Knovel Blog

Knovel Happenings

John Patrick is a Knovel Board member, former vice president of Internet technology at IBM, and one of the leading Internet visionaries as a founding member of the World Wide Web Consortium at MIT in 1994. Most importantly, John is a tremendous asset to Knovel in helping to guide our strategy. His blog is closely followed by many thousands of readers and I am sure he will blog about being a Key Note Speaker at the Special Libraries Association annual meeting in Washington on June 17, 2009. One of his most successful on-going blog posts is IBM Happenings and he has suggested that Knovel’s many followers will benefit by our delivering an update on Knovel every month or so – so here it is…Knovel Happenings.

April and early May have been busy at Knovel. We are focused on implementation of our Design Partner and Strategic Accounts programs. The Design Partner program has us engaging “on-site” with users from 15 client partners to guide product development; during 2009 we expect to grow to 25 partners, so please contact me at chris@knovel.com if you would like to know more. Our Product Management team sits with engineers in their work spaces to see how they work with information which allows us to understand how we can improve their research by improving the user experience. Expect to see changes in the coming months driven by this program.

 

Our Strategic Accounts Program is bringing us closer to all our accounts helping us to better understand the impact of the economy and ensuring that clients get high value from their investment in Knovel. Knovel account managers are in continuous touch with all our customers through training, on-site visits, webinars and a range of other touch points to ensure we are listening to and growing our customer relationships. If you would like to discuss this program please do get in touch through chris@knovel.com .

 

We were thrilled to introduce a new subject area Industrial Engineering and Operations Management  and see so many of our customers eagerly adding it to their subscription. Based on customer requests Knovel will introduce 2 more subject areas before the end of 2009.

 

Knovel has seen some good coverage in a wide range of communication channels ranging from Desktop Engineering to Twitter Chatter in French to Enterprise Search Blogs and back to more traditional media sources like Design News.

 

The next 6 weeks promises to bring a raft full of announcements around our product and marketing alliances that will bring tremendous benefits to our users and we look forward talking with you about new Knovel Happenings next month.

 

Chris Forbes

CEO

Live on Knovel – Information to support process improvement and risk reduction in operations

Today Knovel launches a new subject area, Industrial Engineering and Operations Management.

As one of my colleagues who trained as an industrial engineer recently told me, “Industrial engineers don’t make things, they make things better.” This content collection is built to support engineers and engineering management’s efforts to make things better.

During the content planning, we had the chance to speak with our customers about their internal systems for improving processes, reducing risk, and ensuring quality through programmatic changes. We thank all of the customers that provided input on content planning. Your opinions are important to us. In response to customer feedback, we added reference works about major areas in industrial engineering, systems engineering and operations management. In conversations we heard that people want to keep up-to-date on new strategies and to learn best practices for their work. So we added titles that included case studies and covered best practices in areas such as supply chain management, logistics and project management.

The new collection will launch with five subtopics: Human Engineering and Ergonomics, Supply Chain Management and Logistics, Project Management, Six sigma, Lean and Quality Management and Industrial Engineering and Operations Management.

This new collection will feature titles from new content partners Technology Perspectives, AMACOM, and DesTech. Knovel welcomes our new content partners on board.

We invite Knovel users to visit http://pages.knovel.com/IndustrialEngineering.html to learn more about the new subject area.

Meagan Cooke
Director of Content Strategy

On the Road – CP Kelco

I am excited to write about being “On the Road” with our customers and partners. The Knovel team is spending more time today “on the road” than at any time in our history. I will be spending 4 out of 5 days this week with customers and partners who serve our customers. Being an on-line business means it is even more important to meet face to face with our customers. Face to face contact is critical if we are to establish relationships, listen to what customers are saying, show that we really care and demonstrate that we can act on what they tell us. I’ve found that I learn something new from every customer call, so I want to use this “On the Road” series to highlight some of this learning.

I recently visited with CP Kelco who makes hydrocolloids, which in simple terms are substances added to products to improve their performance in everything from foods, pharmaceuticals, and oral care through, paper coatings and even oil field drilling applications. CP Kelco is a subsidiary of J.M. Huber Corporation a company that also helps other companies make better products such as: toothpaste that makes teeth whiter, paper for newspapers and magazines, the paint that brightens homes and the building materials that make them safe and sound.”

I am most impressed with the company’s focus on its mission and standards, established by their founder, as we at Knovel strongly believe that focus on success and respect for others are core values that drive our business. As we get to better know CP Kelco and J.M. Huber I am sure we at Knovel will learn from their example of success.

CP Kelco found our service through a referral and subscribed (lucky us!). That meant we didn’t go through the “getting to know you” process we go through with most of our new clients. Having made a trip, I now understand that CP Kelco uses Knovel to get fast access to detailed chemical data required in their work each day and this will help to guide choices we make around adding content to our data rich environment.

