Products : Case Studies : Pera's Knowledge Division

Pera: A Force to Be Reckoned With

Much has been made of the decline of Britain's manufacturing industry over the past couple of decades, but tucked away on the outskirts of the Leicestershire market town of Melton Mowbray a world-class research facility is determined to arrest that decline.

Pera, set up just after the Second World War to help British industry get back on its feet and re-establish itself as a force to be reckoned with, shares its home with that most traditional of British delicacies, the pork pie.

But in all other respects the company — formerly a government-owned and funded research association — is breaking with tradition, promoting best practice and forcing the pace of change in a sector not normally associated with dynamism and forward- thinking.

Over the course of its 50-year plus existence, in a number of different guises, Pera has acquired an enviable reputation as a provider of information regarded as essential to many companies' survival and well-being. Initially, this was confined to the dissemination of best practice advice for the general good of industry — techniques, procedures, inventions — but as the business climate changed (for the worse in the 1970s) and became increasingly global (in the 1990s) Pera has had to adapt to meet the demands of its many members.

The Knowledge Division at Pera

Key to Pera's ability to remain relevant and provide a compelling service to its membership base is the Knowledge Division, which is fast-becoming the jewel in Pera's crown.

The Knowledge Division's remit is simple: to support Pera's consultancy sector and thereby improve operational functionality. A range of tools and services have been developed to meet this goal, enhancing Pera's skills base and enabling its team of expert consultants to maintain an edge in their dealings with clients.

For the past 15 years and more, Pera has forged a long-standing relationship with Dialog, one of the world's leading business information providers. Indeed, Pera numbers itself as one of Dialog's longest-serving customers dating back to a time when its role led it quickly to appreciate the importance of having access to information.

Richard Grice, from Pera's Knowledge Division , says the introduction of information services from Dialog helped transform Pera's ability to keep pace with rapid change in UK industry and further afield.

"The Dialog relationship means we've been able to break down the barriers between the providers and users of information and introduce a wider range of tools geared to the needs of distinct sectors, such as environmental consultants and biotech companies."

Thinking global...

During the course of their relationship, much has changed. In the late 1980s, Pera's clients were beginning to become more dynamic and internationally-minded, necessitating global information resources to support their endeavours. And in the 1990s entire new industries emerged — biotech, for example — spawning businesses hungry for information, skills and ideas.

"There's been an increasing sophistication among industry," says Grice. "Its needs have grown and changed. No longer do companies merely make a product. There's competition, so they need to think about marketing it and selling it and keep ahead of the game."

That sophistication has manifested itself in a number of ways, not least the transferability of ideas and techniques from one industry sector to another, apparently unrelated, one. The plastics moulding sector, for example, uses technology and processes that have been adopted and adapted by the food industry, and chocolate manufacturers in particular.

New technologies require new ways of operating

And it's Pera's job to help companies capitalize and exploit these changes, rendering the relationship with Dialog and the capability of its information services especially important.

Grice explains that Pera's credibility is founded on its ability to deliver top quality information. "The Knowledge team feeds into the consultancy team that in turn feeds into Pera's training team — it's our core service proposition."

Over the years, this combination of in-house expertise and Dialog's Profound, DataStar and Dialog products has enabled Pera to enhance its service, graduating from providing mere data to information ("data endowed with meaning and relevance," as Grice describes it) to true knowledge ("the interpretation of information and its application to particular scenarios").

askpera.com is born...

This activity culminated last year in the decision to broaden the appeal of Pera's expertise to smaller organisations, in addition to the large corporates who form the bedrock of its membership.

The result was a service called askpera.com, which opened up Pera's archives, abstracts and Dialog databases to a far wider audience than before.

The full list is as follows:

• Business and Industry™ — worldwide company, market and economic information
• Dialog Global Reporter — global news and commentary
• TableBase™ — statistics
• Gale Group PROMT® — international trade and business information
• Pascal — scientific and technical literature
• INSPEC — physics, electronics and computing
• Engineered Materials Abstracts® — composites, ceramics and others
• ICONDA — international construction database
• NTIS — US Government technology information
• RAPRA — rubber and polymers
• METADEX® — metals science
• Ceramic Abstracts — worldwide technical literature on all aspects of ceramics

"We deliberately chose databases that are easy to use and straightforward," says Richard Grice. "Some are very detailed, but they're not too technically challenging."

The introduction of askpera.com has had a significant impact on Pera, most notably in terms of the size and type of organisation it now deals with and the service it offers them.

"It means we need to get closer to our client base. Because askpera.com is aimed at smaller organizations, we can't rely on people who know us and who have seen it. We need to promote it to encourage awareness and usage.

"The aim is to get closer to our client base, by developing services they want using products from the likes of Dialog."

Ongoing enhancements...

Less than a year old, askpera.com is already being enhanced and modified to meet this aim. Pera's own abstracts database of 25,000 documents has been included in the service and a silo of tagged, searchable answers to specific questions that are generic in nature are being added at the rate of 500 a year.

Almost 20 years after forging their initial alliance, Dialog and Pera are still going strong.

"The askpera.com project has helped to cement an already strong relationship," says Grice.

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