Elsevier Introduces Breakthrough Technology Int...

AMSTERDAM, January 22 /PRNewswire/ --

    - illumin8 Combines Scientific Content From Elsevier and Other
Publishers, Web and Patent Content With Intelligent Web Search Technology to
Address Complex Technology and Market Landscape Questions Faster and More
Easily



    Elsevier, the world's leading publisher of scientific, medical and
technical products and services, today announced the European availability of
illumin8 (http://www.illumin8.com), a unique Web-based natural language
processing solution designed to help corporate research professionals answer
complex R&D questions with greater speed and effectiveness. illumin8 extracts
key relationships across the breadth of Elsevier's premium scientific
content, millions of patents and 8 billion Web pages and fuses them into an
organized view, making it the richest business search solution in the world.



    Recent research(1) projects European R&D spending to reach $280.2 billion
in 2009, accounting for roughly a quarter of the World's total R&D
expenditures. Initially launched in the United States in February of 2008,
illumin8 fills the void of streamlined, efficient research processes, setting
a new standard for data extraction from high-quality content sources.



    Traditional research tools are unable to uncover hidden insights because
the user needs to know exactly what to look for, and the results are
generated in the form of document sets that require significant effort -
taking days or weeks to organize and form meaning or understanding. illumin8
is more efficient and delivers far superior results because it is driven by a
powerful semantic search index that surfaces exactly what the user is looking
for in great detail, eliminating false positives and redundant results. This
provides a much more effective result set and highly intuitive user
experience that accelerates the discovery process. illumin8 searches across a
wide range of technical and subject domains, serving the needs of research
professionals in a number of different fields such as automotive, oil & gas,
electronics, chemicals, coatings and consumer goods and packaging.



    Upon evaluating the product, Outsell, Inc. (http://www.outsellinc.com), a
leading research and advisory firm focused on the publishing, information,
and education industries, noted, "The ability to deliver answers rather than
documents strikes at the heart of the information need of the R&D knowledge
worker. Indeed, in Outsell's view, the importance of illumin8, both as a
product for Elsevier, and as an example of the direction in which 'search' is
heading, is hard to overstate."



How illumin8 Works

    illlumin8 optimizes Technology Intelligence and discovery practices,
enabling users to quickly comprehend key elements of a technology to
efficiently deliver on key strategic initiatives. Because of its unique
algorithms, illumin8 is designed to go beyond simple keyword search and is
the only tool that can extract relationships from vast amounts of
information, thereby providing the quickest and easiest way to understand
technology and remove roadblocks in the scientists' workflow. It does so by
reading and distilling data for actionable insight, such as accelerating
product development innovation, identifying new technologies and finding
potential partners/collaborators. Further, illumin8 guides research at the
front-end of innovation by uncovering undisclosed concepts, finding new
technologies and identifying the leading experts and innovators in new areas



    "Companies are always on the hunt for the 'next big thing,' so having
tools that help to overcome scientific roadblocks and reach this point of
innovative breakthrough at an accelerated rate can prove to be valuable in
slashing time-to-market for new products and services. This is a fact that
holds true for a number of industries - from food and consumer packaged
goods, to chemicals, automotive, or oil & gas," said Martin O'Malley,
managing director, Corporate Markets for Elsevier. "By bringing illumin8 to
our European corporate audience, we're aiming to contribute to a more
streamlined R&D process and allow corporate researchers, scientists,
information and innovation professionals to embrace the evolving importance
of international collaboration."



    illumin8 is part of Elsevier's portfolio of advanced information
retrieval solutions that transforms its high value content into actionable
knowledge to improve ROI for corporate R&D. illumin8 users can easily access
the full-text of Elsevier journals if they have an online subscription to the
journal through ScienceDirect, the world's largest online platform of
science, technical and medical (STM) content.



About Elsevier

    Elsevier is a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and
medical information products and services. Working in partnership with the
global science and health communities, Elsevier's 7,000 employees in over 70
offices worldwide publish more than 2,000 journals and 1,900 new books per
year, in addition to offering a suite of innovative electronic products, such
as Science Direct. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/), MDConsult 
(http://www.mdconsult.com/), Scopus (http://www.info.scopus.com/),
bibliographic databases, and online reference works.



    Elsevier (http://www.elsevier.com/) is a global business headquartered in
Amsterdam, The Netherlands and has offices worldwide. Elsevier is part of
Reed Elsevier Group plc (http://www.reedelsevier.com/), a world-leading
publisher and information provider. Operating in the science and medical,
legal, education and business-to-business sectors, Reed Elsevier provides
high-quality and flexible information solutions to users, with increasing
emphasis on the Internet as a means of delivery. Reed Elsevier's ticker
symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and
ENL (New York Stock Exchange).



---------------------------------

    (1) "2009 Global R&D Funding Forecast," December 2008; Jules Duga, Martin
Grueber, Batelle; Tim Studt, Advantage Business Media



    
    Tom Reller, Director, Corporate Relations, Elsevier
    [e-mail]
    [phone]

    Melissa Biles
    LaunchSquad Public Relations
    [e-mail]
    [phone]