I reviewed a group of off-the-shelf knowledge-management software products that vendors argue help executive and knowledge workers more effectively gather, analyze, and share information, particularly emergent research-related information. I call these off-the-shelf knowledge-management consoles.

Given the wide range of activities knowledge management encompasses, I didn't anticipate that these applications would perform every knowledge-management function (search, analysis, dissemination, categorization), and if they tried, they most likely wouldn't perform them well.

The initial analysis focused on a primary knowledge-management function that business users require and perform today: effective and thorough content search and discovery using the latest meta search engines. The Internet has emerged as a dominant source of competitor, market, client/ industry, and operations information, and these meta search tools let corporate users better traverse the sea of information. These consoles can be effective in rapidly finding emergent information on the Internet, but you need to integrate them with other knowledge-management tools, such as content and context management, for users to realize their full potential in collaboration and learning tasks. Unfortunately, that critical integration is not here yet.

Knowledge-management consoles serve an urgent purpose. As companies get leaner and more horizontal, knowledge workers are more likely to undertake such knowledge-management tasks as content search and management, collaboration, and dissemination by themselves, or with minimal administrative support. Professional staff at the senior and executive levels are increasingly active (and comfortable) in performing some knowledge-management tasks: actively searching through the competitive and market landscape and potential and current partner services and products; keeping track of key client activities; and integrating this emergent information with extant information and knowledge of the company. All this allows for more continuous refinement and reuse of knowledge packets and searches. Off-the-shelf or low-customization software lets users quickly fill those needs.

With this premise in mind, I reviewed three products that can help knowledge workers better search for and manage critical business information. Testing was done with one typical scenario in mind: a market-facing knowledge worker searching for emergent, external information and integrating that with internal, archival knowledge to validate or modify upcoming plans. We focused on using knowledge-management consoles for exploring specific kinds of information:

• Company and people intelligence: activities of partners, competitors (known and potential), clients, and professional talent (management staff to be recruited or competitor staff to be tracked).

• Product release and market intelligence: information to validate/ modify business plans for new service introduction or product release; major growth trends in target markets, clients' needs, and available solutions; barriers to entry.

• Process improvements: identification of best management practices from other industries; information management, change management, and technology products available; benchmarking processes with competitors in the same segment.

All of the products reviewed provided for search, refinement, validation, and sharing and sending capabilities; the differences were in the number of steps involved and the ability to capture interim results and use them to continuously focus and refine the search.

Keep in mind, too, that communication bandwidth will dictate the efficiency and success of online searches. Detailed, refined searches can be very time-consuming with anything less than the most contemporary network connection. Many companies with distrib- uted or remote offices (such as sales forces) may be limited to 56-Kbps Internet access and will need to be creative in conducting and scheduling searches-by crafting search terms offline and scheduling searches at off- peak hours, for example.