After our visit to CP Kelco and as a result of solving an issue I received a note saying “You are fortunate to have such qualified and diligent people working for your organization.” This is satisfying and a precursor of good things to come for both our organizations.

Chris Forbes
CEO

Content Reduces Productivity!

Can “content” cost engineers time and money? Yes, because there are stark differences between delivering a highly tuned service that provides answers rather than generalized search engines and other content sources that sap productivity (time) from engineers! Let’s contrast Knovel against the way many engineers find answers to mission critical questions[1]. While the content itself is important (after all the “right” content is what the user needs), users tell us it is most important to seamlessly deliver the specific content required (e.g., the flexural modulus of a particular material under specific conditions or the required math to solve a problem) to the point of need. Without the tools to find, sort, manipulate, and import digital objects or “answers” into their work users tell us they often find the content itself to be more trouble (and time) than its worth.

 

So what’s the difference between casually expecting access to the content you need (e.g., Google) and knowing you can import a problem solving answer into your work when required. Independent research and our customers tell us it is worth $5,000 to $20,000 per year per engineer (up to one day per week), depending on how much research each engineer does. We publish stories about productivity gains each month (RSS feed); BP recently shared a story about one of their field engineers solving a problem and saving many hours. This is confirmed by our own quantitative analysis of engineers using tools at work – see a recent study done in partnership with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

 

Let’s consider some of the other factors that sap productivity and ultimately morale from engineers. Many engineers are asked to rely on generalized search engines for research (e.g., spending hours wading through pages and pages of “non-validated” results) vs. going to a highly tuned tool that allows you to find exactly the data you require and import it directly into your PLM environment. The figure above takes the value of the time gained into consideration but gives no value to employee satisfaction and morale (e.g., does management value me highly enough to provide tools to make my job as easy as possible?) and data validation (e.g., how do you calculate the value of validated data vs. results where the source is questionable?). So many of our customers are not only making the choice to invest in Knovel because of measurable productivity gains they are also valuing data quality and the work environment of their most valuable asset – their people. This is especially important to engineering teams that are forced to deliver on the same (or tighter) schedules with less resource in current economy.

 

If you have examples of tools or situations that have made you more productive or taken away from your productivity, please comment here or email me at chris@knovel.com so we can learn from your experiences and pass them along to others.

 

Chris Forbes

CEO

Knovel

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[1] Knovel’s mission is to deliver exactly the data an engineer requires to her or his point of need; our tool set is constantly optimized through user feedback to achieve this mission.

How Does Engineering Reference Drive Value in a PLM Strategy?

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a huge business segment with over $10 billion spent annually on PLM software systems alone. Every Fortune 500 company that has a manufacturing or process component to their business has a PLM strategy. When organizations put together their PLM strategies, they focus on the productivity improvements that can be gained through process improvements, organizational design and enabling technologies. The technologies considered normally include solutions for digital design, digital product data management and coordinating engineering work across departments and geographies, etc.

Knovel is a solution that enhances engineering productivity by providing external reference information as part of the engineering workflow. PLM relies heavily upon accessibility, management and flow of engineering data.

A few months back, Jim Brown of Tech-Clarity approached me with an idea on doing a research project to determine the role of engineering reference information in a PLM strategy. Since it’s a question Knovel has wrestled with, I was happy to give Jim support and agreed to sponsor the project. Tech-Clarity has just released its findings in: Tech-Clarity Insight: Engineering Reference Information in a PLM Strategy.

At risk of oversimplifying, the report concludes that electronic reference is important in a PLM strategy and makes recommendations about how engineering businesses can look at its role. I wouldn’t be doing the paper justice to attempt to summarize it here, but I pulled out a few quotes from engineering leaders Jim Brown spoke with that I found engaging. After reading them, perhaps you’ll consider downloading the report.

“Electronic access to engineering reference information enables faster and better product development, although credit won’t be given where it is due. Upper management probably doesn't care about reference information directly, however they want to make sure they are doing everything possible to enable and empower the engineering organization. They expect you to put what is required in place.”

“We learned the hard way that the capability of the search engine is very important when we decided to put our own standards on the system. We just put paper documents on screen and it was hideous, there was no search, no connection, and it just wasn’t used. The electronic world didn’t work until we added search capabilities that made this medium usable in a meaningful way. The search is brilliant, it’s critical.”

You can download the paper: Tech-Clarity Insight: Engineering Reference Information in a PLM Strategy for free at the Knovel website (registration is required). You can read more of Jim’s thoughts on the electronic reference on his blog over at Manufacturing Business Technology http://www.mbtmag.com.

The Numbers are in...

