Open Password – Freitag, den 10 Mai 2019

# 558

 

Ann Chapman – Information Professional des Jahres – Minesoft – Open Password – Erfolgsgeschichte – Christoph Aschoff – Peter Müller-Bader – Patentämter – Informationskonzerne – Patent Professionals – Thomson – World Patents Index – Patent Information – Predicasts – Thyssen Bornemisza – Ziff Davis – Business Information – Technological Based Industries – Software Solutions – Industry Pioneers – Command Language Solutions – France Telecom – Questel Orbit – Ophir  Daniel– RWS – Translation Engine – STN – V2 Analytics – Analytic Reporting – Minesoft – IP Lifecycle – Legal Status Tracking – Professional Patent Searching – Pat Base – Patent Search & Analysis Database – Stratfor – Stratfor World View Enterprise – Deutsche Börse- Index-Geschäft – Axioma – Wolters Kluwer – International Tax Law Solution – Google – Altmetrics – Einfluss des Journalismus – Bloomsbury – Academic Publihing in India – Orbit Insight – Raffinerien – EBSCO – Music Index with Full Text – Outsell – Arvato – Bertelsmann – Saham Group – Majorel – CRM-Dienste – Salesforce – Thomas Mackenroth – AI – Automaisierungsschub – Deutscher Bibliotheksverband – Beate Tröger – Bibliotheken – Medienecho

Ann Chapman (Minesoft):

Information Professional
des Jahres 2018/2019
für ihre Lebensleistung

Pioneering the Online Sector
and Obsessed with Germany

 

Minesoft: Firmly in the niche field
of professional patent searching

Ann Chapmann, Information Professional 2018/2019

(Br) Ann Chapman wird von Open Password für ihre Lebensleistung als Information Professional des Jahres 2018/2019 ausgezeichnet – im Besonderen dafür,

• dass sie als eine der Pionierinnen die Online-Branche in jungen Jahren an verantwortlichen Stellen vorangebracht und einiges von der Begeisterung und dem Enthusiasmus, der seinerzeit unseren Wissenschafts- und Wirtschaftsbereich kennzeichnete, in die Gegenwart rettete;
• dass sie ihre persönliche, berufliche, wirtschaftliche und institutionelle Erfolgsgeschichte über die Jahrzehnte fortgeschrieben hat und eine der besten Beispiele dafür ist, dass nachhaltige Success Stories auch in unserer Branche nach wie vor möglich sind;
• dass sie mit der Gründung von Minesoft am Küchentisch am Punkt Null begann und im Vertrauen auf die eigene Kompetenz eine Risikobereitschaft zeigte, die sie zum Vorbild auch für die heutigen Start ups werden ließ;
• dass sie in den folgenden Phasen auf sich gestellt eine “Geschichte vom Schuhputzer zum Millionär” schrieb, wie wir sie aus Deutschland nur von den GBI-Gründern Christoph Aschoff und Peter Müller-Bader kennen, dies allerdings im persönlichen Stil mit einer größeren “britischen” sachbetonten Zurückhaltung und ohne einen erkennbaren Willen, irgendwann Kasse zu machen und das eigene Unternehmen an einen der Informationskonzerne zu verkaufen;
• dass sie sich weder von den Informationskonzernen noch von den freien Angeboten der Patentämter einschüchtern ließ, vielmehr Minesoft fest in seiner Marktnische etablierte und mit einer kontinuierlichen Kette an Innovationen, die an die Frühzeit der Online-Branche erinnert, den Sektor der Patentinformationen voranbrachte und die Informationsversorgung der Patent Professionals und des Managements in Patentfragen verbesserte – Muss uns erst ein britisches Unternehmen zeigen, wie wichtig der selbstständige Mittelstand auch in der Informationsbranche ist?;
• dass sie mit der überaus weitgehenden Orientierung von Minesoft an den Wünschen der Kunden und der Etablierung einer “offenen Kultur” unter den Beschäftigten auch zu einem Leitbild für Kundenbeziehungen und Personalpolitik wurde und
• dass man mit Ann Chapman immer über alles sprechen kann und dass für sie der “Blick über den Tellerrand” eine Selbstverständlichkeit war und geblieben ist.

