Information as You Need It

By Chris Forbes

Editor’s note: This commentary was sponsored as part of DE’s Visionary Voices section in the magazine’s15th anniversary issue.

With Knovel’s equation plotter, engineers can use reference information to model results by entering their own test values.

Ten years ago, Knovel began offering trusted technical references to engineers online.  We surprised the industry by bringing reference data to life by making it interactive, empowering engineers to manipulate and incorporate it into their workflow.

  Engineers embraced the convenience and power of Knovel from the start. Why? Because going to a physical library and skimming through books for answers, manually copying a source or an equation into a notebook and using calculators to solve it burns valuable time. Searching the vast Internet isn’t much more effective. Consider how much time is wasted digging through a deluge of results to find usable information from sources that must be validated.

  Today, Knovel offers content across 24 subject areas, and we have nearly 70,000 interactive tables, equation plotters, charts and graphs that can be manipulated and exported into other tools such as Excel or PTC’s Mathcad. Using Knovel, engineers save time, avoid costly mistakes, and expand their knowledge base. Industry leading companies rely on Knovel as a source of highly regarded content engineers can use to justify design decisions.

  Engineers using Knovel have powered towns with wind farms, rebuilt bridges, designed power plants, and introduced new products to market. We are proud to support design engineers as they research product development and design options, best practices, safety,  compliance, and materials for a wide range of products across all industries.

  Engineering Trends
We continue to be solely focused on the needs of the engineering community. In fact, engineers drive Knovel’s content selection and product design; staying tuned into their business challenges is a priority.

  At a high level, customers tell us they face intense global competition and tight margins. Engineering teams are leaner and less specialized requiring more interdisciplinary know-how.

  Experienced engineers are retiring at an alarming pace and fewer are entering the field. Training and knowledge transfer are more important than ever.

  We also see a rise of merger and acquisition activity in the market and an increase in remote and geographically dispersed teams. Companies turn to Knovel as they streamline resources to ensure employees/engineers have access to a common source of best practices and policies. This not only ensures engineering projects are properly and consistently documented, but it also helps to provide an efficient work environment.

  Future Opportunities
With customer and industry challenges in mind, we see tremendous opportunities as technology continues to advance. Mobile devices and applications change the way we work and live. Collaboration has taken on new meaning with the adoption of Wikis, social networks, and crowd sourcing. The ability to access Knovel via mobile devices,  collaboration, and integration into enterprise applications, such as content and knowledge management systems, are all part of our long-term strategy to ensure that we continue to increase the speed-to-solution for engineers.

  Next year, Knovel will launch a new platform with enhanced ease-of-use including an intuitive search interface that improves the speed of search returns as well as the accuracy and relevance of results and even more content. Text and data searches will be unified to save time. The new interface will facilitate navigation and increase efficiency and visibility of our interactive tools. With Knovel, you’ll know more and search less. 

  If you haven’t tried Knovel,  check it out and see what you’ve been missing.

Chris Forbes is president and CEO, Knovel.