Inmagic Inc.

Biggest challenge of enterprise social technology integration: takeaways from Gilbane Boston 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:07:19 PST

A common takeaway we drew from the Gilbane Boston Conference was that social features, such as tagging and commenting, are becoming increasing prevalent in various enterprise data and content management systems. Inmagic Solutions Engineer Kevin Rourke, however, sums up the biggest challenge he's seeing surrounding this initiative:

How culture influences enterprise social media adoption -- Inmagic Year in Review 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:26:55 PST

Organizational culture is a major factor impacting adoption of social media in the enterprise. As we look back on 2009 for our Year in Review series, we found culture, as well as technology, are crucial components to a successful enterprise 2.0 strategy.

Chris Jones, Consulting Principal of SourcePOV, often sees culture as a barrier to entry preventing many organizations from implementing enterprise 2.0 strategies. He talked about it detail during our podcast with him in November, and in his presentation at one of our user groups in October. He emphasizes that a key to creating a successful E2.0 strategy is to have a culture that values collaboration.

E2.0 thought leader Andrew McAfee supported this notion in a KMWorld interview in September. He said, "I always look to the senior leadership to see if they are sincerely interested in helping people collaborate, capturing what the organization knows. Do they really realize that it is a serious challenge? If they do, then chances are much, much higher that they are going to be interested in these [social media] tools."

The importance of culture was also brought to light this year by an article from Dion Hinchcliffe of ZDNet. Dion wrote how it's surprisingly common to encounter a resistance to social technology in "organizations that have fewer competitive pressures, are highly specialized, or are unusually late adopters of technology."

This also speaks to the idea that E2.0 is not a one-size-fits-all initiative. It should be able to be adjusted, and fit within a given organization's structure, processes, and culture, so that it achieves that company's specific business objectives.

Photos from Gilbane Boston Conference 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:53:40 PST

The Inmagic team was out for the Gilbane Boston Conference last week, and we've returned with pics and feedback from the event. Below you can check out the photos we snapped. Next week we'll be sharing our thoughts on the show, so check back!

How to capitalize on in-house experts -- Inmagic Year in Review 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:29:19 PST

Last week we kicked off our Inmagic Year in Review 2009 series by recollecting the "Is enterprise 2.0 a crock?" idea. Today I want to revisit another hot topic of 09: In-house experts, and how organizations can best benefit from them.

Finding an expert is an informal process, as this Wall Street Journal article explored in October. That's because in-house experts aren't just the usual suspects, such as lead scientists, executive technologists, and head researchers. They're many employees -- amateurs, even, as Ross Dawson highlighted in August.

In-house experts are a crucial form of knowledge within an organization. Just as we need to find and extract information from books, articles, documents, etc., we need to find and extract information that lives within employees' minds.

For instance, a sales associate might know that slides 3, 5, 11 of a new PowerPoint presentation resonated well with a certain prospect. This is important information for the sales team moving forward. When other salespeople use the presentation, they'll know to be sure to go over those slides, and expand on the information contained in them.

This PowerPoint presentation, as well as books, documents, etc., are forms of explicit information, and can be searched in a fairly structured way. But information that resides within employees is tacit, fluid, and constantly changing.

Continuing with our example, say several salespeople use the PowerPoint and discover that slides 3, 5, and 11 only resonate well with prospects within a particular industry. The tacit knowledge surrounding the PowerPoint presentation has been refined.

The challenge for organizations, then, is to find, collect, and share this knowledge that exists within in-house experts -- whether those "experts" are senior executives or junior associates. This was a common theme we found among organizations in 2009. Our take on it, as you'd expect, is that this is an opportunity for social media in the enterprise.

Social technology is fluid in nature, and can make the expert seekers and the experts themselves self-sufficient in finding and providing information. For instance, when employees have the ability to add their knowledge directly to implicit information, such as with comments and ratings, they can share their knowledge with others. This is the nutshell of social knowledge management.

Social knowledge management acts as a connector of people -- with all of their thoughts, ideas, and opinions -- to relevant content. Putting context around content is what will enable organizations to quantify, analyze, and experience collaboration improvements around their knowledge strategies.

One major improvement is knowledge retention, which is a natural by-product of social knowledge management. Capturing implicit knowledge that is tied to relevant content relieves companies of the aging workforce and turnover rates that challenge knowledge retention.

More hot trends and topics of 2009 to come ...

Collaboration inside the firewall needs context and purpose

phillip.green@inmagic.com (Phil Green) — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:34:17 PST

David Armano put forth his 2010 social media predictions in a post on Harvard Business. And while I think David is spot-on with his outlook regarding social media in the consumer space, I think he misses an opportunity to discuss social media trends inside the enterprise.

David predicts 2010 will be the year many more businesses will get serious about using social media behind the firewall. I'm with you, David. But I disagree with David's idea that businesses will need to resort to gimmicks within their social media applications to drive usage. Usage will be driven and driven alone through productivity gains and tangible business benefits.

This is the key to understanding the difference between social media trends inside and outside the firewall. Think of it like this: When used in the consumer space, social media is a communications platform. You chat on IM, share pictures on Facebook, and discuss news on Twitter. Enterprises don't need another communications vehicle. Phone, e-mail, and face-to-face interaction accomplish that very effectively.

What organizations are seeking, however, are ways to enable faster, more cost-effective collaboration among employees for business benefit. And that's how social media adds value inside the enterprise. It is a collaboration tool.

But not just any collaboration tool. It must be driven by results. For instance, when we work with media companies, they want the editorial staff to be able to create better stories faster. They want to speed the research phase, which involves gaining better access to internal and external documents, news, and facts. They also want to improve collaboration among editors, and make better and more efficient use of the research. Both content and collaboration are key in this situation.

We see this pattern over and over again in our experience with our customers. Organizations are seeking collaboration with context and purpose. Another example is with entertainment firms. We find they want to make new shows faster. They are looking to foster a more creative environment by using social media, and they want access to past projects to learn from their mistakes and build on their successes -- not to merely communicate with colleagues.