Nachdem ich mittlerweile mehr als vierzig Jahre immer wieder eng mit Ann Chapman zusammengearbeitet habe, die Gespräche mit ihr immer genoss und sie mir immer wieder auf eine Weise half, die weit über das hinausging, was man hätte erwarten können, gilt ihr auch mein ganz persönlicher von Herzen kommender Dank.

Im Gespräch mit Open Password nimmt die Gründerin und Geschäftsführerin von Minesoft zu ihrem persönlichen Werdegang, zu der Entwicklung des Anbieters von Patentinformationslösungen und zur Lage der Information Professionals Stellung.

Early education and development? I grew up in Berkshire, near London and studied Economics and German in Bristol with a year of Economics at Kassel University.  My father was a writer and creative director in Advertising who imparted a love of language and literature in me very early in my life. I love both language and literature and took as many languages as I could at school – English, French, German, Latin and Spanish – so working in Publishing as an Information Industry Professional was appealing, with the close links to corporate & specialised libraries in the 1980’s and 90’s.

What made you decide to become an Information Professional? Or how did it come about? I chose Publishing as a career and joined International Thomson’s Marketing Group in London.  Partly due to my knowledge of German, I was asked to consider their international sales & marketing team when they moved into the Online Database business in the 1980’s, launching Derwent World Patents Index online. This was a great opportunity for me at a young age in the early days of online access to major scientific and business resources and most appealingly to me, my new job involved a great deal of international travel.

Please describe your professional development before you started the company. During my six years at International Thomson, I got to know the patent information world very well, travelling non-stop to talk to clients and develop business in German and Spanish speaking countries as well as the Middle East (especially Israel) and many trips to other parts of the world. I was invited to set up a European office for Predicasts Inc., part of the Thyssen Bornemisza Group and subsequently bought by Ziff Davis Inc, where I headed up their European Operations and parts of Asia. This was no longer the world of patents but business information, focusing on companies and markets but still very much with a bias towards technologically based industries.  I worked closely with investment banks, M&A specialists and management consultancies as well as corporate Information & Library Services.  For a further six years of my life I spent much time in Germany and Switzerland as well as the USA and just about every country in Europe!  In those 12 years, the opportunities I had to speak German were a great use of my earlier education wrestling with German grammar .

One of the nicest aspects of this time was that I was able to travel all over Germany, meeting companies in small towns as well as large cities. In the R&D world, companies tend to have their facilities in less visited places, so I feel I know Germany as a country well, having spent weekends all over getting to know it better. I was enchanted by Freiburg im Breisgau for instance, where I went a few times to deliver training seminars and later, when in Basel for business, I took my then teenage children with me on the train to Freiburg for the day to climb hundreds of stairs in the Minster for the stunning view! Even now, at university, they tell their friends I am “obsessed with Germany”.  I certainly made many friends among industry colleagues and feel a close link to the country and language.

I married a German national finally and my kids inherited his German nationality also, which seems a lucky move for them at this precise time of writing in UK politics. Ophir, my co-founder at Minesoft, came from a background in electronics and aviation in Israel and designs and has developed an amazing range of patent information software solutions for leading German corporations.

 

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 From acoustic couplers and tiny monitors to deep analytical reporting.
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Industry pioneers, what were the main differences then in comparison to today? I think the major point is how incredible the pace of technology has been in our sector. Internet did not exist when I began, we all had to use old legacy systems and command language searching was the order of the day.  Full text was not available for searching – it was a different world.  But how exciting to have witnessed the developments from acoustic couplers and tiny monitors through to the internet bandwidth and equipment we have at our fingertips today!  The breadth of the information we can access so fast without needing to be able to program or build a PC is a major plus.

