Download Technology Intelligence Systems

Net
Introducing a Technology
Intelligence System
Principles and Approaches to a
Knowledge-Based System for a
Technology-Based (Chemical)
Company
From: Wolfgang Runge: Innovation, Research and Technology Intelligence in the Chemical Industry
Fraunhofer IRB Verlag, 2006
Net
Acronyms and Abbreviations
DBMS - Database Management System
ETL - Extract, Transfer, Load
I&CT – Information & Communication Technology
IT – Information Technology
KDD - Knowledge Discovery in Databases
KDT – Knowledge Discovery in Text Databases
ROC – Report-of-Call (minutes of customer visits)
SOA – Service-Oriented Architecture
XSLT – Extensible Stylesheet Language –
Transformation
XML – Extensible Markup Language
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
2
Net
Intelligence in Technology-Oriented
Companies
Information & Communication Technology (I&CT):
supporting systemic innovation via intelligence
processes and intelligence products.
“Intelligence is knowledge and foreknowledge of the
world around us - the prelude to Presidential decision
and action” (CIA Definition).
Business world: “competitive intelligence”
Technology Intelligence – (which, how, when; by whom)
technology meets market (demand);
business-sensitive information about external scientific
and technological developments that can affect a
company’s competitive position.
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
3
Net
Technology Intelligence System Objectives
Serve the company to enable the businesses to create value by supporting
strategy development, decision-making and action and accelerating the
delivery of the right or new offerings and contributing to new business
developments by
tracking technology developments and identifying technical and commercial
opportunities;
identifying current and future markets*) and demands;
tracking competitive technologies, competitors and customers;
identifying external resources (R&D partnerships, external experts, etc.) to
optimize utilization of competencies and resources;
combining existing information and knowledge into new knowledge and
discovering “new” knowledge through analysis, insights and inferences, and
communication;
supporting idea generation;
sharing and leveraging corporate-internal know-how
using an information requirements oriented “single-point-of-access”.
*) Includes constraints in terms of regulatory and legislative aspects.
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
4
Net
Benefits and Value Creation: Avoid Surprises
and Maximize Resource Utilization
Accelerates value created by R&D through leading and
maintaining specialized computing solutions for operational, tactical
and strategic decision-making and action.
Monitors and assesses technology developments and competitors’
and customers’ activities as well as markets.
Optimizes R&D resources (makes existing firm know-how
shareable across businesses; increased problem-solving potential,
utilizes external expertise)
Increases ROI (return on investment) through re-use, re-packaging
and re-purposing of information and knowledge and re-using
existing solutions;
Avoids re-inventing the wheel, costly lawsuits.
Uncovers new sources of revenue (e.g. license- in/out)
Inspires new ideas and opportunity identification (e.g. via solution
transfer, gap identification, across-business fertilization)
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
5
Net
Implementing an R&D-Led TI-System
People-orientation, a “man-machine” system. A “total system”
concept (conceptualized TI-system plus interwoven systems, in
particular, an “R&D system” and/or “innovation system”).
Management and stakeholder support.
Remember: “People Support What They Help Create”, also on the
operational level
An appropriate conceptual model: information types vs. sources
Create a “proprietary” system (customizing “off-the-shelf”
product(s)).
Learning and training must emphasize how to use the overall TIsystem, utilizing the interconnections of the various modules and
tools and in this way support activities and processes rather than
mastering only the functionalities of the individual components
(databases and tools).
Use “information technology architecture” approaches building on
the firm’s I&CT infrastructure. Derive “business architecture” from
technology intelligence organization
Use open, scalable, integrateable and modular designs.
Follow “evolutionary prototyping”.
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
6
Net
Transforming a Business Architecture into a
TI-System
Business Strategy,
Technology Strategy
Company
Knowledge/
Intelligence
Firm’s I&CT
Infrastructure
Knowledge/Intelligence
Organization
Firm’s I&CT
Requirements
For instance,
INTRAnet, network
operating system,
“standard” software,
Communication tools
Customized
Developments
“Buy and/or
build”
External
Information
Key external source for
technical information:
STN International
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
“Fits”
Company
Solution
Existing Assets,
Externally Available
Components or Services
7
Net
TI-Systems and IT-Systems
Creating a business-driven IT-system requires that system
designers and stakeholders understand the firm’s strategic context.
Strategic context:
What business demands; roles and relationships are critical.
Business units may be able to coordinate and leverage some
approaches and sharing some information resources, but keeping
others autonomous and “private”.
Identify IT principles:
How the firm leads or follows in the IT (I&CT) deployment in its
industry.
The firm’s attitude and views of I&CT: none, or
– Utility (to reduce cost emphasizing existing processes)
– Dependent (investing primarily to current strategies and IT offerings)
– Enabling (investment flexibility to respond to longer-term goals and
organizational innovation – “change the way how we work to sustain
technical innovation and growth”)
Clarify the firm’s approach to IT infrastructure.
“Standardized” or “heterogeneous” hard- and software, networking.