I expanded on this thought more in the comment I left on David's article, and you can click over to read the rest!

Is enterprise 2.0 a crock? Inmagic Year in Review 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:04:48 PST

It might be the end of the week, but there's no better time than the present to kick off our Inmagic Year in Review series.

The first story I want to revisit is the firestorm Dennis Howlett ignited when he posted his "Enterprise 2.0: what a crock" story on ZDNet in August. It seems there were just as many people agreeing with Dennis as disagreeing, but we thought Gil Yehuda summed it up nicely when he wrote this on his blog:

" ... I don't believe 'Enterprise 2.0' is a solution, I believe it is a description ... Enterprise 2.0 describes a transformed organization. If your organization uses social computing technology and that has transformed your organization's nature -- then describe that as a new kind of organization -- one that has been inspired by the analogous change that we see in the Web."

Enterprise 2.0 isn't going to suddenly be here overnight. It will be a steady, progressive adoption. But the dialogue will keep us thinking about the possibilities and limitations of E2.0, and how it can benefit our organizations.

Know and Go series officially launches to provide guidance on social knowledge management and enterprise 2.0 strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:39:12 PST

Our blog readers got the sneak peek into our new Know and Go series a few weeks ago. We've "officially" launched the series to the greater Inmagic and knowledge management community. More information on what's in the hopper can be found in our press release below.

New Info Series Clarifies Social Knowledge Management and Enterprise 2.0 Strategies

Inmagic Community Receive Free, on-Demand Guidance for Implementing Social Knowledge Management

WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Inmagic today announced “Know and Go,” a series of free educational resources that give information and knowledge management professionals ideas, insight, and guidance for implementing social knowledge management strategies in their organizations. The launch kicks off with the following resources -- all in a “bite-sized” format for easy viewing and comprehension:

Knowledge Management 2.0: Enterprise Social Networking and Social Knowledge Management
An on-demand Know and Go webcast presented by Chris Brown, Content and Knowledge Management Consultant, Inmagic.
Knowledge Management 2.0: Has your organization’s ECM initiative left you out in the cold?
An on-demand Know and Go webcast presented by Chris Brown, Content and Knowledge Management Consultant, Inmagic.
Knowledge Management 2.0: A Practical Guide to Social Knowledge Management -- Five Steps to Socializing Your Knowledge Repository
An E-book by Phil Green, CTO, Inmagic.
Inmagic Presto in Action
A five-minute video introduction to Presto and social knowledge management.

The role of today’s information professionals is more important than ever. They must create environments that not only support traditional functions of research and discovery, but also foster collaboration, increase productivity, and improve organizational effectiveness. Increasingly, leading organizations are looking to social knowledge management and E2.0 technologies. But for many, there are still questions about which tools to embrace, how to use these tools, and how best to develop the right strategy that will yield the greatest results.

“There’s a lot of buzz in the market around enterprise social networking and experimentation with deployments of social media behind the firewall, but organizations often miss the impact and benefits of social media because social media technology is usually disconnected from enterprise knowledge repositories,” says Mike Cassettari, Vice President of Marketing for Inmagic. “The Know and Go series is focused on helping information professionals create strategies that tightly integrate content and social media, receive guidance on best practices, and share perspectives on how to implement successful social knowledge management solutions within their organizations.”

Industry consultants, analysts, thought leaders, and Inmagic executives will host the 15-to-20 minute sessions produced in multiple formats. These experts will share their unique experiences and advice on topics including:

Current and future trends in social knowledge management and E2.0
Industry-specific social knowledge management strategies
Strategies and tips for implementing Social Knowledge Networks (SKNs)

The series will also feature webcasts that cover Inmagic products and solutions, including Presto which was recently named by KM World as a Trend-Setting product for 2009.

Chris Brown, Content and Knowledge Management Consultant for Inmagic, hosts one of the webcasts, "Knowledge Management 2.0: Enterprise Social Networking and Social Knowledge Management." Brown covers best practices for socializing an organization’s content, including the major differentiators between enterprise social networking and social knowledge management. Before organizations can determine which enterprise social networking technology will fit their needs -- or if their business is even ready for this kind of technology -- Brown will help them answer crucial questions, including:

Can you wait for your social network to reach critical mass before you realize value and organizational impact?
What role should social media play in your overall content and knowledge management strategy?
Will your knowledge management needs be properly addressed by simply connecting people to people? Or do you need to connect people to the information and content that will help them—and your organization—become more effective?

Brown provides answers and insight to these questions and more. Info pros can view this webcast and others on Inmagic’s Web site. New resources will be added to this site on a regular basis.

ABOUT INMAGIC, INC.

Inmagic, Inc. has been the industry leader in knowledge management and library automation applications for over 25 years. Today, Inmagic is at the forefront of the move to new generation knowledge management, creating Social Knowledge Networks that combine top-down, vetted information with bottom-up, social “wisdom of the community” to address critical research and business objectives. Over 5,000 companies in 100 countries use Inmagic solutions, including Inmagic© Presto, Inmagic© Presto for Social Libraries, and the DB/Text product family, to gain unprecedented insight into customers, markets, competitors, research, intellectual properties, and more. Find out how much your organization really knows. Visit Inmagic at www.Inmagic.com.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

PRESS RESOURCES

Press contacts: Kate Ritchie, kater@gregoryfca.com, Carolyn MacNeill, cmacneill@inmagic.com

Inmagic press room: http://www.inmagic.com/news/press_room.html

RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/inmagic

Inmagic blog: http://blog.inmagic.com

Contacts

For more information, press only:
Gregory FCA
Kate Ritchie, 610-642-8253
kater@gregoryfca.com
or
Inmagic, Inc.
Carolyn MacNeill, 781-287-6277
cmacneill@inmagic.com

Inmagic Year in Review 2009 and Predictions 2010: What defined this year and what will shape the next

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:24:03 PST

This year's headlines, comment threads, Twitter chats, online searches, and offline discussions tell us a lot about what's dominated our attention and defined our work as information professionals for the past 365 days. They reveal our passions, goals, trials, tribulations, and successes of 2009. And with the year coming to a close, we're going to look back on it all.