In the late 80’s I would consider my essential exhibition kit must include a screwdriver set and a spare computer graphics card so I could take apart a PC and put another card in so that I could demonstrate online. And a spare modem. It did feel rather pioneering and we breathed a sigh of relief when we got online.  I remember Ericssen (a client) lent me mobile equipment with data connectivity for an online patent demonstration at the Moscow Patent Office in about 1994. I had about 90 patent examiners in the room eager for their first big public demo online of patent searching in World Patents Index and other patent resources and due to technical issues we connected finally using the “fall-back” Ericssen mobiles.  It was a fantastic success and afterwards I was mobbed by patent examiners wanting to take a close look and telling me how special it was for them to see the power of searching online for themselves. Heady days!

What made you decide to start your company, Minesoft? I returned to patents and sci-tech publishing with France Telecom Group (Questel-Orbit) when I had just become a mother and after 3 years as a Director and Managing Director, we took the plunge. Ophir was programming in the early Internet era after moving to London. We decided to combine our skills and were lucky to be given a distribution and then a development deal by France Telecom and a small initial loan – that started us off. We worked closely with Questel-Orbit for about 5 years in marketing, sales and product development before branching out with our own products in the first decade of 2000, so this was an important stepping stone in the progression of Minesoft before we parted ways and worked independently. In 2003 we began a close cooperation with RWS PLC, a publicly quoted UK specialist translation company, one of the biggest corporate translation companies in the world today.  Together, we built up a collection of about 125 million patent documents and RWS’s translation engine helps us provide this in many different languages.

Looking back, how has the sector changed with the decades? The industry has changed so many times over the course of the 20 years Minesoft has been in business. I could say out of all recognition, but in fact you can use command languages still in some online services, such as STN, Minesoft or Questel, which allow for a far greater complexity of search and put control in the hands of the searchers. What once would have taken a supercomputer in the ‘90s, we have now built into the base product available to all customers for no additional fees. An example here is our newest V2 Analytics framework. This allows for advanced analytical reporting on the deepest aspects of patent data, where our competitors tend to offer more limited fields and basic excel style charts. Pulling on the 60 full-text authorities and over 105 total authorities, we can allow the analytics to enhance and empower professional searchers to become much more efficient than just a few years ago.

Ann with Trudi Jones and Ford Khorsandian, owners of TPRI and previous organisers of the popular IPI-ConfEx where Minesoft originally launched PatBase back in 2004.

________________________________________________________________________

Minesoft: The most complex search capability available anywhere today.

________________________________________________________________________

How is Minesoft positioned in the international domain of patent information solution provider? Winner of the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2009 and again in 2015, Minesoft has fast become an established leader in the field of Patent Information, working with industrial corporations, patent attorney firms and patent authorities around the world. Established to develop databases and software solutions for the Information industry, Minesoft specialises in tools and services for retrieving, storing and distributing patent information throughout the enterprise.

Since Minesoft is positioned globally, the competition would be rife. In this competitive age how do you differentiate your solution and services from other patent solution providers in the global market? Over the past two decades the need for accurate and actionable intelligence from high quality patent information has spread across a multitude of user bases and for an ever-widening number of use cases. Minesoft provides a series of web-based solutions platforms to bring high-quality, clean patent data to an array of users across the IP Lifecycle and for various corporate needs.  The company’s history spans over 20 years of innovation and development. From the first own-label product in 2000, the company has gone from strength to strength. One of our first products was in the field of Legal Status Tracking of patent documents. This was a tiresome task back in the day, like looking for a needle in a haystack, but the person looking needed to be a patent specialist. We know we managed to save people many hours of time checking meticulously through patent registers!  We are today firmly in the niche field of professional patent searching, which is not the same as most of our competitors, who have other fields of activity and interest that dilutes their attention to the professional patent searching niche.  We pay attention to the needs of the sector in a more concentrated way because we do not need to fit it into a much wider corporate approach.

Searching and analyzing the patents from all over the world is a daunting task. How does your product PatBase helps clients optimize time and expertise needed for analysis of the vast search results and help with better decision making? In 2003, Minesoft and RWS became partners in developing a new online patent database, named PatBase. Combining Minesoft’s innovative software solutions for the information industry and RWS’s reputation in language support services, specializing in accurate translations for the intellectual property industry. Together, the staff went on to create a globally renowned patent search & analysis database, cementing Minesoft’s position in the industry. Minesoft handles the complete text of patent documents, offering a full suite of retrieval solutions, as well as developing what is probably the most complex search capability available anywhere today.

