Coveo Names Diane Berry Chief Knowledge Evangelist

SAN MATEO, CA and QUEBEC--(Marketwired - Jan 6, 2014) -

• Today Coveo announced that Diane Berry has been appointed Chief Knowledge Evangelist, a new role dedicated to helping organizations everywhere change traditional Knowledge Management practices to unleash collective enterprise knowledge for radically better organizational performance. Previously SVP, Global Marketing with Coveo since 2009, Berry has worked extensively with Coveo customers and the broad analyst community on the convergence of Knowledge Management, the data explosion, and search & relevance technology. With the premise that knowledge is a huge and yet primarily untapped asset -- and that current Knowledge Management practices fail to tap into the "Long Tail" of knowledge -- she will work towards fundamentally changing how organizations think about and leverage their collective knowledge.
  
  
• "Even the definition of Knowledge Management shows the depth to which thinking around this discipline needs to change. Knowledge Management should be the bedrock of all organizations, and yet it is often an afterthought, relegated to IT as an information storage and retrieval issue," says Berry. She notes that she plans to encourage the KM community to work towards a definition of Knowledge Management that includes the Long Tail of knowledge. "My first blog as Chief Knowledge Evangelist will encourage the KM community at large to work together to evolve accepted definitions of Knowledge Management. Just as Knowledge Management within an organization should be a living, breathing practice that taps into the collective knowledge available to an organization -- within and external to it -- I'd like to tap into the collective knowledge of KM practitioners -- including new thought leaders -- to help organizations more strategically and effectively leverage the Long Tail of collective knowledge."
  
  
• Reporting to Coveo Chairman and CEO Louis Tetu, Berry will lead programs of research, thought leadership, publications and social evangelism, all dedicated to helping organizations unleash what Forbes has described as the "next great wave of value creation," or relevant knowledge access.
  
  
• "Diane is taking on a key industry leadership role that we anticipate will have significant impact on how companies leverage this hugely important asset that is knowledge, relatively untapped across most organizations," said Tetu. "Diane epitomizes the passion that everyone at Coveo holds for unleashing this key to transforming organizational performance."
  
  
• During a recent Coveo webinar, a senior project director from a Fortune 50 Company co-presented with Tetu and Berry about the company's knowledge engineering program -- which it considers to be a strategic and hidden competitive weapon. Prior to the launch of this program, the company's engineers, a number of whom were reaching retirement age, possessed "tribal knowledge" that was shared only with select groups. Following the knowledge engineering program, the company is able to go to market faster with more innovative products, and there is a culture of sharing knowledge broadly and securely.
  
  
• In her new role, Berry will launch a new blog, Enterprise Knowledge: The Untapped Asset, where she will present views on the value unleashed when organizations change their approach to KM by embracing the processes and technologies that enable the Long Tail of knowledge. She will also launch a quarterly index on the performance of companies that are strategically focused on Knowledge Management as compared to a control group. Berry will continue to act as Coveo's spokesperson with regards to Knowledge Management programs and issues, and will also continue to run Coveo's analyst program in her new role. In addition, she will author other research and publications, as well as conduct speaking engagements and engage with KM practitioners and thought leaders to move forward the changes required to help organizations everywhere better leverage untapped, collective enterprise knowledge. She will also continue to work with Coveo customers to track the value of their search and relevance-powered Knowledge Management programs.
  
  
• Berry is a frequent speaker, author and media resource on the topic of Knowledge Management. Her TED-style presentation on the Future of Knowledge Management at the Technology Services World 2013 Best Practices conference won the TechFUTURES Audience Favorite Award. She has also recently spoken at the Gilbane Conference, December 2013, on a panel about enterprise search, collaboration and engagement; and at the KMWorld Conference in November 2013, on a panel about the impact of Search-powered Knowledge Management initiatives. Berry's articles appear frequently in industry publications, such as Wired, which published her blog on the Future of Knowledge Management. Berry is a frequent blogger on the topic of Knowledge Management challenges, and she has contributed to and has been quoted extensively in articles about the convergence of Knowledge Management, the data explosion and enterprise search & relevance, most recently in eWeek, Information Management, IT BusinessEdge, KMWorld and Destination CRM, among others. 
  
  
• Before joining Coveo, Berry was previously SVP, Global Marketing and Communication with Taleo Corporation, the leading international provider of on-demand Internet software for talent and human capital management, which was acquired by Oracle in February 2012. Diane has also served as Chief Marketing Officer of SelectMinds, a corporate social media solutions provider, acquired by Oracle in 2013. With SelectMinds, Diane served as the leading evangelist on the value of information sharing and employee, alumni and customer connectivity via social channels. Diane has also served as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer with Smyth Solutions, a SaaS provider of accounts receivable, credit solutions and outsourcing services. 
  
  

About Coveo
Coveo makes companies and websites more relevant and responsive, by providing technology that delivers in real time the most relevant, context-aware information for every website visitor, every customer and every employee.

Coveo's transformational technology has been recognized as the most complete, end-to-end search & relevance platform available today. Coveo takes search to a new, more relevant level by securely connecting with and harnessing an organization's big, fragmented data from any combination of cloud, social, and on-premise systems. The Coveo Advanced Relevance Engine injects the most relevant knowledge into the context of every user, focusing on three business areas to:

• Radically boost Knowledge Management initiatives by making all of its collective knowledge easily accessible & relevant, so that all employees can take the best actions;
• Inject more relevant knowledge into customer service and sales interactions; and
• Personalize online customer experiences within high-end websites and communities.

Coveo is a strategic partner of several leading software companies such as Salesforce.com and Sitecore, and has been recognized as a visionary by Gartner in its 2013 Magic Quadrant. Among Coveo customers are leading organizations such as Cenovus Energy Inc., Lockheed Martin, Rally Software, Schneider Electric, and Sungard, among many others. For more information, visit www.coveo.com, follow us on the Coveo blog, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.