Knoa 5.0 tackles end-user performance

Companies might spend millions on an SAP or Oracle implementation. Knoa
aims to help businesses determine whether they are getting the most from their
investment.

The New York company is rolling out the 5.0 version of its Experience and Performance
Manager product this week. The software uses passive monitoring agents to track
how users are interacting with products such as Oracle's Siebel customer relationship
management (CRM) application, collecting information ranging from application
errors to the workflow patterns users execute.

Knoa 5.0 includes a set of templates for collecting data from various enterprise
applications and an analytic engine that can derive patterns and trends about
an individual user or a group of workers. The results are displayed through
a console that can show results in different views: IT support, training, manager
and user support. Knoa can add new report definitions for customers who want
them, without requiring a system upgrade, according to the company.

Knoa 5.0 also features faster client-server data transmission; improved group-level
reporting; and support for displaying multiple languages within the console.

The software may have particular interest for customers with large customer-service
groups or call centers -- situations where even a small boost in productivity
can result in major overall savings.

Philip McBurney, customer management platform monitoring solutions manager
for British Telecom, said the company has been involved with Knoa since November
2006, using it in conjunction with its Siebel implementation.

BT likes Knoa but has found the need to extend it, according to McBurney. "We're
working to improve the product in terms of security so it could be used as an
auditing product," he said. "Security is built into Knoa, but the
level of security required for auditing is completely different."

The company has also customized Knoa to enable field-level monitoring of the
content of any forms within Siebel, he said. "That level of data, we didn't
have that before."

Overall the vendor has been a pleasure to work with on such customizations,
according to McBurney. "Knoa is very responsive to our needs. Our changing
needs."

Pricing for Knoa 5.0 ranges from US$45 to $195 per end user, depending upon
the application monitored, according to a spokesperson. All prices are for a
perpetual license for a named user, the spokesperson said.