlining change management and providing unified access to the more than 60,000 AutoCAD and TIF drawings of presses, buildings, and support systems at its 30-acre Cleveland site, as well as at production sites in Virginia, Hungary, and Mexico.
'Setting up an enterprise PLM system will allow us to expand our capabilities,' said Dora Tripp, system administrator, Design Engineering Services, Alcoa Cleveland. 'SMARTEAM's flexible data model has enabled us to build a complex, scalable knowledge structure for accessing and collaborating with in our organization.'
In a successful two-year pilot program, the other subsidiary, Alcoa Wheel Products' Commercial Vehicle Wheel Division -- which serves the Class 8 truck and automotive OEM industries -- implemented SMARTEAM to vault and manage all its CATIA V5 product design data. Upon a successful production launch, the solution will be extended by introducing more optimized processes across additional locations, including multi-CAD legacy data, CATIA V4, SolidWorks and Pro/ENGINEER�, and achieving gateway interconnectivity with the company's ERP system." ¶ 13:46 0 comments
18.3.05
Knowledge Management in action
Knowledge Management in action
In order to drive a project effectively, project managers must have all the specialized IT tools and documents at their disposal—from project plans and sample deliverables, to intermediate notes and communications, to the most updated methodologies and templates. Knowledge Management (KM) is the business process that captures and manages the collective experience and work knowledge of an organization and forms a repository (or knowledge base) that is accessible to the other workers in the company. There are obvious performance enhancements and efficiencies to be gained by implementing KM in the enterprise, but not all companies are ready to take the plunge. However, we found one project manager who got behind KM and was able to sell the idea successfully to his company. Find out how he implemented the KM system and was able to encourage its adoption and use.
Identifying the issue and getting decision makers to sign on
When senior project manager Josh Brose of Woburn, MA-IT firm Collaborative Consulting (http://www.collaborative.ws/) started his job three years ago, his new employer didn't have KM. Brose realized in the first week of work what a benefit a KM solution would be for project managers and the company as a whole when he was charged with creating an integration testing strategy for a client, something he'd never done in his career.
"You know, at a consulting firm, you're selling the fact that you're going to bring in a consultant who knows how to do this," says Brose. "And so here I am, I'm put in a project and I need to figure out how I'm going to present a testing strategy."
He started asking around the company for people who had built an integration testing strategy before, and in a little over a week, he was able to find a document that got him about 75 percent of the way, enabling him to present the deliverable to the client.
"We just scored huge bonus points with the client," says Brose about the ability to turn a complicated task around in short order. However, the challenges of finding the right document made him realize the large gap Collaborative Consulting had at the time, in terms of being able to be easily share documents.
"We're all doing our own thing and there was no real consolidated point to share information," says Brose. Instead, workers continually had to reinvent the wheel.
The experience helped him advocate for a KM solution at his consulting firm, which resulted in the formation of a working committee, and eventually a product selection and roll-out to the enterprise.
The company created a committee of eight people, including Brose, senior people from the company's various business units, an analyst, and perhaps most importantly, the Operations Director, whose presence helped to ensure that people would take the project seriously.
After defining requirements, by 2003 the committee had selected low-end KM products from Jive Software (www.jivesoftware.com),an open source java development company whose core products include Jive Forum and Jive Knowledge Base, both of which Collaborative Consulting purchased for around $10,000. The goal was to create a KM solution that could be accessible through a browser-based secure area, and be a repository for information and online dialogues, categorized and available in keyword searches.
Brose himself installed the server-side application, and in about two weeks set up the taxonomy, or information structure within the information repository.
Hide
Hide
Knowledge Management in action
Page 2 of 2
Adoption of KM crucial to success
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The next challenge was getting people, including the PMs at Collaborative Consulting, to start loading documents into the KM system.
"We were starting from scratch; we didn't have a repository of documents," says Brose. "We didn't have a server out there with just a 1,000 documents waiting for KM." Instead, thousands of documents resided on desktops, laptops, and in information silos across the company's distributed workforce. "They were just everywhere," he says.
Brose wanted to get employees to load documents into the system, so he provided employees incentives (company branded leather binders, sweatshirts, and golf shirts) for loading up the KM system with their documents.
But Brose also wanted to give employees a reason to use the system immediately. He gave them what they used all the time to build proposals and project teams—the company's internal resumes, which lists competencies and skills of every worker. He figured that the wide availability of this common resource would help with system uptake.
"As a project manager, if I'm looking for people on a project, I'll go out there and scan the different people I know to see who I could pull onto a project," says Brose. "We moved all of the files onto the knowledge management system and that was our first step to getting people to use it."
Brose continues to provide incentives for people to load documents into the KM system, monitoring uploads and usage in order to recognize those employees who are helping the KM grow. He has also published their success stories with using the KM system.
"If they were able to go to the knowledge base, find an example of [a document that could help them], use it, and put together a deliverable for the new client—saving half the time or a quarter of the time, that's something I try to capture and publish," says Brose.
Ongoing enhancements
Brose plans to continue enhancing the KM system over time, making it more prominent in the work activities of PMs and other employees by merging the company's intranet with the KM system. This way, remote employees will log into a single place to check their e-mail, as well as access the company's time-reporting system, expense reports, and information about company-sponsored health benefits and investments.
"It'll be much more in front of people all the time," says Brose.
With less success, Brose has tried to set up project areas for project managers within the KM system. But largely due to logistical barriers with information sharing among PMs who work at client sites, project-based knowledge sharing areas haven't been heavily used.
"We're always so integrated with the client and right now we don't have it set up so that the client can come into our environment," notes Brose.
But despite the ongoing refinements to the system and the occasional challenges, Brose says it has been a big success for the company.
Surprisingly, though, the biggest issue with rolling out KM to project managers and others hasn't been a technological hurdle. It's been a people issue.
"How do you get people to buy into this, how do you drive people to use this, and how do you make it so they can see the value of it," says Brose. "They have to see the value of it on day one, or they'll stop using it, and they'll never come back.
"Once people get into it I think they'll find it very useful," says Brose. "It's very easy to find documents. The information is there. It's just making it as simple as possible so there's not a single reason not to use it." ¶ 08:24 0 comments
In order to drive a project effectively, project managers must have all the specialized IT tools and documents at their disposal—from project plans and sample deliverables, to intermediate notes and communications, to the most updated methodologies and templates. Knowledge Management (KM) is the business process that captures and manages the collective experience and work knowledge of an organization and forms a repository (or knowledge base) that is accessible to the other workers in the company. There are obvious performance enhancements and efficiencies to be gained by implementing KM in the enterprise, but not all companies are ready to take the plunge. However, we found one project manager who got behind KM and was able to sell the idea successfully to his company. Find out how he implemented the KM system and was able to encourage its adoption and use.
Identifying the issue and getting decision makers to sign on
When senior project manager Josh Brose of Woburn, MA-IT firm Collaborative Consulting (http://www.collaborative.ws/) started his job three years ago, his new employer didn't have KM. Brose realized in the first week of work what a benefit a KM solution would be for project managers and the company as a whole when he was charged with creating an integration testing strategy for a client, something he'd never done in his career.
"You know, at a consulting firm, you're selling the fact that you're going to bring in a consultant who knows how to do this," says Brose. "And so here I am, I'm put in a project and I need to figure out how I'm going to present a testing strategy."
He started asking around the company for people who had built an integration testing strategy before, and in a little over a week, he was able to find a document that got him about 75 percent of the way, enabling him to present the deliverable to the client.
"We just scored huge bonus points with the client," says Brose about the ability to turn a complicated task around in short order. However, the challenges of finding the right document made him realize the large gap Collaborative Consulting had at the time, in terms of being able to be easily share documents.
"We're all doing our own thing and there was no real consolidated point to share information," says Brose. Instead, workers continually had to reinvent the wheel.
The experience helped him advocate for a KM solution at his consulting firm, which resulted in the formation of a working committee, and eventually a product selection and roll-out to the enterprise.
The company created a committee of eight people, including Brose, senior people from the company's various business units, an analyst, and perhaps most importantly, the Operations Director, whose presence helped to ensure that people would take the project seriously.
After defining requirements, by 2003 the committee had selected low-end KM products from Jive Software (www.jivesoftware.com),an open source java development company whose core products include Jive Forum and Jive Knowledge Base, both of which Collaborative Consulting purchased for around $10,000. The goal was to create a KM solution that could be accessible through a browser-based secure area, and be a repository for information and online dialogues, categorized and available in keyword searches.
