Author: Christian Velten

In late 2011 an additional organizational transformation within our Novartis division was announced more or less surprisingly. I had the lead with implementing consequential changes of structures, processes, services and deliveries.  During day-to-day operation, I reshaped information research & analysis processes and moved corresponding tasks and assigned FTEs to the Novartis Hyderabad (India) subsidiary. In addition, I  coordinated and supervised vendors and external contributors. Despite limited resources as well as the short-term nature of the requested changes, I reached a successful and save handover as well as the continuity of our regulatory deliveries ensuring services without interruptions or complaints. CLIENT:Novartis Knowledge Management(as a Novartis employee)PROJECT TIME…

You might have asked yourself already, why I once selected “TrapperPhD” as my online nickname? The story behind TrapperPhD … To make a long story short … during my university time my nickname was “Trapper” (honestly spoken, one out of a couple). And after finishing my doctorate, “Trapper PhD” was a logical consecutive consequence … but also a tribute to “Trapper John, M.D.”, a famous TV series in the 80s of the last century (when I grew up, “those times long ago”). Last not least, I like this name because I like the qualities, trappers stand for. What trappers are…

With a so-called “bibliographic search” you are looking for the abstract or full-text of a scientific publication. This means, you already have at least some citation information on the publication, like author name(s), publication year, title, journal name, volume#, issue#, and/or page#. There are some known traps and pitfalls with bibliographic searches, that I would like to share with you. 6 pitfalls for bibliographic searches … 1. Always assume a typo Generally assume typos in either the database record of the publication, or your notes, or the original publication. 2. Do not use special characters If the known publication title…

It is turning around … around … around … and around. Always the same turn, always the same things in view. With changing perspectives, but actually always at the same place. Sooner or later just boring. And once you overwind … well, mhh … might become unsavory. I exactly feel like sitting in such a carousel since I seriously entered the world of Knowledge Management (KM). I regularly find myself hanging around at places where people interested in good knowledge working meet virtually or physically, like KM blogs or meetings of like-minded colleagues. In any case, places where people with…

You would be surprised (and shocked) by how many people use Google as the major or even sole information source for daily business. In the worst case for business-critical decisions. And many of those are actually convinced that Google serves their needs. The problem simply is that you never know what you do not know. OK … no bashing! … Google is not bad. Assumed that you always keep in mind what kind of tool you are working with and use it properly. Google suggests to give an answer, but factually it does not. Google only provides sources (= web…

A couple of days ago, I had lunch with a colleague, and we once again reflected on the question why big companies work internally like they just do. That one might get the impression of a stone field, where the stones are obvious to everybody … but are not moved away by anybody. But perhaps this is basically the wrong attitude. Later the picture of a fish leaped into my mind. A fish who moves through wild and troubled whitewater. People like us would probably say: well, let’s take out the stones first. This will calm the water and make…

The major challenge for most IP workers is to know where and how to retrieve up-to-date, high-quality patent as well as patent-related information. Well, for simple searches regarding a known patent number, inventor, assignee, head title, etc. there are already a couple of easy-to-use Internet sources provided by national and international patent authorities. For example, esp@cenet (EPODOC), DEPATISnet and the USPTO databases. Another promising source for basic searches – especially in the context of drug development – is DrugPatentWatch. But this one – as the ones following now – unfortunately is not for free. For more complex information research, like…

In his today’s newspaper column Sebastian Turner 1, initiator of the Falling Walls Conference 2 (“leading thinkers at the intellectual frontier” ), writes about the lack of qualified professionals in Germany. As part of that he mentions studies done by Manfred Prenzel 3 from the Munich Technical University, that are worth to also be shared with the English-speaking knowledge community. While studying the German school system, Manfred Prenzel found that for 42% of the investigated students one year at school did not result in learning advancements. They had exactly the same knowledge and skills as 12 months before. Manfred Prenzel…

From time to time, the team I proudly belong to does some customer surveys to optimize our inhouse services. One request we consistently get is the need for a live online chat as extension of our customer support portfolio. This is an understandable wish, as the advantages of live support and communication by live chat are evident. Time for a testimony. Dear reader, I apologize if you are one of the sufferers and ask to kindly not take it personally, but to very honest … I usually switch the preinstalled text chat tools off. Why? Because they are just inefficient…

Please forgive a best-ager this melancholic flashback. But one of the most inspiring projects during my career was the successful migration of a business publication from print to online around the turn of the millennium. “Inside-Lifescience” was a multi-channel online-magazine covering latest news and trends in life science, pharma and biotechnology. But let’s start with the roots. The publication was originally developed in early 1999 by a leading German publisher of specialized journals in the fields of life sciences/medicine and the information broker business that I had just founded. The intention of the publisher was to establish a periodical information…