Search tool aims to speed up product to market

Illumin8 is a web-based software that allows cosmetic and personal care developers to answer complex research and development questions with greater and speed and effectiveness, its creators claim.

It does this by tapping into the company’s scientific content, millions of patents and approximately 8 billion webpages, then fuses them together to provide organised information tailored to the researchers requirements.

Tapping into a huge market​

Elsevier believes it is tapping into a huge market. In 2009 it is estimated that European research and development spend will reach $280.2bn, a figure that accounts for approximately a quarter of the global estimate.

A considerable slice of this expenditure is likely to be apportioned to the cosmetics and personal care industry – a sector that thrives on science-based innovations to help generate revenue growth.

The fast-pace of the industry also means that getting new products to market as early as possible and ahead of the competition is a vital element to success.

Speed to market vital​

By default, this means that any tool that can speed up the research and development process is of vital importance, in a market where getting the product to market a few weeks earlier can make all the difference to the success of a new product launch.

Elsevier claim that traditional research tools are unable to uncover hidden insights because they are not as multi-faceted as the Illumin8 solution.

Solutions that do not uncover these hidden insights can often add crucial weeks to the understanding and interpretation of a project, and can lead to piecemeal research information that is less easy to interpret.

Semantic search index​

Illunin8 features a semantic search index that provides what the company terms ‘superior’ results, with greater detail, eliminating false positives and redundant results.

Ultimately this makes for ‘a more effective results set and an intuitive user experience that accelerates the discovery process’ for every aspect of the production process, from the sourcing of ingredients, to packaging.

The research resource is being launched in Europe this week, having been launched in the North American market in February last year.