Brose himself installed the server-side application, and in about two weeks set up the taxonomy, or information structure within the information repository.
Hide
Hide
Knowledge Management in action
Page 2 of 2
Adoption of KM crucial to success
advertisement
The next challenge was getting people, including the PMs at Collaborative Consulting, to start loading documents into the KM system.
"We were starting from scratch; we didn't have a repository of documents," says Brose. "We didn't have a server out there with just a 1,000 documents waiting for KM." Instead, thousands of documents resided on desktops, laptops, and in information silos across the company's distributed workforce. "They were just everywhere," he says.
Brose wanted to get employees to load documents into the system, so he provided employees incentives (company branded leather binders, sweatshirts, and golf shirts) for loading up the KM system with their documents.
But Brose also wanted to give employees a reason to use the system immediately. He gave them what they used all the time to build proposals and project teams—the company's internal resumes, which lists competencies and skills of every worker. He figured that the wide availability of this common resource would help with system uptake.
"As a project manager, if I'm looking for people on a project, I'll go out there and scan the different people I know to see who I could pull onto a project," says Brose. "We moved all of the files onto the knowledge management system and that was our first step to getting people to use it."
Brose continues to provide incentives for people to load documents into the KM system, monitoring uploads and usage in order to recognize those employees who are helping the KM grow. He has also published their success stories with using the KM system.
"If they were able to go to the knowledge base, find an example of [a document that could help them], use it, and put together a deliverable for the new client—saving half the time or a quarter of the time, that's something I try to capture and publish," says Brose.
Ongoing enhancements
Brose plans to continue enhancing the KM system over time, making it more prominent in the work activities of PMs and other employees by merging the company's intranet with the KM system. This way, remote employees will log into a single place to check their e-mail, as well as access the company's time-reporting system, expense reports, and information about company-sponsored health benefits and investments.
"It'll be much more in front of people all the time," says Brose.
With less success, Brose has tried to set up project areas for project managers within the KM system. But largely due to logistical barriers with information sharing among PMs who work at client sites, project-based knowledge sharing areas haven't been heavily used.
"We're always so integrated with the client and right now we don't have it set up so that the client can come into our environment," notes Brose.
But despite the ongoing refinements to the system and the occasional challenges, Brose says it has been a big success for the company.
Surprisingly, though, the biggest issue with rolling out KM to project managers and others hasn't been a technological hurdle. It's been a people issue.
"How do you get people to buy into this, how do you drive people to use this, and how do you make it so they can see the value of it," says Brose. "They have to see the value of it on day one, or they'll stop using it, and they'll never come back.
"Once people get into it I think they'll find it very useful," says Brose. "It's very easy to find documents. The information is there. It's just making it as simple as possible so there's not a single reason not to use it." ¶ 08:24 0 comments
Eedo's ForceTen to Power American Management Association Strategic Learning Initiative
Eedo's ForceTen to Power American Management Association Strategic Learning Initiative: "Eedo Knowledgeware (http://www.eedo.com) announced today that the American Management Association (http://www.amanet.org), the world's leading membership-based business and management education organization, has selected Eedo's award winning LCMS as the platform of choice for launching its Blended Learning initiative to support both open enrollment and on-site learning and development programs. The American Management Association (AMA) will be utilizing Eedo's ForceTen authoring, assessment, content management and knowledge sharing platform to dramatically increase the value and effectiveness of their instructor-led programs. AMA currently offers over 175 different skills and behavior development programs, spanning 14 different business curricula, and available in over 100 cities around the world as well as on corporate client sites. Eedo's solution will support a suite of web-based content and assessments designed to align the learner's needs, expectations and preparation prior to the AMA classroom experience, and provide a post-seminar set of resources to allow for ongoing learning and application of their newly acquired knowledge or skill. Assessments, supplemental course content, communities of practice and other resources for the learner as well as 'performance support and application tools' to align employee and manager expectations and assist in applying learning in the workplace will all reinforce AMA's experiential model to the benefit of both the learner and manager. Utilizing Eedo's ForceTen, AMA can deliver an innovative technology-based continuous learning program that leverages the state of the art learning content management from Eedo with world class content and instruction offered by AMA to help students effectively achieve their learning goals. 'It was clear to us that Eedo's solution was the perfect fit for our needs,' commented Nicholas Igneri, AMA's Director of Learning Technologies. 'We selected Eedo as our partner not only for the quality and vision of the ForceTen platform, but for their insight and attention to overall customer experience.' 'To have AMA, one of the world's largest professional development organizations, select ForceTen to drive their business, validates both our vision and products,' said John Hudson, President and CEO of Eedo. 'We are delighted to welcome AMA as a new customer. And look forward to working with them to grow their business.'"
¶ 08:17 0 comments
10.3.05
JCube and KnowledgeBroker, Inc. Announce Strategic Partnership
JCube and KnowledgeBroker, Inc. Announce Strategic Partnership: "JCube, a leading provider of Workplace Management software and services, and KnowledgeBroker, Inc. (KBI) today announced a strategic partnership which will bundle KBI's knowledge content and tools with JCube services and support. This will allow Peregrine's ServiceCenter, Get-Service and Get-Answers customers to streamline operations and dramatically increase productivity for help desk personnel and end users, thereby reducing operational costs."
¶ 08:56 0 comments
8.3.05
Protection through Information: New Tool Assists EPA with Knowledge Management - Articles
Protection through Information: New Tool Assists EPA with Knowledge Management - Articles
Protecting the public from environmental dangers is a time-consuming and expensive endeavor, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now has a powerful tool to effectively manage data on hazardous waste sites. The EPA’s Knowledge Management Application (EPAKMA) will cut costs and streamline the information collected by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly referred to as the Superfund program.
Enacted in December 1980, the Superfund program taxes chemical and petroleum industries. The tax money collected under the act is used for the clean-up of uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. If no person or party is found liable for the hazardous waste identified, money from the Superfund program is allocated for the clean-up of the site.
The EPA is required to follow a standard set of procedures under the Superfund program to determine whether a site contains contaminants that are at a high enough concentration to warrant action by the agency. If contaminants are suspected at a site, the EPA is required to follow a remediation process to determine appropriate action.
The Superfund program and its requirements have resulted in the generation of a large amount of data that is frequently referred to and used during the site evaluation process. The data is stored in three different locations:
* the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) database, a database that contains all data collected on a particular site;
* the Federal Facilities Agreement Commitment Tracking Report (FFACTR), a bi-monthly report that provides the current status of documents under review for a particular region; and
* annual site management plans, non-standard reports that are generated by regional project managers to illustrate progress at a specific site and are updated on an annual basis.
¶ 08:48 0 comments
Protecting the public from environmental dangers is a time-consuming and expensive endeavor, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now has a powerful tool to effectively manage data on hazardous waste sites. The EPA’s Knowledge Management Application (EPAKMA) will cut costs and streamline the information collected by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly referred to as the Superfund program.
Enacted in December 1980, the Superfund program taxes chemical and petroleum industries. The tax money collected under the act is used for the clean-up of uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites. If no person or party is found liable for the hazardous waste identified, money from the Superfund program is allocated for the clean-up of the site.
The EPA is required to follow a standard set of procedures under the Superfund program to determine whether a site contains contaminants that are at a high enough concentration to warrant action by the agency. If contaminants are suspected at a site, the EPA is required to follow a remediation process to determine appropriate action.
The Superfund program and its requirements have resulted in the generation of a large amount of data that is frequently referred to and used during the site evaluation process. The data is stored in three different locations:
* the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) database, a database that contains all data collected on a particular site;
* the Federal Facilities Agreement Commitment Tracking Report (FFACTR), a bi-monthly report that provides the current status of documents under review for a particular region; and
* annual site management plans, non-standard reports that are generated by regional project managers to illustrate progress at a specific site and are updated on an annual basis.
¶ 08:48 0 comments
Mechanical computer-aided design | Product lifecycle management | e-learning
Mechanical computer-aided design | Product lifecycle management | e-learning
Virtual Services, Inc. and Cadpo announced a strategic partnership to provide automotive MCAD/PLM (mechanical computer-aided design/product lifecycle management) training to OEMs and suppliers in Michigan. The companies’ combined programs will impact the automotive industry with lower cost e-learning and blended learning offerings, as well as productivity-enhancing best practice training.
Virtual Services provides engineering solutions and support services to suppliers of BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Toyota. Cadpo provides engineering knowledge through i.get.it® – the only multi-application e-learning system in the MCAD/PLM market.
