Why Knowledge Management?

Search Insights

A few years back I attended a Content Management conference in San Francisco hosted by the Gilbane Group. I was quite surprised to find several of the break out sessions devoted to "search."  At the time I had not yet put as much value on search as the rest of the content market had. Of course, I came back a believer.

So I was very interested in Jack Vinson's Knowledge Jolt post on Google Insights.  I was notified of this post through (of course) Google Alerts, watchword: Knowledge Management.

Google Insights is designed to analyze the words that people are using to search via Google. As with all Google products, it has a very basic interface. You select the search term and then filter by geographical location, time period, and category...then press 'search'.

The location is a selection by country or worldwide; the time periods are pretty flexible allowing 2004 - Present, a specific year, last 30, 90 days, last year, and even allowing a specific date range; the category provides some typical industry breakdowns.

Within a couple of minutes, you can enter a search term, choose your filters and then search to see how active that term has been on Google. To compare 2 terms, separate by a comma and re-run your search. Add a comma and another term - get a comparison of the three terms. Change a filter (different date) - run again. Drill down into a specific county - run again. The results are a very basic line graph, but warning: this can be habit forming. It quickly becomes very interesting to see what is popular, what is fading in popularity, how search terms compare, and how they compare across countries.

According to Tech Observer, Google Insights has been up and running since April, but based upon a simple search, there are a lot of recent (August) mentions of this new service, and a Google Insights on Google Insights shows no interest (searches) until the end of July.

The realization that I came to was how valuable this could be to Content Managers in gaining insight (yeah, sorry) into what search terms are being used within a system, and helping that manager ensure that users can find what they are looking for or that content is created for failed searches.  I don't think this point is missed by anyone who discovers this tool. Tech Observer predicts this tool will be a big hit with bloggers....

Disclaimer 1: "Google Insights for Search aims to provide insights into broad search patterns.     Several approximations are used to compute these results." (from the Google Insights home page)

Disclaimer 2: Tom Godfrey is not an employee of Google.

2008 Content Management Predictions

Content and Content Management continue to be critical strategies for business and the individual. Search, as mentioned yesterday, is an important related technology. More evidence of this -->

CMS Watch, a company that evaluates content-oriented technologies, publishing head-to-head comparative reviews of leading solutions, has announced their 12 predictions for 2008 in the content arena.

Four of these are directly related to what I would classify as Content and Search....they are:

• Archiving becomes a prime focus for E-Content Management vendors
• Google will make a bid to become the World's Content Repository
• Search is NOT dead!
• There will be a move toward productization of Search Platforms

So I hesitate to use the words "Information Overload" which is overused - but it will continue to be an issue, and the above predictions by CMS Watch as strong strategies for 2008 would tend to support this. There are some recent articles on I.O. that I'll need to note here over the next couple of days.

But the other predictions...just for the sake of watching them over the next year are:

These next four predictions are just plain interesting:

• Finally bridging web analytics and online marketing (this one begs for some research and blog-watching)
• Social Software vendor collision (social networking is another category at this site, so this could spark a few posts)
• Facebook backlash in the enterprise (yeah - just the sound of it is intriguing)
  
• Security and Identity Management trump functionality for buyers

And three more are:

• MOSS (Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server) enters the valley of disappointment
• Return of the buyers' market (in content services)
• Web 2.0 exhaustion (and the rise of Enterprise 2.0).

Of course, the 12th prediction is that there would be 12 more predictions for next year!

Well, it's all interesting on January 1st....let's see how the year unfolds.

A Year of Content in Review

I received a few interesting facts in my email box today from the insouciant, yet prolific company, Eat Media. Eat Media is a Content Management (CM) company that can provide some or all of a company's content management needs. They had gathered and were passing on some this-year survey statistics related to Content.

Out of 9 content related subject matters, including email campaigns and online analytics, Search Engine Optimization is now ranked as the number 1 priority, but was ranked 4th in terms of time and budget. 

Eat Media also reported that the Coremetrics Second Annual Face of the Media survey indicated that Email campaigns demand most of marketers time, at 22%.

As might be expected, the largest part of the budget at 33% is online advertising.

