About Craig L. Roth

Mr. Roth is the founder of KnowledgeForward, a consultancy that provides assistance in planning and executing knowledge and collaboration strategies and marketing programs. Prior to KnowledgeForward he was a Vice President and Industry Analyst (see What is an Industry Analyst) for the META Group (now part of Gartner Group). He has worked with hundreds of large organizations to identify and eliminate barriers to efficient adoption of technology, particularly with regard to the Web and Knowledge Infrastructure.

Areas of Expertise

• Web technology and its strategic impact on business strategy:
  • Web Architecture
  • Composite Applications
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• Knowledge Infrastructure and how it is leveraged by best practice organizations:
  • Enterprise Portals
  • Web Content Management
  • Collaboration

Industry Expertise and Influence

Mr. Roth has been quoted as an industry expert in sources such as Forbes, IT World, CIO Magazine, C|Net, Application Development Trends, ComputerWorld, and National Public Radio as well as interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times Online.

Trusted Advisor and Consultant

As a trusted advisor, Mr. Roth worked with over 200 large corporations and government agencies last year on strategic topics such as business case creation, organizational structure, and technology adoption strategy.

As a marketing strategy consultant, he provided advice and guidance on marketing strategy to software vendors including competitive comparisons and recommendations on messaging, pricing, packaging, and functionality prioritization.

Writing

Written work includes over 140 papers on technology trends, best practices, and market analysis for the META Group as well as articles for ENT Magazine and .NET Magazine.

Public Speaking

In addition to being a keynote and executive speaker for META Group, Mr. Roth has given keynote addresses at events by SAP (Argentina), Domino/Notes User Group (Germany), and InfoWeek (5 city U.S. tour) and spoken at many other international events.

Skills

Mr. Roth has a proven ability to:

• Quickly scope and disaggregate complex problems, and recommend strategic and tactical solutions
• Synthesize concise knowledge from a wide range of information, provide insight, and pinpoint practical implications under tight deadlines
• Serve as a thought partner, who can both engage in team problem solving and contribute to knowledge creation initiatives

Previous Experience

Corporate: Discover Card, 8 years. Manager of Advanced Technology Applications. Also held positions as Programmer and Project Manager

Entrepreneurial: Horizon Group, 5 years. Started software gaming company that produced two successful products, distributed internationally through Electronic Arts

Volunteer: Helped Community Service Options, an advocacy group for the disabled, to set up update procedures for their website and enhance their design

Education

MBA (Marketing), University of Chicago

B.S. (Business), Indiana University

Other Interests

Tennis, composing music, chess, woodworking, cycling

"Craig Roth has consistently ranked as a top 10 analyst based on influence and exposure within the web services and portal marketplaces"

Christopher R. Wilder
Executive Vice President
The Knowledge Capital Group Inc. (an independent analyst watchdog and rating firm)