INFOWORLD
Blogs refine enterprise focus
By Cathleen Moore
January 10, 2003 1:01 pm PT
"BUILDING ON THE success of Weblogs for personal Web publishing, enterprises are starting to tap into blogs to streamline specific business processes such as intelligence gathering or to augment traditional content-and knowledge-management technologies."
While many freeware vendors also offer fee-based software and services for corporate users, a newer crop of vendors is stepping up to extend Weblogs to specific business processes such as corporate intelligence gathering and market research.
I've been talking about this for more than a year. IT'S ABOUT TIME something is happening. I may join the movement myself.
These enterprise-specific blogs from companies including Traction Software, Tech Dirt, and Trellix use the same core user-friendly Web publishing approach with added features to regulate access control and security and to bolster functions such as search.
Traction Software's TeamPage Enterprise Weblog software includes a permissioning structure that moderates access to content, rich search capabilities, archives, and bidirectional linking to show relationships between ideas.
"Moreover, Weblogs can be used as a way to augment traditional enterprise collaboration tools that provide file-level document management, whiteboards, e-mail, and online meeting spaces, Simonson said.
Minneapolis, Minn.-based software developer Notiva uses Traction Weblog software for a variety of efforts, such as project management, competitive intelligence, intranet search, and knowledge management, according to Tim Dawson, lead technical architect at Notiva.
Meanwhile, Foster City, Calif.-based Techdirt offers outsourced competitive intelligence services delivered via its Weblog software, including searching, aggregation, and artificial intelligence components. A blog is a good delivery format for corporate intelligence data because "it summarizes important points and puts the information into a system that archives it as well," said Mike Masnick, president of Techdirt.