Virtual Services has adopted Cadpo’s i.get.it Knowledge Management system as its strategic platform for delivering engineering knowledge to its clients both in the classroom and over the web for self-paced learning. Virtual Services and Cadpo are currently collaborating on content to offer the i.get.it CATIA V5 Automotive Edition, which will be available March 1, 2005. ¶ 08:44 0 comments
Virtual Services, Inc. and Cadpo announced a strategic partnership to provide automotive MCAD/PLM (mechanical computer-aided design/product lifecycle management) training to OEMs and suppliers in Michigan. The companies’ combined programs will impact the automotive industry with lower cost e-learning and blended learning offerings, as well as productivity-enhancing best practice training.
Virtual Services provides engineering solutions and support services to suppliers of BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan and Toyota. Cadpo provides engineering knowledge through i.get.it® – the only multi-application e-learning system in the MCAD/PLM market.
Virtual Services has adopted Cadpo’s i.get.it Knowledge Management system as its strategic platform for delivering engineering knowledge to its clients both in the classroom and over the web for self-paced learning. Virtual Services and Cadpo are currently collaborating on content to offer the i.get.it CATIA V5 Automotive Edition, which will be available March 1, 2005. ¶ 08:44 0 comments
7.3.05
Three things about knowledge management
FOR many, the main commodity they can trade is knowledge. Our value is based on what and who we know, rather than what we are able to produce. Increasingly we are responsible for acquiring and updating our own knowledge rather than relying on an employer to provide it. If you do something well — better than anyone you work with — there's a dilemma. Should you enable others to match your standard of performance, or keep it all to yourself to safeguard your superiority?
Share and enjoy: Sharing expertise refines and extends it. In an ideal setting it should enhance rather than diminish your position. Giving away what you know is fine if there's some reward and a strong possibility the beneficiaries will keep coming back to you for more. You are unlikely to ever transfer all you know to those you are helping. Providing others with an insight into the complexity and possibilities of you subject can help you create a niche as the expert.
Your terms: Be cautious if you work in a setting where people are treated as short-term assets. Knowledge is power and it is foolish to weaken your position while contributing to the greater glory of ruthless. Hoarding information can give you leverage, but at a price. It can trap you in the position of carrying excessive responsibility without backup. Concealing what you know is frustrating. Find an employer who inspires you to celebrate rather than hide your capabilities.
Virtual learning
DEVELOPING your listening skills can enhance your relationships with colleagues and clients. By listening attentively you can show that you value someone's opinion and it helps to build a more harmonious working environment. There are several ways to show that you are listening to someone:
Using eye contact: If you look at the speaker as opposed to focusing on different places in the room they will feel that you are interested in what they are saying.
Acknowledging: By nodding and smiling in appropriate places you can show that you are listening. Asking relevant questions will also show that you are keeping pace with the conversation and are interested in finding out more.
Taking notes: But it is important that note-taking does not get in the way of maintaining eye contact.
Reflecting: Reflecting on what a person has said, or how they may feel about the subject shows that you are listening both to he conversation and also the point of the conversation.
Listening can be either passive or active. Each is useful, but you need to work out which process will work best for you depending on he circumstance. Active listening involves you listening, questioning and summarising. Passive listening involves you listening quietly but with some appropriate non-verbal or verbal encouragement.
Often, the best method of listening involves passive listening interspersed with some summary and reflection, and some appropriate questions. So long as you make the person talking feel that you have taken on board their comments and listened and absorbed their points of view, they will feel valued. Next time you have in a conversation with someone, see if you can switch off all the distractions that might be going on around you. You could also ask someone you trust for feedback on your listening capabilities.
How to be a chairman
I HAVE been asked to chair a meting for the first time — how do I do this effectively?
Capitalise on your experience. It does not matter that you have never chaired a meeting before, you will no doubt have sat through plenty. Think back to ones that went well and ones that dragged on and achieved nothing. List the things that pleased or annoyed you. Well-run meetings stick to the point, get things decided and finish on time. Make sure everyone has the agenda and supporting information well in advance. Ensure you are familiar with the issues to be discussed.
If you know those who will be attending, think about how they will respond to any controversial items and devise a rough strategy for managing difficulties. If some or all of the participants are new, do a bit of detective work for them. Allow time for introductions at the start if the group includes people who do not know each other. Keep things moving by not letting discussions stray from the point or become over long. Get decisions made and recorded. If a colleague has difficulty in agreeing with the majority, offer to continue the conversation personally at a more appropriate time.
For meetings of more than an hour include a break halfway though. This acts as a marker and stops people fidgeting. Do not skimp on refreshments, people are always left with a favourable impression if they are well fed. As much as you can, try to leave everyone feeling they have had their say. And to secure lasting gratitude and popularity, try finishing early.
How to leave a job
DO NOT make assumption: When you get a new job, the last thing most of us think about is the prospect that we may end up back where we started with our original employer. But you shouldn't rule it out. Companies go bust and people get made redundant all the time. You should never assume this would not happen to you. So make sure that you do not leave under a cloud. It is always useful to know you have something to fall back on.
Watch what you say: If you have a leaving party and are called on to make a speech, or even if you just say your goodbyes privately to colleagues, make sure you never say anything negative about the company or any employees. It will make people who still work there feel uncomfortable and can make you look bitter and ungrateful. Far better to say you have enjoyed your time with the company very much but sadly the time has come to move on.
Do not be slack: However much it may be tempting to dash off any work you do in the last few days before you leave, remember that it will be the last impression you make. And should circumstances dictate that you return to your old position, you do not want to feel embarrassed or guilty about work you have completed previously. Not making an effort could ruin any chances of promotion if you end up back with the company.
Back to the beginning: If you do end up in your old position, try not to think of it as a step back. Take stock of your role and think of how you can approach it in a new way. Re-evaluate your job specification and update it if need be. Remember that you wanted to move on originally, but things didn't work out. Therefore try and move on in a different way, and do your best to get promoted.
Take advantage: You can use your time away from the company as a positive tool. Make your colleagues aware that you can approach things with a fresh viewpoint, and you can even mention how things were done in the other company if you think they may be useful. Be careful how you phrase this though, you do not want people to think you are suggesting that their methods are inferior.
Learn from last time: Presumably there will be some issues which made you want to find a new job in the first place. Think about ways in which you can put these right. If there were aspects of your job that you found hard to deal with, or methods you did not agree with, try and tackle these immediately. If you do not do everything possible to make yourself comfortable with returning to your old job, you may end up resentful. If you put things right, you can enjoy a fulfilling role and begin to take steps towards a promotion.
(Edited extracts from student accountant, a journal of ACCA, London. www.accaglobal.com) ¶ 09:15 0 comments
Share and enjoy: Sharing expertise refines and extends it. In an ideal setting it should enhance rather than diminish your position. Giving away what you know is fine if there's some reward and a strong possibility the beneficiaries will keep coming back to you for more. You are unlikely to ever transfer all you know to those you are helping. Providing others with an insight into the complexity and possibilities of you subject can help you create a niche as the expert.
Your terms: Be cautious if you work in a setting where people are treated as short-term assets. Knowledge is power and it is foolish to weaken your position while contributing to the greater glory of ruthless. Hoarding information can give you leverage, but at a price. It can trap you in the position of carrying excessive responsibility without backup. Concealing what you know is frustrating. Find an employer who inspires you to celebrate rather than hide your capabilities.
Virtual learning
DEVELOPING your listening skills can enhance your relationships with colleagues and clients. By listening attentively you can show that you value someone's opinion and it helps to build a more harmonious working environment. There are several ways to show that you are listening to someone:
Using eye contact: If you look at the speaker as opposed to focusing on different places in the room they will feel that you are interested in what they are saying.
Acknowledging: By nodding and smiling in appropriate places you can show that you are listening. Asking relevant questions will also show that you are keeping pace with the conversation and are interested in finding out more.
Taking notes: But it is important that note-taking does not get in the way of maintaining eye contact.
Reflecting: Reflecting on what a person has said, or how they may feel about the subject shows that you are listening both to he conversation and also the point of the conversation.
Listening can be either passive or active. Each is useful, but you need to work out which process will work best for you depending on he circumstance. Active listening involves you listening, questioning and summarising. Passive listening involves you listening quietly but with some appropriate non-verbal or verbal encouragement.
Often, the best method of listening involves passive listening interspersed with some summary and reflection, and some appropriate questions. So long as you make the person talking feel that you have taken on board their comments and listened and absorbed their points of view, they will feel valued. Next time you have in a conversation with someone, see if you can switch off all the distractions that might be going on around you. You could also ask someone you trust for feedback on your listening capabilities.
