PSPB Initiative on Competitive Positioning

2008

A briefing for the IEEE OU SeriesFebruary 2008

John Baillieul, Vice President, PSP

Why we need to think about Competitive Positioning?

Now, HERE, said the Queen, it takes all the running YOU can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!'

What is the Initiative on Competitive Positioning?

Historically we had a coordinated way to benchmark ourselves against the competition from a library sales point of view

Examples: price comparisons, journal impact factor, web delivery features

But in other dimensions of competitive positioning we have a less coordinated view

Timeliness of publications Services to authors, reviewers Identifying new forms of content, methods of delivery,

operating procedures System availability and user support

Why worry now about Competitive Positioning?

PSPB’s strategic plan observes that a confluence of factors is forcing the reinvention of STM publishing

Large-scale consolidation in the STM publishing industry: IEEE is farther from being the largest publisher than in the past

Publishers of comparable and larger size are also reinventing themselves

The STM Publishing industry faces the challenge of new business models; we must be prepared• Number of so-called open access journals is increasing;

Boundaries between free and restricted Web content will increasingly challenge our relationships with members and customers

What’s Different About PSPB’s New Competitive Positioning Initiative?

A cross organizational joint task force PSPB and TAB - volunteers + staff Eventually could include others: EAB, Standards

A goal to create understanding – and maybe even agreement – across IEEE organizational units on several key points:

The elements of competitive positioning that are essential to our reputation;

The competitive advantages in today’s interdisciplinary world of presenting a more coordinated front to the outside world; and

The potential advantages in savings and efficiencies offered by our scale

Goals of the PSPB Initiative on Competitive Positioning

Identify key areas of competitive positioning: Quality of publications Quality of experience for all users: authors, reviewers, readers

For each key area, the initiative will establish Metrics of performance Performance goals Procedures for assessment

Identify opportunities to improve product line Rapid development of new products and services Transition strategies for underperforming products and services Exit strategies for products and services that consistently fail to be

market leaders

Initial Efforts In PSPB’s Initiative on Competitive Positioning

Formal efforts to track what competitors are doing: We’re getting our own subscriptions to competitor publications

(AMS, APS, Elsevier, etc.) Engage our own volunteers who are also involved with other STM

published to share their user experiences

Efforts to benchmark key components of competitive positioning:

Timeliness survey now underway IEEE SPC conducting Strategic Program Assessments of many

lines of products and services – are they the right ones in terms of the competitive market place?

IBM assessment of Xplore availability and recommendations to improve

Potential Outcomes Of The PSPB Initiative

More emphasis on new products and services:

New ways to support professional communities

Increased availability of real-time help New forms of content that cross-cut our fields

of interest. Expanded promotion and advertising

IEEE publications are in many cases leaders in their fields. We can do more to publicize this to the author and reader community

Potential Outcomes Of The PSPB Initiative

Specific idea: IEEEdia - an open access on-line technology encyclopedia created and maintained by IEEE’s membership

• Example: searching for information about Fourier transform leads Google to: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_transform andmathworld.wolfram.com/FourierTransform.html

• Why not IEEE?

Resources Related to The PSPB Initiative

Customer service and support

• Staff positions---new and redefined

New products and services

• Buy-in from OU’s• Need to establish non-print-centric mindset for publishing

A multifaceted effort to Assess the market position of IEEE Publications

services and products vis-à-vis other technical scholarly publishers;

Identify new forms of content, methods of delivery, and operational procedures aimed at keeping IEEE at the industry’s cutting edge;

Ensure that the IEEE becomes and remains the gold standard for web-based access to publications services and products;

Ensure that IEEE Publishing has impeccable customer satisfaction---among readers and users, within the author community, and among the volunteers who carry out our peer review mission.

The PSPB Initiative Redux

End

Goals of the PSPB Initiative on Competitive Positioning

Identify obstacles to enhancing IEEE’s business agility in information products and services

Are roles and responsibilities of the various IEEE OUs understood with regard to managing their products and services? • Societies and Councils• PSPB• TAB and its committees: Periodicals, Conference

Publications, Products & Services Committee• New Marketing and Sales Committee• IEEE Strategic Planning Committee

How do these roles and responsibilities need to be updated to enhance IEEE’s effectiveness?