It's interesting that at last year's Gilbane Conference, Search and Search optimization were well attended sessions that generated a lot of questions and a lot of interest. I remember returning from the conference hot to make some changes and additions to our CM strategy to make our content more accessible.

With information overload an existing and growing problem, search will continue to be at or near the top of the list.

Gilbane Conference

Last week, Monday through Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending the Gilbane Conference for Content Management in San Francisco.  Great conference and worth every penny.

I'm hoping to create some time to write a bit more on the details of the show, which covered a number of content management issues, such as:

• Content Management
• Long Term Strategies for Successful Content Management
• Enterprise Search
• Six Sigma and Content Management
• Blogs and Wikis for the Enterprise
• Digital Assets Management
• Key Technologies to watch in the next 12 to 24 months

It was a diverse group that attended the conference from CMS developers to large corporate and city content managers, serious CM veterans to those of us who were there to drill into the management of content.

Typically these conferences are light on substance, but it seemed that nearly every breakout session and roundtable had something to take away.

More later.

CM Pros Summit - Day 2

Unfortunately due to customer obligations, I was unable to attend a couple of round table discussions on Day 2 of the CM Pros Summit, however from the buzz generated after the fact, they were very well received. The Content Management industry has some sharp minds and ever improving standards.

The first set of discussions were hosted by Erik Hartman of Hartman Communicatie BV and Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler. It was an interactive discussion about the domain of the content life cycle, something important for all managers of content. The goal of the session was to create a CM Pros Content Lifecycle Poster to be printed and published. There was a lot of involvement by attendees.

Across the room was Rahel Anne Bailie of Intentional Design, Inc., and Trevor Paterson of CHC Helicopters discussing "Best Practices vs. Practicalities: Qualitative Decisions for Delivering the 'Best' Content to Customers." The goal of the discussions was to explore the practical and ethical issues that arise when the quality of content can be compromised when dependence on a content management system (CMS) to slice and dice content for our users over-automates our content.  This is very near and dear to my heart, since I am a strong believer in having long hard talks about what you want to accomplish, before ever selecting (actually looking at) any technology, and never go after a specific industry segment solution. Decide what result you want, and then search the industries that address it, then the technology.

One of the next breakout sessions was hosted by Renaud Richardet of Wynona Inc. who hosted a session on "The importance of the community in Open Source Content Management Systems." The premise was that Open Source projects are only as successful as their communities are active and focused. While I disagree with that statement as a generalization, an active community is certainly an advantage.

The competing breakout for the time period was on "Achieving Structure in Enterprise Content" which was hosted by Peter Meyer of Elkera Pty Limited. The more demands that are placed on Content Management Systems to provide relevant, personalized and easily accessed information, the greater the need to manage content in a structured form to provide the required flexibility. This was a round table, feedback meeting, but drilled specifically into XML as a portable and interoperable solution.

The CM Pros Summit was wrapped up very nicely by Ann Rockley of The Rockley Group. An is author of the book, Managing Enterprise Content, a unified content strategy. Excellent closing keynote. For only a brief period of time, Ann spoke to the group about customer-centric Content Management, and then went to the audience for key feedback on what this meant to CMS projects in general. One of the key messages is to always work out requirements in advance of any decisions on technology. That and getting high level organizational support is always key.  I may spend some more time on this Keynote once the slides become available on the CM Pros web site.

OK...so next, whilst I'm in San Francisco is...The Gilbane Conference on Content Management....

CM Pros Summit - Day One Cont'd

The closing keynote for the first 1/2 day (Sunday afternoon) of the CM Pros Summit, was James Robertson of Step Two Designs. James' discussion was particularly interesting to me as his case study was a call center (but don't let that scare you off....these principles apply to many types of customers), and I spent 8 years one summer working in one (just kidding...it really was 8 years dong HR and Corporate Development - Training).

Of course, a call center is ripe for content management, but typically the call center doesn't know that. In most call centers, the pressure is really on to deliver good, top quality service in as short a period of time as is humanly possible. It typically takes about 2 weeks to train an employee well enough to even let them near the phones, and the pressure on new employees to answer an extremely wide range of questions is unimaginable...Oh, I forgot to mention, most companies do not want to compensate call center employees much beyond minimum wage (scary, really, considering their the front lines of communication with the customer).  At any rate, the end result is that call centers have a higher employee turnover than a clothes dryer in a Laundromat.