How to be a chairman
I HAVE been asked to chair a meting for the first time — how do I do this effectively?
Capitalise on your experience. It does not matter that you have never chaired a meeting before, you will no doubt have sat through plenty. Think back to ones that went well and ones that dragged on and achieved nothing. List the things that pleased or annoyed you. Well-run meetings stick to the point, get things decided and finish on time. Make sure everyone has the agenda and supporting information well in advance. Ensure you are familiar with the issues to be discussed.
If you know those who will be attending, think about how they will respond to any controversial items and devise a rough strategy for managing difficulties. If some or all of the participants are new, do a bit of detective work for them. Allow time for introductions at the start if the group includes people who do not know each other. Keep things moving by not letting discussions stray from the point or become over long. Get decisions made and recorded. If a colleague has difficulty in agreeing with the majority, offer to continue the conversation personally at a more appropriate time.
For meetings of more than an hour include a break halfway though. This acts as a marker and stops people fidgeting. Do not skimp on refreshments, people are always left with a favourable impression if they are well fed. As much as you can, try to leave everyone feeling they have had their say. And to secure lasting gratitude and popularity, try finishing early.
How to leave a job
DO NOT make assumption: When you get a new job, the last thing most of us think about is the prospect that we may end up back where we started with our original employer. But you shouldn't rule it out. Companies go bust and people get made redundant all the time. You should never assume this would not happen to you. So make sure that you do not leave under a cloud. It is always useful to know you have something to fall back on.
Watch what you say: If you have a leaving party and are called on to make a speech, or even if you just say your goodbyes privately to colleagues, make sure you never say anything negative about the company or any employees. It will make people who still work there feel uncomfortable and can make you look bitter and ungrateful. Far better to say you have enjoyed your time with the company very much but sadly the time has come to move on.
Do not be slack: However much it may be tempting to dash off any work you do in the last few days before you leave, remember that it will be the last impression you make. And should circumstances dictate that you return to your old position, you do not want to feel embarrassed or guilty about work you have completed previously. Not making an effort could ruin any chances of promotion if you end up back with the company.
Back to the beginning: If you do end up in your old position, try not to think of it as a step back. Take stock of your role and think of how you can approach it in a new way. Re-evaluate your job specification and update it if need be. Remember that you wanted to move on originally, but things didn't work out. Therefore try and move on in a different way, and do your best to get promoted.
Take advantage: You can use your time away from the company as a positive tool. Make your colleagues aware that you can approach things with a fresh viewpoint, and you can even mention how things were done in the other company if you think they may be useful. Be careful how you phrase this though, you do not want people to think you are suggesting that their methods are inferior.
Learn from last time: Presumably there will be some issues which made you want to find a new job in the first place. Think about ways in which you can put these right. If there were aspects of your job that you found hard to deal with, or methods you did not agree with, try and tackle these immediately. If you do not do everything possible to make yourself comfortable with returning to your old job, you may end up resentful. If you put things right, you can enjoy a fulfilling role and begin to take steps towards a promotion.
(Edited extracts from student accountant, a journal of ACCA, London. www.accaglobal.com) ¶ 09:15 0 comments
5.3.05
Knowledge Management: Aiming For Better Insight Into Clients
Automating customer info allows banks and brokers such as Raymond James and ING Belgium to analyze data at a higher level, which aids in service and marketing
By Shane Kite
More banks and brokers are tapping knowledge management to understand their businesses and customers, whether it's in tailoring marketing campaigns for specific segments or to comply with reporting requirements.
After automating and centralizing core customer information, many banks are taking the next step and installing overlay applications to analyze the reams of data that they've managed to digitize. Providing desktop access to the information gives senior management, financial advisors and customer service representatives descriptive, electronic views of historical transactional and general account data.
Raymond James, for instance, is using Boise, ID-based ProClarity's Analytics Platform to analyze all of its customer assets and revenue streams. The application acts as a front-end to Microsoft's OLAP or multidimensional "cube-based" database. As opposed to a regular relational database with indexes and separate tables, OLAP technology pre-aggregates information and builds complex data structures or multi-dimensional indexes for varied analysis.
The ProClarity platform acts as an interface to slice and dice information using any field as an index. "It's different from traditional reporting," says Jay Bentley, vp of IT and strategic development at Raymond James. "There are lots of Web reporters out there that can look at a database but this lets you take and move any column over and make it an index to drill into analytical situations."
The St. Petersburg, FL-based broker is rolling out the application to its 5,000 financial advisors, as well as to regional and senior managers. Advisors access a Web-based version securely through a Virtual Private Network app. Management uses a more powerful, desktop-based analytics engine secured by VPN hardware.
Marketers, analysts, and senior management use the tool to structure sales efforts around specific demographic details and product holdings. Financial advisors with 300 or 400 accounts can cull the same customer demographics, or a regional manager can look at statistics of all the branches in one area."We had a lot of good transactional systems that let them look at a customer in a household at an individual level, but this really lets them analyze all of their customers," Bentley says.
While the rollout continued at press time, the application had already enabled a fixed-income sales effort molded during testing of the system last year among the broker's high-net worth segment. "Wealth management is obviously a big focus these days," says Carole Torreano, vp of IT at Raymond James. "This allows us to focus on particular products, such as fixed income, which those people tend to purchase."
Says Bentley: "You can say 'show me all of the people that are older than 65 that hold mutual funds,' and then of those, you want to know which ones have a net worth of $1 million or more. All of the fields become ways for you to group and filter the data."
According to ProClarity CFO Phil Bradley, banks are using knowledge management or business intelligence (BI) solutions primarily "to understand which of their customers and products are profitable and which ones aren't, but also for portfolio risk management, where they have concentrations of assets that may give rise to unusual risks."
Banks are applying BI platforms to both sell and manage risk. Uses include everything from scenario-planning to assess whether a consolidation makes sense, to project performance measurement on specific sales efforts.
BI efforts in risk analysis and financial reporting have risen as regulatory scrutiny has increased. "There's a whole corporate risk, performance management, risk-regulation area that's created the need for more accurate and timely decision-making," says Gartner analyst Mary Knox. "Regulations like Sox [Sarbanes-Oxley] and Basel II are really making people look at how they are structuring data. We see a renewed interest in data quality as a result."
According to Gartner's "Magic Quadrant" study on BI solutions, released last year, pure-play BI providers include MicroStrategy, Applix, arcplan and ProClarity. Some major enterprise platform vendors have begun to sell their own knowledge management applications, the study says, such as SAS, Hyperion Solutions, Oracle and SAP.
Document automation for some banks has enabled better risk management and auditing that is in turn boosting customer service. ING Belgium, for instance, is using Clearstory's Radiant Business Document Server (formerly called ESP+) and Radiant Document Imaging to electronically archive all of its records and images, including brand graphics. Video and audio files may be next, according to Jean-Paul Hainaux, a technical leader at ING in Brussels.
Implementing the solution has cut down on the time that is required to search and access content, he says, and enabled the broker to offer new on-line services to customers. ING clients can now access a historical library of their account statements back to January 1997 from a single interface. Both cashier and customer can view the statement on-line or via the network.
"This is of high value if a customer is audited or is refinancing," Hainaux says. "This way our help desk employees can electronically view the same document as the paper document received by the customer, so when clients call the help desk all of their documents are instantly available to the person taking their call."
Such statements have traditionally been stored on microfiche. Finding, printing and mailing such documents remains a costly and time-consuming process for many banks.
The ING unit is also using the platform to archive historical data for journal or general ledger accounting, as well as for other storage mandated by the legal and compliance department, such as for credit contracts, mortgages and human resource documents. Transaction logs are also archived for ATM banking. The system stores a journal for transactions at every cash machine.
Via its Radiant suite, Westborough, MA-based Clearstory also enables the digital validation of client signatures. The signature is scanned, archived in the system, and then made available among departments and branches throughout the network. "This allows our clients to go to any location for service because we can authenticate them everywhere," Hainaux says.
Solutions like Radiant from ClearStory competes primarily with the other document imaging and archiving providers, such as 1mage, FileNet and Scansoft.
Wilmington Trust uses Clearstory's product for archiving its mainframe legacy reports on disk and optical disk-based storage mediums. The Wilmington, DE-based institution had previously been transferring documents to microfiche, or simply printing hard copies. Now users view reports through either a Web interface or a "thick-client" desktop solution.
