Basex: Ask the Chief Analyst


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	Question for our Chief Analyst:

A few recent questions of the Chief Analyst:

What is the difference between "content management" and "document management"?
CK, JPMorgan Chase

A: The difference is pretty subtle -- and increasingly disappearing, as DM is quickly becoming a subset of CM. Both CM and DM deal with the creation, storage, permissions, retrieval and use of information. But DM deals only with documents - such as files created through word processing - while CM, more generally, deals with content of many sorts, from documents to images to sound files.

What is "Collaborative Business Knowledge"?
SP, IBM

A: Known as "CBK," Collaborative Business Knowledge is the intersection of Knowledge Management and enterprise communities and collaboration tools. Basex invented the term because KM wasn't broad enough (KM does not emphasize the collaboration aspect enough) nor was communities (which doesn't emphasize enough the capture of knowledge.)

What's the ROI for implementing CBK solutions?
RH, American Express

A: The ROI of implementing CBK solutions can be very significant--under the right circumstances and if implemented not only as a facilitating technology, but with training and appropriate processes as well. The benefits of CBK solutions range from soft benefits such as increased customer satisfaction (stemming from quicker response times and more accurate and appropriate information) to semi-soft benefits, such as increased knowledge worker productivity, to hard, measurable benefits, such as customer service representatives spending less time on the phone with each customer.

Can small organizations benefit from CBK? Do they?
JYH, Six Continents

A: Do not think that CBK is only for Fortune 1000 companies employing thousands of employees in call centers. Cost-effective CBK solutions have been implemented in the smallest companies. Indeed, many of the best CBK methods do not even require software, but rather just a team that understands the importance of sharing and documenting their bits of knowledge. Low-end CBK solutions even include powerful but free software, such as Zope's Content Management system and the Movabletype Blog.