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
8
Net
Innovation and R&D Activities, Objects or Processes to
be Supported by I&CT Applications
Innovation Activities and Levels
Individual
Cooperative
Project
Access,
Load,
Storage
Analysis
Current awareness
(technical, commercial);
“prior art”; competitive
products tracking;
retrieval
Communication,
dissemination; discussions;
conferencing
Customer contacts
(“minutes”); corrective
action management
(customers); customer
profiling, (“Database of
Needs”)
Search, browse, navigate
KDD, data mining
Opportunity detection
Co-authoring (for instance,
technical reports, minutes of
customer visits, conference
attendance)
Project proposal; project
stage reviews, postlaunch review
(Computer) workspaces
and repositories for data,
information (text and
graphics) for individuals
or groups
KDT, text mining
(Personal) information
management
File/information sharing (data:
text plus graphic)
Project-portfolio
management; project
(technical) reports;
patents
Document (content)
management
Reporting
Idea management
Workflow management
Project management;
decision logging
Application integration
Company I&CT Infrastructure
Support
by a technology intelligence system embedded in an “innovation system”
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
9
Net
Major Requirements and Features
The system is text document-centric focusing on information (elements) and data;
All information categories are handled which means text, numbers, graphics,
chemical formulas etc.;
Various types of information (technical and market/commercial) are included; there is
an emphasis on patents;
The proportion of external to internal information is ca. 80:20 (capture from external
resources versus internally available or created);
A very small part of overall data/information is updated or manually added (inserted),
whether it is relational data (for instance, laboratory data) or not;
Input of information and knowledge is controlled (by humans):
only evaluated/selected and preferentially classified information enters the system (no
“bulk dump down”). The selection process uses business value criteria: the value of
the content for current or future research and the firm’s competitive position and the
value to be archived for search and retrieval, problem-solving and re-use.
Content can be subjected directly to analysis (KDT, “implicit knowledge” discovery)
Capture, data exchange or interoperability need not proceed synchronously (in “real
time”), it is mainly asynchronous;
The change of content over time is “slow” (“archival nature” rather than transactional),
but important changes occur some time that must be taken into account (for instance,
company renaming, mergers and acquisitions, or data format changes in the external
resources
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
10
Net
A TI Systems Architecture Related to a Portal Structure
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
11
Net
A Conceptual Information Model: Information Types and Sources
Major or minor importance of the particular source for an information type is indicated by the degree of shading
(less shading = less important as a resource).
Copyright 2006 The Dow Chemical Company
12
Net
Technical Architecture: Web-Based Database-Centric
Approach with Data Warehouse Orientation
Basically, a Two-Tier Architecture:
– Web (access and presentation, post-processing after export),
– Database (business logic, workflow, knowledge layer with metadata and ontology, data capture, access layer; database classes)
Towards a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)
“Native” XML database (and XML-enabled databases)
XML export and XSLT post-processing
Windows-oriented (user interface; office software
integration)
Date Warehouse Orientation (“Information Warehouse”)
– Syntactic and semantic data/information consistencies
– Integrated analysis modules (ETL) and exports to external
analysis tools
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
13
Net
Product Architecture:
InterHost 3000 XML Database Management System
Scalable, open and integrateable Web-based DBMS; “native” XML
(not relational) full-text database; access to and use of various
information sources using a single MS Windows-like user-interface.
Data and information input and edits, input via forms and selective
and scheduled information capture through crawling from external
and internal resources (“download” and system integration)
Integration with a Microsoft Office, e-mail (Outlook) and MS SQL
Server database infrastructure
Analysis and visualization modules as well as various reporting
functionalities (tables etc.)
Retrieval language is compatible with Messenger® language of STN
International
Cooperation, in particular, an automatic workflow process of patent
capture and evaluation as well as discussion forums
“Grabber” to capture patent documents (usually available as PDFfiles) free-of-charge from the Web sites of the patent offices
Thesaurus and ontology (for multifile searching) functionalities
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
14
Net
Information-Related Components of a TI-System
Information Types and Database Classes
Discussion Forums
Direct Knowledge Access
External Technologies
Internal Technologies
External Experts
Industry Events
Industry Reports
Public or/and private/controlled access
Predefined Concept Searching
Patents, technical literature, citations
Firm’s Technical Reports
Information, contact management
Push Services; Web Crawl
Information capture
from external
resources, assessment;
automatic integration
News (commercial, regulatory; etc.; competitors, customers)
Companies, markets, technologies, chemicals (.doc, .ppt, .xls)
Customers
Business ROCs; controlled access; document forms, e-mail
Products/Processes
Competitive products’ performance; product usage citations
Web Crawling
Database Clusters
Web Links
Patents (USPTO, EPO, …; full text weekly; more Web resources)
Multifile search; predefined clusters for applications, businesses
Relevant Web sites, other database accessible via http
Extract, Transfer, Load (ETL)
Analyze
Knowledge Discovery in Text Databases (KDT), “text mining”
Multifile Searching (across all database types)
Training & Pilots
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
Training and new development previews (demos) and tests
15
Net
An Example
Wolfgang Runge
INNOVATION, RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY
INTELLIGENCE IN THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY
Integrated Business, Technical and Systems Approaches
Fraunhofer IRB Verlag, 2006
(http://www.baufachinformation.de/artikel.jsp?v=222645)
Chapter 7.3
Outlining a Database-Centric Intelligence System
Implementation
Copyright 2006 Wolfgang Runge
16