Knovel Customers renew at 95%! This means that 95 out of 100 customers, who were Knovel customers in 2007, renewed their investments in Knovel in 2008. Many of these decisions were made in last 3 months (4^th quarter) of 2008 when our clients were looking to reduce expenses across the board. This is the best renewal performance Knovel has enjoyed since we started renewing in 2002. This even included major automotive and equipment customers. A line from Shakespeare’s Tempest seems appropriate - we hope “past is prologue” in 2009. Why do Knovel customers choose to maintain and grow their investments with us and why am I calling an annual subscription bill an investment? The Engineering VP from a major oil company sums it up well –

 

“It used to be a minimum of an hour and could be up to half a day to find the information we needed. Now it takes minutes, and we know we are getting accurate information that we can be completely confident in.”

 

This company is cutting back and, at the same time, investing in tools to help staff do their jobs better and faster (e.g., more productively). Knovel is also investing heavily in resources to work with our current customers to ensure that they take full advantage of the money spent; you will see more training, more features and content based on customer needs and more Knovel people on your actual and virtual doorsteps in the coming months. Increasing investment when our customers need us most will stand us in good stead as we continue to build relationships that last for the foreseeable future.

 

We recognize the extreme pressures our clients are feeling; we are feeling them too. In the 1^st quarter of 2009 we see ever increasing efforts by companies, academic institutions, and government to manage expenses, but many have had time to digest and consider their choices and now work with scalpels rather than scythes. To that end we are reaching out to all of our customers to understand their needs so that everyone’s expectations can be well managed in this difficult time. If we have not spoken I encourage you to send me a note at chris@knovel.com.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris Forbes

 

 

CEO

Knovel

Wiki Cred

I was thrilled to see a Wikipedia entry for Knovel this week. It has been up for the last several months. Several times over the last couple of years I posted entries for Knovel. The entries were quickly removed by the community of editors that saw them as not meeting Wikipedia’s content criteria which demand that entries are “factual, notable, verifiable with external sources, and neutrally presented, with external sources cited.” Frankly, my entries were blatantly commercial, did not meet the objective criteria and should have been pulled down. My designs on “Wiki Cred” and SEO (search engine optimization) benefits were dashed. There is a transfer of credibility in becoming listed on Wikipedia as the content criteria are strictly and continuously enforced by the community, so the entries that “stick” are almost universally notable and verified. While search engine algorithms are a “black box”, there is no question that they value Wikipedia entries; when searching Knovel on Google the entry now shows up on the first page of results.

So how did the entry appear? As it turns out, the initial posting was created by a small team of Knovel employees with ongoing contributions being made by interested people outside Knovel; the more contributors – via editorial improvements and reference links – the better. The Wikipedia model works! So if you have an interest in certain topics and factual data about them, I encourage you to add to Wikipedia and improve the resource for all users.

 

 

Chris Forbes

CEO

Knovel

Productivity – How does Knovel help our customers measure it?

How do our customers justify their annual investment in Knovel or, for that matter, in any “productivity” tool? In every instance they think carefully about whether there are significant improvements in productivity, cost savings, and what their alternatives might be to get the same result. Engineering Managers and Information Professionals (the “decision makers” or “buyers”) tell us they make investments based on business cases showing how users (engineers) can save time by improving their productivity (reduce research time, accelerate time to market, faster processes, better technical service, more efficient warranty work, more cost effective designs…), providing reliable and relevant data (e.g., Google delivers too many spurious results), and cutting costs (e.g., dropping inefficient services, reduced “one off” content purchases…). These decisions are important as the dollars are often in the hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions.

 

A ‘trial” is widely accepted as the method for assessing the utility of a productivity tool, but measuring productivity is easier said than done. The conflict comes in setting useful productivity metrics and getting enough consistent data to measure. Managers will often agree to a “trial” for new software or an information service and find data from the trial is not gathered systematically and is qualitative and inconsistent (e.g., “the software is great and I think it can save me some time”). We help managers assess productivity by setting up “structured trials.” In addition, we have gathered a lot of data about the research habits of users from surveying thousands of engineers at corporations that have trialed Knovel. Using a well defined and repeatable process to assess productivity and historic data to set metrics goes a long way toward objectively measuring progress. The keys to which are:

 

• Setting buyer and user expectations before a trial begins
• Measuring productivity improvements quantitatively and qualitatively
• Careful design of survey questions that align with customer objectives
• A team with experience in trial process, survey design, and data analysis.

For instance, some of the measurements we might use include the level of survey participation, user estimates of time saved, and user’s views on the quality of their sessions. The real “art” is in crafting questions that yield a consistent and statistically significant set of measurable results. After a trial we work with our customers to analyze the data and compare to the agreed metrics to produce a report that will help guide their investment decision.

 

Traditionally we have focused this work on new customers but it is also important to gauge productivity gains over time and we are now beginning to survey long time users to gauge metrics and continuously assess the productivity benefit.

