Is Microsoft ramping up its KM effort?
According to at least one report, Microsoft is talking about knowledge management from a product development standpoint these days, but if that is the case the software giant is keeping it behind closed doors.
In a recent article from Smart Reseller unnamed sources claim Microsoft will launch knowledge management applications code-named Tahoe and Polar following the release of Windows 2000.
According to the article, Tahoe will be the successor to Site Server 3.0 and will include document management and search features as well as XML support for indexing documents.
The Polar server, it is reported, will include features from Tahoe, SQL Server and Exchange Server, perhaps even including SQL Server workflow features code-named Grizzly.
Microsoft would not confirm the account, which reportedly came from an internal planning meeting, and noted that no Microsoft officials commented in the article.
A Microsoft spokeswoman did advise that "Microsoft has not made any briefings about forthcoming products that will contribute to the knowledge management strategy for Microsoft." However, she said that KMWorld will be alerted if any such announcements are made in the future.
Microsoft has openly declared that knowledge management is an important part of its plans, most clearly by naming it one of three areas of focus within its Digital Nervous System effort.
According to Stan Julian, director of the knowledge management solutions team in Microsoft's application developer customer unit, "We are very serious about knowledge management because our customers are serious about knowledge management."
The Microsoft knowledge management strategy dictated by Julian is one of partnership where Microsoft provides "the technology platform that lets customers develop knowledge management solutions," he said. Today most of that work is done with SQL Server, particularly SQL Server 7.0 with its OLAP and data analysis enhancements.
Julian said an area of knowledge management growth his unit is focused on is getting more KM applications built on top of the Exchange Server. Julian pointed to work from Eastman Software and Keyfile as examples of strong KM applications built off of Exchange.
The strategy in some ways echoes the Lotus/IBM approach to KM, and perhaps partner-developed KM applications is an extension of the longstanding competition between Notes and Exchange, he added.
With the Smart Reseller news comes the inevitable speculation that Microsoft intends to dominate the document management and knowledge management application space, heretofore left to partners and widely acknowledged to be led by Lotus/IBM, with its Domino, business intelligence and IBM Global Services KM initiatives.
A Lotus spokesperson for the Domino group, Paul Davis, declined to comment on "competitors' non-public statements," but conceded that the news "doesn't come as a great surprise.
"Their intentions, if accurate, certainly validate the message that we've been delivering about the critical nature of these technologies and knowledge management in general," said Davis