So why do these companies matter? Not necessarily because they are the most innovative, but that’s a factor. Not because they are ahead of the curve on Enterprise 2.0 initiatives, but that’s also a factor.
Not because they are the most financially successful (that’s not a factor), and not because they have the most efficient marketing engines—that’s not a factor either.
We have long held that the true essence of knowledge management is an attitude, a single-minded commitment to improvement. And companies on our list simply must emphasize an abiding determination to serve their most important constituency: their customers. They must also show agile innovation combined with a full understanding of the forces that affect, and will affect, their customers.
It’s relatively easy for our informal panel of judges (which includes, as always, colleagues and analysts) to hear vendors tell their stories.(I, alone, receive more than a dozen requests a day from PR firms.) And we’re all pretty skilled at filtering out the hype and pure marketeering. But that doesn’t go quite far enough, which is why we have a savvy group of users to contribute to the list.
We’re all in regular touch through the year, but the list really starts taking shape after everyone attends our annual fall conference in San Jose, Calif. Between the conference sessions, the exhibits, and the opportunity to meet with colleagues from diverse disciplines, we are then in a good position to focus on which companies and what innovations will really matter in the year ahead.
We take this list very seriously, and we’re already in the early stages of preparing for next year. If you’re interested in participating in the process as a user of these tools, get in touch with me and plan to head to San Jose for this year’s KMWorld & Intranets Conference and Exhibition, which will be held Sept. 23–25 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.
