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Corporates are discovering that wikis make handy tools for sharing information and for collaborating during internal projects. According to the Society for Information Management’s Advanced Practices Council (APC), these editable websites are fast becoming a part of mainstream corporate IT infrastructure.

Companies that intend to make use of wikis should consider the following aspects so that the communication and information exchange occurs in an open and responsible manner within the framework laid down to ensure that sensitive company information does not fall into the wrong hands.

• How are the wikis being used at present across the corporate world?

•  What are the best practices that have evolved? Are they business-specific?

•   What are the hurdles?

• What do you plan to achieve by deploying wikis?

• Consider integration with other company communication and collaboration tools

Go here to learn about strategies that can help you derive maximum benefit from deploying wikis.

A very interesting development is on the cards. Google Knol is a knowledge sharing platform launched by Google that encourages you to share your knowledge and in the bargain you make money via Google ads. The service is a being seen as a neat ploy by Google to get more exposure for its ads and at the same time establish a presence in the field of Knowledge Sharing.

An interesting aspect of Google Knol is that unlike Wikipedia and Yahoo Answers where all are welcome to add their two bit to a given topic, over here subject authority is a pre-requisite and will be highlighted. The service could also evolve into a very useful knowledge management tool for enterprises who wish to preserve hand-on knowledge acquired by their staff.

Read more here.

Easy Software UK scored a big one today, announcing that none other than the Premier League has standardised on its suite of Document Management solutions. Easy UK is a branch of Easy Software AG, provider of integrated document and email management, workflow and archive solutions.

The wonderfully-named Premier League head of IT Simon Thunder reportedly initially recommended electronic document management technology to his Finance Director.

Touchstone Group, a supplier of integrated solutions for business and financial management and those who had supplied its Microsoft Dynamics GP accounts system and expense management solution, acted as advisor to the Premiership in the move.

The football department of the Premier League stores a wealth of documents and historical records on the league, its members and players. As one of most significant current and historical Premier League document stores, the football department was early on the list for automation with the Easy electronic document management system.

Easy Software worked with Simon and his team to integrate EASY ENTERPRISE into the player contract system, and, according to Premier League PR, “The sensitive nature of these documents is such that all scanning is being done internally.”

One of Simon’s longer-range goals is for the Premiership to gradually convert each department to storing and retrieving its documents electronically and archiving off-site documents for long-term retention.

Easy Software was founded in 1990 and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Apart from its head office in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr, the company has further branches in Germany and subsidiaries in Austria; Philadelphia, Penna.; and London and Bury St. Edmunds in the UK. Easy now claims the endorsement of Microsoft and more than 400 strategic alliances with systems integrators and line of business application partners.

DataFlux, a provider of data quality and data integration software, announced that DSM Nutritional Products has implemented DataFluxtechnology to classify its internationally coded spend and materials data.

The DataFlux technology is being used to implement a “ecl@ss” classification validation solution, which seeks to facilitate optimisation of corporate purchasing and to maximise the value and efficiency from DSMNutritional Products’ extant SAP R/3 systems.

The DataFlux Data Quality Integration Platform is used within DSMNutritional Products to validate code and standardise spend and materials descriptions by allowing business users to set coding rules using an interface. The DataFlux technology is used to maintain one consistent and reliable data source of master data within a reference database.

DSM Nutritional Products is said to be the world’s leading supplier of vitamins, carotenoids and other chemicals to the feed, food, pharmaceutical and personal care industries. The business reported sales of approximately €2 billion ($2.66 billion) last year.

Parent company DSM is active worldwide in nutritional and pharma ingredients, performance materials and industrial chemicals for applications such as human and animal nutrition and health; cosmetics; pharmaceuticals; automotive and transport; coatings; housing; and electronics. The group has annual sales of over €8 billion (approximately $10.635 billion) and employs some 22,000. DSM is headquartered in the Netherlands, with locations in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

LexisNexis is releasing a bunch of new stuff today, formally launching its client development solutions line, billed as “one of four strategic solution lines supporting the company’s Total Practice Solutions strategy to help professional services firms win.” (“Um, win what?” “Quiet, keep typing.”)

The LexisNexis client development portfolio includes LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, composed of www.martindale.com and www.lawyers.com and seeking to provide buyers of legal services the information and solutions they need to select the ideal lawyers and law firms; and LexisNexis InterAction, a CRM solution helping professional services firms create, track and manage the relationship intelligence for generation of new business, enhancement to client service, marketing, and communication.

Simultaneously, LexisNexis also launched two new products within its client development solutions line: LexisNexis atVantage and the LexisNexis Corporate Intelligence Subscription for InterAction. The LexisNexis Corporate Intelligence Subscription integrates external LexisNexis content with InterAction, a CRM solution for professional services organizations.

The Corporate Intelligence Subscription seeks to assist firms in more easily segmenting markets, conducting more effective marketing programs and making critical decisions about business development efforts. Professionals can also “link out” to LexisNexis atVantage for more extensive corporate information, such as a company’s litigation history, corporate structure and hierarchy, news, business, financial and personnel information about the organization.

Corporate Intelligence Subscription data also theoretically integrates seamlessly with the InterAction Personal Information Manager desktop client interfaces, giving instant access to anyone connected to InterAction via Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes or Novell GroupWise.

LexisNexis Interface Software is a leading provider of information and services solutions, featuring its flagship web-based Lexis and Nexis research services, to a wide range of professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting and academic markets. The company is a member of Reed Elsevier Group plc and does business in 100 countries with 13,000 employees.

LexisNexis Interface Software is the no. 1 provider of CRM solutions enabling professional services firms and similar relationship-based organizations in creating relationship intelligence. Its flagship product, LexisNexis InterAction, is a relationship intelligence providing program which is internet-enabled, allowing the viewing of information through knowledge management platforms, corporate portals, intranet, extranet and wireless devices.

Teleformix, a developer of CRM / eCRM software applications, is pleased to announce the upcoming release of ECHO 2.8. ECHO 2.8 is a solution designed primarily for actions of the individual agent in CRM and quality control processes.

The ECHO platform seeks to more easily allow self-evaluation and monitoring of performance and reviews. Upgrades to extant features are in the call evaluation tools’ capabilities and in visual layout of the ECHO On Demand recording function. ECHO 2.8 is currently in beta and is slated for a general release date in the fourth quarter of 2006.

ECHO is a browser-based digital, VoIP and screen capture recording solution which seeked to provide service-oriented architecture to simplify integration between ECHO and a web services enabled platform. Based in Rolling Meadows, Ill., Teleformix LLC specializes in CRM / eCRM enterprise-class software applications for the banking, insurance, financial services and marketing industries.

A sales performance survey just released by Boulder, Colo.- and San Francisco-based sales consultancy firm CSO Insights shows that there are more CRM sales these days, but salespeople are having a harder time of it. The key statistic stated that the percentage of sales reps making quota had remained steady, but quotas had increased an average of twenty percent. "Things clearly are improving," said Barry Trailer, CSO Insights partner and report co-author.

"Is that because people are working harder or working smarter? … In our view, reps are working harder." Trailer theorizes that one reason for the increased difficulty is the change in buying cycle. Since the internet provides so much information, goes the argument, the buying process often starts long before a sales rep even gets involved. No longer does someone simply ask for information from a salesperson. This shift has companies re-evaluating their sales goals, reasons the survey. The study also claims that the role of CRM software in the life of the sales representative is evolving as well. Nearly sixty percent of the firms that have implemented CRM have seen adoption rates above seventy-percent, a number that Trailer says is “a far cry from the 1990s.” Trailer said.

More than one-third of respondents said CRM improved sales performance, and fifty-six reported little or no improvement. On the extreme success-story end, there was the professional services firm whose lead conversion rate more than tripled, a medical products firm whose cell cycle increased by almost forty percent, and a financial services firm that nearly doubled its closing rates. The study also shows that more firms are opting to buy instead of build. Just twelve percent of respondents said they were building their own CRM software, as opposed to fifteen percent last year and nineteen in 2004.

Under key findings, study authors listed the forecasting of “very aggressive growth” in B2B and B2C firms; firms are currently attempting to optimize the hiring process; and that “there will be significant jump in the number of salespeople hired in 2006.” The data for the web-based study – the twelfth annual conducted by CSO – was collected by CSO in tandem with CRMGuru.com, Sales and Marketing Executive International, and Selling Power magazine.

Survey questions focused on obtaining feedback on sales performance metrics in the areas of sales force demographics; sell cycle analysis; detailed performance assessment; change analysis; use and impact of sales methodology; and use and impact of CRM technology. Almost 1,300 firms participated in the survey, and it was conducted across the board, to industries high-tech, non-high tech, financial services, business services, distribution and retail. In terms of sector, manufacturing accounted for 42.4 percent of responses, services 36.1 percent, and all others 21.5 percent. Geographically, it was 62 percent North American, 14.4 percent European, and 12.2 percent Pacific Rim.

Healthcare consultancy HBS Consulting has released Customer Relationship Strategies in the Medical Device Industry — The Role of CRM and Knowledge Management, a new strategy review regarding that niche industry. Study authors conclude that poor information and cumbersome processes seriously hamper the sales and service operations of medical device companies.

The report illustrates implementing systems and strategies in order to give them a clear competitive advantage. Painting a background of European purchasing dynamics changing dramatically. Pricing and protocols, say the study authors, are rapidly becoming increasingly more important in purchasing than clinical efficacy. In summary, the report defines the new environment thusly: “Clinicians no longer keep the keys to the coffers. The new gatekeepers are administrators and committees that manage purchasing agreements and heed the organizational needs of national healthcare systems.”

The report singles out Siemens for its purchasing trend detection. Powerful analytics of the Siemens sort can only become a reality, says the report, when data is warehoused in a central repository. But competitive advantage, write HBS consultants, is not just a matter of software and systems, but instead taking full advantage of those CRM and knowledge management systems. The report also places emphasis on methods of identifying the barriers within the enterprise which prevent the adoption of appropriate strategies.

The conclusion? The bottom line is the ability to deliver an improved customer experience, to accelerate innovation, to predict the course of change, to drive down costs and to increase revenue.

Often, knowledge management is assumed to mean managing information when in fact it is much more than it. It is primarily the management of people, empowering them with the right kind of knowledge for executing tasks, spelling out the objectives and providing the right tools for achieving those objectives. A knowledge worker may not be any more knowledgeable than the next person but he is capable of managing his time and achieving his day-to-day objectives with minimum inputs from his manager.