We'll reflect on the major trends, technologies, debates, controversies, and events of the year in our Inmagic Year in Review 2009 series. We'll revisit topics we found garnered a lot of engagement, including:

That's just a few of things that have made our list. We'll start revisiting each topic in turn throughout the month. We also want to open the floor to your input. What do you think topped 2009? What deserves another mention, a grand finale? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments.

And no year in review is complete without a look at the year ahead. So we'll also be putting our best thoughts forward in our Inmagic Predictions 2010 series. Based on our customer interactions and deployments, discussions with industry peers, and observations of 2009's techs and trends, we'll forecast the knowledge management market for 2010. Our aim is to shed light on the budding trends that promise to grow, early technologies due to take off, and innovative ideas expected to become viable solutions.

Our first recap post will hit the blog later this week.

Metro Vancouver hosts Andornot user group Thursday -- RSVP deadline today

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:12:11 PST

Our partner, Andornot, is holding its next user group meeting this Thursday for Inmagic users in the Vancouver area. Today is the last day to RSVP, so be sure to sign up if you're interested!

Metro Vancouver will be the special host for this user group. The organization provides water, sewerage, parks, housing, and planning services to 22 member municipalities in the Greater Vancouver region of British Columbia. It recently replaced its ILS with DB/Text Library Suite, comprising DB/TextWorks, Web Publisher Pro, and Genie, with implementation and consulting services from Andornot. At the meeting, Metro Vancouver library staff and Andornot will discuss the implementation, and the new publicly searchable catalog created using Inmagic's platform and Andornot's Starter Kit.

As always, the floor will be open to your questions, and there will time to bounce ideas off your fellow Inmagic users. If there's anything you'd like the meeting to cover, just e-mail Andornot in advance.

Here are the nitty-gritty details:

WHAT: Andornot user group meeting

WHEN: Thursday, Dec. 3 from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

WHERE: Metro Vancouver
4330 Kingsway
Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Map

RSVP: Today, Dec. 1 to Thora Gislason

MORE INFO: Check out Andornot's blog.

Pactolus's Paul Blondin joins Inmagic's board of directors

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:59:14 PST

We wanted to extend a warm welcome to Paul Blondin, who is the newest member of our board of directors. He's currently Chairman of the Board for Pactolus Communication Software, and has spent over 25 years in the software industry. He'll be providing strategic vision and guidance to our management team, and we're looking forward to the expertise he'll bring to our company. To read more about Paul and what he'll be doing at Inmagic, check out our press release below.

Inmagic Announces New Member to Board of Directors

Software industry veteran and seasoned executive, Paul Blondin, joins Inmagic Board

WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Inmagic today announced that Paul E. Blondin has joined the company’s board of directors. Mr. Blondin brings more than 25 years of senior management experience in the software industry to the company, and will provide strategic vision and guidance to the Inmagic management team.

"We are pleased to welcome Paul to our board and to our team,” said Ron Matros, President and CEO of Inmagic. “Paul has successfully led several technology companies through rapid growth and expansion. His proven ability to bridge strategy with operational excellence will be invaluable to us as we continue our development, expand our relationships with our customers, and establish our market leadership.”

Mr. Blondin brings extensive experience in management, product strategy, distribution and mergers, and acquisitions of technology companies to Inmagic’s board of directors. Mr. Blondin is currently Chairman of the Board of Pactolus Communication Software, located in Marlborough, Mass. Pactolus develops and markets SIP based enhanced service applications for next generation telecommunication providers.

Prior to joining Pactolus in 2001, Mr. Blondin served as CEO of IPHighway Ltd., a software company in the IP performance provisioning market. Before that, he was President and CEO of Netect Ltd., a network security company. Netect was acquired by Bind View Development, in March of 1999. Mr. Blondin has also served as CEO and Chairman of the Board of Open Development Corporation (ODC), a provider of enhanced services platforms to the telecommunications industry. ODC was sold to Glenayre Technologies in October 1997. Earlier in his career Mr. Blondin served as Chief Financial Officer of Cascade Communications Corp., a supplier of wide area data communications equipment. Cascade was acquired by Ascend Communications in June of 1997.

“Inmagic is clearly on the path of addressing an immediate market need for social knowledge management within the enterprise,” said Blondin. “Inmagic is well positioned to become a market leader in social knowledge management. I am looking forward to working with the team and taking Inmagic to the next level of organizational growth and development.”

In addition to serving as a board advisor to a number of technology companies, Mr. Blondin’s corporate directorships currently include Imany, Inc. of Philadelphia; Inmagic of Woburn, Mass.; and Pactolus. Blondin has also served on the boards of Medecision, Inc. (MEDE) of Wayne, Pa. (sold to HCSC); Permibit, Inc. of Cambridge, Mass.; Princeton Softech of Princeton, N.J. (sold to IBM); MEI Software, Inc. of Reston, Va. (sold to GoMembers); Bluestone Software, Inc. (BSTN) of Philadelphia (sold to HP); Verbind, Inc. of Lexington, Mass.; WebFS, Inc. of Salem, Mass.; Logic Works Inc. (LGWX) of Princeton, N.J. (sold to Platinum Software); IPHighway; Netect; and Open Development (ODC). Mr. Blondin is a graduate of Boston College and Babson College.

ABOUT INMAGIC, INC.