"We're saving a ton of paper," says Ed Olkowski, data center manager at Wilmington Trust.
The firm uses a digital annotation feature offered in the system-like an electronic sticky note-to confirm reviews of daily reports for auditing control and compliance. "That's being heavily used, especially with regulations like Sarb-Ox," Olkowski says.
Digitizing Wilmington's reporting environment has had another benefit, he says: better security. "If you're putting that report out onto a secure database structure or file, you can determine who can look at that and who cannot. There's also no worry about leaving a pack of microfiche somewhere that somebody could just put in their pocket and walk away with." ¶ 08:35 0 comments
By Shane Kite
More banks and brokers are tapping knowledge management to understand their businesses and customers, whether it's in tailoring marketing campaigns for specific segments or to comply with reporting requirements.
After automating and centralizing core customer information, many banks are taking the next step and installing overlay applications to analyze the reams of data that they've managed to digitize. Providing desktop access to the information gives senior management, financial advisors and customer service representatives descriptive, electronic views of historical transactional and general account data.
Raymond James, for instance, is using Boise, ID-based ProClarity's Analytics Platform to analyze all of its customer assets and revenue streams. The application acts as a front-end to Microsoft's OLAP or multidimensional "cube-based" database. As opposed to a regular relational database with indexes and separate tables, OLAP technology pre-aggregates information and builds complex data structures or multi-dimensional indexes for varied analysis.
The ProClarity platform acts as an interface to slice and dice information using any field as an index. "It's different from traditional reporting," says Jay Bentley, vp of IT and strategic development at Raymond James. "There are lots of Web reporters out there that can look at a database but this lets you take and move any column over and make it an index to drill into analytical situations."
The St. Petersburg, FL-based broker is rolling out the application to its 5,000 financial advisors, as well as to regional and senior managers. Advisors access a Web-based version securely through a Virtual Private Network app. Management uses a more powerful, desktop-based analytics engine secured by VPN hardware.
Marketers, analysts, and senior management use the tool to structure sales efforts around specific demographic details and product holdings. Financial advisors with 300 or 400 accounts can cull the same customer demographics, or a regional manager can look at statistics of all the branches in one area."We had a lot of good transactional systems that let them look at a customer in a household at an individual level, but this really lets them analyze all of their customers," Bentley says.
While the rollout continued at press time, the application had already enabled a fixed-income sales effort molded during testing of the system last year among the broker's high-net worth segment. "Wealth management is obviously a big focus these days," says Carole Torreano, vp of IT at Raymond James. "This allows us to focus on particular products, such as fixed income, which those people tend to purchase."
Says Bentley: "You can say 'show me all of the people that are older than 65 that hold mutual funds,' and then of those, you want to know which ones have a net worth of $1 million or more. All of the fields become ways for you to group and filter the data."
According to ProClarity CFO Phil Bradley, banks are using knowledge management or business intelligence (BI) solutions primarily "to understand which of their customers and products are profitable and which ones aren't, but also for portfolio risk management, where they have concentrations of assets that may give rise to unusual risks."
Banks are applying BI platforms to both sell and manage risk. Uses include everything from scenario-planning to assess whether a consolidation makes sense, to project performance measurement on specific sales efforts.
BI efforts in risk analysis and financial reporting have risen as regulatory scrutiny has increased. "There's a whole corporate risk, performance management, risk-regulation area that's created the need for more accurate and timely decision-making," says Gartner analyst Mary Knox. "Regulations like Sox [Sarbanes-Oxley] and Basel II are really making people look at how they are structuring data. We see a renewed interest in data quality as a result."
According to Gartner's "Magic Quadrant" study on BI solutions, released last year, pure-play BI providers include MicroStrategy, Applix, arcplan and ProClarity. Some major enterprise platform vendors have begun to sell their own knowledge management applications, the study says, such as SAS, Hyperion Solutions, Oracle and SAP.
Document automation for some banks has enabled better risk management and auditing that is in turn boosting customer service. ING Belgium, for instance, is using Clearstory's Radiant Business Document Server (formerly called ESP+) and Radiant Document Imaging to electronically archive all of its records and images, including brand graphics. Video and audio files may be next, according to Jean-Paul Hainaux, a technical leader at ING in Brussels.
Implementing the solution has cut down on the time that is required to search and access content, he says, and enabled the broker to offer new on-line services to customers. ING clients can now access a historical library of their account statements back to January 1997 from a single interface. Both cashier and customer can view the statement on-line or via the network.
"This is of high value if a customer is audited or is refinancing," Hainaux says. "This way our help desk employees can electronically view the same document as the paper document received by the customer, so when clients call the help desk all of their documents are instantly available to the person taking their call."
Such statements have traditionally been stored on microfiche. Finding, printing and mailing such documents remains a costly and time-consuming process for many banks.
The ING unit is also using the platform to archive historical data for journal or general ledger accounting, as well as for other storage mandated by the legal and compliance department, such as for credit contracts, mortgages and human resource documents. Transaction logs are also archived for ATM banking. The system stores a journal for transactions at every cash machine.
Via its Radiant suite, Westborough, MA-based Clearstory also enables the digital validation of client signatures. The signature is scanned, archived in the system, and then made available among departments and branches throughout the network. "This allows our clients to go to any location for service because we can authenticate them everywhere," Hainaux says.
Solutions like Radiant from ClearStory competes primarily with the other document imaging and archiving providers, such as 1mage, FileNet and Scansoft.
Wilmington Trust uses Clearstory's product for archiving its mainframe legacy reports on disk and optical disk-based storage mediums. The Wilmington, DE-based institution had previously been transferring documents to microfiche, or simply printing hard copies. Now users view reports through either a Web interface or a "thick-client" desktop solution.
"We're saving a ton of paper," says Ed Olkowski, data center manager at Wilmington Trust.
The firm uses a digital annotation feature offered in the system-like an electronic sticky note-to confirm reviews of daily reports for auditing control and compliance. "That's being heavily used, especially with regulations like Sarb-Ox," Olkowski says.
Digitizing Wilmington's reporting environment has had another benefit, he says: better security. "If you're putting that report out onto a secure database structure or file, you can determine who can look at that and who cannot. There's also no worry about leaving a pack of microfiche somewhere that somebody could just put in their pocket and walk away with." ¶ 08:35 0 comments
4.3.05
Business Intelligence and Negative Discovery
by Dr. Ramon C. Barquin
In high school geometry we referred to it as “reductio ad absurdum.” This is the method of proof which proceeds by stating a proposition and then showing that it results in a contradiction, thus demonstrating the proposition to be false. While there are many tools in the business intelligence toolkit, we want to talk a bit about knowledge discovery and how sometimes the “reductio ad absurdum” approach can be useful.
As we know, data mining is a part of the knowledge discovery process and they are both strongly intertwined with data warehousing. The advances leading to mainstream data warehousing constitute the seminal point of departure from which we have to mark the start of contemporary analytical processing. It was data warehousing that served as the first thrust for the rigorous and methodical production of knowledge from our data.
Data mining is about finding meaningful new correlations, patterns and trends in large amounts of data and thus extracting previously unknown information from mountains of bits and bytes. It applies pattern recognition technologies as well as machine learning, statistical and visualization techniques to accomplish its objective.
It is in the manipulation of an enterprise’s data through these business intelligence and database management tools that we start the ascent from bits and bytes, to data, information, intelligence and knowledge. All sound knowledge management environments are richly supported through data warehouses and data marts that are mined to produce business intelligence and hence important contributions for the different communities of practice. Furthermore, it has been through the emergence of information technology and computer systems that we have been able to make substantial inroads.
These insights tie very directly to our concept of business intelligence; not so much in terms of the software tools, but rather the approach. In addition, what we are often involved with here is the continuation of the age-old process of obtaining meaning from a collection of data points or observations. Daniel Boorstin, the former Librarian of Congress, sheds light on this phenomenon in a fascinating essay titled, “The Age of Negative Discovery,” that appears in his book Cleopatra’s Nose. Boorstin points out that “for most of Western history interpretation has far outrun data.” For example, faced with the magnificence of a clear night sky replete with millions of light points visible to the naked eye, ancient man soon surmised the existence of a heavenly bear, a hunter, a fish or a swan. Out of this approach to data visualization were born the constellations, long before we knew much about stars, planets, black holes or the big bang. He goes further to show how discovery becomes more difficult when we already know a fair amount, as he recounts Capt. James Cook’s first voyages across the Antarctic Circle between 1770 and 1775. The British explorer managed to sail round Antarctica until pack ice blocked his route and yet was often befuddled as to whether these were islands he was seeing or truly a new continent. The annotations and comments in his log show him almost engaging in the process of negative discovery. Trying to deduce what is through discarding what cannot be.
