Like Zollar, Reeves sees a day when knowledge management becomes as big a business for Lotus as messaging and collaboration are today-if not bigger. "Lotus and IBM are ready to make this a showcase business," he says.

That's good, because expectations by customers for Lotus to deliver on the promise of knowledge management are high. Knowledge management "is pervasive in its applicability and capability," says GM's Scott. "It's a platform for solutions. You've got a basic tool, and you can do a lot with it."

Scott says GM has just begun looking at the beta version of Raven in its labs, but it's waiting for the final product before it undertakes any companywide projects based on the system. As GM awaits Raven's final release, development groups within the automaker have been looking at other knowledge-management technology. "There are about a half-dozen niche products out there that our folks are looking at," says Scott, mostly for some narrowly focused projects.

A number of startups, including FireDrop Inc. and Semio Corp., are angling for a piece of the knowledge-management market. Competitive threats also come from established business-intelligence tool vendors such as Cognos Inc., and document-management software suppliers such as Documentum Inc., that are tailoring their products for knowledge-management projects.

And of course, there's Microsoft, which has crafted Exchange 2000 with knowledge management in mind. When it ships this summer, Exchange 2000 will offer new workflow features as well as improved content-indexing and retrieval capabilities. Microsoft also emphasizes that Exchange isn't its only knowledge-management offering. It sees structured data within its SQL Server database and documents created with Microsoft Office, all accessible through its Digital Dashboard portal, as components of its lineup. "We don't see knowledge management as something that a single product can provide," says Stan Sorensen, Microsoft's group product manager for server applications.

Credit Suisse First Boston Corp., which chose to standardize on Exchange with Outlook clients over Lotus Notes three years ago, is now using Exchange and Microsoft's Digital Dashboard technology as the foundation of its knowledge-management efforts. Exchange's workflow capabilities will supplant all paper-based processes, including expense tracking and financial reporting, within three months, saving the company millions of dollars annually, says Philip Beville, IT global engineering VP at the New York investment firm. Future knowledge-management projects will use Exchange 2000 as a platform, although managers decline to disclose details. "We consider them to be a strategic advantage," Beville says.

Is Zollar worried? "You always have to be looking at Microsoft as a competitor," he says, matter-of-factly. "We'd be foolish to take our eyes off them."

Zollar may have a greater worry from within. Raven's original release date was this summer. But the software didn't enter general beta testing until last month, and Reeves says the most likely ship date is early in the fourth quarter.

That worries some Lotus customers. The company's knowledge-management technology has the greatest potential for widespread use at GM, Scott says, but he also notes that he would have liked to have seen the product sooner. He says it will take some time for the automaker to figure out how it can best use Raven, and he doesn't expect to be able to begin pilot projects until this summer at the earliest. Lotus has "articulated its direction as well as it can, but my concern is the timing," Scott says.

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