Inmagic, Inc. has been the industry leader in knowledge management and library automation applications for over 25 years. Today, Inmagic is at the forefront of the move to new generation knowledge management, creating Social Knowledge Networks that combine top-down, vetted information with bottom-up, social “wisdom of the community” to address critical research and business objectives. Over 5,000 companies in 100 countries use Inmagic solutions, including Inmagic® Presto, Inmagic® Presto for Social Libraries, and the DB/Text product family, to gain unprecedented insight into customers, markets, competitors, research, intellectual properties, and more. Find out how much your organization really knows. Visit Inmagic at www.Inmagic.com.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

PRESS RESOURCES

Press contacts: Kate Ritchie, kater@gregoryfca.com, Carolyn MacNeill, cmacneill@inmagic.com

Inmagic press room: http://www.inmagic.com/news/press_room.html

RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/inmagic

Inmagic blog: http://blog.inmagic.com

Company fact sheet: http://www.inmagic.com/company/Inmagic-At-A-Glance.pdf

Contacts

For more information, press only:
Kate Ritchie, Gregory FCA, 610-642-8253, kater@gregoryfca.com
or
Carolyn MacNeill, Inmagic, Inc., 781-287-6277, cmacneill@inmagic.com

KMWorld presents Inmagic KM Promise Award 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:21:39 PST

We were excited to learn KMWorld has given Inmagic its KM Promise Award for 2009. Thank you to the editors! For more information on the award, check out our press release below.

KMWorld Presents Inmagic KM Promise Award 2009

Award recognizes Inmagic’s proven success in delivering customer-driven social knowledge management solutions to organizations around the globe

WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today KMWorld Magazine announced Inmagic has been presented the publication’s prestigious KM Promise Award for 2009. The honor recognizes the organization that delivers on its commitments to customers by providing innovative technology solutions for implementing and integrating knowledge management practices into their business processes.

According to KMWorld editors, Inmagic was recognized for delivering customer-driven innovation with social knowledge management solutions suited to its’ customers needs.

“Organizations are consistently turning to Inmagic solutions in the enterprise knowledge management markets,” says Hugh McKellar, Editor-in-Chief of KMWorld. “Inmagic is attuned to each customer's unique requirements for social knowledge management, and can readily adapt to its customers’ business objectives and ROI expectations with exceptional service and attention.”

The City of Edmonton is one of many customers that relies on Inmagic Presto as the backbone of its knowledge management solution. Working with Inmagic, the city created an online database for its historical images using Presto.

Users can rapidly search and access more than 25,000 images and counting from any Internet-connected computer, order image prints online, and subscribe to RSS feeds that alert them when new content is added. The city previously stored these images as hard copies in its archives building, where they were unorganized and difficult to access.

"For the City of Edmonton, one of the primary advantages of Presto is customer-service related," says Michael Payne, City Archivist for the City of Edmonton. "We can fill photographic reproduction orders more quickly and efficiently, and we can better advise users on copyright and other issues that could affect how they use those images in future. With Presto, we have significantly increased use of our collections, and raised public awareness and interest in our archives."

KMWorld’s KM Promise Award is the latest in a list of accolades that Inmagic has earned over the past 25 years for defining the way knowledge assets are managed, retrieved, shared, and acted upon. Software Magazine recently named the company to its list of the world’s 500 largest software and service providers.

It’s also the company’s latest achievement in what has been a very successful 2009, with new customers including the Canadian Tax Foundation, Nisqually Indian Tribe, San Francisco Symphony, Laureate, Maple Leaf Foods, and MRA.

Presto integrates social technologies with enterprise content, search, access, and discovery capabilities, enabling information professionals to create Social Knowledge Networks—combining top-down vetted information with bottom-up social intelligence for a 360-degree view of information assets. This year, Inmagic introduced the first application built on Presto, Inmagic® Presto for Social Libraries. The application creates a SOPAC (Social Online Public Access Catalog) that provides a unique framework for managing and enhancing library collections and allows a secure, two-way information exchange between librarians and patrons.

“Organizations have achieved measurable results by partnering with Inmagic on their social knowledge management initiatives,” says Ron Matros, CEO of Inmagic. “And with our commitment to R&D and customer service, there’s a clear path for continued realization of positive business results.”

ABOUT INMAGIC, INC.

Inmagic, Inc. has been the industry leader in knowledge management and library automation applications for over 25 years. Today, Inmagic is at the forefront of the move to new generation knowledge management, creating Social Knowledge Networks that combine top-down, vetted information with bottom-up, social “wisdom of the community” to address critical research and business objectives. Over 5,000 companies in 100 countries use Inmagic solutions, including Inmagic© Presto, Inmagic© Presto for Social Libraries, and the DB/Text product family, to gain unprecedented insight into customers, markets, competitors, research, intellectual properties, and more. Find out how much your organization really knows. Visit Inmagic at www.Inmagic.com.

ABOUT KMWorld

The leading information provider serving the Knowledge, Document and Content Management systems market, KMWorld informs more than 50,000 subscribers about the components and processes - and subsequent success stories - that together offer solutions for improving business performance. KMWorld is a publishing unit of Information Today, Inc.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

PRESS RESOURCES

Press contacts: Kate Ritchie, kater@gregoryfca.com, Carolyn MacNeill, cmacneill@inmagic.com

Inmagic press room: http://www.inmagic.com/news/press_room.html

RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/inmagic

Inmagic blog: http://blog.inmagic.com

Company fact sheet: http://www.inmagic.com/company/Inmagic-At-A-Glance.pdf

Contacts

For more information, press only:
Gregory FCA
Kate Ritchie, 610-642-8253
kater@gregoryfca.com
or
Inmagic, Inc.
Carolyn MacNeill, 781-287-6277
cmacneill@inmagic.com

Gilbane Boston discounts: Attend Technology Showcase for free or take $200 off any registration package

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:50:24 PST

If you're interested in attending the Gilbane Boston conference in December, but would rather see just some things at the show, we have a great option for you. All members of the Inmagic community (that includes blog readers!) are invited to attend the Technology Showcase for FREE. This gives you access to:

Both keynotes on Dec. 2
All product lab tracks on Dec. 2 and 3
Exhibit area
Sponsor Reception on Dec. 2, 5 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Think of it as the lite version of the Gilbane Conference.

