Fatwire, MarkLogic, Recommind Named Innovative Info Access Companies

By Chelsi Nakano | Published Oct 27, 2009

By definition, being an innovative company means providing a service that is new and different. But with the sheer number of companies all vying for the same status, it can be a bit difficult to pinpoint which are providing something truly out of the ordinary, and which are just full of fluff.

IDC recently helped clear a path in the confusion by compiling a list of what they feel are the top underdogs, or, as they put it, Innovative Information Access Companies Under $100M to Watch. We're happy to report that included on that list are three very familiar names: FatWire, MarkLogic and Recommind.

Information Assets

When defining the cream of the crop, IDC looked for vendors that exhibited one or more of three trends:

User interfaces requiring little or no training and incorporating Web 2.0 and social networking capabilities will become differentiators in information access and analysis
Unified management of and access to all information types – both data and content – across applications and repositories will become a requirement
Intelligent process automation software that automates repeatable, operational decisions within business process sets in response to events where analytics drive the workflow

Why these specific three? Henry Morris, senior vice president for Software and Services at IDC puts it like this:

Organizations have come to realize that utilizing their information assets is a key to competitive advantage, but a challenge to execute. Innovative solutions are coming from a group of young companies with fresh approaches to access and manage all types of information. These innovations are having their impact on the industry and will spur technology growth in the coming years.

With that in mind, it's pretty clear why the aforementioned three were chosen. In addition to gobbling up Interwoven and Vignette customers, FatWire has been working hard on an analytics solution. Meanwhile, Recommind has been busy developing their Information Risk Management software and MarkLogic recently took a turn for the little social with the application builder they rolled out over the summer.

The full list of IDC's favorites, in alphabetical order: