Contextware Selected as One of Top 100 in Knowledge Management

Contextware is proud to announce that for the fifth year running it has been selected to KMWorld's list of the Top 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management.  There are few companies that have made the list as consistently as Contextware.

As the editor of KMWorld, Hugh McKellar states, "The firms on this list are true solution providers that are dedicated to understanding what their customers need and delivering elegant technology for the requirements of the knowledge economy."  We're proud to be a part of it.

Gilbane Boston 2009 Content Management Conference

Spent Wednesday afternoon at the East Coast iteration of the Gilbane content management conference. A lot of activity...a whole lot of vendors. Credit to the Gilbane folks for a crammed exhibit hall. But in talking to many of the technology companies in attendance, there were few potential clients walking the floor...and even fewer buyers. This isn't a surprise so close to the holidays as people are rightfully distracted, only compounded by the economic environment.

Picked up on a couple of major themes, at least as portrayed by the technology companies there.

1. 'Traditional' web-CMS companies are heavily focused on providing services that allow for site personalization...i.e. the ability to customize the site experience based on customer specific preferences. The problem with this...most websites can infer very little from an IP address (at least very little when it comes to customer segmentation). There is still a long way to go to match customer type (prospective customer) with site content but at least the technology is there.

2. The ubiquitous SharePoint. A major strength and problem is flexibility. This has led to legions of consulting firms dead set on implementing solutions. As with most markets that begin to mature, the newest craze is packaged SP solutions and an increasing number of add-on products. One of our issues continues to be the lack of attention to the way in which information is architected from the outset of any SP engagement. The most frequent response to my question: "how do you organize content" is "ahhh...hmm...we usually use the client org chart."

3. Control mechanisms for corporate social collaboration. Control social collaboration? Good luck with that.

Contextware: In the Basex Briefing Room

As often happens, third parties looking from the outside-in find new ways to explain and articulate issues that Contextware addresses, and the article below from Basex, Inc., the world's foremost knowledge economy research and advisory firm is no exception. We think you'll find their review of Contextware interesting.

The article begins:

One of the missing pieces of a puzzle the knowledge worker faces in the course of performing knowledge work is context. Without context, the knowledge worker is looking at isolated bits of information that are, more often than not, of limited value. Most content doesn’t stand on its own; there is always important related and supporting information that completes the picture. Beyond a single document, what else should one read and whom else should one query? Knowing what to read next or which experts to contact completes the puzzle and increases the value of the content exponentially. Click to read the entire piece...

Congratulations to us

At risk of sounding too self-promotional I am very happy to announce that Contextware was selected as a finalist in the General Business Software award category for this year's SoftwareCEO Innovation Awards.

Finalists were determined by a panel of industry judges and winners will be announced in mid-June. The awards recognize products and technology for their innovation and ability to solve buiness problems.

We're very proud to have gone this far in the process and appreciate the support of our clients in this effort.

The Performance Support Imperative for Training Professionals

Check out the most recent ezine version of the peer reviewed Training Industry Quarterly in the link below. We were asked to write a white paper on the topic of performance and training. Seems to be a common theme these days as training and learning organization budgets get crunched. According to the “2007 State of the Industry Report” prepared by the American Society for Training & Development investment in learning and development initiatives reached $134.39 billion in 2007...so there is certainly some there...there. Consider some estimates on training’s effectiveness that suggest from 40% to 80% of training content doesn’t transfer to the worker. That’s significant money and time invested that could be redirected to any number of corporate initiatives if training doesn't find a way to be more relevant.


http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/trainingindustry/tiq_2009winter/index.php?startpage=18

2009 Forecasts and Predictions

We shy away from making our own predictions other than where we think our business is headed...but some of the following from third parties that relate to areas our technology addresses are interesting.

Top 10 Market Predictions for 2009: Are YOU ready for the New Training Industry?
by: Doug Harward
TrainingIndustry.com

Among his other predictions, Doug sees a decline of 10% budget and 11% workforce in 2009...that's 65,000 people.

http://www.trainingindustry.com/articles/2009-predictions.aspx

Our take: Better figure out a way to better connect learning and training initiatives to KPIs and ROI or Doug is way conservative with his numbers.

Nucleus Research Announces Annual Technology Predictions for 2009
by: Nucleus Research

Nucleus offers 10 predictions via the link below. One that stands out: "No Shiny Objects. No one is investing in the cutting edge this year, unless there is a clear and compelling business benefit. Vendors still pitching their bright and shiny technology took a hit in late 2008 and will continue to suffer in 2009."

Our take: We agree completely. Nifty technology without an obvious ROI is done.

http://nucleusresearch.com/news/press-releases/nucleus-research-announces-annual-technology-predictions-for-2009/

12 Technology Predictions for 2009
Analysts weigh in on content management trends for the New Year.
by Tony Byrne and CMS Watch

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/12-Technology-Predictions-for-2009-52162.aspx

DestinationCRM.com quotes 12 predictions from content management guy Tony Byrne, the founder of CMS Watch http://www.cmswatch.com/. Here's number 12..."Buyers will not accept vendors' first offers," the CMS Watch report states. "Rather they will demand better pricing, more licenses, and better support levels."

Our take: No kidding? When has a good buyer not thought this way. We would have stopped at the 11th prediction.

The Real Intersection Between Processes and Content

The following link is to an article we were asked to write discussing relationships between business processes and content (hint: the answer's not workflow). This was published in the January 2009 issue of The Capital Image the monthly newsletter of the National Capital Chapter of AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management).

http://www.nccaiim.org/Newsletter/2009/2009_Jan_Issue.pdf

New Emergency Response Guide

Yesterday we announced the launch of an all web version of the Center for Disease Control's Emergency Response Guide for State, Local and Tribal Public Health Officials (that's a mouthful isn't it?). Here a link to the press release: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20090113005517/en

As much as an exercise to provide something of value (for free) to emergency response and preparedness professionals, it was also our intent to show that even something relatively mundane such as a procedural guide can still benefit from restructuring in the context of a process. In this case the process is ‘how to respond to a public health emergency’, but it might as well have been how to do… anything.

Point is a 65 page pdf of any procedure falls short in so many ways. It’s static, it is difficult to update, links to related content are limited and outdated and navigating the document is painful.

To register for the free version of the guide (there is a juiced up version as well), visit our site at: http://www.contextware.com/solution/emergency_response.html