On the other hand, if you'd rather see more things at the conference, we're also offering a $200 discount on ANY of the other conference options.

To get the goods, just register with discount code Inmagic.

Social knowledge management panels to see at Gilbane Boston 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 08:59:21 PST

The Gilbane Boston conference is fast approaching -- Dec. 1-3 to be exact. This year's theme is "Content, Collaboration, and Customers," which will be broken down into four main tracks:

Web Business and Engagement
Managing Collaboration and Social Media: Internal and External
Enterprise Content: Searching, Integrating, and Publishing
Content Infrastructure

If you're interested in learning more about social knowledge management in particular, I recommend you go to these two panels:

Collaboration Challenges 2: Sharing Content
This will be an interactive discussion on the challenges surrounding effective content sharing inside and outside the firewall. This would be good for anyone interested in starting and/or improving a social knowledge management strategy. Panelists and the audience will be sharing best practices and tools they've used and that are working for them.

Moderator:
Geoffrey Bock, Senior Analyst of Collaboration and Enterprise Social Software, Gilbane Group

Panelists:
Bob Lindenberg, Senior Vice President, Putnam Investments
Ginger Richards, Pew Research Center
Jason Corsello, Vice President, Knowledge Infusion

When:
Wednesday, Dec. 2, 1:30 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Collaboration Challenges 5: Fostering and Supporting Innovation

This interactive discussion will cover the challenges of instituting an innovation management discipline, and solutions for overcoming them. This also speaks to issues such as organizational culture.

Moderator:
Carl Frappaolo, Co-founder and Principal, Information Architected

Panelists:
Mary Lou Tierney, Enterprise Architecture Planning and Innovation, MITRE
Melanie Browne, Librarian and Project Manager, Maple Leaf Foods (an Inmagic customer, by the way)

When:
Thursday, Dec. 3, 9:40 a.m. - 10:40 a.m.

And don't forget to stop by to see us in exhibit area G. We'll be there to talk shop, discuss knowledge management trends, and give you pointers for shaping your organization's social knowledge management strategies and initiatives for 2010.

If you haven't signed up for Gilbane Boston yet, it's not too late. You can register on the conference site.

Presenting our Know and Go series: Bite-sized information to help you start and improve your social knowledge management strategy

lbarrettdemers@inmagic.com (Leah Barrett Demers) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:41:26 PST

We've put together a new educational resource to help organizations begin, plan, manage, and improve their social knowledge management strategies. Our "Know and Go" series is designed to give you the latest information on the trends and topics that will help shape your organization's social knowledge management strategy, all in a “bite-sized” format consisting of webcasts, videos, white papers, and more.

The best part is, they're on demand. Grab them whenever you need guidance. We made them for quick, easy viewing and sharing. And as an aside, this program will be launched officially in a few weeks. But we wanted to give our blog readers advanced notice of our first webcast. (Perks of being part of the Inmagic community! :))

Chris Brown, Content and Knowledge Management Consultant for Inmagic, hosts "Knowledge Management 2.0: Enterprise Social Networking and Social Knowledge Management." In this webcast, Chris covers best practices for socializing your organization's content.

New enterprise social networking technologies are beginning to gain adoption. But before you know what solution will fit your organization's needs -- or if your organization is even ready for this kind of technology -- you'll need to answer crucial questions, including:

Will your knowledge management needs be properly addressed by simply connecting people to people? Or do you need to connect people to the information and content that will help them -- and your organization -- become more effective?
Can you wait for your social network to reach critical mass before you realize value and organizational impact?
What role should social media play in your overall content and knowledge management strategy?

Chris provides answers and insight for these questions and more. More Know and Go sessions are in the works, and we’ll have a subscription link for you soon. In the meantime, check out the first installment and let us know what you think.

How social media adds value to your company's knowledgebase

phillip.green@inmagic.com (Phil Green) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:16:23 PST

I contributed an article to ITWorld that covers the capabilities that social media technology can add to an organization's knowledge repository by using a social knowledge network (SKN). However, when planning your SKN, it's crucial the initiative not be viewed just as a social networking project -- because it's not. It's based on enterprise knowledge management principles. In my article I give five recommendations for extracting maximum cost benefits from your SKN. Click over to check it out. And thanks to ITWorld for publishing my piece!

Inmagic reports positive results in third quarter 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:54:41 PST

A lot of positive things have been going on here at Inmagic these past several months, and we thought we'd share the news in a round-up press release. Some of the latest organizations to adopt Presto and Presto for Social Libraries are the Canadian Tax Foundation, Nisqually Indian Tribe, and the San Francisco Symphony. Software Magazine named us to its list of the world’s 500 largest software and service providers, and Edison Venture Fund recently provided the company with a follow-on investment to support our expansion.

You can read more details on the news in our press release below.

Increasing Adoption of Social Knowledge Networks Fuels Growth and Expansion for Inmagic

Numerous Enterprise Customers Selecting Presto, Additional Investment, and Software Magazine Award Highlight Continued Momentum

WOBURN, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Continuing to buck economic trends and cost sensitivities in the marketplace, Inmagic this year extended its lead in the markets for social knowledge management and special library solutions. In addition to the company’s ongoing growth and acquisition of major new accounts in the enterprise market, it has raised additional investment, and was named to Software Magazine’s list of the world’s 500 largest software and service providers.

“Inmagic Presto and Presto for Social Libraries continue to experience strong growth, despite a challenging economy,” says Ron Matros, President and CEO of Inmagic. “Our customers are realizing genuine cost savings from Social Knowledge Networks, and are turning to Presto as a cost-effective solution for capturing, sharing, and socializing information for increased collaboration and productivity within the enterprise. Our DB/Text Library and collections management solutions continue to reflect positive momentum, as renewal and upgrade rates remain high.”

