A considerable number of patent and literature analysis tools are available on the market, clearly demonstrating the strong demand for such solutions.

The majority are integrated Search & Analysis Portals:

• A growing number of portals integrate patents, scientific literature, and sometimes business information.

• Search functionalities are increasingly enriched with AI features, while result assessment is often referred to as “analysis.”

• Analytical outputs range from attractive visual widgets to genuinely useful analytical results.

• These portals are often the first choice for analysis, provided that the underlying data meet the requirements of the assignment and the analytical features adequately address customer questions.

• Although often powerful, these portals are essentially vertical solutions, with content and functionalities limited by their underlying design.

A smaller group of software solutions focuses exclusively on analysis, independent of data sources — i3 belongs to this category.

• Any available source can be used to answer customer questions; data integration takes place during import.

• This type of software is designed to support a broad range of analytical scenarios and can best be compared to a Swiss Army knife.

• In short, the horizontal approach is chosen when complex questions require reliable answers.

This is why such software requires substantial professional expertise in order to deliver real business value. This has led to the i3 slogan:
“i3 – Information Intelligence to Insights: combining human expertise with smart software..

The fundamental design concept of i3 has been to organize its extensive analytical capabilities ("Swiss Knife") according to the steps of an idealized analysis process.To support these design objectives, the user interface is organized into six so-called workspaces: Projects, Documents, Indexes, Concepts, Analyses, and Reports. The functions required for each process step are grouped together in dedicated taskbars within the respective workspace.

This structured design approach provides a clear and intuitive user experience while reducing the complexity associated with a large number of features. Only the functions relevant to the current analytical context are presented to the user.

The design of i3 is based on more than 25 years of experience in search, analysis, text mining, visualization, intranet solutions, and customer knowledge bases at the BASF Group Information Center (see background information on Dr. Heinz-Gerd Kneip on the Contacts page).

AI tools are helpful — and evolving rapidly.

• Search:
  Information professionals have always used every available approach to achieve the best possible search results: text searching with sophisticated operators to fine-tune queries, proprietary indexing codes from database providers, and patent classifications from patent offices. Today, the search toolbox is being expanded through the use of AI, which can help optimize result sets.

From the developers’ perspective, AI broadens and enriches search results. However, at present, it does not replace established search methodologies — especially when reliability is critical and customer questions require highly dependable answers.

• Analysis:
  Professional analysis has always required that the information analyst be capable of critically evaluating both data sources and analytical methods in order to arrive at sound conclusions.

A simple but essential question for every analyst is: "Can I guarantee that my approach is reliable, transparent, and explainable when my analysis influences decisions that may involve significant risks if they are wrong?"

• Summaries:
  Automated summarization is a relatively new capability and remains challenging to implement effectively. Its purpose is to provide an overview of the content of all documents — or selected subsets of documents — and it can represent significant added value for customers.

An honest answer? No software can promise that — and i3 is no exception.
Although i3 has been thoroughly tested, bugs and unexpected behavior can never be completely ruled out. 😔

As a developer, I am confronted weekly with new bug reports and updates from the professional development software and components I use. This is not a complaint — quite the opposite. I appreciate that software providers are open to error reports and, importantly, are willing to suggest workarounds or develop solutions for future updates.

And there is another important point: not every problem that looks like a bug actually is one. Sometimes it is simply an unexpected combination of settings, input data, or a misunderstanding of how a particular function is intended to work.

The same real-world situation applies to i3.

For a developer, version 1 is a particular challenge: Does the software really meet the expectations of its users? Are the workflows intuitive? Are the functions robust enough for everyday use?

For i3, one area is particularly challenging: the transformation of search-result downloads from a wide variety of patent and other databases.

i3 uses import filters to transform these different database outputs into a standardized, harmonized and analyzable format. The first set of import filters is therefore an important starting point — but certainly not the final word.

Different databases offer different download formats, field structures and export options. So an obvious question is:

Which download options are already supported by i3 — and which ones are still missing?

This is where user feedback becomes particularly valuable.

For i3, bug fixing and continuously expanding the range of supported import formats and filters are the top development priorities.

If you encounter an unexpected result, please let us know. Your feedback helps distinguish genuine bugs from misunderstandings and, perhaps most importantly, helps determine which database formats and import options should be supported next.