 

Thank-you,

Chris Forbes

CEO

Knovel

 

Trust – 1.1 – Lessons Learned

Today our Director of Product Management and I are going to call on an important customer. I expect Knovel will lose this customer because several months ago we broke their trust. We have enjoyed a growing relationship with this customer where they felt they were receiving fair value for their investment. During that time we provided all the customer asked for but we did not invest in understanding our customer’s needs and process; we did not invest in building a “trust bank” with our customer. Based on our own value metrics and without having established a personal relationship and understanding of Knovel’s value with the person making the decision we asked for an exceptionally large price increase. Our proposal was a shock to the customer.  The moment the proposal landed the customer lost trust in us.  We had not invested in understanding them, their process, and Knovel’s value to the user community they serve. Faced with similar circumstances I am sure I would have asked “what are these people from Knovel thinking.” Shame on us!

Mistakes happen and Knovel will learn from this one. It will be difficult for us to recover with this customer because we have not built a balance in the trust bank. We will lay out our best case and see what happens. This experience (no matter the outcome) is both galling and humbling for an organization that prides itself on customer service. We pride ourselves on a 94%+ renewal rate with our customers, yet over the last 3 years I have seen Knovel lose 3 customers for similar reasons. Each loss diminishes value for that customer and for Knovel; we must both go through cycles to find alternatives, re-establish trust...

My relentless pursuit to growing this business combined with our service and account management processes  contribute to this failure. We will look closely at the balance between the customer’s perceived value and the investment we are asking customers to make.  We will also scrutinize our processes for communicating and working with customers.

While we will mistakes in the future, we can improve our customer service and take every step possible to make sure we do not destroy value through breaking trust. To that end it is my intention to personally listen to and talk with each of our customers in 2009.  I will follow with details in January.

I look forward to speaking with you in the New Year and wish you all Happy Holidays!

Best wishes,

Chris
Chris Forbes
CEO
Knovel

Wind Power

One morning a year or so ago we met some friends and took a motorcycle ride up to Sackets Harbor, on the shores of Lake Ontario, at the eastern-most and smallest of the Great Lakes. On the ride back we saw huge wind turbines -- 195 of them -- that produce 2% of New York state's residential electricity. I had seen the giant turbines before from a distance but a visitor center allowed us to stop for a closer look and hear the whooshing sound of the giant blades. Standing there made me wonder what the real potential of wind energy may be.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States has enough wind resources to generate electricity for every home and business in the nation. All areas are not suitable for wind energy development, but if you look at the map developed by the Wind Energy Program working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) you can see that the wind is blowing at 15-20 mph at 150 feet above ground in many parts of the country. From a distance wind energy seems very simple. Instead of using electricity to make wind -- like a fan -- wind turbine technology uses wind to make electricity. The wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft, which connects to a generator and makes electricity.

GE Energy recently shipped its 10,000th 1.5-megawatt wind turbine and over the past decade the GE machines have been installed in 19 countries and have accumulated more than 130 million operating hours, producing more than 78,000 gigawatt-hours of clean wind-generated electricity. The 10,000th unit was shipped to the Ashtabula Wind Energy Center located in North Dakota. (See full list of wind farms). It is often said that wind energy is a drop in the bucket in terms of total energy needs but that is beginning to change. GE's "fleet" of 10,000 1.5-megawatt machines can power more than five million homes and produce more than 50 million megawatt-hours annually and there is an added benefit. Compared to "traditional" ways of generating electricity, the wind farms represent a savings of more than 27 million tons of CO2 emissions each year, the equivalent of removing more than five million U.S. cars from the road. Hardly sounds like a drop in the bucket.

The more I learn about wind energy the more exciting it is. You can follow wind energy developments at the Wind Energy Update. As the market grows, the technology will advance. GE has already introduced a 3.6 MW machine specifically designed for high-speed wind sites such as exist offshore -- remember the map? The main challenge with wind energy is getting the electricity from where the wind is blowing to the places where the electricity is needed. The wind is howling off the Aleutian Islands but that is a long way from San Francisco.

The engineers at GE are doing incredible work. The technical details behind the design of the behemoth wind machines is staggering. They must also stay on top of wind energy as one niche of the exploding new subject area of sustainable energy. I suspect that the GE engineers are using Knovel as their constant online companion. Knovel Corporation has has recently expanded their already vast online engineering resources to include new books such as the Wind Energy Handbook.

The now Knovelized book covers what engineers are looking for -- ranging from practical concerns about component design to the economic importance of sustainable power sources. The online book includes 95 digitized and interactive graphs that will be an indispensable asset to engineers, turbine designers, wind energy consultants and graduate engineering students who are anxious to get out in the market and design the latest and greatest wind turbines.

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