So where do you start. Obviously as most preach, you must start with a strategy driven by the top of the organization. Top-level-management support is crucial. From there, you must go to the bottom, and drive the needs analysis.

One of the points that James made was "don't ask the users what they want." Of course, he was not entirely serious, but what he meant is "spend time with the users." You have to watch them, ask them questions in their work environment (once you've gained some trust), have them teach you about the job, etc. Meanwhile, soak it all in.

It's amazing, but from my experience, which James echoed, the employees in call centers set themselves up with their own content management systems....binders of key documents, thousands of saved emails (the primary source of knowledge management and content management in all businesses), 5th generation copies of announcements, whatever it is, if it has some value to the call center employee, they keep it forever, and pass it on to new employees that they deem are worthy of their tutelage.

While most managers of call centers typically despise the people that work for them, I rather admire them. Most are hard working, trying individuals, who actually take tremendous pride in the job that they do and in representing the company...that's why they pack rat anything to solve a customers problem...they get a sense of joy out of doing it.

I really could go on forever on Call Centers, the opportunities, and the solutions, but here are a few key take-aways from James' session.

• There are some forms of paper documents that are better left as-is...use the paper...it's faster and is difficult to replicate on line.
• Older forms, or single copies of documents that are content should be stored/scanned, as often it is the older content that is only accessed at odd intervals (so it is not common knowledge).
• Out of that is the principle that the least used content wastes the most time...think about it. You don't remember it, and you don't remember where you filed it....so where the heck is it......times a wastin'.
• Use the system...don't send out all "important" communications as emails...it just trains the entire staff that those are the important things, so they save them...use the Content Management System for those items, and perhaps push it to them as an announcement.
• Establish a feedback loop on how things are working...typically you'll only get a small response to begin with...resolve those issues, and people will use the system and provide a lot of feedback...just keep on addressing problems and making the system better.
• Use the content from day 1. In the training class for new employees, show them how to find the answer using the system...never answer a question for them...help them find the answer.
• It's a people challenge more than anything else. Face it...data storage is not a problem...go to CMSMatrix, and there are over 400 CMSes out there...it comes down to managing people and managing change.

While James' session focused on a call center as a case study, these principles apply to any content management opportunity.

CM Pros Summit

What a day. I just spent the last day attending the CMPros (Content Management Professionals) Society Summit at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. This show was a very content rich 24 hours. It was a relatively small group that attended, but the seminars, round tables and networking have been invaluable.

The overriding theme of the conference is to discuss the importance of the customer experience and content management. Involving the customer, and concerning oneself with the customer experience is not really native to many content management initiatives. Typically a group is assembled and decisions are made concerning pushing content to customers, and the customer is often not included in the process - until delivery time.

Sunday afternoon, the program began, with Bill Trippe of the Gilbane Report talking about actionable content. Actionable content is an extension of transactional content (such as an online financial transactions), where actions that support financial transactions are measured as well...In some cases actionable content can include visiting the site, clicking on a second page, or filling out a form.  Taking into account the customer (or a future customer) is critical to getting them to move through the customer lifecycle. Bill quoted research that in Industrial markets, 90% of customers visit the web and eliminate supplies before they start calling....

Next on Sunday afternoon was Theresa Regli, Content Management Director for Molecular, a technology consulting firm. Her talk was on the "Right Content to the Right User at the Right time." Theresa has done projects that has allowed her to help companies tailor content for their users based upon triangulating the user's position based on the above 3 points....most companies have several types of users of content...who have different needs based upon when (the time) they are hitting the site (for example, a new customer has different needs than a long term customer), and getting the right content to them.  So this 3R approach was an interesting perspective.

Joan Lasselle, of Lasselle-Ramsay was on board next talking about the "Benefits of a User-Centered Approach to Information Architecture." Similar focus: Most Content Management systems set up 1 system to support many audiences, and the content is designed for only 1. To keep it short, her focus was on 4 elements to this architecture, 1) Build audience profiles (in depth write ups of each audience type. 2) Audit content to define content elements. 3) Select the tools (note, this is 3rd). 4) Map content development process to the information lifecycle.