Boorstin notes this “modern tendency…[where] we see data outrun meaning.” He attributes this “outrun” to the advent of the “mechanized observers” or machines that generate such vast numbers of observations, or data points and make it essential that we learn to navigate these oceans of facts. The sensors of our day produce these data points in numbers such that we have had to rely on a new vocabulary to quantify them. We now feel comfortable going beyond the kilobytes and the megabytes, and work with new terms such as, terabytes, petabytes, exabytes or even yottabytes (or brontobytes, take your pick).
The essential insight in all this has to do with the importance of negative discovery. In other words, discovering that which is not and hence allowing us to discard all data, through analysis, that does not contribute to a better understanding of reality. The implication for knowledge management is that in order to “use our collective intelligence” we must increasingly use tools and techniques that enable us to interpret large amounts of data as we strive to achieve understanding. And in order to do this, “reductio ad absurdum” can be quite useful.
Today, it becomes extremely difficult to actually establish, for example, that a new star or subatomic particle has been discovered. Let’s take the former example first. Usually we start with a small but known segment of the sky and use computers to minutely analyze changes in the observations conducted with a telescope on that segment over a period of time. Then you proceed to a very detailed analysis where we are looking for change. What is different now that was not there in our precious patterns or observations? From there, a proposition often follows that we can then prove leads to a contradiction and can hence be proven false. This process will often then lead us to the conclusion we are looking for.
If we take the case where we are in search of a new particle, the process is similar though the toolkit will obviously vary. We may be bombarding an isotope with certain particle beams in order to record the result of the collisions in the paths of the subatomic byproducts as they stream through a heavy water pool. Ultimately, these data points will be captured in computers and we will proceed to the long and protracted process of analysis in order to produce business intelligence. Have we found a new particle or is it just another instance of one we already know? Or, is it an error in the experiment? Again, we may often rely on “reduction to the absurd” in order to prove or disprove the hypothesis.
This approach is often used by scientists in the labs today at NASA, NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration), the Weather Bureau, many National Labs and other government agencies. It can be a powerful tool in other settings too. For example, as we look to determine what has changed in a very large database, or data warehouse, after a refresh there might be some benefit from seeing what we can learn through the negative discovery process. ¶ 07:23 0 comments
In high school geometry we referred to it as “reductio ad absurdum.” This is the method of proof which proceeds by stating a proposition and then showing that it results in a contradiction, thus demonstrating the proposition to be false. While there are many tools in the business intelligence toolkit, we want to talk a bit about knowledge discovery and how sometimes the “reductio ad absurdum” approach can be useful.
As we know, data mining is a part of the knowledge discovery process and they are both strongly intertwined with data warehousing. The advances leading to mainstream data warehousing constitute the seminal point of departure from which we have to mark the start of contemporary analytical processing. It was data warehousing that served as the first thrust for the rigorous and methodical production of knowledge from our data.
Data mining is about finding meaningful new correlations, patterns and trends in large amounts of data and thus extracting previously unknown information from mountains of bits and bytes. It applies pattern recognition technologies as well as machine learning, statistical and visualization techniques to accomplish its objective.
It is in the manipulation of an enterprise’s data through these business intelligence and database management tools that we start the ascent from bits and bytes, to data, information, intelligence and knowledge. All sound knowledge management environments are richly supported through data warehouses and data marts that are mined to produce business intelligence and hence important contributions for the different communities of practice. Furthermore, it has been through the emergence of information technology and computer systems that we have been able to make substantial inroads.
These insights tie very directly to our concept of business intelligence; not so much in terms of the software tools, but rather the approach. In addition, what we are often involved with here is the continuation of the age-old process of obtaining meaning from a collection of data points or observations. Daniel Boorstin, the former Librarian of Congress, sheds light on this phenomenon in a fascinating essay titled, “The Age of Negative Discovery,” that appears in his book Cleopatra’s Nose. Boorstin points out that “for most of Western history interpretation has far outrun data.” For example, faced with the magnificence of a clear night sky replete with millions of light points visible to the naked eye, ancient man soon surmised the existence of a heavenly bear, a hunter, a fish or a swan. Out of this approach to data visualization were born the constellations, long before we knew much about stars, planets, black holes or the big bang. He goes further to show how discovery becomes more difficult when we already know a fair amount, as he recounts Capt. James Cook’s first voyages across the Antarctic Circle between 1770 and 1775. The British explorer managed to sail round Antarctica until pack ice blocked his route and yet was often befuddled as to whether these were islands he was seeing or truly a new continent. The annotations and comments in his log show him almost engaging in the process of negative discovery. Trying to deduce what is through discarding what cannot be.
Boorstin notes this “modern tendency…[where] we see data outrun meaning.” He attributes this “outrun” to the advent of the “mechanized observers” or machines that generate such vast numbers of observations, or data points and make it essential that we learn to navigate these oceans of facts. The sensors of our day produce these data points in numbers such that we have had to rely on a new vocabulary to quantify them. We now feel comfortable going beyond the kilobytes and the megabytes, and work with new terms such as, terabytes, petabytes, exabytes or even yottabytes (or brontobytes, take your pick).
The essential insight in all this has to do with the importance of negative discovery. In other words, discovering that which is not and hence allowing us to discard all data, through analysis, that does not contribute to a better understanding of reality. The implication for knowledge management is that in order to “use our collective intelligence” we must increasingly use tools and techniques that enable us to interpret large amounts of data as we strive to achieve understanding. And in order to do this, “reductio ad absurdum” can be quite useful.
Today, it becomes extremely difficult to actually establish, for example, that a new star or subatomic particle has been discovered. Let’s take the former example first. Usually we start with a small but known segment of the sky and use computers to minutely analyze changes in the observations conducted with a telescope on that segment over a period of time. Then you proceed to a very detailed analysis where we are looking for change. What is different now that was not there in our precious patterns or observations? From there, a proposition often follows that we can then prove leads to a contradiction and can hence be proven false. This process will often then lead us to the conclusion we are looking for.
If we take the case where we are in search of a new particle, the process is similar though the toolkit will obviously vary. We may be bombarding an isotope with certain particle beams in order to record the result of the collisions in the paths of the subatomic byproducts as they stream through a heavy water pool. Ultimately, these data points will be captured in computers and we will proceed to the long and protracted process of analysis in order to produce business intelligence. Have we found a new particle or is it just another instance of one we already know? Or, is it an error in the experiment? Again, we may often rely on “reduction to the absurd” in order to prove or disprove the hypothesis.
This approach is often used by scientists in the labs today at NASA, NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration), the Weather Bureau, many National Labs and other government agencies. It can be a powerful tool in other settings too. For example, as we look to determine what has changed in a very large database, or data warehouse, after a refresh there might be some benefit from seeing what we can learn through the negative discovery process. ¶ 07:23 0 comments
Knoco's Knowledge Management tools now online
.:: SourceWire :: ::.
Knoco Maximi$er™, the online knowledge management (KM) resource centre purchased by KM leaders including BP and De Beers, is now generally available to KM practitioners worldwide via individual licences.
Knoco Maximi$er is a multimedia suite of products available on the Internet giving a structured approach to knowledge processes, knowledge packaging and its transfer to communities of practice. It details the tools and techniques of knowledge capture and packaging, implementation with communities of practice, case studies and practical tips and hints.
Unlike other KM packages, Knoco Maximi$er does not attempt to provide a database to package your knowledge. Instead it presents the principles and the practical details of how to implement KM within an organisation in a very clear style that trains, educates and engages personnel.
The multi-media package includes very clear instructions and guidelines of how to perform KM, complemented by video interviews of managers sharing their experiences of deploying these techniques. For example, an executive explains how eleven years of knowledge of their European fundraiser was tapped before he was promoted to another division within the same organisation; an energy executive describes how a knowledge asset was developed through their experience of mergers and acquisitions and successfully re-deployed even to the point of reducing consultants’ fees in subsequent acquisitions; and a banker discusses how knowledge of the implementation of a quality of training metric was conveyed across a global organisation.
Outlining the origins of the product, Knoco™ director Tom Young says: “Knoco Maximi$er is real-life KM – it’s been created by people who have led KM initiatives in some of the world’s largest corporations including BP and De Beers. We know that KM issues arise everywhere – from the tiniest practical details to the challenge of getting the commitment of senior management. Knoco Maximi$er is a globally available resource for dispersed organisations and is designed to help KM teams and individuals make rapid progress.”