Inmagic’s social knowledge management platform, Presto, has experienced 100% quarter over quarter growth from 2008 to 2009, as organizations are fast realizing the strategic benefits in areas such as knowledge retention and enhanced competitive advantage from bringing Social Knowledge Networks inside the firewall.

The company has recently added the Canadian Tax Foundation, Nisqually Indian Tribe, and the San Francisco Symphony to its roster of distinguished customers that include ACLU, City of Edmonton, Laureate Education, Maple Leaf Foods, MRA, USAID, and Wyeth Consumer Healthcare. These organizations are using Presto for a faster and more cost-effective way to integrate content with human assets, improve collaboration, and increase end-user and organizational productivity.

“In preparation for our upcoming centennial celebration in 2011, we have embarked on an aggressive effort to catalog our extensive holdings of archive materials,” says Michael Skaff, CIO of the San Francisco Symphony. “Inmagic Presto is a core component of our content management strategy, and will give us the ability to manage and maintain multiple content types in both physical and digital formats. Ultimately, this will allow us to support a broad range of media innovation initiatives which will keep us a pioneer among the world’s top arts institutions.”

In addition to continued customer growth, Edison Venture Fund recently provided Inmagic with a follow-on investment to support the company’s expansion. The use of proceeds will expand sales, marketing, customer support services, and product development.

Inmagic was also recognized by Software Magazine for the Software 500 Award. The award is a revenue-based ranking of the world’s largest software and services suppliers targeting medium to large enterprises, their IT professionals, software developers, and business managers involved in software and services purchasing. Inmagic’s inclusion demonstrates its viability and competitive strength as a global software provider in the emerging social knowledge management space, as it joins the company of top enterprise content management organizations including Autonomy, IBM, Microsoft, and Open Text.

ABOUT INMAGIC, INC.

Inmagic, Inc. has been the industry leader in knowledge management and library automation applications for over 25 years. Today, Inmagic is at the forefront of the move to new generation knowledge management, creating Social Knowledge Networks that combine top-down, vetted information with bottom-up, social “wisdom of the community” to address critical research and business objectives. Over 5,000 companies in 100 countries use Inmagic solutions, including Inmagic© Presto, Inmagic© Presto for Social Libraries, and the DB/Text product family, to gain unprecedented insight into customers, markets, competitors, research, intellectual properties, and more. Find out how much your organization really knows. Visit Inmagic at www.Inmagic.com.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

PRESS RESOURCES

Press contacts: Kate Ritchie, kater@gregoryfca.com, Carolyn MacNeill, cmacneill@inmagic.com

Inmagic: http://www.inmagic.com/

Inmagic press room: http://www.inmagic.com/news/press_room.html

Inmagic RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/inmagic

Inmagic blog: http://blog.inmagic.com

Inmagic company fact sheet: http://www.inmagic.com/company/Inmagic-At-A-Glance.pdf

Contacts

For more information, press only:
Gregory FCA
Kate Ritchie, 610-642-8253 x162
kater@gregoryfca.com
or
Inmagic, Inc.
Carolyn MacNeill, 781-287-6277
cmacneill@inmagic.com

Inmagic and Maxus Australia give Ecuadorian school library a fresh start with DB/Text Works

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:29:12 PST

Jini Andrade, a librarian at a special education school in Quito, Ecuador, finally has a way to organize and catalog the 10,866 books in the school library. She's using DB/Text, which we recently donated to the school with our partner, Maxus Australia. Maxus put together a case study covering the story.

As you might imagine, the school, Ninos De Maria, Fundacion Padre Jose Kentenich, has very limited resources, and had been operating its library without any form of cataloging whatsoever. Then Sue Hodgson, recently a librarian at Resolute Mining in Perth, West Australia, traveled to Quito to do volunteer work through the organization Antipodeans Abroad. Her assignment was to work with Jini for four weeks.

Sue had used DB/Text Works in the past and "always found it one of the most useful and intuitive library software packages around." So when she saw the piles upon piles of books strewn about the school library floor, she immediately saw how DB/Text Works would be ideal for organizing and cataloging the books.

Sue used the program to create a simple organizational structure for the library comprising nine subject areas, including Reference, Fiction, History, Language, Mathematics, Science, Arts, Religion, and English. Color coding is being used to classify subheadings.

Jini has degrees in teaching and English, computer skills, and access to a PC with Windows 2000. She has no library background. But when Sue taught her how she would catalog the books using the DB/Text Works system, she found it easy to learn.

Although Sue's volunteer assignment is over, she has given Jini the technology and knowledge to finish cataloging all of the books in the library. Other teachers at the school will be helping Jini.

Sue sent this message to Maxus after her assignment with Jini was completed:

"Your generous donation is so appreciated you cannot imagine the excitement it has generated. It will in the long term make life in the library so much more functional. It will mean being able to lend books, which is currently not allowed. I have found the project very rewarding and believe I am going to be leaving Jini with some skills and confidence to complete the project."

I think I speak for both Maxus and us here at Inmagic when I say we're so delighted to hear about the happy ending. Best wishes to the school, its staff, and the children!

For more details and photos from the project, click over Maxus's case study.

E2.0 not about technology???

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn MacNeill) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:59:25 PST

E2.0 not about technology? Really? I keep seeing this phrase echo across the E2.0 (enterprise 2.0) landscape lately, and I'm not sure of it's origin. This tech backlash could be in part due to the crowded social-technology playing field that is making a lot of noise right now. Or it could be just technology nay-sayers that have been burned in the past (and who hasn't?).

But if it's not about technology, then how does one plan to collaborate? Smoke signals? Vulcan mind melds? It can't not be about technology, just like it can't not be about culture, or executive influence, or probably 100 other factors that directly and indirectly shape an organization's social knowledge management strategy.