A slight variation/change was then introduced, when Janus Boye of Boye IT, and Tony Byrne of CMS Watch discussed Portals, what they are and what they do. I won't spend much time here discussing it, but it too had a focus on the customer/user.

The last session of the day was by James Robertson of Step Two Design out of Sydney Australia, which for me was the hit of the day.....it was so big, I'm saving my notes to post tomorrow (but by then, I have to report on Monday's sessions!)  Like I said, content rich show.

Content Management ROI

This is a continuation of my last post on the Case for Content Management.

I just started reading Ann Rockley's book, Managing Enterprise Content, A Unified Content Strategy. I'm only 2 chapters in, but it is very engaging. 

Chap 1 points out the benefits of unified content management:

• Faster time to market
• Better use of resources
• Reduced costs
• Improved quality  and usability of content
• Increased opportunity to innovate
• Improved workplace satisfaction
• Increased customer satisfaction

These ROI points apply to before, during, and after project rationalizations.

The Case for Content Management

Most projects require some level of "justification." Typically, it is vital to justify a project prior to spending money on it; often Return on Investment (ROI) questions arise during implementation; and, it is expected that a project of considerable expense would also get a review at some point after it is a "working" operation.

Some Content Management Solutions cost companies millions of dollars per installation. Smaller systems, or companies whose requirements are not so large, can still spend tens of thousands of dollars on Content Management. No matter how you slice it, the project (at some point), will have to be justified.

If you're the one who has the " 'splainin' to do " (you must justify or stand-up for a project), there is help available through Tony Byrne's article, "The business case for WCM" (web content management). Hopefully Tony's article is available to you before you start your project, but if not, it can still be very useful.

Please read the full article. This is an extremely brief synopsis. As I've stated before, this blog is primarily a diary for me to tweak my memory on certain things...so I'll know to go to the article!

The always important first step: Start with a business plan that will focus all staff on the desired result and how the team anticipates getting there.

The hard benefits of a (Web) Content Management Solution are a) increase transactions, b) accelerate time-to-market, and c) process efficiencies.

The soft benefits are 1) empower/delegate communications to area/departmental experts, 2) maintain brand consistency and user experience, 3) improve agility, 4) improve security, 5) improve record keeping, and 6) take advantage of specialization and specific focus.

I think this process is important for any project, and the points that Mr. Byrne makes should be valuable attributes of many a project.

Tony Byrne is the founder of CMSWatch, a vendor-neutral technology analyst firm.

Thanks to Jack Vinson for bringing this article to my attention.

The Hunt for Content Management

I believe I've opined on this before, but there's no such thing as a perfect fit when it comes to most application software, and the same holds true for Content Management Systems. One of the secrets then, in my opinion, is to keep searching, keep looking, and if you own a solution, find a way to keep enhancing it.

Friend Jack Vinson, of Knowledge Jolt, forwarded to me an interesting article entitled, "How to Choose a Content Management Tool According to a Learning Model." The original article is by Peter Baumgartner in May of this year, and then Harold at Jarche Consulting put his own spin on how he has applied the principles of this article.

The article points out three prototypical models of education, a) to transfer knowledge, b) to acquire, compile, gather knowledge, or c) to develop, to invent, to construct knowledge. 

If you like, a matrix could be made, and along the other axis are 5 different educational types of CMSs.  The article has nice definitions, but the 5 types are basically, 1) Pure CMS, 2) Weblog CMS, 3) Collaborative CMS (or GroupWare), 4) Content-Community-Collaboration Management System (C3MS), and 5) Wiki Systems.

Baumgartner nicely correlates the educational models to the CMS type. The article also provides examples of CMSs for each of the categories (NOTE: a lot of work must have gone into this, as nearly 25 CMSs are categorized).

Of course, I'm very interested in this for several reasons. I've recently reviewed a few CMSs that have Learning Management Systems (LMSs). Plus, I truly believe that the purpose of a CMS is NOT to just store static content, but it is a combination of knowledge creation, invention, collaboration, and transfer. So, why not have a tool that accomplishes what is needed.

Fascinating article...very informative. Thanks to Jack for bringing this to my attention...there's some excellent thoughts that I can take away and put to good use.