Purpose of RBBI site

Purpose of the RBBI Web Site


Who is it for?

This site is intended for the use of those employed in the recreational power boat building industry. Primarily for those in high volume boat building companies, drive manufacturing companies, and boat dealers. Individual power boaters, sail boaters, and others are welcome, however our content and focus will always be on those employed in the recreational power boat building industry.

What is it for?

RBBI is a tool to help those employed in the recreational power boat building industry access information on the internet.

Why would I use it?

To access the latest information in engineering, hydrodynamics, industry marketing statistics, industry news, legal information, government regulations, the CE marking program (European Recreational Craft Directive), new technologies, patents, and to learn more about my customers. Also to learn about the very latest news in the industry. It even has "quick to use" office tools to find addresses, phone numbers, and track packages. Our RBBI Prop Calculator can help you rapidly size a prop or determine prop slip values for any conditions. Information allows you to build better products that reach the market faster and at a lower cost.

Where would I use it?

It can be used in the office, from home, on an airplane, in the field - anywhere a pc or laptop have access to a phone. This area is being expanded by cell phones, cable modems, and direct satellite access. You can use it almost anywhere with a little advance planning (that includes from a boat).

When would I use it?

Anytime I need information to attack a problem or when I want to check for breaking industry news.

How would I use it?

First to learn a little about the site, I would visit the list at the top and select my business (Drive Manufacturer, Boat Builder, Dealer). I would then browse some of the areas of the site suggested by that page. Next I would browse any desk or file folder that very closely identified with my job position or duties (marketing people look at the marketing desk, etc). Once basically familiar with the site and its contents in my key areas I am ready to solve problems better and faster.

Now, when a problem occurs, examine it, determine what kind of additional information I need, then go to the appropriate desk or file folder, or to the office tools section. If I did not succeed there, I would go the links sections. If none of the links seemed to offer help, I would go to the search engine page.

How does RBBI compare to industry trade magazines?

 Each of us have our place. We provide a huge reservoir of information, plus cover breaking news much more rapidly. For example, we had posted the Greenway purchase of OMC and David Jones being the new president while magazines were still talking about Detroit Diesel purchasing OMC. We covered the rapid Brunswick acquisition of outdoor recreation companies at it occurred. The magazines were one or two acquisitions behind. We recently covered the AB2439 bill to ban outboards in California and provided several updates per day. Only one of the current magazines had even acknowledged the bill. We also covered the MarineMax IPO (initial public stock offering) as it occurred including all of the confusion about the New York Stock Exchange Listing. The magazines had just mentioned the IPO was coming up sometime in May. We are trying to provide some investigative/documentary reporting (our PWC Conflict article was an example). We are also now increasingly creating a RBBI comments section on the major news events to discuss what they might mean for the industry as well as why they occurred.

The boat building industry has been quite stagnant in terms of real news for many years. Now major events are happening with increasing frequency. This gives RBBI a chance to shine by providing up top the minute coverage of this news and attract a larger readership to our site.

On the other hand, magazines have many great professional writers and resources to more deeply investigate these stories. They have professional photographers with access to people and places (and a budget to get them there). Industry magazines also have time and staff to use to "verify the facts" and make sure things like the recent national news "Bob Hope is dead" story does not happen. Magazines are the long standing traditional way of communicating industry news, but publishers may be a little reluctant to print "bad news stories" about their major advertisers. Some magazines have great annual features (buyers guide, annual report on the industry). Many trade magazines, including some within the boat building industry are establishing web sites as well.

Each form of media (TV, radio, newspapers, trade magazines, internet industry web sites) brings its own advantages and disadvantages to the arena. A well informed professional will use them all.

What is RBBI's competitive advantage?

 We bring together strong boat building industry experience, engineering skills, research skills, internet publishing skills, extensive industry contacts, and a very fast response time. No other site brings these characteristics together as well as we do.

We are able to apply experiences we have gained from webmastering several other web sites directly to RBBI. For example, our previous efforts in influencing legislators with other sites were rapidly drawn upon when we created the AB2439 page to address the California legislation to ban outboards.

We have strong contacts throughout the industry that help keep us informed of breaking news, problems they are having, and tools they need to do their jobs better. This strong "person to person" contact with industry leaders and those in the trenches helps us keep improving RBBI and making it a more effective tool for those who use it.

With some experimentation and feedback from our users, we began adding an RBBI Comments section to many news stories and other segments of the site. We add our views on why these events may have occurred and what they may mean for the future of the industry. Our insights and those of our readers have been well received and became an integral part of RBBI.

Our website gives you the FULL MONITOR PAGE to see the information. We do not have a banner stuck across the top and frame down the left side and an advertising banner across the bottom leaving you a "postage stamp" sized area of real information like some sites. We take pride in allowing you a large viewing area.

Who runs this web site?

 RBBI is the property of Polson Enterprises. If you would like to read more about us, you can see our online brochure.

Polson Enterprises Research Services also provides extensive business, market, legal, patent and technical information research on a consulting basis.

Gary Polson is the webmaster. There is a biography of him on the Bright Field web site.

What page should I bookmark?

 Please bookmark the front page, http://www.rbbi.com because we use it to "flash" breaking news and it is the entry to the site.

What plans does RBBI have for the future?

 We are currently in process of moving to a more direct domain name, www.rbbi.com.

We foresee continuing to assist those in the power boat building industry utilize the internet as an information providing tool and an increasing presence in providing breaking news coverage for the industry.

We have some skills not currently being utilized by the site and are looking into ways we might apply them.

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