Review: ITinvolve for Knowledge Management

This independent review is part of our 2013 Knowledge Management Group Test.

2013 Knowledge Management Group Test Overview and terms
Also participating – Cherwell, EasyVista

Executive Summary – ITinvolve

Overview	New vendor with innovative product and approach Viral/organic knowledge approach Lots of good features well thought-out functionality Product requires a big shift in approach from client Vendor still developing pitch and positioning Good option for some organisations
Primary Market Focus	Base on the information supplied ITinvolve typically target customers in the upper end of the Medium segment and higher (500+ employees). They have customers in the medium, large, and very large segment.

Commercial Summary

Vendor	ITinvolve
Product	ITinvolve Knowledge Collaborator
Version reviewed	Summer ’13
Date of version release	June 2013
Year founded	May 2011
Customers	13
Pricing Structure	SaaS-Based – Includes annual Platform cost of $50K, then licensed per user with annual list price of $1,600 per full user with lower price points for business/casual users. Typical net sales price is $65,000 per one year term with some deals exceeding $500,000 over multi-year term.
Competitive Differentiators	“Architected from ground up to facilitate knowledge capture, sharing, and collaboration between IT professionals as well as business constituents. (ITinvolve leverages all relevant systems-based IT data and information sources and uses familiar social media techniques – e.g. crowd sourcing, peer review, following – to provide an always current and trusted source of an IT organization’s collective knowledge. All knowledge is represented through visually insightful objects and relationships. Objects may be technology elements – e.g. servers, databases, applications, policies, knowledge – e.g. articles, best practice documents, FAQs, automations, process activities – e.g. incidents, changes, requests, problems, as well as custom defined objects – e.g. manufacturing shop floor equipment, medical devices, even HR, Legal, Finance knowledge) Active Knowledge Delivery provides the right knowledge at the right time to the right people. (Our solution proactively identifies and presents only the relevant knowledge in the context of the objects the user is viewing. Our product is designed to visually represent knowledge and relationships for quick analysis, and provides the ability to create personalized Perspectives on objects and their knowledge. Further, we use advanced techniques, such as tagging and relationship-based search, to provide quick easy and fast access to knowledge overcoming the limitations of traditional indexing and Google-like search approaches that generate dozens or more results that must be individually reviewed) ITinvolve provides the only solution that enables a user to create a decision scenario and evaluate the potential upstream and downstream impacts of the decision being considered, involving all relevant stakeholders in the process”

Independent Review

This product is an innovative and interesting option for those wanting to really develop their Service Management using knowledge in an intuitive and new way, based on ‘social’ interaction.

There are lots of good functions and capabilities, plus the product has/can be used with other ITSM tools. The concepts are good and well thought through, and this is an excellent use of innovation, albeit that the system may look initially complex, without some explanation of the approach.

The vendor has a tough sales pitch to make to win new enterprise clients given the need for fairly radical cultural change, although the tool should appeal in particular to organisations aiming to achieve more value and results from knowledge-sharing.

The vendor is new and the product and positioning are developing. This looks to be a very good option for those looking to exploit ‘social’ and organic ways of working – also with an open and innovative approach to making processes work effectively.

Overview

New vendor with innovative product and approach
Not traditional knowledge management approach – overcoming traditional indexing and keyword searching problems.
Associating knowledge objects with users ‘following’ objects – creates viral/organic knowledge approach
Lots of good features and well thought-out functionality
A lot of new terminology
Product requires a big shift in approach from client
Vendor still developing pitch and positioning

Strengths

Architected based on knowledge-sharing approach, with ‘social’ approach
Uses ‘Social’ crowdsourcing as an intuitive and familiar approach, rather than traditional authoring and review
Users ‘follow’ objects, creating knowledge and understanding of who are real experts and stakeholders. This creates wider net of interested parties, and therefore facilitates a ‘crowdsourcing’ approach.
Can be used in conjunction with other ITSM products – using social and knowledge areas
Positive approach to using social and knowledge, based on actual usage and practice rather than theoretical processes. Uses Social-Media type ‘following’ of objects, services etc, as opposed to CMDB based assignment, to establish relationships and shared accountability.
Service desk or other support staff would see all the followers of an ‘object’ (application, server, database, incident, etc.). Then assign and track as appropriate
Nice status bar on each knowledge page – number of views, metrics etc.
Good visual representations of relationships – showing how many users involved in incidents and knowledge stakeholders, relationships between objects etc.
Stakeholders crowdsource knowledge and change – based on ‘objects’ they are following
Good overall approach to try and manage ‘real life’ way of working – ie involving relevant stakeholders in CAB type decisions.
Can also use more traditional approach of approval and review as needed
Some interesting new and ‘social’ terminology and verbs/actions – more intuitive and user-friendly version of RACI concepts
Vendor offers Proof of Concept and trial – (based on requirements – usually 30 – 60 days). Implementation approach aims to support client self-sufficiency with product where possible
Some good examples of focussed customer successes using KM – 70% reduction in change failures, 50% reduction in new start productivity, 50% reduction in mean time to restore services
Good understanding of varying SME/Enterprise implementation issues
Implementation based around successful customer adoption of KM processes

Weaknesses

Requires a major client shift in approach, with new terminology (verbs, actions) used – could be off-putting for some
Looks complex in places and requires clients with open or new approach to implementation
Sales pitch is good (based on solution selling and use cases) although needs to be developed and simplified to grab attention and quickly show route to value
New and small vendor with limited market track record as company

ITinvolve’s Knowledge Management Customers

In Their Own Words:

“ITinvolve Knowledge Collaborator provides a federated, comprehensive, and peer reviewed source of all your IT knowledge, and combines this with personalized visualization, in-context collaboration, and proactive delivery of relevant information to those who need it when they need it.

Easily capture and share your collective knowledge – configuration data, policies, best practices, tribal knowledge, lessons learned, and more – in one easy to use place. Gain unprecedented visibility into your complex IT environment configurations, dependencies, and relationships.

Leveraging modern social collaboration techniques, ITinvolve is always up-to-date and accurate so you can make operational decisions with confidence and without the fear of unintended consequences.”

Screenshots

Further Information:

Knowledge Management Review Index