Please read in the next part of the interview with Ann Chapman: Striking the balance between development cycles, all the while listening to clients’ feedback – Expanding user communities including c-suite, r&d, legal and legal operations, associated counsel
and business unit owners

Provider´s Corner

 

Plattform für geopolitische Risiken

Stratfor, the geopolitical intelligence risk platform, announces the launch of Stratfor Worldview Enterprise to dramatically expand business’ ability to understand and manage geopolitical risks that have the greatest potential to impact their people, assets and interests around the world.

Deutsche Börse erweitert Index-Geschäft.  Deutsche Börse AG and Axioma, Inc. announced that Axioma has agreed to be acquired by Deutsche Börse for USD 850 million cash and debt free (around USD 820 million equity value) and will be combined with Deutsche Börse’s index businesses valued at EUR 2.6 billion. The combination will create a fully integrated, buy-side intelligence player that will provide unique products and analytics to meet the growing demand for an end-to-end platform.

Wolters Kluwer mit Lösungen für internationale Steuerfragen.  Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S. announced the re-launch of Kluwer International Tax Law, a research platform that integrates Wolters Kluwer’s content with an intuitive user interface and practical tools for legal professionals advising on international tax law matters. Reimagined with international legal tax professionals‘ workflow in mind, the re-launched Kluwer International Tax Law solution has several upgraded features to provide quick, comprehensive access to international tax topics, curated and updated by Wolters Kluwer’s international tax experts.

Mit Google-Geldern Einfluss des Journalismus messen. Data science company Altmetric and multidisciplinary science journal Nature will receive funding from the Google Digital News Innovation Fund to build a novel tool for measuring the impact of journalism. Journalism has an impact: news stories can drive policy change, trigger a resignation or investigation, inspire social media debate or launch a field of research.

Bloomsbury verbessert Publikationschancen für nicht-angelsächsische Autoren.Bloomsbury is starting academic publishing in India this year as it continues to evolve its business in the country. The firm plans to publish local authors on similar topics to those commonly covered in the US and the UK, with subjects including social studies, philosophy and history. Editor Chandra Sekhar will be looking to commission from a range of academics.

Bessere Logistik für Raffinerien. Orbital Insight announced the launch of its refinery outage product, a daily data feed that detects maintenance activity changes up to three days before existing reporting services. Energy sector participants are now able to accurately identify the start and finish of maintenance activity at nearly all U.S. refineries, providing critical supply production information days before this information is available through current reporting.

EBSCO mit Music Index with Full Text. EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) hat die neue Datenbank Music Index with Full Text, die den steigenden Bedarf nach musikbezogenen Ressourcen abdecken wird. Diese Datenbank enthält mehr als 170 Zeitschriften im Volltext von 1970 bis zur Gegenwart, die Informationen rund um klassische und populäre Musik beinhalten.

Quelle: Outsell, EBSCO.

Deutscher Bibliotheksverband

Bibliotheken im Fokus der Medien

Lernen und flirten an der UB
mit Beate Tröger

Die Bibliotheken stehen aktuell stärker im Fokus der Medien, meint der Deutsche Bibliotheksverband und hat eine Liste soeben erschienener Beiträge zusammengestellt:

Tagesschau: Bibliotheken als „Wohnzimmer der Stadt“
https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/tag-des-buchs-hamburg-101.html?fbclid=IwAR0Edx4gTBSeiLh1U8j9HWKgFxA004nRaUu6K6S1MgBqNTxb4LF6rzv_jGM

WDR: Die Zukunft der Bibliothek – mehr als Bücher? (dbv-Bundesvorsitzenden Barbara Lison im Interview)
https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/tagesgespraech/tg-dreiundzwanzigster-april-102.html

