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The concept of intellectual capital is closely tied to the new focus on the intangible wealth of organizations. IC goes way beyond traditional intellectual property (IP) to encompass knowledge and expertise in terms of business model, business process and relationship networks. Whilst many larger organizations practice IP management and use IP management technology, when was the last time you reviewed the IC trends in your organization?

If you think you are in the knowledge economy then you are in the business of creating and managing IC. Without paying attention to IC, your business is in danger of slipping back into being a commodity business that must compete with emerging economies for which knowledge working is an end not a means.

Ventana Research believes the drive to create and manage IC will in turn create the need for software applications to catalog, measure and monitor IC. This could then drive the next big "thing" in innovation management technology or simply provide another avenue for ERP vendors to take since their systems already manage much of the rest of today's organizational capital.

Assessment

Ventana Research believes intellectual capital management (ICM) will emerge as an important new software category, which will appeal first to the world's largest and most innovative organizations. The first ground-up ICM offerings could come from existing knowledge management or IP management vendors or from left field in the form of new ERP modules.