THE BUZZ: PC Docs continues search for ultimate CEO

The search for a new CEO at PC Docs continues. Here's the latest: If you were expecting to meet this elusive new leader at the Docs Summit conference in Orlando, you were disappointed unless something dramatic happened at the last minute. As of Feb. 18, the search had been narrowed to a short list with no fewer than three names, and probably more, according to Michael O'Connor Clarke, VP of corporate marketing for PC Docs in Toronto.

"We're confident that we should be able to announce something just after Summit, but unfortunately, not before," Clarke said. "As you might imagine, it's been a pretty tough job finding somebody who has the right mix of industry background, the right profile and presence, and can take our organization to the next tier of its existence. Those people are few and far between."

This ongoing situation is decidedly not pleasing many PC Docs users who are otherwise faithful to the company's product. Paul Halpern is one such user. Halpern, who is information technologies manager at the law firm of Lyon & Lyon, and chairman of the PC Docs user group of southern California, says he is "very disappointed" by the situation.

While on the topic of PC Docs, in light of the fact that it acquired Fulcrum Technologies--a company known for its full-text search and retrieval capabilities--it is interesting to note that more than one PC Docs customer has recently told me they are pleased with the current search engine in Docs Open. It would appear that PC Docs is fixing something that ain't broke.

From the knowledge-makes-strange-bedfellows dept.: Monsanto has divided into two companies: one to continue manufacturing its products and the other to sell knowledge. The knowledge half recently sold research to Glaxo, a competitor of the products part of Monsanto.

Cornerstone Imaging now breaks its market down into two primary customer categories: one where capture technology is used to drive transaction applications, and one where it is used to drive knowledge applications.

Incidentally, the knowledge meisters at The Delphi Group point out that the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology has introduced a Web-delivered Masters of Innovation program. According to Delphi, "This program is based upon understanding the profound changes that are occurring in the roles documents play within organizations, and the technologies for dealing with them within business processes."

Digital imaging lives! For those of you who were worried about imaging slip-sliding away, there is hope in the form of a new trade organization formed in October and known as DIG, or Digital Imaging Group. Founded by Adobe, Canon, Fuji, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel, Kodak, Live Picture and Microsoft, DIG's mandate is to build and advance imaging technologies and platforms. At last count, there was 42 DIG members.

The newly approved DMA 1.0 spec (See cover story) is a baseline work in progress that is still wide open to the melange of "flavors" that typically pop up around emerging standards. According to the DMA Task Force, however, as part of an effort to bring all the participating vendors in line, conformance testing will take place during 1998.

After fighting through a tough transition year in 1997, Knowledge Management Expo is making a strong comeback. Many of the industry big boys who took a flyer on the show last year are coming back to the fold. FileNet, PC Docs and Documentum have all bought space