Subscription Update for Manufacturing
Jinfo Blog

By Elizabeth Trudell

Abstract

Reducing the time to market for new products and manufacturing processes is a driving force for companies in the manufacturing space. Acquiring accurate and timely information about relevant new technologies, and making that information visible throughout the organisation, is critical to this process. Information centres in manufacturing companies will find resources of direct relevance to these subjects in recent FreePint Content, Community and Consulting.

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Content (Articles, Reports and Webinars)

Information managers in manufacturing companies are keenly interested in assessing and improving discoverability of content across the enterprise.

Over a three month period, FreePint conducted research and events on this subject, generating a body of information under the FreePint Topic Series “Making Information Visible".  The three main themes have emerged: the right technology, the right content and the right user behaviour.

• In the report "Research into Visibility 2015", FreePint's director of research, Robin Neidorf discusses recent FreePint research results encompassing how technology, content and user behaviours interact to make information more visible and accessible

• A recorded webinar session details how Unilever and Cargill chose a discovery service, and Sophie Alexander provides a write-up of the event. Get new insights on why enterprise search will never be like Google and why policies to achieve the highest levels of information quality have more influence on successful search than which search engine technology is chosen

• Content comes from both internal and external sources, and this vendor market overview outlines characteristics of some of the key content providers, while another article discusses blending internal and external content

• To explore user needs and behaviour, Sean Smith discusses effective user engagement, Nigel Williams points out the dangers of not appealing to your audience, and Steve Bynghall puts users at the centre of discovery.

FreePint has also recently completed research on another timely topic: the use of ebooks in enterprise settings.

Response to the survey was very strong, with technology-driven companies highly represented. The survey shows that the manufacturing sector has some of the highest levels of penetration for ebook usage. Learn more about the factors contributing to growth in ebooks deployment and about the key ebook providers used by manufacturing enterprises.  

Updates on content providers of interest to technology-driven organisations include an interview with EBSCO's VP of user research and with the chief sales and marketing officer at Reprints Desk. Organisations with large patent portfolios will appreciate a comprehensive review of LexisNexis TotalPatent, which compares its three search modes, and updates the competitor landscape, including Thomson Innovation, Minesoft PatBase (also reviewed by FreePint), Espacenet and PatentLens.

Community

In April, there was a Community of Practice (CoP) teleconference on Strategies for Information Managers in Tangible Goods Industries. Among the topics covered were:

• Product development from vendors aimed at end users
• Siloed departments and information streams within manufacturing organisations
• How decision-makers in tangible goods businesses tend to think about value of intangible resources like information.

Another session for tangible goods will be offered in 2015. In the meantime, new Communities of Practice sessions are in development for the current Topic Series, "Best Practices in Information Skills Development" and the next one, "All About Usage". Click the links to register for series of interest and be directly notified when CoPs in them are offered.

More community events are coming soon, so watch for announcements in the FreePint Blog and in the FreePint Newsletter.

Consulting  

Several Consulting-level customers have approached FreePint with queries about how best to manage information about vendors, products and access. Many organisations rely on home-grown solutions; others have adapted tools designed for use by procurement professionals.

If you also have questions or concerns about this challenge, please be in touch with our director of research, Robin Neidorf, at robin.neidorf@freepint.com - our experience of working with a number of customers on this challenge means efficient consulting, bringing streamlined and cost-effective results.

A FreePint Subscription at the Content level gives access to all FreePint articles, reports and webinars, at the Community level gives access to all FreePint Communities of Practice (as well as all FreePint Content), and at the Consulting level adds a credit for up to six hours of annual consulting time. Find out more.

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