The Knowledge Management Index is presumably intended to indicate the market position of the 'km' sector of technology stocks. The interesting thing is that not one of these companies describes itself as a 'knowledge management' company, and only one, Structural Dynamics Research (now part of EDS), has a product marketed under the km label.
I thought it might be revealing to look for index terms in the descriptions: access to information; asset management; balanced scorecard; business-critical information; business information; business intelligence; business process automation; collaboration; communication; customer interaction; customer relations; customer relationship management; data analysis; data protection; data sheets; data sources; data stores; database design; defect data; differentiated products; disaster recovery; document mangement systems; document style; drawings; e-business collaboration; e-business content; e-commerce; e-learning; electronic billing; electronic customer relationship management; electronic statements; enterprise reporting; global information delivery; groupware systems; historical cost information; information delivery; information distribution; information flows; information integration; information management; information portals; information retrieval; information sharing; information sources; innovation; intellectual capital; intelligent decision making; Internet; investment analysis; metrics-driven management; modelling; portals; portfolio management; product costing information; product life-cycle; product service instructions; publishing systems; quality data; relational databases; resource planning; structured data; supply chain management; user interfaces; unstructured data; value chain; video capture; Web-based reporting; Web-based work environments; Web content management; Web servers.
So that is what 'knowledge management' is!
Produces 'electronic customer relationship management' eCRM software: "Accrue provides a complete line of software products and services to help e-businesses understand, predict, and shape customer behavior. Companies use Accrue products and services to go far beyond traditional analysis-even to automate business processes and implement highly targeted campaigns to improve the profitability of customer interactions across multiple touch points."
"Actuate's information delivery solutions help companies implement their e-Business strategies by utilizing the Internet to deliver relevant business information to their customers, partners and employees. Actuate enables companies to streamline supply chains and deepen customer relationships."
Claims to be, "…the world's leading provider of automated solutions for investment professionals." It provides investment portfolio management systems, Web-based reporting, data warehousing sytems, and 'enterprise information delivery'.
"…the leader in Product Chain Management solutions…" It's services are described as follows: "At the core of each of these solutions is Product Chain DNA-rich information that uniquely defines all aspects of a product at every stage of its profit cycle. For product definition this includes BOMs, component attributes, drawings and models, specifications, data sheets and revision history. For strategic sourcing, it includes information such as AMLs, component pricing, product costing information, and historical cost information. And, for field support, service and repair, this includes information such as product service instructions, quality data, and defect data."
The new name for what was left of Informix after the database systems had been sold to IBM. Ascential produces asset management software. According to the Yahoo Finance Profile, "Ascential's framework for Information Asset Management enables customers to easily collect, validate, organize, administer and deliver information assets to realize more value from their enterprise data, reduce costs and increase profitability."
"Business Objects is the world's leading provider of business intelligence (BI) solutions. Business intelligence lets organizations access, analyze, and share information internally with employees and externally with customers, suppliers, and partners. It helps organizations improve operational efficiency, build profitable customer relationships, and develop differentiated product offerings."
"Brio Software provides a complete business intelligence solution for data query & analysis, enterprise reporting, and global information delivery to drive business performance."
Produces software for information retrieval - "RetrievalWare creates a complete inventory of all your enterprise assets, then enables users to search more than 200 document types on file servers, in groupware systems, relational databases, document management systems, web servers and more while respecting access rights - all from a common user interface.", plus a Web version, Web Express, and a video capture and publishing system.
Claims to be 'the No. 1 business intelligence company': "From the consolidation of a company's various data sources to create a unified view of the business; to the delivery of the right information, to the right people, at the right time; Cognos provides the consistent information environment businesses demand."
Going, or already gone out of business - its latest press release announcing liquidation was dated 23rd May 2001. However, it produce Oracle-based Web content management and publishing systems.
"Whether you're a database designer, application developer, or DBA, Embarcadero has products designed to make your job much easier - and a lot more productive." In other words database design and development systems.
Now acquired by Divine, the flavour of which can be gain from - "Imagine information empowering your workforce, not overwhelming it. As the flow of information becomes more liberated-and more complex-the success of an enterprise depends even more on how well its people work together, how it reaches customers, and how it manages information. divine delivers flexible solutions for these challenges that deliver results"
Another one of the 'top business intelligence' companies, which has a product based on the 'balanced scorecard' management concept: "The Gentia Balanced Scorecard is the only enterprise solution for translating strategy into action at all levels of the organization. GBSC enables businesses to monitor the determinants of shareholder value, such as customer satisfaction, quality of service, response time, and long-term strategic vision. Using Gentia's scorecard application, your business performance will be driven from the top throughout the organization, linking employee action to corporate strategy and vision."