My take from all this requires a certain clarification: E2.0 is not about some technologies. There are certainly companies claiming "social technology" capabilities that in actuality do not resemble anything close to social -- or technological for that matter. But there are definitely players, new and old, that will emerge as key drivers in the E2.0 evolution. Our job, as end-users, buyers, vendors, evangelists, or (insert relevant title here), is to vet out the technologies that best play to our own (or our customers') organizations strengths.

SourcePOV's Chris Jones: Enterprise 2.0's biggest barrrier is culture

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:49:08 PST

If you're considering or exploring enterprise 2.0 or social KM strategies at your company, you might have recognized a key barrier to entry: your organizational culture. Maybe your company doesn't value or understand the business benefits of social collaboration. Maybe executive management doesn't support it. Whatever the reason(s), many of them are influenced by corporate culture.

You're not alone. It's something Chris Jones, Consulting Principal of SourcePOV, sees often in his work. He talked about it more during a podcast with Janelle, which you can listen to above.

Chris focuses significant energy in collaboration services, a new approach he's developed for tackling knowledge management. You might recall that he presented at our user group meeting a couple weeks ago. In the podcast, he touches on some of the same themes that he covered in his presentation, "Imagine: A Knowledge Renaissance," with focus on forces impacting KM in today's organizations.

Janelle talks with Chris about the major trends he's following in KM. Chris discusses how he sees many organizations still rely on the "silo model" where enterprise knowledge is compartmentalized by departments or practice areas. Enterprise 2.0, however, has the ability to unlock these silos, allowing insight to be shared across organizational boundaries. Chris emphasizes the importance of creating a culture that values collaboration, and shared some advice for building that.

But he says culture isn't the only challenge facing knowledge workers. Another is information overload resulting from a flood of new resources made visible by social media. He sees this as a short-term challenge that can be addressed by knowledge workers taking steps to better index information. He says it's a question of establishing context, and that organizations need to focus on it.

"Establishing context has always been the mission and promise of KM," he says. "Now, more than ever, we need to get the job done."

Long-term, Chris sees holistic collaboration environments where all levels of the organization are involved in building the enterprise knowledgebase. Although he sees E2.0 as a corporate game changer, it will take some time before its effects will fully play out.

For more from Chris, you can read his blog at Driving Innovation in a Digital World. Chris also hosts three Twitter chats, that drive engagement and new insight on the themes above, including #e20ws, #smchat, and #ecosys. You can learn more about each and when they're happening at his blog. You can also follow Chris on Twitter @SourcePOV.

What has the billions spent on ECM and enterprise search accomplished?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:47:57 PST

John Mancini, President of AIIM, pulled out these stats on ECM, ERM, and E2.0 from the organization's variety of market intelligence reports. They got me thinking two things: 1.) we've come a long way, baby; and 2.) we've got a ways to go. Assuming these stats are accurate, what has all the billions spent on ECM, enterprise search, and the like, accomplished?

31% of organizations have 20 or more content repositories that could usefully be linked, with email as the highest priority content.

The Internet brought with it a love of data, information, knowledge, and everything in between. There was just so much of it, and the proverbial Magic 8 ball (Google-like search) made it easier than ever to find information. Boy, those were the days ...

Well, the honeymoon is over and we are no longer satisfied with irrelevant search results or mountains of information spread across multiple silos. We want more. Like less time spent looking for information that may reside in a document or with an individual.

As well as manually filing inbound paper documents, 40% admit to routinely printing newly generated office documents and emails for the purpose of filing them as paper records.

It seems to me that for the past 10 to 15 years we've all been creating more silos and ultimately compounding the end-user access and productivity problem. Billions of dollars have been invested in ECM and enterprise search, and we're slowly coming to the realization that just because you have content and data, doesn't mean you have knowledge and collaboration. (This also illustrates our "physically captured but logically lost" theory.)

In 36% of large organizations, IT is managing the SharePoint roll out with no input from the Records Management Department. A further 14% admit that no one is in charge and it's completely out-of-control.

So while we might have a long way to go before we see stats like, "98% of organizations link silos and utilize social technologies to improve collaboration," we might not be so far off as we think. Sometimes recognizing the problem is half the battle.

Over half of organizations consider Enterprise 2.0 to be "important" or "very important" to their business goals and success. Only 25% are actually doing anything about it, but this is up from 13% in 2008. Knowledge-sharing, collaboration and responsiveness are considered the biggest drivers. Lack of understanding, corporate culture and cost are the biggest impediments.

And as social media becomes a natural part of daily lives (get coffee, feed the dog, check social networking sites, empty the dishwasher, etc.) we'll see more socialization in our business worlds.

47% of 18-30s and 31% of over 45's expect to use the same type of networking tools with business colleagues as with friends and family.

Social knowledge management within the enterprise might just be the nirvana that's been culminating all these years. No more silos? Access to subject-matter experts within an organization? Enhanced knowledge retention? Increased competitive advantage? Faster innovation cycles? Improved end-user and organizational productivity via socialized content? Improved workflow? Improved organizational effectiveness? Sounds like some good stats-in-the-making to me.

Chris Jones' takeaways on learning and collaboration from latest Inmagic user group meeting

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:08:34 PDT

If you couldn't make it to our last user group meeting in North Carolina, you have another chance to get the scoop. Our guest speaker, Chris Jones from SourcePOV, has shared his takeaways from the meeting and slides from his presentation on his blog.

Here are few takeaways I found interesting:

People produce knowledge, not process or technology; as ‘knowledge workers,’ they do this by applying context to raw information; metadata (via tagging) continues to be a primary means
Due to the flood of electronic content, the workload of knowledge workers is ever increasing
Social media is unlocking many doors to knowledge worker collaboration, but proliferation of niche SM tools remains a challenge; vendors are making headway as they work toward the needed integration, a key factor in Enterprise 2.0 enablement
Learning and innovation share common threads (discovery, visualization, vetting of alternative solutions), prompting the question: Are ‘learning’ and ‘innovation’ really the same thing? Or perhaps driven from the same cognitive skill base?

