FAST Search and Transfer of Norway announced a profit warning in July, according to CMS Watch.
It seems the loss is related to their decision to change their business practices and to no longer book a Memorandum of Understanding expressing an intent to buy as actual receivables. While the analysts are shocked that FAST will miss its forecast, booking revenue only upon receipt of conformed orders is probably a good practice in the long run.
As companies begin to hire young people of the Millennial generation, they will need to start paying attention to trends by and among these young people who grew up using the internet and who may not remember a time before internet search engines. Open Text reports that companies need to start planning now for the retirement of baby boomers and the resultant loss of corporate knowledge. Says Cheryl McKinnon of OpenText, "The most critical resources are often intangible: know-how, specialized knowledge, intellectual capital, vision, experience and cohesive corporate culture. Succession planning and the establishment of knowledge transfer/capture initiatives are critical for organizations that will soon be facing this new form of brain drain".
Another article on how the Millennials will change corporations. Or not. The report, "Beyond Google: How do students conduct academic research?", reports that only 13% of the students used an internet search engine as the first step in researching information - albeit in the humanities rather than computer or hard sciences. An additional 3% used Wikipedia, but the vast majority utilized textbooks or teacher handouts as their primary data gathering mode.
With all the hype going around that young employees will favor external rather than internal resources for research, this may be a good sign. It doesn't say that companies should not be moving swiftly towards collaborative technologies like wikis and blogs; but it does seem to indicate that company materials still may be the preferred initial choice for Millennials who do research for company projects.