Johnny Martin, BP Group Operational Excellence, is a regular user of Knoco Maximi$er. He comments: “This is a great online resource centre, packed with tools and best practice, which uses real case histories as examples of how to manage knowledge. For anyone starting to implement a knowledge management system, Knoco Maximi$er will get you up and working. It will help you develop a strategy, design processes and begin engaging your employees. And once you're up and running, it will serve as a constant resource. The checklists are excellent, and I'm always dipping in for help or guidance. These tools make knowledge management simple, precise and effective.”
Knoco director Nick Milton notes: “The value of Knoco Maximi$er has been proven in many contexts. It’s been used to create practical and cost-effective plans to transfer knowledge from one location to another, to help enterprises enter new markets, to capture knowledge from personnel about to be promoted, to move jobs or retire. It has also been used to help smooth transitions when companies mergers or make acquisitions.”
Knoco Maximi$er requires only Internet access with Internet Explorer 5.0 and later and can therefore be used almost anywhere in the world. Its use of video, audio and text bring to life the essential components of good KM.
Knoco Maximi$er costs just £99 (ex VAT) per module per year or £199 for all three modules. It is constantly and automatically updated, so users can be assured that they are abreast of the latest in KM deployment.
See www.knoco.co.uk for more details.
¶ 07:22 0 comments
Knoco Maximi$er™, the online knowledge management (KM) resource centre purchased by KM leaders including BP and De Beers, is now generally available to KM practitioners worldwide via individual licences.
Knoco Maximi$er is a multimedia suite of products available on the Internet giving a structured approach to knowledge processes, knowledge packaging and its transfer to communities of practice. It details the tools and techniques of knowledge capture and packaging, implementation with communities of practice, case studies and practical tips and hints.
Unlike other KM packages, Knoco Maximi$er does not attempt to provide a database to package your knowledge. Instead it presents the principles and the practical details of how to implement KM within an organisation in a very clear style that trains, educates and engages personnel.
The multi-media package includes very clear instructions and guidelines of how to perform KM, complemented by video interviews of managers sharing their experiences of deploying these techniques. For example, an executive explains how eleven years of knowledge of their European fundraiser was tapped before he was promoted to another division within the same organisation; an energy executive describes how a knowledge asset was developed through their experience of mergers and acquisitions and successfully re-deployed even to the point of reducing consultants’ fees in subsequent acquisitions; and a banker discusses how knowledge of the implementation of a quality of training metric was conveyed across a global organisation.
Outlining the origins of the product, Knoco™ director Tom Young says: “Knoco Maximi$er is real-life KM – it’s been created by people who have led KM initiatives in some of the world’s largest corporations including BP and De Beers. We know that KM issues arise everywhere – from the tiniest practical details to the challenge of getting the commitment of senior management. Knoco Maximi$er is a globally available resource for dispersed organisations and is designed to help KM teams and individuals make rapid progress.”
Johnny Martin, BP Group Operational Excellence, is a regular user of Knoco Maximi$er. He comments: “This is a great online resource centre, packed with tools and best practice, which uses real case histories as examples of how to manage knowledge. For anyone starting to implement a knowledge management system, Knoco Maximi$er will get you up and working. It will help you develop a strategy, design processes and begin engaging your employees. And once you're up and running, it will serve as a constant resource. The checklists are excellent, and I'm always dipping in for help or guidance. These tools make knowledge management simple, precise and effective.”
Knoco director Nick Milton notes: “The value of Knoco Maximi$er has been proven in many contexts. It’s been used to create practical and cost-effective plans to transfer knowledge from one location to another, to help enterprises enter new markets, to capture knowledge from personnel about to be promoted, to move jobs or retire. It has also been used to help smooth transitions when companies mergers or make acquisitions.”
Knoco Maximi$er requires only Internet access with Internet Explorer 5.0 and later and can therefore be used almost anywhere in the world. Its use of video, audio and text bring to life the essential components of good KM.
Knoco Maximi$er costs just £99 (ex VAT) per module per year or £199 for all three modules. It is constantly and automatically updated, so users can be assured that they are abreast of the latest in KM deployment.
See www.knoco.co.uk for more details.
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Bloggers Key In Corporate Knowledge Management
Bloggers Key In Corporate Knowledge Management: "Bloggers could act as Subject Matter Experts internally. In that way, they could become key players in an organization's knowledge management.
It's Anecdote that outlines this solution in a new white paper (pdf), which
'...provides an alternative approach where content generated by subject matter experts (SME) creates new social networks, which in turn can provide useful pointers to content held in the 'knowledge repository'. People access the database at points recommended by the subject matter expert in context of the seeker's current need. It's a type of social indexing. While the paper takes a sales force application area, the solution is widely applicable.'
Blogs, the author says
'...encourage a wider set of relationships among the salesforce and the presales team. By increasing the connections within the social network, the sales organisation becomes more agile. More avenues of investigation become available for developing solutions as a result of the extensive connections established through myriad small question-and-answer sessions among salespeople and technicians.'
" ¶ 07:21 0 comments
It's Anecdote that outlines this solution in a new white paper (pdf), which
'...provides an alternative approach where content generated by subject matter experts (SME) creates new social networks, which in turn can provide useful pointers to content held in the 'knowledge repository'. People access the database at points recommended by the subject matter expert in context of the seeker's current need. It's a type of social indexing. While the paper takes a sales force application area, the solution is widely applicable.'
Blogs, the author says
'...encourage a wider set of relationships among the salesforce and the presales team. By increasing the connections within the social network, the sales organisation becomes more agile. More avenues of investigation become available for developing solutions as a result of the extensive connections established through myriad small question-and-answer sessions among salespeople and technicians.'
" ¶ 07:21 0 comments
EWORLDWIRE PRESS RELEASE distribution, WRITING, and EDGAR FILING Service
EWORLDWIRE PRESS RELEASE distribution, WRITING, and EDGAR FILING Service: "Expressing his enthusiasm about the partnership, S.L (Sam) Srinivasulu, Ph D, President, KESDEE Inc. said, 'Top managements of financial institutions should view Risk Management not as a regulatory burden but as a catalyst for value creation. This strategic partnership will accelerate the process of introducing Global Best Practices in Risk Management.'
