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KMWorld 100 Companies That Matter in Knowledge Management
by Hugh McKellar, KMWorld

With the juggernaut of consolidation growing ever louder since we first put this list together in 2000, you'd think identifying a hundred companies that matter in knowledge management would be increasingly easier to assemble, right? Heck, it simply follows that with fewer companies to choose from, it would be simpler to pick 100. Not at all. It's harder than ever because of the increasing cross-functionality of today's solutions.

As is the case since we first published it in 2000, compilation of the list is a yearlong collaborative effort among colleagues, analysts, system integrators and a select group of users. As it has been for 13 years, the list is intended to spark a larger discussion of knowledge management. Hence, we consider this list to be a work in progress. We're always on the lookout for groundbreaking solutions or notable modifications to existing ones. Throughout the year, the organizations and products we find most interesting will be showcased on our site and in our magazine.

CIOs and Legal Officers must work closer, says Gartner survey

CIOs and Legal Officers must work closer, says Gartner survey

"Chief legal officers (CLOs) consider their enterprises' CIOs to be important contributors to corporate strategy and policy, but they need more in-depth interaction with their IT department, according to a survey by Gartner and ALM.

In October of 2011, Gartner and ALM surveyed 70 CLOs, deputy CLOs, general counsels, and division general counsels. The survey was designed to increase the understanding of how CLOs use technology in the enterprise, the relationship between the CLO and CIO, and the types of projects CLOs engage in with CIOs."

Lawyers admit losing cases through information management failure

Lawyers admit losing cases through information management failure

"A survey of 500 lawyers in the UK has revealed that problems with processing digital information had led all of them to lose a case or suffer a significant legal impact on their work in the last two years.

All the lawyers surveyed admitted that in some cases they had been unable to locate or process electronically stored information (ESI) that could have been presented as evidence.

Some 54 percent said that ESI issues had materially affected cases in the last three months alone.
British lawyers are not unique in facing these difficulties, according to a survey conducted last month by LM Research for Symantec."

Study Finds that E-Discovery Using Enterprise-Wide Search Improves Results and Reduces Costs

Study Finds that E-Discovery Using Enterprise-Wide Search Improves Results and Reduces Costs

"ZL Technologies (http://www.zlti.com), the leader in archiving and e-discovery software for the large enterprise, has published a scientific paper in the Proceedings of the 18th NIST/Text Retrieval Conference (TREC), which details a significant gap in efficiency between traditional custodian-search and enterprise-wide search in e-discovery settings. The results demonstrate that organizations relying solely upon custodian-search are basing important legal decisions on incomplete information, which can lead to potential cost overruns and court sanctions.

ZL conducted this research using two separate evaluation teams working with the TREC Enron corpus of documents -- a volume of approximately 3,000,000 emails from more than 100 Enron employee mailboxes. The team using the custodian approach for searching the TREC documents failed to identify 84 percent of the responsive documents, and only identified four relevant custodians. In contrast, the enterprise-wide search team identified all responsive documents across 77 relevant custodians. The scope of enterprise-wide search enhances the ability of legal teams to find critical evidence that may influence legal strategy, particularly when counsel is determining whether to fight or settle a matter."

Over half of businesses lack formal data retention plan

Over half of businesses lack formal data retention plan

"More than half of businesses do not have a formal data retention plan, creating massive recovery problems due to the over-retention of information, according to a new report by Symantec.

The study, entitled 2010 Information Management Health Check Survey, reveals some shocking figures. Only 46 percent of the 1,680 global businesses asked had a data retention plan in place, meaning that most businesses lack formal procedures for addressing the storage of data and when, if ever, it gets deleted.

87 percent believed such a plan should allow them to delete unnecessary information, but 13 percent would rather not delete anything, even useless material, at all."

E-anxiety at record levels: analyst

E-anxiety at record levels: analyst

"Barely 20 percent of records management decision makers report they are "very confident" that, if challenged, their organisation could demonstrate their electronically stored information (ESI) is accurate, accessible, and trustworthy.

Effective records and retention management programs play a big role in mitigating legal risk caused by more regulations and legal discovery of ESI.

In 2010, more than half of records management (RM) stakeholders expect to expand their technology deployments. Yet stakeholders also describe a changing and complex market, including vendor and budget uncertainty, low satisfaction with current solutions, plans to expand content types under retention management, new certifications, e-discovery concerns, and internal organizational changes."