About us
What's in a Name?
Some people might have visions of Rhine maidens and Wagnerian magnificence when they ask, "How did you come up with the name Ringgold?" Indeed, it is likely that Rheingold was meant to be the name of Ringgold, the German-Dutch township in Pennsylvania where Chairman Ralph Shoffner’s family lived.
When Information Power Ltd, Biblio Tech Ltd. and OpenRFP, Inc. were combined in 2005, a simple, memorable name was needed. Thus, Ringgold, Inc. and Ringgold Ltd. were established.
It may be coincidental that Ringgold Township is in Jefferson County, which also is the location of Punxsutawney, the home of Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous of the groundhog weather forecasters and the erstwhile location of Bill Murray’s delightful movie, Groundhog Day.
What do we do?
Ringgold helps publishers and software vendors improve their marketing and reduce their costs in supplying products and services within the Information industry. Our two specific services are OpenIdentify – providing unique identification of organizations subscribing to electronic journals, and OpenRFP – providing a function-driven marketplace for matching library needs with commercial software products.
Because standards are critical to efficient data exchange between suppliers and consumers of information, Ringgold is an active corporate member of NISO. Helen Henderson serves on the Business Information Topic Committee.
Within the OpenRFP process, applicable standards are available for libraries to use in developing their procurement specifications.
Ringgold believes its own business will benefit by establishment of an international standard for institutional identifiers and the Company is actively supporting an initiative to bring this about.
Who are we?
The principals of Ringgold are information professionals from a variety of backgrounds and experience. Each owned or managed a service or consulting company before 2005 when they collectively formed Ringgold.
What do our customers think of us?
We think we are developing a track record of high-quality service, but do our customers agree?
Whom do we partner with?
Ringgold works with top industry consultants to provide specialist market analysis services to publishers. Here are some of them.