Editor's Forecast: IBM KM to be king

At Lotus, Al Zollar is king, but knowledge management may be the key to his kingdom.

With the K-station portal now on the market and other Raven initiatives due out soon, Lotus has positioned itself to make a strong knowledge management push in 2001.

The lone question - will Lotus' very owner, IBM, rain on its parade?

Not a chance.

Big Blue is making its own strides in the knowledge management arena with a corporate portal offering of its own.

And, guess what? The initiative will be a direct competitor of Raven and will utilize technology from two of Lotus' main rivals in the corporate portal and KM markets. One might think the IBM and Lotus offerings will go head to head. Maybe in the short run, but not for long.

IBM knows it can leverage Lotus' niche knowledge management and messaging market by taking the Lotus offering and incorporating it into its own for all to enjoy -- not just Domino shops. So, expect the name Raven to fly away and IBM to slap its own logo on tools that will be available on all platforms.

The companies will eventually brand everything under a common name --something like IBM Knowledge Management Tools. The result? That yellow and black Raven will actually morph into big Blue Bird.

Yes, IBM knowledge management will be king.