You can read the rest on his blog. Thanks again, Chris, for speaking and sharing your insights!

The right E2.0 strategy for your organization

noreply@blogger.com (Carolyn MacNeill) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:09:51 PDT

We've talked before about how E2.0 is not just about the technology. It's not just about the culture either. And it is not just about you, or your boss, your customer, and the guy you worked with three years ago that made it big. It's about all of these elements combined.

Dennis Stevenson wrote about the "Fundamentals of Enterprise 2.0 Culture" in a recent post on the Original Thinking blog. He is correct when he says that culture and technology are not mutually exclusive entities when it comes to E2.0 adoption and use. But I disagree that one (culture) is more important than the other (technology). They are equal and necessary requirements to a successful E2.0 initiative.

For instance, some companies might be open to cultural diversity and change, which can help E2.0 flourish. But the company also needs the appropriate social technology so that it can take advantage of that culture and use it to realize business benefits of E2.0.

The social technologies that get it right will be chameleon-like in their ability to fit into any given organization's structure and culture -- whether their social boundaries are high, low, or somewhere in between. These technologies will also be adjustable, as companies figure out the right balance of social for their enterprise. Companies should be able "dial up" and "dial down" social controls as they see fit. At the end of the day, the right E2.0 recipe will be different for everyone based on these factors.

What do you think of SLA's proposed name change?

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:13:11 PDT

If you haven't heard, the Special Libraries Association (SLA) has proposed changing its name to the Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals. The organization wants to find a name that better communicates its value in the workplace.

All SLA members are encouraged to voice their opinion on the propsed name by casting an electronic vote in a special referendum that will run Nov. 16 to Dec. 9. The result will be announced on Dec. 10.

There have been a lot of discussions going on about the name change, and you can hit SLA's blog to learn how to join the conversation.

And if you want to catch up on how SLA arrived at the name "Association for Strategic Knowledge Professionals," you can check out the research the organization did.

Five reasons to socialize your knowledgebase inside the firewall

phillip.green@inmagic.com (Phil Green) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:59:15 PDT

If you're a regular reader, you probably are well-acquainted with the reasons we write about for bringing social media tools inside the firewall, and socializing your knowledge repository. ITBusinessEdge invited me contribute a guest piece on the subject, and they published it yesterday. In it I distill the five major arguments for socializing your knowledgebase:

Faster access to rich, relevant information
Consolidated information silos
Increased productivity
Reduced IT footprint and costs
Improved organizational effectiveness and ROI

For details of each, turn to the article.

Latest version of DB/Text Web Publisher Pro released

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Cassettari) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:34:17 PDT

For everyone using Web Publisher Pro out there, we released the latest version of the tool, v12. It's now compatible with our recently released DB/TextWorks v12. Web Publisher Pro v12 will be made available to all maintenance-paying customers through a maintenance notification. For more deets, take a look at the press release we put out.

**********************************************************************************
Inmagic Releases Latest Version of DB/Text® Web Publisher Pro

Upgrade is compatible with Inmagic's recently released DB/TextWorks® v12

WOBURN, Mass.--October 14, 2009--Inmagic today introduced DB/Text® Web Publisher Pro® v12, a component of the Inmagic® DB/Text® Library Suite. A key feature of the new version is compatibility with Inmagic's recently released DB/TextWorks® v12, a specialized database and text retrieval system that is used in conjunction with Web Publisher Pro to deploy textbases from the desktop to the Web. Other new functionalities of Web Publisher Pro include enhancements to security, CSS support, and alternative search syntax.

Web Publisher Pro is an interactive Web publishing tool that allows information professionals to deploy, publish, and maintain textbases on the Web quickly and easily. More than 1000 organizations around the world, including Holland and Knight, Dreyfus and Jones and Stokes, rely on Web Publisher Pro to interact with information, publish content and edit records in a Web browser.

Unlike many other Web publishing tools that require knowledge of HTML and XML, Web Publisher Pro uses the WYSIWYG forms created in DB/TextWorks. This lets users of all technical skill levels easily publish, edit, manage, and search their textbases interactively on the Web. All types of information can be managed, including text, multimedia, and images.

"Inmagic continues to meet information professionals' needs for easy-to-use and scalable library and collections management solutions," says Phil Green, CTO of Inmagic. "The new features in Web Publisher Pro v12 are a direct result of customer demand, and help information professionals stay current with the latest advancements in library management and information publishing technologies."

Web Publisher Pro v12 features enhancements to several other areas, including:

Improved support for newer browser versions and operating systems
Better searching through a new advanced synonym searching feature
Improvements to XHTML support

Web Publisher Pro v12 also now supports the following operating systems:

Windows XP PRO
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 (64 bit)
Windows Server 2008 R1 (32-bit or 64-bit)
Windows Server 2008 R2 (64 bit only)

Web Publisher Pro v12 will be made available to all maintenance-paying customers through a maintenance notification. If you have questions regarding Web Publisher Pro v12 or the DB/Text Library Suite, contact Inmagic directly or ask your local Inmagic Partner.

ABOUT INMAGIC, INC.
Inmagic, Inc. has been the industry leader in knowledge management and library automation applications for over 25 years. Today, Inmagic is at the forefront of the move to new generation knowledge management, creating Social Knowledge Networks that combine top-down, vetted information with bottom-up, social "wisdom of the community" to address critical research and business objectives. Over 5,000 companies in 100 countries use Inmagic solutions, including Inmagic® Presto, Inmagic® Presto for Social Libraries, and the DB/Text product family, to gain unprecedented insight into customers, markets, competitors, research, intellectual properties, and more. Find out how much your organization really knows. Visit Inmagic at www.Inmagic.com.

###

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

For more information, press only:

Kate Ritchie, Gregory FCA, 610-642-8253, kater@gregoryfca.com

Or

Carolyn MacNeill, Inmagic, Inc., 781-287-6277, cmacneill@inmagic.com