Appears to be mainly a CRM company: "HNC's Critical Action Software equips global enterprises around the world to manage customer interactions by converting data and business experience into real-time recommendations that increase revenues and decrease risk. HNC Software offers companies the tools they need to take real-time actions that capitalize on opportunity and maximize efficiency."
"Hummingbird specializes in the development of decision-enabling web-based work environments. Hummingbird's enterprise software solutions provide access to business critical information, structured and unstructured data."
Another business intelligence company. "Hyperion's business intelligence solutions enable companies to perform all of the steps in the business management process - from reporting what happened, analyzing why it happened, modeling the results of potential internal and external changes on the business, and creating plans to carry out those changes that are beneficial to the business."
"iManage, Inc. is the leading provider of e-business content and collaboration software.
The iManage WorkSite suite is a comprehensive, integrated solution that delivers document management, collaboration, portal, and business process automation on an internet platform.
With iManage WorkSite, enterprises can efficiently manage their business critical content and collaborate with employees, customers, partners and suppliers across the extended enterprise. This results in significant improvements in communications and process efficiency, enabling faster response to changing business conditions and a rapid return on investment."
A data analysis company: "Informatica Corporation is the leading provider of enterprise analytics software-a fully integrated analytic solution comprised of the market-leading data integration platform, the deepest and broadest analytic applications, and the widest deployment capabilities for corporate information consumers. The latest Informatica Enterprise Analytics software enables metrics-driven management. Now more than ever, global enterprises need to leverage metrics-driven management principles to improve bottom and top line performance. Companies have invested millions in transactional systems-enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, supply chain management and home-grown systems-to improve their business efficiency by automating processes and tasks. But these transactional applications have only had limited impact on business effectiveness, because they have not touched the real decision makers throughout an organization."
"ViewDirect® technology helps enterprises meet a complex challenge: the need to manage staggering volumes of diverse information and the expectation that highly customized views of this information can be delivered on demand to any customer, partner or employee. ViewDirect® stores and integrates information in virtually any format on a wide variety of computing platforms and electronic storage devices, making it instantly available through automated distribution and user access over the Internet and corporate networks. It integrates with back-office systems, including enterprise resource planning applications, and Web-enables documents for use with front-office systems such as customer relationship management and electronic bill/statement presentment."
"MatrixOne is the leading provider of product collaboration solutions for the value chain that enable our customers to accelerate their products to market. Our technology enables customers to dramatically improve their business results by leveraging the power of the Internet to facilitate the sharing of intellectual capital and innovation across a company's value chain.
By collaborating early in the project cycle, the right information can be dispersed to the right people in a timely manner, helping to prevent downstream crisis, eliminate unnecessary costs, and maximize quality."
Now SDRC, which is part of EDS "...a global supplier of e-business collaboration solutions for the product lifecycle." Has one product called Metaphase, which it displays under the heading 'e-Product Knowledge Management', but the description explains what it actually does: "the industry-leading enterprise PKM solution, providing a comprehensive approach to the management and control of product information, configuration, release management and workflow."
"Sagent e-Business Intelligence: Demystifying the Opportunity
Sagent is the only e-business intelligence vendor that can rapidly develop and deploy real-time analytic applications using internal and external content from numerous information sources - all through one complete technology platform. Employees, managers, customers and partners get the information they need, organized in a relevant, easy-to-read layout, formatted to produce reports specific to an organization's document style and delivered by a browser to the user's desktop."
"...the world's largest and most experienced e-Learning company, provides learning solutions that help enterprises achieve tangible business results, such as driving revenues, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs, in concrete, measurable ways."
A well-known company, I guess - "... In this fierce business environment, it is critical to find and use a competitive edge. One of the best is to be able to turn your growing stores of data into useful information, which can be easily accessed and distributed throughout and beyond the enterprise. You can then respond to customer requests with greater speed and intelligence. And you have the information needed for effectively reacting to new situations and making intelligent decisions."
Business summary from Yahoo financial profile: "Viador Inc. develops and markets Internet software that enables businesses to create enterprise information portals for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-employee (B2E) use. An enterprise information portal gives users a single browser-based interface with which to quickly and easily access information from a variety of enterprise data sources. The Viador E- Portal offers a comprehensive and integrated enterprise information portal that is specifically designed for the Web and works with a customer's existing hardware and software systems, without the need for additional technology expenditures. It provides the Company's customers with the ability to manage and share information on a secure and cost-effective basis that can accommodate significant increases in the number of users and amount of information."
"...the leading provider of storage management software for data protection, application availability, and disaster recovery."
"...the leader in business portal infrastructure that connects people with information and matches customers with products. In the enterprise, Verity users spend less time looking for information and more time acting on it. In e-commerce, we turn browsers into buyers that keep coming back for more. And between businesses, we enable transactions online-anywhere and on any scale."