Microsoft Corp is under threat in the emerging knowledge management market, according to a report by market analyst Ovum Inc. Collaborative software running over corporate intranets may turn Microsoft’s desktop dominance into obsolescence, says Madan Sheina, Ovum consultant and author of Knowledge Management: Building the Collaborative Enterprise.
Microsoft’s response to firms such as Intraspect and Open Text has been a lot of hot air, says Sheina. The ‘digital dashboard’ a filter and display for incoming information unveiled by Microsoft president Steve Ballmer in May (CI No 3,669), seems to be only a rehash of the Redmond, Washington company’s established Microsoft Office desktop applications. Although, Ballmer’s remarks do make it plain that Microsoft will, eventually, take the knowledge management sector seriously.
The real battle is being fought out between Microsoft Exchange and IBM’s Lotus Notes for ownership of the platform on which the collaborative software will run, says Sheina. IBM has the edge currently, reckons Sheina, because of its professional services organization, IBM Global Services, which can make the kind of structural and organizational changes which knowledge management demands. The technology is really a secondary issue, Sheina says.
Los Altos, California-based Intraspect Software Inc’s Knowledge Server combines collaboration, organization and search tools in one application to run over a corporate intranet, a coherent package that makes Microsoft’s disparate applications look cumbersome and disorganized, Sheina said.
Open Text Corp, meanwhile, is building a services business to support its LiveLink collaborative knowledge management software, fleshing out technology with consultants, the piece of the jigsaw that Microsoft, for all its PC numbers, lacks. The knowledge management market requires more than software. You can’t sell technology any longer, said Open text’s European VP Tony Heywood. The Waterloo, Ontario firm will derive up to 40% of its revenue from services within two years, he claimed.
The knowledge management market is a prize worth fighting over. Ovum forecasts that the value of knowledge management software sales will rise from $515m this year to $3.5bn by 2004, while the services revenue portion will hit $8.8bn from a starting point of $2.6bn.