KESDEE Inc. currently has 500 courses organized into 40 Course Libraries spanning about 1500 hours of e-Learning - and is the most comprehensive e-Learning portal for the financial services industry. KESDEE's e-learning & reference solutions focus on topics such as:
1.ALM,Liquidity Management, Foreign Exchange Management, Interest Rate Risk management, Market Risk Management
2.Credit Analysis, Credit Derivatives, Credit Ratings, Credit Risk Modeling
3.Basel II Accord, Capital Adequacy Planning
4.Operational Risk Management
5.Futures & Forwards, Options, Swaps
6.Asset Securitization
7.Corporate Governance
8.Equity Markets, Fixed Income Markets
9.Financial Accounting, Financial Mathematics, Budgeting
10.Anti Money Laundering
IMaCS provides consulting services to banks and financial institutions in implementation of good practices in Risk Management (Credit risk, Market risk, Operational Risk and Risk Based Internal Audit). IMaCS also provides software solutions for implementing best practices in risk management. The IMaCS and KESDEE alliance is a step towards offering a knowledge distribution platform and will help Financial Institutions in implementation of risk management systems including the Basel II accord. " ¶ 07:19 0 comments
KESDEE Inc. currently has 500 courses organized into 40 Course Libraries spanning about 1500 hours of e-Learning - and is the most comprehensive e-Learning portal for the financial services industry. KESDEE's e-learning & reference solutions focus on topics such as:
1.ALM,Liquidity Management, Foreign Exchange Management, Interest Rate Risk management, Market Risk Management
2.Credit Analysis, Credit Derivatives, Credit Ratings, Credit Risk Modeling
3.Basel II Accord, Capital Adequacy Planning
4.Operational Risk Management
5.Futures & Forwards, Options, Swaps
6.Asset Securitization
7.Corporate Governance
8.Equity Markets, Fixed Income Markets
9.Financial Accounting, Financial Mathematics, Budgeting
10.Anti Money Laundering
IMaCS provides consulting services to banks and financial institutions in implementation of good practices in Risk Management (Credit risk, Market risk, Operational Risk and Risk Based Internal Audit). IMaCS also provides software solutions for implementing best practices in risk management. The IMaCS and KESDEE alliance is a step towards offering a knowledge distribution platform and will help Financial Institutions in implementation of risk management systems including the Basel II accord. " ¶ 07:19 0 comments
3.3.05
Nstein Technologies' solutions named to KMWorld's list of '100 Companies that Matter in Knowledge Management'
Canada NewsWire Group: "Nstein Technologies Inc. (TSX-V: EIN), the leader in advanced linguistic-based Business Intelligence solutions, announced today that the prominent KMWorld Magazine has again named Nstein Technologies in its March special issue, listing the 100 companies that matter in the Knowledge Management Industry. 'We are proud that KMWorld has chosen Nstein for this esteemed distinction,' stated Mario Girard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Nstein Technologies. 'Nstein is committed to help information intensive organizations master large volumes of structured and unstructured multilingual data and leverage them into actionable intelligence. Regardless of the data's source, real-time analysis and rendering of crucial information is provided in all major languages through various applications, such as Early Warning Systems for the Corporate and Homeland Security & Intelligence markets and through mission-critical business solutions in e-Publishing.' Mr. Hugh McKellar, Editor-in-Chief of KMWorld Magazine comments: 'The list was conceived as a way to identify some of the organizations leading the way in the knowledge economy. And, it's certainly not intended to be the final word on the matter; rather, it's designed to encourage a broader discussion of knowledge management. Criteria for inclusion varies, but each company has either helped to create a market, redefine one or enhance one--and they all share one thing: velocity of innovation.' Mr. McKellar adds: 'And Nstein has indeed developed technology solutions that contribute significantly to this ever evolving and challenging landscape that is Knowledge Management industry'. The list was compiled by KMWorld's team members, KM practitioners, theorists, analysts, vendors and their customers. For more information on KMWorld's '100 companies that matter in Knowledge Management': http://www.kmworld.com/100.cfm"
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Greater Use of KM Tools Meets Need for Improved Business Processes, IDC Says | Tekrati Research News
Greater Use of KM Tools Meets Need for Improved Business Processes, IDC Says | Tekrati Research News
According to IDC, enterprises are increasing spending on knowledge management (KM) technologies, including collaboration software, content management and access software and enterprise portal software, based on the ability of these technologies to deliver concrete benefits when implemented as part of a business solution. IDC says specific vertical markets are most likely to adopt KM-related technologies.
Beyond purchasing new software, companies are also investing the time, effort and capital required to integrate applications and information in order to solve real business problems.
“Vendors must understand and capitalize on their role in delivering solutions to companies faced with improving or automating business processes that require a variety of knowledge management related technologies,” said Brian McDonough, research manager of IDC’s Enterprise Portal Software and Packaged Composite Applications program. “Vendors in the portal ecosystem can capitalize on this opportunity by providing the appropriate mix of functions, process know-how, and leadership in the delivery of specific solutions.”
Over 51% of IDC survey respondents seek to integrate information and applications in order to establish a single point of access to multiple information sources. Other leading reasons for purchasing KM technologies include the need to streamline internal business processes, create a unified view of enterprise information, and reduce the number of duplicate applications.
IDC believes that government, business services, and financial services are the vertical markets most likely to adopt KM-related technologies.
¶ 17:09 0 comments
According to IDC, enterprises are increasing spending on knowledge management (KM) technologies, including collaboration software, content management and access software and enterprise portal software, based on the ability of these technologies to deliver concrete benefits when implemented as part of a business solution. IDC says specific vertical markets are most likely to adopt KM-related technologies.
Beyond purchasing new software, companies are also investing the time, effort and capital required to integrate applications and information in order to solve real business problems.
“Vendors must understand and capitalize on their role in delivering solutions to companies faced with improving or automating business processes that require a variety of knowledge management related technologies,” said Brian McDonough, research manager of IDC’s Enterprise Portal Software and Packaged Composite Applications program. “Vendors in the portal ecosystem can capitalize on this opportunity by providing the appropriate mix of functions, process know-how, and leadership in the delivery of specific solutions.”
Over 51% of IDC survey respondents seek to integrate information and applications in order to establish a single point of access to multiple information sources. Other leading reasons for purchasing KM technologies include the need to streamline internal business processes, create a unified view of enterprise information, and reduce the number of duplicate applications.
IDC believes that government, business services, and financial services are the vertical markets most likely to adopt KM-related technologies.
¶ 17:09 0 comments
MerseyBIO Selects Autonomy to Support Biotechnology Network
MerseyBIO Selects Autonomy to Support Biotechnology Network: "Autonomy Corporation plc (LSE: AU - News) a global leader in infrastructure software for the enterprise, today announced that MerseyBIO, a biotechnology incubator organization, has implemented Autonomy's technology to power a network for the biotechnology community in Merseyside. The service, called esymbio, which has gone live this morning, aims to create an infrastructure that will foster collaboration between biotechnology companies, investors and public bodies to drive the development of the region's life sciences sector. The project is backed by public institutions such as the University of Liverpool and the North West Genetic Knowledge Park."
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InStranet Wins Prestigious 2005 ContactCenterWorld.Com Members' Choice Award for Best Knowledge Management Solution
InStranet Wins Prestigious 2005 ContactCenterWorld.Com Members' Choice Award for Best Knowledge Management Solution: "InStranet, Inc., the leader in multi-channel knowledge applications, today announced they have won the 2005 ContactCenterWorld.com Members' Choice Award for Best Knowledge Management Solution in EMEA. These awards are unique as customers vote for the winners and there are no judging panels.
InStranet recently announced the release of Contact Centers In-Line (CCIL) 5.0, the first application that offers customer touchpoints (the contact center, field sales and self-service Web sites) access to a centralized repository of company product, service, and procedural information that can be customized, filtered, and searched on in real-time regardless of the access channel or location. In addition, CCIL 5.0 provides one out-of-the-box interface to automate how each customer touchpoint receives knowledge.
Commenting on the awards, Raj Wadhwani, Founder & Editor-In-Chief of ContactCenterWorld.com said, 'For the third year, the industry honors the best of the best. This year's competition was extremely high amongst the eighty-three entrants, and over 3,500 members voted. For InStranet, this is a great honor - the quality of the votes from their customers was exceptional and this is why they won the award. It goes without saying that we feel every company who entered deserves credit for putting themselves in a program where customers vote - a challenge that many other vendors in the industry would not entertain!'
'This award is major industry recognition that confirms what we're hearing from our customers,' said Alex Dayon, CEO of InStranet. 'Our solutions are a strategic part of today's customer service initiatives where increasing customer satisfaction and cost reduction for each interaction are key objectives. This is why we're seeing industry leaders turning to InStranet.'" ¶ 17:07 0 comments
InStranet recently announced the release of Contact Centers In-Line (CCIL) 5.0, the first application that offers customer touchpoints (the contact center, field sales and self-service Web sites) access to a centralized repository of company product, service, and procedural information that can be customized, filtered, and searched on in real-time regardless of the access channel or location. In addition, CCIL 5.0 provides one out-of-the-box interface to automate how each customer touchpoint receives knowledge.
Commenting on the awards, Raj Wadhwani, Founder & Editor-In-Chief of ContactCenterWorld.com said, 'For the third year, the industry honors the best of the best. This year's competition was extremely high amongst the eighty-three entrants, and over 3,500 members voted. For InStranet, this is a great honor - the quality of the votes from their customers was exceptional and this is why they won the award. It goes without saying that we feel every company who entered deserves credit for putting themselves in a program where customers vote - a challenge that many other vendors in the industry would not entertain!'
'This award is major industry recognition that confirms what we're hearing from our customers,' said Alex Dayon, CEO of InStranet. 'Our solutions are a strategic part of today's customer service initiatives where increasing customer satisfaction and cost reduction for each interaction are key objectives. This is why we're seeing industry leaders turning to InStranet.'" ¶ 17:07 0 comments
FTI Consulting Completes Acquisition of Ringtail Solutions
FTI Consulting Completes Acquisition of Ringtail Solutions: "FTI Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: FCN - News), the premier provider of corporate finance/restructuring, forensic and litigation consulting and technology, and economic consulting, today announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of the assets of privately held Ringtail Solutions Group (Ringtail), including its operations in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. The purchase price of $35.0 million comprised $20.0 million of cash plus $15.0 million in shares of FTI common stock, plus an earn-out over the next three years based on future performance. The cash portion of the purchase price was financed by FTI from cash on hand and its existing credit facilities."
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