The global knowledge management software market will be worth $5.4bn in 2004, and the fastest growing segment will be the tools used to create the infrastructure, according to researcher IDC.

The market, which was worth $1.4bn in 1999, includes software used to find, select, organise and present information in a way that improves an employee's grasp of specific area of interest.

According to IDC, there are two segments to the market: access, which includes enterprise portal and corporate learning software; and infrastructure, the underlying foundation of knowledge management.

IDC predicts that growth in the access sector will overtake infrastructure in 2002. The sector's revenue will increase by 46 per cent a year - from $500m in 1999 to $3.3bn in 2004. In comparison, the knowledge management software market will grow at an annual rate of 31 per cent.

Brian McDonough, an analyst at IDC, said: "The need to more intelligently support the decisions of employees while improving productivity will create and sustain demand for knowledge management access software."

He added that the infrastructure is largely in place, and consolidation among vendors through acquisitions or strategic partnerships will further spur rapid market adoption.

McDonough also believes knowledge management access offerings are forcing vendors to build partnerships so that numerous technologies can be used together to better assist companies in integrating access to information and applications.

Vendors such as Lotus, which expects to ship its Raven knowledge management software by the end of the year, have been enthusiastic about knowledge management.

Lotus says Raven will enable the sharing of knowledge and expertise within businesses by affinity matching relevant areas of specialisms with documents, people and applications. Features of Raven include improved intelligent searching, greater use of specialised information portals and enhanced calendaring and scheduling.