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Jane’s Joins IHS: A Lasting Legacy and a Leap Forward
JTIC: Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency REACH Exceeds Industry’s Grasp? |
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Come join us at these upcoming events: Nov 22 Nov 26-29 Nov 29 Nov 29-30 Dec 11 Dec 12
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Jane’s Joins IHS: A Lasting Legacy and a Leap Forward
When IHS Inc., acquired Jane’s Information Group in June 2007, it was seen as a move that would strengthen both companies. The venerable Jane’s, with its sterling reputation as an unparalleled open-source intelligence leader, and IHS, with its solid stance as a leading independent provider of critical technical information, decision-support tools and strategic services, are a good match. Both companies are global entities with strong ties to the aerospace and defense communities. A LOOK BACK Jane’s love of ships emerged when he was quite young. He was passionate about sailing model ships, and when he realized that a friend had a better ship than he did, he mounted a gun on his vessel and, on a duck pond, annihilated his competitor. This growing fascination with naval warfare would later develop into the invention of Jane’s Naval Wargame, which is still played by aficionados today. An early interest in guns proved troublesome for Jane. He once invited a classmate to go pistol-shooting with him in a garden. After he had set up a row of bottles on a wall, the boys began to practice. Moments later, an urgent message arrived saying that the bullets had whizzed through neighboring garden and threatened the lives of a woman and her daughter. Academic challenges aside, Jane had a number of victories in school. He was an eager halfback on the rugby team and a frequent speaker for the Debating Society. Literary talent was also evident early on. His classmates voted him editor of the school’s magazine, The Exonian. When the headmaster vetoed Jane’s election to the post because of his poor academic standing, the boy was undaunted. He started a new paper called Toby in which he included his own illustrations and borrowed jokes and with which he undercut sales of The Exonian by selling his paper for a penny less. The publication was wildly successful. In his twenties, Jane moved to London and suffered the lifestyle of a starving artist. He published articles and pen and ink drawings in illustrated journals. He worked as a special correspondent aboard the HMS Northampton, making sketches and writing stories about the scheduled naval maneuvers. By the mid-1890s, he had accumulated sufficient success to marry and start a family, and he published the first of his many science fiction novels. In January 1898, he published All the World’s Fighting Ships, a comprehensive volume of precise illustrations with detailed technical information on the world’s military vessels. The volume provided a new way to identify ships’ silhouettes and to compare them in a more practical manner than had been available before. Within a year, Fighting Ships had become a commercial success. It would be the first of his works that would become the world’s leading guides about military hardware. Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft was published in 1909. The author and illustrator often worked 18 hours a day on both new publications and successive editions of his already published works. Over the course of his life, he entered politics, worked for the Boy Scouts, and learned to fly aeroplanes. He died of influenza and heart problems in 1916 at the age of 50. The legacy of Fred T Jane has endured in the company that bears his name. The reputation of Jane’s as an accurate and impartial provider of information has been recognized the world over for decades. “The origins have really underpinned an enormous amount of that [standing],” says Ian Kay, chief content officer of Jane’s. Kay came to Jane’s in the 1980s, helping the company to fortify itself, securing its position with a wide range of titles that encompassed the entire field of military equipment and activity. “It was blue chip from day one,” he says. “We’ve very jealously guarded that heritage and made sure that we strengthened it and reinforced it with all of our values. There’s a great pride in working for Jane’s, because the values that we hold dear today are the ones that Fred T put in place back in the late 1890s.” Much of the company’s fortification centered on the shift into a more modern incarnation of Fred T’s original vision. In 1984, the company launched Jane’s Defence Weekly, andthroughout the decade, it broadened its offerings with the expansion of information into the digital age. “We’ve always been quite forward-looking,” Kay says, “which is surprising when you consider we have such traditional roots.” In 1987, the company delivered its first data-only product when desktop computing was a rather new practice. “We had a client who required that in the Middle East, and we fulfilled that by bringing management of our typesetting data in-house,” notes Kay, “and in 1989, we launched Jane’s CD-ROM products.” By that time, Jane’s was publishing around 100 titles in print. In 1991, the company began offering consulting services tailored to clients’ needs, and in 1995, it successfully launched its website, janes.com, which now offers a sophisticated suite of data- and analysis-delivery and forecasting tools, including five intelligence centres that draw news, analysis, reference, and imagery into online groups of data that are accessible by both subject and region, providing unmatched guidance on security, markets, and risk. A LEAP FORWARD IHS will invest in Jane’s in several areas of support. An example of this support is GIS geographic mapping technology, which IHS hopes to bring to Jane’s customers by December. “IHS has been on the front edge of geospatial search capability for almost a decade,” Key says. “Jane’s can now make that leap. It references geographic information, for example the Terrorism and Insurgency Intelligence Centre is very spatially oriented—where are these events happening, and how do they intersect with infrastructure, with geopolitics as well as geographic boundaries? IHS can immediately bring that technology to Jane’s.” Jane’s is well positioned to fit its offerings to the technological advantages IHS offers. “Jane’s has a wealth of metadata—descriptors attached to the data, for example, spatial coordinates. They’ve had the foresight to include the capture of spatially-related metadata into their work streams,” Key says. “So, one of the things we’re pursuing now is bringing Jane’s information alive through GIS technologies that will allow customers to look spatially at the connections.” Key is intensely aware of the importance of critical intelligence analysis for emerging geopolitical issues. Jane’s, he says, “is playing a pretty unique role in understanding the future of both combat and logistics, particularly from a regional perspective—how the world is evolving in terms of the African continent, the Middle East, Asia. Jane’s plays a large role in looking at scenarios and strategic implications of shifts in balance and changes in tactics and methods [of warfare].” IHS has its own crucial part to play in terms of support, says Key. “Along with an unparalleled catalog of global information and insights, IHS brings the capacity to invest,” he says, “with strong financial performance, a public presence and capital to invest in Jane’s, which is really the entry point of this transformational change.” Jane’s is well known for its independence, in much the same way IHS is, free of any commercial or government influence, an autonomous source of information. “In fact,” Key says, “that’s really key and core to who Jane’s is in the market and for its customers.” As IHS moves to incorporate Jane’s capabilities into its global operations, Jane’s impartiality and independence will remain as its fundamental trait. Key says, “It’s a privilege for IHS to be able to shepherd a company with Jane’s’ character and legacy. That’s something that will be maintained and grown and protected very carefully by IHS.” |
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