SWR2: Man trifft sich in der Bibliothek – Gespräch mit Frank Mentrup, Präsident des Deutschen Bibliotheksverbandes https://www.swr.de/swr2/programm/sendungen/journal/interview-man-trifft-sich-in-der-bibliothek-gespraech-mit-frank-mentrup-praesident-des-deutschen-bibliotheksverbandes/-/id=659282/did=23902260/nid=659282/flnuun/index.html

FAZ: Universitätsbibliotheken – Lernen und flirten (mit Statements von Vorstandsmitglied Beate Tröger) https://www.faz.net/aktuell/beruf-chance/campus/der-reiz-der-uni-bib-lernen-und-flirten-16136918.html

Süddeutsche Zeitung: Das Buch hat immer noch eine Zukunft
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/erding/welttag-des-buches-das-buch-hat-immer-noch-eine-zukunft-1.4417155

Süddeutsche Zeitung

Mit jedem Regalmeter, der verschwand,
sind mehr Menschen gekommen

„Es wird gelesen, gestritten, am Handy gespielt, geflirtet. Die Zentralbibliothek der Hamburger Bücherhallen ist für Tausende ein Ort der Begegnung. Seit weniger Bücher drinstehen. Wie sich eine alte Institution neu erfindet. …

Sie haben jetzt mehr freien Raum, mehr Stühle, gutes Wlan. Besonders gefragt: Steckdosen. … Mit jedem Regalmeter, der verschwand, sind mehr Menschen gekommen. …In der Public Library in New York kann man sich jetzt Internetrouter ausleihen – und Krawatten. …

Also: Wer schon längst nicht mehr in einer Bibliothek war und womöglich glaubt, dass diese Gesellschaft den Bachruntergeht, in Milieus zerfällt und dass sich jeder nur noch einen Dreck für den anderen interessiert. Einfach mal wieder hingehen. Ja, es sind nach wie vor noch Bibliotheken. Aber es ist wirklich erstaunlich, was da alles in den Regalgängen passiert,“

Hannes Vollmuth, Macht Platz, in: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/erding/welttag-des-buches-das-buch-hat-immer-noch-eine-zukunft-1.4417155

Arvato

Bertelsman-Tochter will Weltmarktführer
in CRM-Diensten werden

Branche vor KI- und Automatisierungsschub

Bertelsmann Unit Arvato CRM and Saham Group Launch “Majorel”. Bertelsmann has offloaded its Arvato CRM Solutions into a 50/50 ownership venture called Majorel. The new entity has great plans to become a world leader in CRM services. It has to be seen how Majorel will stack up against Salesforce.

Bertelsmann and Saham Group (based in Morocco) are combining their respective CRM businesses which means rebranding of former Arvato CRM Solutions, Phone Group, Ecco Outsourcing and Pioneers Outsourcing into Majorel. The combined unit will have a global presence in 28 countries, and leading market positions in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Several hundred million Euros to be invested in digital capabilities and expansion in key growth markets.

Thomas Mackenbrock, Chief Executive Officer of newly created customer experience services group ‘Majorel’, has formally launched the new brand with an ambitious statement of intent on its global growth strategy. Majorel, which has more than 48,000 employees in 28 countries worldwide, is a leading player in Europe, Middle East and Africa and has a strong presence in Asia and the Americas. Early this year the company was formed by combining the worldwide customer service businesses of Bertelsmann, the international media, services, and education company, and Morocco’s Saham Group.

The business is aiming for a leading position in the global customer experience industry by investing heavily in its regional network and digital customer engagement capabilities. It plans to invest several hundred million Euros over the course of the coming years in geographical expansion and in digital capabilities and solutions including analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation.

The formation of Majorel came about in response to seismic changes that are happening in the customer experience industry, driven by the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Research carried out on behalf of the company shows that within the next years, up to a quarter of existing contact center interactions could be handled by automated technologies, with this figure potentially rising to almost half by 2027.This rise will be mirrored by a massive overall increase in customer interactions. Many of those will be handled completely automatically or in self-service, but also an increasing number by ‘tech-enabled’ humans.

Quelle: BIIA

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Outsell (London)
Business Industry Information Association/BIIA (Hongkong)

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